Melbourn won 12-3

This match was the 2nds fourth meeting and final meeting of the season with Ickleford, who have two sides in Herts Summer League Division 4. The previous seasonal record read Melbourn 2, Ickleford 1 with the previous match between these particular teams having ended as a 9-4 win for Melbourn.

The last time the two clubs had met it had featured Moises Estrelles Navarro taking on Tony Dean at third string. Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose…
1st Game
This is the 2nd leg of the Raging Bull (Moises) Vs Tony and like the first time round, it was very back and forth. Neither player scored more than 2 points in a row in the first. At the sharp end of the game, Moises edged the remaining run of points from 12-12 onward to take the game.
2nd Game
Some 'words of wisdom' from Jan in the interval did not seem to have the affect they were supposed to. Subsequently, Moises started to play a slightly confusing game, making errors and not using his pace and power to overwhelm his opponent. Tony eased to 15-7 to take the second.
3rd Game
The third very much went the same way as the second with Moises not playing to his strengths and Tony capitalising on errors from Moises. Frustration from Moises started to become apparent and losing the third 15-7, he needed a hard reset!
4th Game
Moises cleared his mind and focussed on what he's good at, and so he entered the 4th to execute with clarity. Moises started to move Tony around and started taking the opportunities when they arose. He picked up the pace, elongated rallies and wore Tony down to ensure he took it to a fifth, winning 15-9. 
5th Game
Going into the 5th, Moises was very much on the front foot, Tony looked weary and as a result started playing some extraordinarily high risk shots. A lot of these came off and threw Moises off his game somewhat. Moises however recovered but Tony looked nailed on to take the fifth when he got himself 14-12 ahead. Moises dug deep though to save the two match balls and pushed Tony to the edge to eventually take the game and match 16-14.

Next on were Liam Murphy (2) and Paul Etherington. It was swiftly clear from the initial sparring that Liam was the cleaner player; he was having  joy pinning Paul into the back corners where the latter’s somewhat exaggerated swing left him cramped for space. This was handy as consistent down-the-wall driving is Liam’s game – he won the opener 15-8. However this proved a bit too straightforward and in game 2 Liam moved away from diligent rally construction and went instead for kills early. This suited Paul, who is rapid around the court, which in turn left Liam seeking to go extra tight. And that meant finding the tin and getting frustrated about how his game had apparently deserted him. Game two escaped 15-9 and we were all square.
Back to basics was the cry from his teammates after this. 10 clean, straight driving rallies into game three later Liam was leading 10-0 and everything was right with the world again (well apart from some marking calls…). The bagel wasn’t quite achieved, but 15-4 was impressive. So was repeating that in game four as Liam stuck fast to the method that was working. This time the rush of points was somewhat backloaded with the double figures string coming after falling 4-2 down. 15-8, 9-15, 15-4, 15-4 overall and victory on the evening secured for Melbourn.

Jan (1) took the court after that with the win already for a full reprise from the reverse fixture at Ickleford as he once again took on Sean Barry. That match had ended with Jan running away with things, winning the final game 15-3. He went one better in the opener of this one, rattle through things 15-2. Jan had been aided in that by Sean appearing nervous and making some odd mistakes, but once the Ickleford player had got his game in gear things became closer. Quite a lot closer. But never quite close enough for the visitor as Jan always managed to just keep his nose ahead even if it was only by a point or two in games two and three. But even so consistent hitting into the back corners was enough to ease Jan home 15-2, 15-11, 15-12 to wrap up a 12 point night for the home team.

Jan was skipper again for the evening. He commented “All the matches were up-and-down, but in each of them our players found their groove for a while and played some nice Squash when we were in that.”