Melbourn lost 4-9

The seconds arrived at Haileybury School to take on the local side… a note on them before we go on: they may be located at a (very famous public) School but they are not the team of that School, but rather represent the local community – Hertford and Hoddesdon in Haileybury’s case. So like us, then… as both Melburn Village College and Haileybury College are schools. There may be further similarities, but there are also some differences… “Got any spare change, guv’nor?!?”

The absence of kids in training for Imperial Civil Service (Haileybury’s purpose may, possibly, have moved on a little by now…) string three instead pitted Melbourn club chairman Roger against Everton Brown. The court and ball was playing very warm and bouncy, as it generally does at Haileybury [looks askance at the Swimming Pool next door!], which didn’t suit Roger’s game of shortening rallies with his deadly drop shots, but was ideal for Everton’s good movement and counter-punching approach. The Haileybury player also quickly worked out that once he pushed Roger into a back corner all he needed to do was drop and that would work. Roger, by contrast, wasn’t trusting his drops, which takes most of his game away – he wasn’t playing them much in game one, and then, in game two, put a very atypical number in the tin in game two as he tried to make them extra, extra short so they couldn’t be retrieved. What was working instead was straightness and width, drops that didn’t produce a clean winner but instead clung to the sidewall and forced retrieve errors. However, changing a shot target like that that is difficult midway through a match and Roger wasn’t able to do it consistently enough, losing 9-15, 7-15, 8-15.

Next on was Colm (2) against Adam Gourpinar, with super fan Girvan in attendance/trying to pop up from low boards on the glasback to suddenly appear to the players. Colm did superbly to ignore this significant distraction and play his game, recovering from a 7-2 deficit to win the opener thanks to a succession of stunningly tight shots down the backhand wall, and also his rapidity in the front court, particualrl yup to the front forehand corner, allowing him to get to Adam’s attempted kills. Basically this was Roger and Everton in reverse, as the Adam’s boasts and drops (the cornerstone of his game) were not tight or short enough for the court conditions, allowing Colm to pick up and counter-punch with his opponent out of position. The key moments of this match came at the conclusion of a tight third game, which Adam built a lead to hold two game balls at 14-12. He had a clear chance to claim the first opportunity as Colm dragged a shot towards himself … but Adam didn’t claim the stroke and instead played through, losing the rally. He clearly immediately regretted it, enough that it caused errors in the following three rallies, two of them on return, as he handed Colm the game on a tie-break. Colm didn’t return the favour and let Adam off the hook, instead establishing a lead at the start of the third. This was decisive, Colm rolling through to win 15-10, 16-14, 15-8.

So it all came down to the top string, where Jan took on against Matthew Savides. Unbeknownst to Jan, Matt is a 3000ish player on Squashlevels… but what lay ahead was flagged instead when Matt casually drop beating Derek  Brown of Berko (a very good player for Div.4) 3-2 in a recent match. That conveyed pretty well the same info – Jan was going to be up against it here. But maybe not to extent of an opening game where nothing worked for Jan and everything did for Matt, who was applying the pressure which wasn’t coped with as Jan’s lines were out, repeatedly clipping walls to leave the ball loose near the service line; Matt fully capitalised on these attackable balls. Jan managed to improve his hitting lines and with it his length in game two, by means of upping his movement and therefore his balance on his shots, extending his stride into the ball and getting his torso a bit lower to the deck. This made for a more competitive game, though still in Matt’s favour. Having stepped up the court a half-pace in game two Jan was able to finally get properly to the ‘t’ in game three and this succeeded in reversing the pressure of the opening game – suddenly Jan was dictating a good portion of the rallies from the ‘t’ and Matt, trying to attack from deeper against an in-position opponent, began to leak errors. With the carrot of a game suddenly dangling Jan got all determine, chased everything down and watch in pleasant surprise (plus a little bemusement) as Matt gifted him the last two points; suddenly it was Game On. Could the fourth be the same? Well, yes. And no. It was in parts, but at other times game one made some re-appearances. Most notably from 10-all as Jan made two quick and regrettably unnecessary errors with Matt playing a good rally in between. Confidence now up the Haileybury player finished things off in style (power backhand kill, the last of many), sending Jan to a 1-15, 8-15, 15-11, 10-15 defeat.

So another 2-1 night, but against for the second time this season. And that meant only 4 points for the 2nds total, which wasn’t enough to keep us top of the Division. But we in the upper echelons with a third of the season gone, so there is plenty still to fight for.