Melbourn won 16-7

Match number three of the season sent the 2nds on the short trip to fellow South Cambs side, Comberton.

Once we arrived, and some who had been there many times before had refound the courts (oops) we discovered Comberton have had some recent investment which has given them a new glassback court. Whizzy. The opening of this must have been extremely recent as things are not yet set up fully around it. Which is something we will come back to later.

But let’s start our round-up on Court 2 (old traditional) where Colm O’Gorman (5) took on Tom Snaith. Tom is a very good touch player… usually. Not today though as Colm kept pounding him deep, drawing errors from his racquet. Great tactics from the Melbourn skip, frustrating as hell for his opponent. This saw Colm get comfortably through games 1 and 2, well comfortably on the scoreboard at least but we got the usual bellyaching from Colm that he was being asked to run around and work, and this was unreasonable, and it was all closer than the numbers said. No wolf, yet again.
Colm lost his way a little in game three after building an initial lead (Girvan-related loss-of-focus seemed to be the issue – playing and childminding are difficult to do simultaneously) but dug in when he fell behind, possibly spurred on by the knowledge he really didn’t want a fourth. He was aided in this by some outrageous fortune on shots at crucial times, clawing through the third game and avoiding what could have been an unpleasant turnaround of fortunes – Colm won 15-8, 15-7, 15-13.

Meanwhile over on the glassback the first strings on were the top ones where Kate Bradshaw took on Connor Harmer. During the warm-up Kate was already looking a bit uncomfortable with the set up, as the unlit spectator gallery and dark unfinished areas behind the back wall were seeing the ball disappear when it went deep. She was also essaying a little concern over Connor’s likely game style – hard running and hard hitting rather than the technical rally-building of Kate’s own game, which she also excels against. Despite this Kate’s killer touch was in evidence in game one as she went ahead, but then her fears came to fruition in game two as Connor picked up her kills and then fired it back at her with both pace and odd directions. Kate came off saying she needed to play “high and tight” which was achieved in game three, but then she lost her way again in games four and five as too many pop outs and balls sitting up allowed Connor to run her out of it. Kate lost 15-9, 12-15, 15-9, 10-15, 11-15.

Switching back across to the standard court where the second match on pitted Liam Murphy (2) against Alastair Maclean. Liam was talking about how he is the fittest he has been for years – lots of time and effort has been invested in it – and this is both true… but of the two players, in context, veteran Alastair’s energy and movement was even more impressive. Tag on deadly attacks when he gets a loose ball and Alastair is a difficult player to play against, which makes Liam’s eventual 3-1 victory all the more notable. As does finishing it on close to one leg after a stumble saw Alastair’s full body weight go through Liam’s calf – Liam’s description of this was a “chop tackle”. Game four was obviously the critical one as it was extremely close, but Liam went on to claim a 15-10, 9-15, 15-7, 15-13 win to have us 2-1 up.

This lead wasn’t to last all that long though as back on the glassback Jan Brynjolffssen (3) was struggling with two things – the somewhat dead front walls, and opponent Richard Anthony’s ability to hold his shots and mess with his opponent’s movement. Jan fell behind early in the first and never really rallied, but did have Richard a little worried in the second with a string of points late on. The issue was this was from 14-8 down and if it took a death-or-glory volley drop return winner to see Richard across the line on his fifth game point, that was still good enough. Jan also essayed a bit of a comeback at the end of game three, but again this was from a losing position as ultimately he was out-thought in this one and beaten 9-15, 12-15, 10-15.

This sent the match to the deciding rubber, which, untraditionally, was the fourth strings. Gareth Jones took on Jason Lane in this one, the crowd gathering around the glassback to watch, intrigued.
After two games where the unresponsive front wall and dead (and ball obscuring!) back corners had been an advantage for the Comberton players, this time the court conditions favoured Gareth’s power game. He could whack the ball as hard as he liked, and this would work wonderfully. Marvellous. This built him a lead in the first against Jason’s more coached game, but as the game got to its denouement Gareth began to lose his way, making drop shot errors to lose points. It got to 13-12 down, and a key moment as Gareth race into his front backhand corner and slapped the ball hard crosscourt right back at Jason – the Comberton player had the whole court to aim at, but rushed for time he tinned it… and then promptly followed this up with two more unforced errors in the next two rallies to gift Gareth an escape.
And that, basically, was the match as it turned out that Jason had cycled 250km two days before and his legs were turning to jelly. Gareth took increasing command, utilising the idea that power and pace could rush mistakes out of his opponent if he got into trouble (accurate attempted kills were put away on the counter, wild slams were tinned as Jason was rushed for time!) as Gareth won 15-13, 15-10, 15-8 going away