Melbourn lost 3-20

The 1sts were looking to continue their good recent form when they took on St. Ivo 1sts, but so were the visitors who are pushing hard for the Division 1 title this season, something they haven’t been close to for a while.

St. Ives strength comes from two very promising Juniors at the top of their order, in particular no.1 Diego Pita, who is an aspiring pro. Diego is currently no.2 on the English Junior rankings, though his national representation is for Portugal (as with his sister Sofia, also on a pro path and who played for us last summer). A reasonably familiar face then (let us know if you want to play Div.1 in the Herts League this summer, Diego?) and a challenging one for Matt to face at top string. Experience can count for quite a bit, Matt taking the third game, but there are some gaps even it can’t bridge and Diego won this one 3-1 (8-11, 8-11, 11-4, 6-11).

St. Ives other talented kid is one of our former players, Mumin Bilen. Vinod took on the challenge on this evening but it took him two games before he began to make any impression. If Vinod had claimed the tie-break in the third would Mumin have felt under pressure? That will have to remain an unknown as it finished 1-11, 4-11, 10-12 against the Melbourn player.

The presence of Diego and Mumin has allowed Ivo’s previous long-time no.1 John Dewis to drop down to #3. He proved too strong for Mike Herd, John taking charge from game two on as Mike went down 7-11, 2-11, 5-11. Also dropping down the Ivo order is Nick Giles, who Miles Jeanneret ran into at #4 string. This one proved to be the match of the evening as Miles dominated the first two games as his brand of consistent Squash was a crucial bit more solid than his opponent’s similar style… but after two games fitness came in as a factor and that broke Nick’s way, resulting in Miles eventually going down 11-2, 11-3, 5-11, 4-11, 7-11.

Fifth string pitted Melbourn skipper Mark Oppen up against Harry Aldridge. Harry, whilst no longer in his teens, is still at the younger end of the bracket of Division 1 players. He also plays a nice game, a bit more conventional than Mark’s all-action style. The match-up worked against Melbourn as Mark was beaten 7-11, 10-12, 3-11.

A bit of a sobering evening for the 1sts overall, then. Only picking up 3 points from it saw the boys slip down to 8th in the table, with a big one looming against 9th-placed March next week.