Melbourn won 12-2

Two defeats in a row had seen the 2nds, who had been top at the midpoint of the season, drop down to fourth in the Division 4 table. But this game was against the bottom side, Ickleford 2nds. So a chance to reverse the momentum…?

That is exactly how it would turn out, but the bit in between, when we had to actually win the match, would prove to be anything but easy. The challenge of the evening was evident from the opening rallies between Moises Estrelles Navarro (3) and Ickleford’s Keryann Pestiaux. Keryann is a young player, somewhere around his (sic) late teens or 20th birthday. He is apparently pretty new to Squash, having played for only 18 months, and almost entirely self-taught. So the classical correctness of his game, and especially his movement, was especially noteworthy. How good could he become? Time will tell, but there is a lot of promise here. Moises is also on an notably upward track, and this match demonstrated how far he has come from his work with head coach Chris – a year ago he simply wouldn’t have had the control or patience to engage in the extended length exchanges up-and-down the backhand wall.
Both players were excellent at that, and on the movement front – Keryann using accuracy and efficiency, Moises slightly less technically correct but as always hugely tenacious. Maybe drop shots and kills were lacking… but it was a warm night. Mostly, apart from a few really tight drops in the opening exchanges of game 1, it was the player who went for a drop who lost the rally as they gave position away. Moises also benefitted from having a leveller head overall as Keryann got frustrated on a couple of occasions and the points allowed to flee easily then were critical to outcomes. That gave Moises the chance to pull away late in the first two games. He also won the third after a dramatic tie-break where both players got visibly tight, going for drops that weren’t on at times. Moises had a number of match balls and then saved a game ball before, at 18-17, he found a good backhand depth length to close things out 15-11, 15-10, 19-17.

Next on was Matt Walker (2) against Kyle Piggins… and it was immediately apparent this would be a very different type of match. Neither player was going to die wondering when they had a chance to attempt a kill shot. Or even half a chance. Maybe a quarter of a chance. However, both were striking the ball crisply so it was still staying warm and bouncy, which was mitigating against the kills. Matt dropped a little deep on the court in response to the springiness of the ball, which proved somewhat to his detriment in game 1 as Kyle caught him stretching a number of times. Matt’s best rallies came near the end of the game when he relaxed and played constructive Squash rather than striving for the kill… only to tighten again when he got to a breaker to lose the game on this.
From game two things changed though as Matt moved his position forwards, which meant he was able to chase down enough of Kyle’s attempted kills. The Melbourn player was now controlling the play – not dominating, that goes too far but playing ahead on the scoreboard and in rallies. He kept his nose well in front through all of the next three games, each built on fast starts that saw him rattle out into 5-1, 6-1, 7-1 leads. That was enough to allow a cruise home in each stanza, Matt winning 14-16, 15-8, 15-8, 15-11.

Last to start was Jan Brynjolffssen (1) and Andy Phillipson. Some initial sparring established a contrast in styles, with Andy having a nice touch-based game, with float and weight big elements, that was not ideally suited to Melbourn courts playing in super-fast mode. Jan, meanwhile, was pinging the ball around… which also fitted badly with the conditions as the red-hot orb sat up rather than dying. A feeling of chaos permeated for much of the opening game, Andy controlling it better to build a 14-11 lead. From there Jan played two good rallies to save the first two game balls… and then an ace to save the third. Yay! He then promptly made two soft errors to lose the game 16-14 anyway. D’Oh!
Calmer play allowed Jan to establish a bit of an advantage early in the second game, which was soon followed by the realisation that Andy was struggling to breath. Having initially looked to take advantage, it gradually dawned that this was just due to physical play but also a reaction to the heat of the day and dry wind of the Melbourn court heaters (which, for some reason best known to them, had turned themselves on). Being unable to breath properly is a pretty significant hindrance to playing one’s best Squash and from here on out Jan had control of things, wrapping up a 14-16, 15-18, 15-10, 15-10 that completed the 3-0 win on the night.

With that it was off to the curry house when a ravenous Moises “ate like three people” as he informed the team WhatsApp. Who promptly interposed some extra commas, and a new nickname was coined: El Canibal.

Jan, who was acting as stand-in skipper, commented afterwards “That was three enjoyable matches. They gave us a very good game. The third string match was the highlight of the evening – the Squash played was much cleaner and of a far higher technical level than is often seen at this string in this Division. Moises did very well to get through it in three.”