Melbourn won 10-3

Another week, another 2-1 match. This one a win, against Radlett 4ths.

The first match on pitted club chairman Roger Woodfield (3) against the visitors skipper Jamie Goodman. Roger had drops; Jamie was fast to pick them up. An interesting contrast in styles. And in the end there was next to nothing in it, though after Jamie had shaded the first 15-13 and established a 9-3 lead in the second it did appear trouble for Roger. However he then found success crosscourting, to open up the space for his killer drops, and came back to win that game on a breaker. From then on out it was a toss-up who was going to claim the key points. Sadly for Roger it was Jamie in games three and four as he went down 13-15, 17-15, 12-15, 14-16. On another night…

Next up was Matt Walker (2), who found himself with an interesting challenge against U19 player Chloe Bhola. This was a match of mental challenges as well as physical ones. First for Matt – could he be ruthless against a young female opponent? This was swiftly answered in the affirmative as Matt correctly treated Chloe as simply human-with-racquet, got his excellent volley drops working, and fair chopped her up in game one. That, in turn, was the gauntlet thrown down to young Chloe – could she be resilient and make a fight of it? The alternative was getting embarrassed about getting hammered, which we have all seen young players fall foul off. But impressively not so her as Chloe hit harder to disrupt Matt’s volleying, succeeding in making the second and third much tighter. Indeed Matt was beginning to look a bit concerned when a run of five straight points against in the third saw him go from 12-6 up to only 12-11. However a backhand killer drop at the key time righted the ship, Matt closing things out 15-4, 15-10, 15-12, ending it 3-0. Which he was glad off as if it had gone to a fourth then Chloe’s younger legs could have become a factor.

That sent everything to Jan Brynjolffssen (1) against Ian Taylor. After some slightly odd opening exchanges, Jan winning five points in a row from 2-2 to go 7-2 up… and then losing five straight to be pegged back to 7-7, a pattern of play established itself as Ian tried to go in short and Jan chased it down, hit deep… and got a succession of unpredictable bounces out of nicks. In fact, this would be a theme for the whole contest as it proved to be Jan the vagaries of the Melbourn court vs Ian. However to get a weird bounce out of a nick you have to hit it first, and Jan was exerting lots of pressure on his opponent with his deep hitting, which got him to game two after a dicey start and then saw him pull away from 6-4 to win game three 15-9. It all added up to a 15-10, 15-10, 15-9 win, which was enough to ensure overall victory on the night for the home side.

Next up is a trip to Nuffield 5ths. Who are second in Division 4 with 36 points, to our third place with 35 (the leaders are on 37). Oooh, exciting!