Melbourn won 20-2

The opening game of the second half of the season proved to be a bit of a shock to the system for the Seconds as we went down 5-0 (20-4) to Peterborough. That piled the pressure on this game against bottom-of-the-table Ely 2nds – it was one the team needed to win to keep themselves from being dragged into a relegation battle.

The first port of call for Team Melbourn was Team Bradshaw as Mum Kate and Son Will played in the first matches of the evening.

Let’s take Kate’s top string encounter with former Melbourn player Rob Davis. Rob is a nice player, clean hitting, up-and-down the wall, nippy over the deck… but that is all tailor-made for Kate to play against. He was going to try and out-Squash her, and Kate is a very strong Squash player. A teeniest bit impatient in the opening game, as she made some mistakes along the way, but still won in 15-6. Game two saw Kate cluing completely into Rob not having the attacking game to really hurt her, so giving her time to construct a rally up to the right winning shot opportunity. Rob was also warming up and played better in this one – the score was actually closer but that was down to Rob winning his own points rather than relying on Kate giving occasional gifts. Having established the pattern, Kate was miserly in game three, rounding off a 15-6, 15-8, 15-5 win in double quick time.

Meanwhile, next door, Will had started in similarly dominant former against Samuel Goodger, rattling through his opening game 15-8. This one pitted two boys against each other – Will was actually the older of the two players. Each was also looking for their first ever win in the adult Squash League, something that would become important later on in the match.
Will was looking comfortable in the second, more powerful and cleaner than Sam in what he was doing. This produced a lead, but not as big a one as in the first game. And as the line approached at 14-10, Will began to try and reach for it, going for winners early in rallies and attempting things like no-look drop shots whereas previously he had been controlling the ‘T’ and playing length, pace and width to succeeded. A series of poor choices opened the door for Samuel to save four game points, and then have his own chance at 15-14. Will started to hare around the court superfast, digging up everything to somehow escape the game ball, and then convert to lead 2-0 a handful of points later. His relief was obvious.
The magnitude of that first ever win was also clear though as now Will was playing with a nervous energy that saw his error count creep up. The timing of this was bad as Samuel was growing into the game, with increasing self-belief. Winning the third 15-9 really helped with that. Now it was anyone’s match, with Will getting tighter as he moved ahead and Samuel playing well when behind. Things flipped mid-game in the fourth with Samuel surging ahead to earn a string of game points at 1411. Here, finally, Will relaxed and began to play solid Squash again. One saved, two saved, … but not three as Samuel found the rally he needed just in time to level up. To say Will looked green at this was an understatement.
What was really impressive, then, was rather than folding at the thought of it getting away from him Will instead knuckled down to play basic Squash. This was what had worked in game one and worked again in game five as he rattled out into a 10-4 lead. That must be decisive, right? Well, no, because having got there Will once again began searching for those immediate kill-balls and with that the pattern changed. A short while later we were back at 11-all and the tension was sky high. Both boys had families on the balcony urging them on, with points exchanged by good winners at 11-11 and 12-11 to Will. 12-all. The next rally saw a good construction from Will, moving Samuel around until he got the error in the back corner. 13-12. This was followed by a mishit ball in the next rally that span nastily away from Samuel, forcing a weak response that Will killed. Luck matters. One more solid rally, pushing Samuel deep and waiting for this to work did its job and Will was over the line 15-8, 17-15, 9-15, 13-15, 12-15. Hopefully this was a breakthrough moment and more wins are going to follow it – his level is now high enough that he can win matches in at Cambs Div.3 level.

Whilst all this was going on Matt Walker (4) was taking on Kristof Kucharczyk next door. This was a contrast in styles between Matt’s patented pattern – drive your opponent deep, get a lofted response, step in a volley-drop kill it – and Kristof’s more free-form take on the Sport: hit hard and run even harder. The match fitted a patter for all but a two minute spell, which was Matt’s way was more successful. The one time it went against the grain was a brief interlude in Game 1 when Matt started making errors and 11-5 somehow rapidly became 11-12… but a dig in won four of the next five points to see Matt win the game anyway. The next two were just straightforward, with Matt edging away throughout as he was winning two points for every one he lost. It all added up to a 15-13, 15-8, 15-8 win… and a discovery on reaching the balcony that the Will vs Sam match, which was well underway when Matt and Kristof had started, was “not still going on, is it?” Yes. Yes it was. That was why nobody was watching you, fellas. Sorry.

Will’s win, allied to those of Kate and Matt meant the winning bonus was safe for Melbourn before Gareth Jones (3) and Jan Brynjolffssen (2) took to the courts against Sam B-B (full name not on the website!) and Martyn Goodger respectively.
These were both nice and straightforward as Gareth rattled through three games in fairly rapid succession. This was typical Gareth style, with the match on his racket. Winners or errors, with winners predominating in this one. Errors had a bit more of a day in game three as the line approached and the shoulders tightened slightly, but not enough for a serious scare as Gareth won 15-8, 15-7, 15-12.
As for Jan, he was playing somewhat against type as rather than starting games slowly he was racing out into significant leads: 11-2 in the first, 7-2 in the second, 8-2 in the third. This was mostly down to strong serving, high into Martyn’s volley, which the Ely player was struggling to cope with. The hammer wasn’t always maintained all the way to the end of games with Jan making some unforced errors, and Martyn beginning to move better to start picking up some of Jan’s attempted kills… but there was always plenty in hand as Jan won 15-6, 15-9, 15-7.