Melbourn lost 3-2

A long and pretty successful season for the Seconds drew to a close with a chance of glory – the Hereward Cup final against Cambridge 3rds.

Pre-Match optimism (l to r: Jan, Gareth, Kate, Matt, Colm)

Colm’s team have had a good campaign, finishing in a record high of third place in Division 3. However final opponents Cambridge had gone one better, overhauling the 2nds in the second half of the season to claim runners-up spot and promotion to Division 2. That was partly achieved by Cambridge winning both league clashes between the sides, by four strings to one (17-6 in points) at Churchill College back in the autumn and 3-2 (14-10) in a critical meeting in the penultimate round of league fixtures. So Melbourn went into the Final as second favourites… but only narrowly given how tight the league games had been… which would prove to be a very good guide for what was to come.

The first match on court was the third string encounter which pitted Gareth Jones up against Ben Knappett. This was a reprise of a league clash at Churchill that Ben had won 3-2… but Gareth seem on course to get revenge for this as he powered into a two games to love lead, putting everything together sweetly in the first and then looking in increasing command in the second. Unfortunately things changed in game three as Gareth started to vary the style that had been working, going for more kills as opposed to grinding away at Ben with power and depth. He started to miss, and with that the game changed. A bit of a time out in game four saw Ben run away with that one, which meant it was the Cambridge player who had the momentum in game five. Gareth did what he could to reverse things but by this point had lost a crucial bit of pop in his legs which resulted in him being edged out 3-2. Again. Gah!

The next match to start pitted Matt Walker (5) against Andrew Stott. This was a contrast in styles as Matt’s strengths are his deadly drop volleys, whereas Andrew plays more of a deep power game. Matt edged a tense first as both players looked a little nervous and then saw this advantage wiped out when Andrew forced him deep in the second. Game three saw Matt stepping up the court… and stepping up the accuracy in general as he avoided lose balls for Andrew to attack. This produced a comprehensive claim which had Matt seemingly in control. The fourth didn’t quite go to plan though as determination saw Andrew force Matt back a crucial quarter step from his high ‘t’ position. This made things inordinately close, with barely even more than a couple of points between the players. It got as far as a tie-break, which was massively tense as game balls and match balls were traded until… Andrew claimed it to level up at 2-2. Now the pressure was on Matt as the momentum was all in Andrew’s favour – could he swing the match around again. The answer was yes as Matt’s fitness proved the better of the two players. The fifth was never comfortable, but Matt claimed it to take out a 3-2 win and level the tie at 1-1.

After that start, would the third string on be any less dramatic? Erm, no, it wouldn’t. Not when Colm O’Gorman (4) and Peter Connaughton went at it. Peter took the first game as Colm warmed up but from then on this was in Colm’s hands as his ability to retrieve the ball, particularly to retrieve it at the very edge of reach but with some nasty spin that saw it not be attackable began to get under Peter’s skin. As long as Colm maintained self-belief in doing the hard yards and waited for Peter to attack first before counter-punching, he was on top. Being constantly cautious isn’t really Colm’s style – like many (most, nearly all?) he prefers to end some rallies quickly and save his energy… but in terms of set up that just gave Peter the chance to take a controlling position. Colm recognised this though, kept himself in check and saw things through 3-1 to put his side 2-1 to the good.

So we needed one more string for the Cup. Could Jan Brynjolffssen (2) provide it against James Buckley? The omens were not good, the pair having met twice before with James winning both. Each was a good game… but Jan really needed to get his nose ahead. He had a game ball to do so as part of a very close opening game, but James snuffed the chance out cleanly and eventually took the opening game 18-16. Jan had been living a little too much on James’ errors in game one, so attempted to up his attack in game two. This produced a better standard of Squash, but even so it remained nip-and-tuck up to 11-all. Unfortunately there is another half to the phrase “Live by the sword…” and this bite when Jan made two errors going for kills at this point to gift two critical points away. 15-11 in the second, and a long way back for the Melbourn player. This became even further as James raced out to an 11-4 lead in the third. Though Jan clawed most of this back, most of it is not ‘all’ and it finished 3-0. Taking us to two strings all.

So it all came down to the top strings, Kate Bradshaw (1) taking on Alex Holland. As would be expected this was a good match, full of lovely constructed rallies and shot-making as benefits two players north of 2500 on Squashlevels. In terms of a match-up though  the players strengths appeared to favour Alex as he was swift enough to get into the front corners and pick up Kate’s usually deadly drop shots. She still pulled off some in the first game, but it ended around 15-10 against and this prompted an idea to change strategy to one of more patient rally building. And, well, Kate tried. It was good to watch. But Alex was winning three points to her two throughout the contest, and that is untenable for victory. It was a lovely game to watch… it ended 3-0 to Cambridge, which made the final score 3-2 in their favour. ☹

So the season concludes with the Seconds just missing out again. League AND Cup. At least it give us something to aim for next season, eh? ♫Always look on the bright side of life♫