Melbourn lost 10-14

The 2nds season got to its crunch game with this one in the penultimate round of fixtures against promotion rivals Cambridge 3rds – the sides came into the match third (Melbourn) and second in the league respectively, with 11 points between them. That meant the 2nds needed a good win to take to go into the final week with a good chance of second spot.

With such an important match a strong lead-off was asked for – skipper Colm O’Gorman (4) provided it against the tricky skills of Sanjay Porja. Sanjay’s ability to boast from seemingly anywhere, and his clear intent to keep rallies short are not exactly Colm’s favourite attributes in an opponent (find me a player who likes playing against this style!) but he initially did well coping, winning the opening game comfortably. However, mistakes and bad choices began to creep in – Colm relies on the wrong-footer to put the ball away, and when an opponent holds their position all his instincts go awry! Game two was the crucial one in the game as it got inordinately tight, going to a tie-break, and then on, and on. Chances came both ways, but mostly to Colm and he was the man who eventually claimed it by the time it was more like a game-and-a-half. That probably did for Sanjay’s chances of winning, but he still made it tough in game three before Colm rounded off a 15-8, 22-20(!!), 15-13 success.

The first match on the other court was the top strings, as Kate Bradshaw (1) had to play and scoot. She found herself pitted against James Buckley, who is fast into the front corners but who has the occasional odd error in him. That wasn’t the greatest match-up against Kate’s preferred style of utilising her superb racquet head control to take the ball early and cut it in for drops and volley drops. However sheer willpower made it work in game one, but not the second as the mistakes built up. Kate seemed back in complete control in the third as she raced into a 12-4 lead, only for a focus wobble to see this one become close – however she closed it out. This was a sign of things to come though as Kate tried to push for the line in each of the fourth and fifth games, starting well but seeing the tape getting ever away from her as she went down 15-11, 12-15, 15-11, 13-15, 13-15. 

So 1-1 after two strings, but Matt Walker (5) was a strong favourite against Toni Coppolaro as Matt is a much more technically clean Squash player. For a game it went to plan, Matt cruising through the opener comfortably, but Toni has been on the scene for years and he knows how to get under opponents skin. He also has a range of power short kills when the ball becomes loose, which he began to induce Matt into providing. This got increasingly under Matt’s skin – how is it becoming tight against a player like this?!? – but he kept on top of the frustration just enough (aided by some very helpful unusual errors form Toni on points late in the second) to wrap up a 15-7, 15-12, 15-13 win.

We needed one more, then. Could Jan Brynjolffssen (2) provide it against Christopher Thorpe. The opening half of the first game was promising as Jan built a nice lead and was finding some decent shots. However Chris upped his level towards the conclusion of the game, turning things around to go one up instead of one down. This was rather instructive as it said Chris had an extra gear when he needed it. We saw much the same in game two, Jan getting cautious late on when leading 13-10 whilst by contrast Chris stepped it up. 2-0. Jan’s head was down by now, losing his way in the opening stages of the third to sink into an 11-4 deficit. Surely the end? Probably, but that eased Jan up and he began to play rattling off a string of points to claw things back to 9-11 and then 11-12. However a tinned backhand drop at this point that Jan would ordinarily make was the death knell, as he fell to a 13-15, 13-15, 11-15 defeat.

So it all came down to the last match on. This pitted Gareth Jones (3) against Gift Nuka, with yet another contrast of styles – Gareth’s attacking approach, with his power kills and chop drops against Gift’s game, which is based on him being super-fit and able to run everything down. For the first two games Gareth prevailed by a distance as he was still feeling fresh and moving well to Gift’s digs. But things turned around in game three as Gareth’s movement slowed a fraction and his patience dwindled with it. Game four was the pivotal one – Gift had an early lead, but Gareth was coming back and had the finishing tape in sight. He had the score at 12-all, and controlled this rally, forcing a mishit from Gift deep on his forehand. Unfortunately either Gareth’s focus was on the wrong thing (where Gift was rather than the ball), or his feet were tired as he didn’t position himself close enough to cope with mishit generating odd spin that made the ball drop shorter than expected – the result was what felt like it should have been an easy kill instead ending up as an air shot. Two points later the game was done. As was Gareth, who was out-on-his feet in the fifth. He eventually lost 15-7, 15-9, 5-15, 12-15, 3-15.

On another night either of the 3-2’s might have broken our way – if either had the final score would have been 16-8 in our favour, and the battle for runner-up spot would have stood as very alive for the final round of fixtures. Neither doing so meant we lost 14-10 instead and are now 15 points adrift of Cambridge with only 20 left for each team to go for. It isn’t totally over… but it looks like Division 3 for another season for the 2nds now.