With two rounds, plus one re-arranged game, left in the Herts Summer League Division 4 we were in the slightly absurd position of 8 of the 10 teams still being in with a chance of winning the title! This was down to the top end of the table looking like this going into the penultimate full round of fixtures:

All eight covered by just 16 points in a league that offers up to 12 points per match! One could say there is no standout team in this league… though why we would say that when we are top, I don’t know.
One side notable by its absence from the above table of contenders is Berkhamsted, who were instead engaged in a battle of their own with Ickleford to avoid bottom place – the two were level on 76 points from 16 games a piece prior to this clash, with both having 3-13 records. Given the situation, this was therefore a match the 2nds wanted a maximum of 12 points from.

First to seek that was Jamie Ware (3), who was taking on Mike Cowan. The opening phases of the match were scrappy, exemplified by Jamie putting the first serve of the match out – it took until point five for a rally to end with a good shot rather than an error, this first well executed shot of the match coming from Jamie’s racket. Things remained chaotic for most of the first game as play went at 1000mph and about 1% control. However this worked for Jamie to take the game… but he wasn’t happy with how he was playing.
He was even more perplexed after the second had got away 15-13 to leave the match at one game all. Which was frustrating for his watching teammates as most rallies were being decided by whether Jamie played a winner or a loser – Mike didn’t have the shots to threaten him but Jamie was feeling under pressure anyway and overplaying. Jamie finally managed to make himself believe he was comfortably the stronger player midway through the third game, and began to play the sort of clean, up-and-down-the-wall but with punch Squash that had been available to him throughout. This saw game three go from 6-all to 15-8 in Jamie’s favour.
The same Squash was also the basis of a comeback from 10-4 down in the fourth, after Jamie had made a slew of errors to dig himself that hole. Being behind relaxed him, the clean Squash came back, the game recovered to 10-all… and the anxiety resurfaced leading to more scrappy rallies. Mike had the first game point at 14-13, but Jamie saved it with a clutch drop, accurate when he had to be. One match ball went past at 15-14, but the next at 16-15 was converted as Jamie came through 15-9, 13-15, 15-8, 17-15 to record a useful win for his side.

We then split on to two courts as both sides were available on this particular evening and the journey back to Berkhamsted is a long one for the away side. Jan Brynjolffssen (1) was up against James Barron on Court 1, with Matt Walker (2) taking on Grant Kleiner on Court 2. Let’s take Matt’s game first… and let’s also say he wasn’t exactly confident before it as he had run into Grant before in the opening half of the season and had lost that one 3-1. Grant is one of those players who are not particularly mobile but have exceptional racket head control, so go for kills on everything… which is just about Matt’s least favoured style to come up against. He wants rallies to develop to allow him to settle in, which one just doesn’t get against Grant. However Grant’s strength, his kills, also speaks of his weakness, his movement, with the game plan for Matt very clear if not necessarily easy to execute. Focus hard on the serve and return, hold a high ‘t’, watch the ball and chase the drops down to bunt any sort of counter in – that, if up, will probably be a winner.
Game 1 started well, Matt winning the opening 5 rallies, then went totally away as Grant won the next 8, but Matt forced himself forward at that point and reclaimed the initiative to recover the lead again and claim the game in the end. From here on out he was generally a handful of points ahead in games; never comfortable, never able to relax into a pattern as Grant doesn’t allow a pattern, but always with Matt having the upper hand. There were a few wasted opportunities as Matt couldn’t quite get himself to trust the open drop was going to be a winner at times – when he didn’t go for it and tried to wrong-foot instead he found himself not wrong-footing a player who hadn’t moved but hitting it straight to his opponent instead! However grit and determination were to the fore as Matt ground things out, getting himself to match ball at 14-13 in the third, and then converting it with a backhand drop that Grant couldn’t get forward to. Matt won 15-12, 15-11, 15-13.

Meanwhile Jan had started very well against James, who is another unconventional player: a brilliant forehand and superb hand-eye but with a weak backhand that he tries to hide – it wasn’t until game three that Jan managed to make James play a backhand return… and that was with serving to James’ backhand side on every hand-in! Backhand side, but not backhand shot as James would position himself with his back nearly on the side wall. As I said, unconventional. However in game one Jan coped with this very well, gaining points as he was able to pick up James’ low drive shots and use the pace of them against the Berkhamsted player. That resulted in a run of 10 points out of 11 in Jan’s favour and a clear 15-5 first game conversion.
Gannes two and three proved trickier as James changed his play, going for more variety in shot making rather than the power kills that Jan was having joy countering. Jan mostly struggled to put runs of points together, with game two in particular getting exceedingly close – a key mistake at 12-10 leaving Jan feeling nervous. However, he got to game ball first at 14-13 and this time it was James with the error, attempting to play a forehand volley from his backhand side to a weak shot from Jan, and tinning it to hand the game away. That put Jan into a considerable (two game lead) which he converted into a 3-0 win thanks to a very good run of points from mid-game as he repeatedly found a near perfect length – one stretching forehand that second bounced into the back nick drawing an “It’s not fair!” from James. Jan eventually got home 15-5, 15-13, 15-11 to complete the 12 point night the team was after. As stand in skipper he also offered this post match comment ““We knew we needed 12 poitns from this evening, which adds pressure, especially against somewhat unconventional opponents. But we all got there in the end. It puts us in a good position for midweek – six sides are still in contention, but whereas most of the others are relying on other results we have put ourselves in a position where only our score matters. There is still work to do to win the title, but it’s something we know we are capable of achieving.”