Melbourn won 12-0

This was the 2nds last match of the opening half of the 2025 Herts Summer season, meaning Ickleford were the last ‘new’ opponents for us. But it was a somewhat makeshift visitors team who turned up as unavailability had pushed their skipper up from second or third string to the top slot, with others filling in below. Ickleford had actually told us of this in advance, but we had stuck with our planned team… on the basis that Jan, Matt and James were the only three available!

First on was James Storer (3), who took on Andy Chaston. After some initial sparring James began to dominate the exchanges, forcing Andy to chase into the back corners. A really comprehensive opening game scoreline seemed on the cards up until 11-3 or so, when James began to lose patience and try and win the points with a single shot rather than the shot combinations that had been serving him so well. However, the drop off was only to sharing points and it still went up as a very strong opening game. This set a pattern for the next two as James always had the upper hand, getting into substantial leads. He did struggle a bit to get over the line again in game two, once again seeing things finish a bit closer than the genuine margin between the players, but game three denouement was cleaner (maybe because it was closer in the early stages?) as James sealed a 15-6, 15-10, 15-9 win that was his third success in a row, good news after a barren run. With wins now coming hopefully the extra stress over those last few points in games will reduce.

Next on to court was Matt Walker (2) and Sean Barry. Court? More like an over – the thermostat was reading a baking 27.5°C. That made for long rallies in this match as both players like to hit hard. The heat also made the ball play extra bouncy making kills difficult; not a scenario that favoured Matt’s preferred pattern of driving opponents back, getting a high ball and then cutting in a (deadly) drop volley. Instead he was focused on out-rallying Sean, which he was able to do often enough as his control was a notch better resulting in lines that were a fraction tighter. Matt was never able to take his foot off the gas and coast – the one time he tried that saw the second game rapidly change from 11-6 comfort to 11-10 and worrying – but he always had the upper hand, aided by some unforced errors from his opponent at vital times. For instance a serve out at that 10-11 point in the second, just when Matt was in danger of chucking a game away, and another on match point in the third. It all added up to a 15-11, 15-10, 15-11 win for Matt.

Last on was Jan Brynjolffssen (1) against Ickleford skipper Andy Moody. Andy usually plays Second or Third string, so this was a step up for him and he seemed a little nervous about things. The bouncy court also looked like it hampered his game, which appeared to be based around short, low attacking – difficult when the ball sits up and begs. Jan’s preferred method of length hitting was also potentially impacted, but despite the warmness of the court he repeatedly found the right power and length to get the ball to die in the back corners. Game one in particular could hardly have gone better (one fault service aside!) and whilst the second and third had some more unforced errors in them Jan was still well on top. With focus retained to the end he rattled through a 15-3, 15-6, 15-6 win.

Victory lifted the 2nds up to second place in the Division 4 table at the midway point of the season – 69 points gained from 8 games, from a 5-3 record. When we have won, we have won well; when we have lost it has mostly been close. Plenty of sides are close behind (four within 10 points) so its far from sorted… but it’s a good position to go into the second half of the season.