Melbourn won 17-7

Back-to-back wins over St. Ivo (good) and Spalding (expected as Spalding are way adrift at the bottom) had lifted the 1sts out of the Division 1 relegation playoff place. However the sides just below in the table were breathing down our necks, so another win called for if the team were going to go into the final day in a reasonably comfortable position.

Melbourn were going to have to do it the hard way as well as three regulars were missing for various reasons. With skipper Mark running a lean squad that meant call ups from the 2nds for Kate Bradshaw (4) and Jan Brynjolffssen (5) – co-incidentally both had also played away to Stamford in the first half. Each lost 3-0 that day, but this was much better especially for Kate.
She went on first against Simon ‘Moz’ Morris, the opening game going relatively easily for Kate with Moz appearing to be suffering the effects of the long car journey from Stamford. Expecting him to wake up in the second, Kate steeled herself for more of a battle… which she got. The next two were tight. Moz made fewer errors and began to move better, gaining a game point in the second – but didn’t convert. Kate went on to twin that 12-10, and playing with accuracy and focus took the third by the same score and the match 3-0. A great start for Melbourn.

Meanwhile, next door, Jan had started OK, albeit surprising himself as well as opponent Paul Partington with a drop shot deliberately sent down the middle of the court (Paul didn’t adjust his body position sufficiently and pinged the pick up straight back at himself to give away the stroke). However after a good start Paul upped a gear in the later phases of the game and Jan’s game fell off somewhat with too many loose shots, and that took it away as Jan went from 6-5 up to an 11-6 loss. The second game was a bit better from the home player as he settled and began to try and take Vinod’s advice to keep it tighter and when he got the chance to go for more of his shots as Paul was positioning himself deep. Once again this established a lead, 7-5 this time around, but once more Paul found another gear towards the end of the game to flip that around. Some late resistance saw Jan get it back to 9-10… but then lose the next rally to be two behind.
However Jan each game had Jan feeling more settled and able to express himself, and this paid dividends in game three: just. Once again Jan had the better of the early phases, this time getting himself 9-7 up, but yet again Paul stormed back to the point of having a match ball at 10-9. However a clinging drop saved this and a handful of points later Jan was on the scoreboard at 1-2. This became 2-2 in a role reversal game as this time Paul had the early advantage and it was Jan who put the long sequence of points together from mid-game to close things out, recovering from 5-6 down to win it 11-6. This was mostly down to getting to the ball a little bit sharper, allowing for holds to figure out what Paul’s guess was going to be, and then going elsewhere (often punched low and straight down the wall).
That meant a decider. And here things got tense. As Paul said after the match “no-one wanted to win it!” Both players blew chances, with Jan wanting back a couple of forehand overheads, most notable one at 9-8 up that went into the tin when it should have been a winner… and most frustratingly a close-out backhand drop shot at 10-all that also found the tin when it should have been a simple winner. This spoke of tension, which was relieved a point later but not in a good way as Jan was defeated 10-12 in the fifth and had to slop off knowing he had been close to a Div.1 win, but has still lost in the end.

Whilst Jan was still underway Mike Herd (3) was next up on Court 1, taking on Rob Vivian. This was a matchy-matchy match, both in terms of the all black kit and the style of play. The whole thing was characterised by excellent length and width from both players. In the end Rob was able to maintain the pressure and capitalise on opportunities at the front beating Mike 3-1 (Mike’s scores first: 7-11, 11-4, 3-11, 8-11) in what felt like a very close and high quality contest.

The second game on Court 2 was Vinod Duraikan (2) taking on Neil Steedman. There was little in game 1 between the players, albeit with different approaches: Vinod was building rallies and looking to work Neil out of position, whereas Neil was taking it on earlier with his deadly drop shots. This produced a nip-and-tuck game but as it progressed Neil started to blow a bit and make the sort of mistakes a slightly tired player makes. This was enough to see Vinod to 9-all and from there he played two superb rallies with a millimetre perfect backhand drop followed by a hold-and-switch to claim the game 11-9.
The match looked to be heading towards one game all when Neil started the second strongly. Taking advantage of a tendency of Vinod playing more crosscourts in this period, allowing Neil to intercept on the service line and play his front-court kills. This worked him into a 9-4 lead, but at this point Vinod tightened up considerably, and importantly straightened up, rapidly working his way back into it – IIRC it was 9-4 to 9-all in double-quick time. Neil did have a game ball at 10-9 but this was well saved with a suffocating rally, which was repeated in the next two as Neil once again looked tired; Vinod took it 12-10.
Game two was a killer for a player whose usual fitness and keep-going-forever tenacity wasn’t there on the evening for some reason; the third saw Neil as a fading force and Vinod as an increasingly ascendent one – his tactics of keeping it deep, tight and straight were working very effectively as he completed an 11-9, 12-10, 11-5 win.

Another pair of shared strings meant the top encounter, between Chris Shaw (1) and Eden Spooner, was a decider. It’s always good when the first strings are playing a ‘live’ match.
This was the first time Chris had encountered the unorthodox Eden, which showed in the first, Eden’s speed and esoteric shots catching Chris off-guard to take it 11-7. Advice after the first was simple. Keep it simple. And don’t get sucked into his game of outlandish winners, which won’t always come off. This saw a better showing from Chris in the second to take it 11-1. All balanced nicely for a tight finish, or so we thought… However, Chris’ steady game and Eden’s rapid decline in king capacity saw Chris take the next two with relative ease, 11-3, 11-3 and ultimately secure 5 additional bonus points for Melbourn.

The win saw the boys and girls ease 17 points clear of the danger position of 8th ahead of the last round of matches next week. That spot is occupied by Swavesey 1sts… who Melbourn play. A single string won in that will be enough to secure Division 1 status for next season.