Melbourn lost 11-5

A bad week for availability all came right in the end as three players were found to represent the 1sts for this match at Welwyn Garden City-based club Gosling.

This only happened as Sean Hamilton agreed to stand in at short notice for his First team debut. This pitted him against Adam Faber, Sean acquitting himself well to give Adam a proper run out. But ultimately not enough to contribute a point to the cause as he went down 13-15, 11-15, 12-15.

The other two string were ultra-close, both going the distance. Which, frankly, with Miles Jeanneret (1) and Mark Oppen (2) playing is par for the course. Especially in Mark’s case. His match followed a very typical M.Oppen score as he built a two game lead on Paul Williamson, lost the next two on tight breakers… but then when push came to shove he won the fifth! 15-9, 15-9, 18-20, 15-17, 15-9 in the end. Some people are not in the least bothered by unconverted match balls.

Miles followed a different pattern against Dan Sadler, as he fell 2-1 down. That came despite winning the first narrowly… its just the next two escaped, um, unarrowly. Another tight clam gave a refocused Miles a chance in the fifth, but this time the close game broke against him as Gosling claimed the evening’s winning bonus points. Game scores were 15-13, 5-15, 5-15, 15-13, 13-15.

Not the hoped for win, but the match fulfilled and everyone got a decent workout. And those are probably the biggest two things in the summer league. So well done, team.