Melbourn won 17-4

Once again the 1sts came up against an opposition suffering from a player shortage, and once again they ruthlessly took advantage to secure a big win that moves the side further into the safe mid-table section of Division 1.

Melbourn started a string up after Swavesey had to forfeit the fifth string, which meant that Mike Herd (3) vs Arran Smith and Miles Jeanerret (4) against Tony Gardner were the first matches on court.
Miles shaded his opening game but then stepped things up in the second to win it 11-6 and build a 2-0 lead. A bit of a time-out followed in game three (3-11) but this was merely a pause as the fourth went Miles way to complete an 11-9, 11-6, 3-11, 11-7 win.
Meanwhile Mike was struggling against the smooth play of 20-something Arran, who glides around the court at high pace. A match of nice rallies ensued, with just one problem from Mike’s perspective – Arran won 3/5ths of them! It all added up to an 8-11, 6-11, 7-11 defeat as Swavesey got on the board.

That meant the 1s needed one of the top two strings to claim victory on the night. As it transpired they would take both as Matt Sampson (1) and Vinod Duraikan (2) both proved too strong for Tom Wight and Michael Faulkner respectively.
Both Melbourn players were in hot form on the night as their opponents were no mugs. However Matt barely let Tom win a point as he rattled through 11-5, 11-2, 11-3, whilst Vinod started just as ruthlessly (11-2) before Michael got a little more into things. But not enough as Vinod won 11-2, 11-7, 11-9.

It all added up to a 17-4 win, which was just enough for the 1sts to leapfrog Swavesey in the Division 1 table – the boys sit sixth at Christmas with a 3-5 record to total 84 points from their 8 games. Swavesey have 82 and Cambridge 76, with somewhat out-of-their-depth Spalding bottom with just 32 points to their name.