Melbourn won 14-9

Melbourn I got the better of Ely Squash & Leisure 1sts by three strings to two in a see-saw evening of Squash.

First on court was Jan Brynjolffssen (5), who was up against Chris Hornby. Things looked rather bleak for Jan seven rallies in, after he had lost them all making game one unretrievable. Substantially improved Squash from Jan, getting the ball past his opponent and cutting out at the service line and dropping accurately, saw the Melbourn player win the second… only to give away an early lead in game three and lose that to fall behind again.
Refocusing on the gameplan worked to level things up to 2-2, and a good start to the fifth had Jan 10-6 up. Then he got nervous about the finishing line, shanked two balls… which both dropped for winners! Helpfully that put it 12-6 up, but the nerves did their thing as Chris clawed back 5 of the next 6 points to close to 13-11. However, a slightly surprising error from the home player in response to a deep but not devastating shot gave Jan matchball, which (nerves mysteriously now absent) he converted with a forehand power kill from deep. That completed an 8-15 15-10 12-15 15-10 15-11 win.

Meanwhile next door Mark Oppen (3) had been in a game one battle with Ben Mitchell… and with his own game as he struggled with the line of his shots and also to get the pace of the Ely courts. Oppen was in trouble after the opener slipped by on a tie-break, in part because his own form was somewhat off on the evening but also due to Ben looking a very handy player for third string at this level. The next two went by with Mark struggling, both in Squash terms and in getting enough oxygen down as he lost 15-17 4-15 8-15.

Ed Aspelling (4) followed Mark on to court to take on Paul Sherwood. This game involved lots of power as both players looked to hit through the other, but also some sweet touch from both players. When either managed to slow things up a little they looked in control, but neither was maintaining this for longer than four or five points at a time. That resulted in streaks of points for both players, and the opening two games shared.
From game three on though Ed was able to stay on top for slightly longer streaks than Paul managed, and that was the key as Ed fought through to a 16-14 8-15 15-11 15-9 victory.

Kate Bradshaw (2) had been in good form recently, but she looked to have a task on her hands against Jack White. In a similar way to Mark, Kate was struggling with the pace of the courts, and also the lines she was finding (or not) for the ball. This would have been a problem against most players; against Jack, who showed jaw-dropping accuracy on the drop shot at times, it left Kate nowhere to turn. Games two and three were less one-sided than the opener, but overall the 3-15 7-15 7-15 loss was as comprehensive as the scoreline implies.

Which all set up Vinod Duraikan (1) and Chris Purkiss to play a deciding rubber. Vinod started like a house on fire, moving superbly, both in terms of covering the ground to pick everything up but also in the lightness on his feet to twist and turn. Chris initially seemed nonplussed by the onslaught, Vinod racking up an 11-2 opening game lead.
That was converted into a 15-5 first game win, but from this point things became a little closer as Chris got more of a measure of both his own and Vinod’s game… and Vinod started to make a rare error or two on the drop rather than the near perfection he had shown over the first ten minutes of the match. Even so Vinod was ahead through the majority of game two, an advantage he converted into a 2-0 lead. The Melbourn player trailed through most of game three though, but he tightened things up at the death, cutting out the errors. Having fought back to 13-all, Vinod played a very solid rally to force an error and get to matchball, which he won with just one shot as Chris went for the spectacular return… and tinned it! Game scores were 15-5 15-12 15-13 in Vinod’s favour.
Skipper Mark said of the evening “The team really came together to make up for the two lost matches and the inevitable 1st string decider that was played so well by Vinod. It was a great night of competitive squash.”
Melbourn sit fourth in the Division 2 table going into the half-term break, but that is a little deceptive. We are the only unbeaten side left in the Division but having had a bye week keeps our points down a little.