Melbourn lost 3-12

The 2nds final match in Division 4 of the Herts Summer League saw us welcome Gosling (from Welwyn) to the club.

In a reversal of the usual order the top strings went on first, Jan Brynjolffssen taking on Dan Sadler. This was a repeat of the clash at Gosling earlier in the season that Jan won 3-0 but this one was different from the outset as Dan found gaps at the front of the court that Jan was struggling to get forward to cover. That saw the first game go the Gosling player’s way, albeit narrowly, only for Jan to fight back to win the second comfortably. He then lost his way completely in the third, whilst the first was back to the pattern of the opener as Jan lost 13-15, 15-8, 5-15, 13-15.

Next on was Will Bradshaw (3) against Adrian Rates. The first game was looking very promising for the Melbourn teenager as he looked the cleaner and classier player in the rallies, keeping his nose ahead to win it 15-12. However this is when Adrian’s experience kicked in as he figured out that extra width could draw Will out of position and produced skewed shots from him. Will appeared at a loss to why this was happening, which set up a pattern that he couldn’t break. Games two to four all escaped in similar fashion as despite all his determination Will went down 15-12, 9-15,7-15, 11-15.

The seconds were the final match on, with Sean Hamilton pitted against Oliver Bush. Oliver is a big guy, with the associated power that comes with it, but also nice touch. He wanted to keep rallies short and sharp, and Sean was only to willing to trade power and winners in the front court. Right up Oliver’s ally, leading to a wipeout of a first game for Sean. He improved his ball striking in the second but was still playing to Oliver’s strengths, and that meant he was 2-0 down. It wasn’t until Sean stopped trying to fight fire with fire that he made headway, adding loop and depth to his shots winning him the third. However Oliver dug in hard, aware he couldn’t afford it to go to five, and closed things out in the fourth. Sean lost 5-15, 9-15, 15-12, 8-15.

Skipper for the evening Jan remarked “This was a slightly disappointing end to a good summer, as we all came off court thinking it was a match we could have won. But the Gosling fellas played well in the crucial moments and they deserved it on this particular evening.”