Melbourn won 9-5

Having dropped out of Division 1 of the Cambs Summer League in the opening half of the season, Melbourn begun the closing half by making the short trip to Newmarket for a Division 2 clash.

First up was Moises Estrelles Navarro (3) against Wayne Bamforth. The first game was mostly on Wayne’s racket, as his kill skills had Moises haring around. Some balls were dug up, but too many where hit back deep again where Wayne was waiting to pounce. Game two on saw a change of tactics as Moises went for counter-drops rather than length when pulled into the front corners. This worked well as Wayne was not moving up behind his kills but instead hitting-and-admiring. Moises pace was also getting under Wayne’s skin, with a number of errors contributing to levelling things up. Game three looked like it was going to break Wayne’s way as he cut out the mistakes and found his kills again to establish a lead of around 13-8. However, from here Moises played near perfect Squash, not making errors himself, chasing like anything… and going short in response to short balls. One point, two points, three points… it all added up to 7-in-a-row and a game claimed from the jaws of defeat. The psychological blow of this was too much for Wayne, Moises keeping his nose in front in the fourth to round off a very handy 3-1 win.

Next on was Matt Walker (2) against Graham Clark. Both players started cold, but Matt was the first to warm up, getting his critical (and highly effective) depth hit, move up, cut out drop-volley pattern into operation to take the game moving away. The second saw Matt carry this forward to move two ahead. He rolled this on through into the third, establishing a big lead… but then getting a bit too comfortable and beginning to make mistakes with the kills as the finishing line approach. Graham came back and back… and ultimately nicked the game. No matter – Matt raced clear again in the fourth. However, once again, the line approached, he got a bit tight and Graham began to chip away. Only, this time, he fell just short as Matt closed it out 15-13 to seal a 3-1 win.

This proved useful as Jan Brynjolffssen (1) was struggling to cope with Matt Pearson’s ability to kill from the back corners. The first game saw Jan flying around to try and deal with the wrong-footing drops and boast, which made it reasonably tight… but ultimately Matt took the game. From there on it was a case of Matt continuing, and Jan tiring. The second and third were both more comprehensive as the Newmarket player wrapped up a 3-0 win that made the overall match score 9-5 in Melbourn’s favour.