Melbourn lost 8-17

The 2nds made the short trip to Comberton looking to break our losing run – three wins on the bounce to start the season had been followed by three losses in a row as early promise faded.

First on court were the 2nd and 4th strings – this was so skipper Colm could play and then take son Girvan home. Playing with a 7 year-old on the balcony can be distracting but Colm is used to it now and he maintained his focus against Stuart Elms impressively, his retrieving keeping the home player under pressure without simple plays to end the rallies. Colm’s constant pressure resulted in a 15-12, 15-8, 15-9 win.

As this was underway Matt Walker (3) was playing Jez Cotton next door. Jez is an extremely clever player (some might say “highly annoying”) who keeps rallies short with an array of angles and holds. He has won loads of games over the years against players he arguably had not right to beat. A great match player. He outplayed Matt for a game, but Matt found his rhythm in the second as he cramped Jez’s space, pulling out more defensive efforts as a result and allowing control of the front corners for kills. 1-1.
However, clever players adapt. This is what Jez did. One tactic can’t work for ever, or one style of play – it needs constant change of plans. And that is really trying. Matt attempted it, but he also got frustrated as plays that had worked in game three were no longer doing so. The extra pressure put on himself didn’t help as Matt fell increasingly further behind to lose 11-15, 15-9, 8-15, 5-15.

Next up was James Storer (5) and Tom Snaith. This was James’ first match of the season for the teams and he took a while to find his feet in game one, by which time it was running away from him. That gave Tom confidence… and Tom Snaith with confidence is a very difficult beast to handle. The way to play him is to be on the ‘T’, forcing him deep and making him chase. If Tom can hold the front position and make you do that, you have to be very, very fast to counter it. James is decently quick… but only decently. This meant he slipped further and further behind in rallies until Tom was able to kill. It was a good game, but one-way traffic overall as James lost 8-15, 9-15, 7-15.

That game had gone on the normal court (no.2) with the glassback (no.3) taken instead by Moises Estrelles Navarro (4) and Richard Anthony.  This proved an inspired choice as this match was the most dramatic of the evening by a distance. That didn’t seem likely when Richard breezed through the first game as he hung deep and Moises kept pumping the ball back to him. Telling Moises to drop shot is music to his ears – especially when he is generally told to play to his strengths instead. But no, this time, the call was “go in short”. This nearly worked in a tight second until critical errors at the end proved Moises undoing, but buoyed by the effort he got Moises his nose in front in the third. Richard, clearly blowing, pushed as hard as possible but Moises pulled off an unlikely kill to lead 14-13 and then the rally of the night, which went to every corner, ended with Richard making a desperation dive to retrieve a short ball… and Moises following suit to pick the counter up and take the back. Thunderous cheers, both players on the deck, game on.
The fourth saw Moises start well, and from 9-3 it was clear Richard was taking a breather – he was clearly struggling with the amount of balls our pinball Spaniard gets back. That sent it to a decider, when Richard came out again. Once again it was nip-and-tuck until, at a critical time, Moises faltered to end up on the wrong end of a 5-15, 12-15, 15-13, 15-6, 12-15 scoreline.

The last game on started with Melbourn already 3-1 down on strings, so Jan Brynjolffssen (1) was playing just for consolation points against 17 year-old Isaac Broughton. And for a probable last win against the kid, as the two players trend in opposite directions.
Game one was nip and tuck, with Jan edging ahead at the death to claim it narrowly. He had benefitted from errors from Isaac at key times, and did so rather more in game two as the youngster went all-out attack and made a string of errors. With the Comberton players head down, the worst thing Jan could do was made his own succession of errors… but that is precisely what he did as he suddenly found himself trailing 0-7 at the start of the third. Concentrating on playing line-and-length stabilised things, but only that, not reversing them. Now it was 2-1 and game on.
The opening stages of game four saw both players playing in conservative mode. This led to it’s obvious conclusion in a rally where neither went for a kill, instead chipping down the backhand wall for 50 shots. Eventually Isaac broke, went for it… and tinned it. But he learned his lesson from that, continuing to grind with Jan tiring as again, from 8-all, he contrived to lose a string of 7 straight points.
That meant we were into a decider. The momentum was with Isaac and no matter what Jan tried he was unable to hold back the tide. He kept clinging on, but always a point or two adrift to eventually fall to a 15-12, 15-6, 8-15, 8-15, 12-15 loss. And a lot of regrets about how he started game three…