Melbourn 2nds travelled to play Chantry.

First up at string 3, was a continuously improving Moises Navarro, against an experienced Mark Bagnall.

Moises was quick out of the blocks in determined mood, chasing everything down and putting his opponent under huge pressure, taking a 0:5 lead. However as Mark settled into the contest, he was able to reduce the lead and fought hard to keep in touch. Moises remained in control however and a combination of good driving and the occasional drop kept him in front. Mark was taking some risks to close the gap, but Moises was the better player, continuously forcing the errors by his opponent and took the game 11:15.

In the second, Mark changed tactics with a lot more dropping and boasting. Moises was up for the challenge and fought all the way. Some unfortunate lets against Moises kept it nip and tuck, forcing his opponent again into taking risks, some of which paid off and it was 10:10, both players giving their all. Moises got to game point with great retrieval and determination. However he failed to capitalise and let Mark recover, then an error by Moises handed Mark game point, which he took to win the game 16:14.

In the third, Mark again persisted with more dropping to try to move Moises forwards and backwards. Mark’s experience was beginning to tell and combined with Moises understandably unable to maintain the high energy approach, Mark was able to move ahead, taking a 9:4 lead. Mark was varying his game more as Moises tired and took the game 15:5.

While Moises was still fighting hard and giving it everything, tiredness was setting in and this showed again in the fourth game. Mark had the experience to position himself on the T and force Moises into retrieving. Moises hung in for as long as he could, demonstrating that he had the game to compete at this level, however it was in vain on this occasion and Mark took the game 15:9 and the match 3:1.

The next match on was the second strings, which pitted Colm O'Gorman against the hosts Vinh Tram.

Having first dealt with the really important stuff – Vinh is not short for Vincent – the game got underway and it was immediately clear we were in for a long one as steady play from both resulted in extended rallies. As the game progressed Colm began to take command more and more, his length forcing Vinh deep and allowing him to close his opponent out and drop into the front backhand corner. This gave Colm the opener 9:15.

Could he keep it up though? Unfortunately not as Colm began to be more flustered and this resulted in errors earlier in rallies. He also lost his court position a bit, with Vinh now holding more of the front wall. The home player eased away and when the marker awarded him a stroke at 14:7 it was game over. But wait, Vinh had declined the stroke (to the bemusement of the entire gallery who all felt it was a clear cut call), only asking for a let instead and Colm made great use of the let off winning one point, two points, three points with consistent but also attacking Squash. Vinh was getting under more and more pressure as things got tight – he appeared to be hoping for the error rather than pushing for the winner himself (which, to be fair, is his general style anyway)… and Colm finally obliged at 14:12, albeit he was forced to, to give Vinh a simple kill. And with that we were back all-square.

Colm admitted after this game he was not feeling great, which prompted a death-or-glory approach to game three. Not really his game, which made it all the more difficult to pull off. The tail did wag in the game once again as Vinh went from 14:9 up to another 14:9, but once again just when an unlikely turnaround seemed about to be completed the home player drove himself to be more proactive in a rally and wrapped things up.

And that, frankly, was all she wrote. Colm was basically out on his feet in the fourth - he had been a fraction slow to clear the ball from the start of game three onwards, and now his feet appeared generally stuck. Vinh was still fresh and moving well, and that made for rapid work of sealing things. Colm lost 9:15, 15:12, 15:12, 15:5.

Jan Brynjolffssen, at string 3 was up against a very strong player in Mark Douglas.

After a first testing rally of drives and cross courts, the match changed to move touch style game with drops and boasting from both players. This tipped it in favour of the local to lead 6-4. Jan tried to arrest Mark’s momentum and brought the game to 7-7. But, the boasting and drops kept coming from Mark and at 13-7, Jan was continuously forced out of position and succumbed to a 15:11 loss. This was not for the lack of effort, endeavour and skill, Jan was just up against a very skilful and fit opponent.

Totally different scenario at the start of the second. Jan changed to deeper drives and went 0:2 up, but Mark was able to adapt and the game slipped to 8:2 in favour of Mark, again both players looking like they were performing to their best. Jan varied his game to try to counteract and had some excellent drop shots and recovered to 10-5. But in his attempts to cut the rallies short, we was taking risks and let the game get away from him, Mark taking it 15:8.

Jan wasn’t done though, and was determined to leave his imprint on the match. In the third, he started to move the ball more to the backhand of his opponent, taking the initiative and was rewarded with point after point to go 3:6 up. Jan was playing to the peak of his abilities, bring out some great shots, combining deep drives with drops on his forehand side (his opponent a left-hander). It was 10-10, Jan had given his all and there were signs of fatigue, but his opponent was also starting to tire. Mark was able to push to a 13-11, but back cam Jan and after some incredible rallies, he reached a deserved game point at 13-14. He couldn’t make it count, his opponents with a timely lucky nick. The players battled it out, but Mark just about squeezed home taking it 18:16, and the match 3:0, a high quality and very entertaining match to watch.

Captain Colm, while disappointed that we didn’t take more games acknowledged, ‘we were up against a very strong team in Chantry, and demonstrated that we were not far off their standard, well done to Jan especially for competing so well against a top player and to Moises for showing that he has the game to compete at this level’.