Melbourn won 18-8

After what felt like an extremely long break, but was only actually a week off for half term and a difference in home nights thing* the 2nds were back in action at our old friends from Kimbolton 1sts.

The two teams have had many battles down the years, in these guises and in Kimbolton’s old association with the St. Neots club… until the Leisure Centre there proved too inflexible to continue with team squash. These have mostly come in Division 4 recently, but we got promoted back in 2020, i.e. just before the pandemic, and Kimbolton followed us up last season. However, as we also found, the jump from Division 4 to Division 3 is rather high, and Kimbolton were struggling at the foot of the table ahead of this game.

Despite that there was some concern amongst our side as we were missing plenty – Jan, who has played as low as fourth string this season, was down to play #1 on this evening whilst Matt W, who played #5 in the clash between the sides in the opening half of the season, was at #3 in the return. Clearly this was going to make a difference to our level, but it would be just enough to make for a close and fun clash rather than too much for Melbourn to overcome? It proved to be the former… but my word was it tight.

As some may know the proper order for team matches (as used in the County Championships and so on) is not 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 but rather 5, 3, 1, 4, 2. That ensure the first string is always a ‘live’ rubber, as you want nominally the best match of the night to be. Well, we got closer to that order tonight… expect it was basically in reverse: 4, 2, 5, 3, 1! If it had been the proper way around things would have been truly dramatic as strings 2 and 4 produced the most even and impossible to guess the outcome of contests of the evening – if they had been the last two the nerves would have been seriously jangling.

Jamie Ware (4) took on Andy Rettie and initially struggled to cope with Andy’s pace and ability to chop the play up in the front court. Jamie looked heavy-legged at times in responding to this. Still, game 1 was close, but it ended up in a tie-break loss. Game 2 was more of the same, but more so and Jamie was 2-0 down with things looking bleak. However, in game 3, he began to play the sort of deep hitting, harder running game that suited him more than Andy. Cue a game back. The fourth was the key – once again things got close and once again Jamie looked in trouble. Particualrly when the score got to 10-all, 11-all, 12-all. Soon he was just two points from defeat. Being so close to losing sparked the fighting spirit though and Jamie was now moving at full pace and intensity – one epic rally of chasing at around 14-all was particularly impressive. Jamie was never match ball down, got through the game in a breaker, and now that his legs were going properly he took complete charge of the decider to win 14-16, 10-15, 15-9, 17-15, 15-6.

Things were no less dramatic on the opposing court where Colm O’Gorman (2) was taking on Graham Uff. Graham showed some excellent retrieving and nice touch in the early stages, with Colm’s game a little bit off, those mistakes seeing game one escape. It was more like the usual dogged O’Gorman in game two… but Graham’s tail was also up and he claimed it narrowly to lead 2-0. Colm is always in a battle between one side that wants to says “this hurts, it’s too difficult” and another that says “Chase everything! Just chase it, if you do you never know what might happen”. This obstinance surfaced in game three, which was again tight as anything but Colm wasn’t going to give it away easily and he ground it out. Buoyed by getting one back Colm produced his best game of the night in the fourth to cruise through, with his trademark hold-the-flick-cross drops wrong-footing Graham repeatedly. He carried this form into the fifth to rattle out to an 11-6 lead… but then dropped the intensity and saw this come back to 11-10. One key point to 12-10, but another lost straight after: 12-11. However Colm was keeping his head with a tight drop to get to 13-11 and then another good kill to make it 14-12 – two match balls. He converted the first with a squeeze that Graham dug out desperately but sent out to record another comeback from 0-2 as he Colm won 10-15, 13-15, 15-13, 15-6, 15-12.

The next match underway pitted Sean Hamilton (5) against Adam Jessup. Sean had been talking in the car on the way to the match about how he doesn’t enjoy playing players who are all flicks and kills… so there was a bit of concern when we figured out who his opponent was because Adam is all touch shots, attacking and short rallies. For a game Sean struggled with this but once he adjusted to playing into the open spaces and making Adam run into the back corners things turned around dramatically. The second game was absolutely one-way traffic and the third nearly as much. Game four was a bit tighter as Sean began to press for the finish and went back to trying to kill rather than simply grinding, but he always had the upper hand still and never really looked unconfident, winning it to wrap up a 12-15, 15-3, 15-6, 15-10 success.

Two old rivals met at when Matt Walker (3) took on Dave Parker. Matt has usually had Dave’s number in these meetings as his game style of low crisp driving and deadly cut-out volley drops is kryptonite to Dave’s hard-working approach – for once on this evening it the was the Melbourn who was looking to shorten the rallies and the Kimbolton one wanting to extend them. And, well, not much more to say on this one as it followed the pattern of lots of Matt-Dave games before – Matt always had control and the lead, even if he could never fully shake Dave off. But for all the clinging on Matt was never anything other than on course for his fifth successive win and seventh from nine matches this season as he completed a 15-9, 15-9, 15-11 success.

The two comebacks from 0-2 and the two more straightforward wins that followed took the pressure off Jan Brynjolffssen (1) prior to his match with Nigel Harper. And that was a good job for Melbourn as Nigel was in devilish form, taking full advantage of his knowledge of the Kimbolton courts to keep himself in front of Jan, dictating play. Despite the occasional inspired bit of guesswork to chase down what ought to have been stone dead drop shots Jan spent the first game playing catch up, without succeeding. 0-1. The second game was the crucial one of the match as Jan found a bit more rhythm, though he was still struggling with Nigel’s high looping serve to his backhand. This one went to an extended tie-break and if Jan could have won it, if, if… but Nigel was 2-0 up at the end. Jan had a much better third game, finding greater width on his serve to keep Nigel away from dominating from the return and that was enough for a significant turnaround, only for things to turn straight back as Nigel’s own serve went to new levels of loop and accuracy as he raced away with game four to complete a 3-1 win. Jan lost 12-15, 16-18, 15-9, 4-15.

* - our last game, a home one was on Monday 12th Feb, i.e. the Monday of the w/c 12/2, this one on Kimbolton’s home evening of Thursdays was on 29/2 but was the match of w/c 26/2. So over two and a half weeks between them… but still, technically, only one week off!