The target for this game was to actually win whilst top of the table. That being something the 2nds have found strangely difficult to do! We can win whilst not top, and those wins get us top, but once looking imperiously down on everyone else we tend to turn the air purple.

Our hopes of victory were thrown for a bit of a loop during the warm-up when planned top string Jan pulled up having felt something twang in his groin. Matt and James continued to get themselves ready whilst the wounded solider put out an appeal on WhatsApp for “help”. Kate answered the call but did point out she was half-a-bottle-of-wine and her full dinner into the evening. Quote “Yes, I’ll play. It will be funny!”

Kate stepping in meant we could keep the order at least, so James Storer (3) took on Everton Brown. The first six rallies of the match went superbly well as James’ crack of the ball had Everton on the back foot, digging the ball out of tight corners. 6-0. This is going great! This was definitely the high point of the encounter, from Melbourn/James’ perspective though as Everton dug in and even made it to 9 first! James responded, leading 11-10 and 12-11, but he was feeling undermined now by Everton’s pace about the court, which was chasing down his shots, and that resulted in a reduce flow on the attack and a one game deficit (15-13). 
In spite of the shift in momentum in the second half of the first game, it seemed there was still everything to play for. James had been striking the ball superbly in that early run of points, and just needed to re-establish some rhythm and control in game 2. Unfortunately, the pace and unorthodoxy of Everton's serve continued to put James under pressure, and the match turned into a slightly scratchy affair. Too many mid-court balls allowed Everton to dictate patterns, and his pace around the court on a warm evening, where dying lengths were hard to find, meant that there were few if any lost causes. Both second and third games ran away more quickly than the opening salvos of the match would have indicated. For a player with James's quality of ball-striking, it was perhaps a lack of match-practice that exposed a scoreline gap that was much greater than any difference in underlying ability. It finished 13-15, 6-15, 6-15.

Matt Walker (2) was also on against the player he was expected to play, Adam Gourpinar in his case. After some initial sparing, a pattern quickly emerged of Matt looking to make the first play and Adam attempting to react to these with counters before Matt had regained his balance – Matt in the attacking mode, Adam very much counter-punching. There was little to nothing between the players and their approaches through the first game as the lead changed hands multiple times – Matt (3-1), Adam (4-3), Matt (6-4, 7-6, 9-7), Adam (10-9). However when Matt levelled up at 10-all this was the start of a push to the finish as he upped the pressure on Adam’s shots, drawing errors to close the game out.
Game 2 saw the same patterns of play, though this time Adam held the lead from the outset up until Matt put a scintillating string of points together to zoom from 7-10 down to 14-10 up (which means this game also had it’s 10-all point). His trademark volley drops were obviously functioning very well at this stage, repeatedly dying before Adam could reach them despite the Haileybury player’s foot speed. It felt like Matt had broke the back of things at this stage, especially when he started Game 3 the quicker. But instead he began to over-push for the line just as Adam dug in and cut out his mistakes. This time Adam held the lead from 7-6 onwards, the closest Matt getting being 10-12 down. He came off court looking concerned – this wasn’t going to get away from him, was it?
A combination of calmness and steel meant it didn’t as Matt move back to a more patient point construction but also forced his ‘t’ position higher to cope with Adam’s counter-attacking short shots. We were back into serve being rapidly exchanged, though Matt generally had his nose ahead until once again the game reached, yes, 10-all. Here Matt seemed to make a decisive break, winning three straight points through a combination of good kills and unexpected errors from Adam’s racket – badly time for Haileybury, excellently so as far as we and Matt were concerned! Once again this was precipitate as Adam closed back to 12-13 with two trademark counter-punches, only for Matt to find his backhand volley drop: two match balls. The first came and went but on the second it was backhand volley-drop time again, followed by a bellow and an air-punch as Matt closed things out 15-11, 15-11, 10-15, 15-13.

And that took us to a decider at top string, where Kate Bradshaw (1) faced off with Matt Savides. Half-cut Kate was understandable unsure in how she would play in the circumstances and somewhat concerned when she shanked a number of balls in the knock-up, which is absolutely unlike her. Alcohol, even a little bit of it, impairs hand-eye co-ordination! Who knew??? [oh, hello DVLA!]
Kate started the match slowly, but as it got competitive she began to find her range on her cut-out volleys, the cornerstone of her game. Too late for game one, which had gone but good to cruise to game two as Kate’s style turned out to be kryptonite for Matt’s preferred play of hanging the ball high to give himself time to recover from the back corners. This doesn’t work when your opponent can volley-drop-kill from in amongst the court lights.
Sadly for Kate Matt had a plan B up his sleeve – greater pop on his shots and just all-round higher intensity of play. Kate continued to predate on anything from Matt that was attackable in the mid-court, but there wasn’t as many opportunities now and this all added up to a 6-15, 15-9, 8-15, 8-15 defeat.

And that meant we had lost again having gone top. Leopards find it very hard to change their spots, don’t they??