Melbourn won 4-1

“Oh, the Cup? We need to complete that, don’t we…”

After a break of a few weeks following the completion of Division 3 the Seconds were back in action at Peterborough in the Hereward Cup Semi, something the side had qualified for way back in the mists of time (Thurs 11th January was the QF date).

The Hereward is for clubs in Divisions 3 and 4 of the Cambs Leagues, which meant the 2s were a strong contender to reach the final having finished third in Div.3 in the bread-and-butter. But doing that meant seeing off a dangerous Peterborough outfit – the seconds had won both the league meetings between the sides, but each time by three strings to two, and with one of the three strings in our favour being itself a 3-2. Every string was assumed to matter, then…

The hosts got off to the quick start as Kate Bradshaw (1) found opponent Shane Maelane was not her ideal opponent – despite playing clean and proper Squash (a positive as far as Melbourn’s International star is concerned) Shane was also swift in chasing down Kate’s drops and then nimble in the front corners to counter-attack. Kate’s options were either to alter her strategy… or to attempt to double-down and go even tighter on her drop shots. She went for the later option, which resulted more in atypical misses into the tin than the winners sought. Kate’s best game was the second which she got to game point in, but when she eventually lost that on a breaker the writing was on the wall, Shane winning 3-0. Good to watch, though – nice clean lines and properly constructed rallies.

Meanwhile on the other court Jan Brynjolffssen (2) was taking on Renzo Rozza Gonzalez. The two had meet in the league at Melbourn, Jan winning 3-0 in a lung-busting game but one where he generally had more shots than Renzo. Game one suggested something along the same lines here, only for the Peterborough player to strike back to make it a game-all. That leveller came courtesy of a slow start from Jan – game three saw a medium start and a good finish as the score went from 5-5 to 14-5 in his favour (eventually won 15-6). This accompanied a change-up in tactics, the work and extended rallies of the first two game having slowed Renzo’s foot speed meaning the front corners were now open for Jan’s drops. A lightening start to game four to establish a 5-0 lead was consolidated through this to see Jan home for a 3-1 win. One string all.

Second on the glassback was a clash of the captains as Colm O’Gorman (3) took on Carlos Correia. To a large extent this match was about Carlos, as many of his matches are – his touch and attacking shots are exceptional; his movement not so much. Colm had to start rallies switched up, keep himself high and trust that counter-drops didn’t need to be stone dead, merely up. Though ‘merely up’ undersells the difficulty in getting some of Carlos’ kills from unlikely positions back! The first saw Colm somewhat caught in the spiders web, losing it on an extended tie-break, but from the second on the Melbourn skip had his opposite numbers measure – it was never easy, no rhythm was possible and the constant lunging is exhausting, but Colm overcame all of that to win each remaining game 15-10 or thereabouts to claim a 3-1 success. 2-1 to Melbourn.

Following on from Jan on the ‘other’ court was Matt Walker (5) and Pierre Caruso. Pierre has some nice shots on him, and gives the ball a decent pop, but from the opening exchanges it was clear Matt had the stronger game – it was just a question of whether he could deliver it. The game one mark was 7/10: good enough, some errors but a surge towards the end got Matt home 15-8. Game two was down to 6/10 as the error rate climbed and Pierre came into it. But when things got clutch towards the end Matt opted to play solidly, and proved he could win rallies by driving down the wall as well as by his trademark cut-out volleys. Little in it (15-12 or so) but a two game lead was a major one. Especially as Matt was then on fire in game three. This would score as 9/10 only due to falling 2-1 down early on and needing two goes at match ball. In between those two it was near perfection as Matt moved beautifully, cutting off Pierre’s attempts to push him deep, and dropped and volley-dropped superbly. There was one backhand drop at 13-2 that was breathtaking – hit with pace from the back of the court directly into the nick when it fizzed out along the floor. Superb. And 3-1 on strings, so Melbourn were in the final.

This meant the final match on was a dead rubber, though Gareth Jones (3) and Josh Filmore didn’t know this when they got underway as the fifth string game was still going. This was a last chance for a Melbourn 2nds player to take Josh on as the kid (and his Dad) are imminently moving abroad… and when Josh re-appears he won’t be Under 13 anymore and is basically certain to be too rich for Melbourn 2nds blood (Josh is no.3 in England in his age group!). Gareth knew this was his one and only chance to get a win over this particular opponent – he hit the court running, pounding away at his kill shots and rushing Josh into errors. This saw Gareth take the first comfortably and the second slightly closer, with a bit of a wobble emotionally from Josh mid-game. Gareth’s hopes were high that Josh would fold mentally in the third (… its happened before) but the opposite happened, which is a sign of the youngster’s increasing maturity. Instead he dug in, reduced the errors and got on the board as Gareth’s own focus drifted and with that the game changed. Josh was now confident and cut the mistakes out totally in the fourth which he won all-ends up. Gareth had been pegged back to 2-2 and in trouble. But Gareth has lots of experience he can fall back on, which meant he could turn game five into a battle. An all-the-way battle as it went to a tie-break. Both players had match balls, but in the end it was Gareth who triumphed 3-2, celebrated… and then was confronted by sniggering teammates to tell him it was unnecessary effort as we were already into Saturday’s final either way. But a win, one to remember if and when Josh appears on the pro circuit, and a 4-1 overall success for Melbourn.