Melbourn lost 20-2

The 1sts came into this match on the back of a first win for a while at Swavesey last week. Unfortunately, the chances of back-to-back wins were hit hard before we started by the absence of regulars Chris (coaching), Matt S (carrying injuries from the Midlands Masters at the weekend) and Mike H (childcare). Skipper MarkO tried to get the game re-arranged, the reverse fixture when Stamford themselves had travelled understrength and Melbourn won 20-0 having temporarily slipped his mind. Unsurprisingly the answer was “no”, but #dontaskdontget. [On a side note, it is almost like the distance between the clubs effects the quality of the matches, isn’t it? If we were to play at Hunts County next season would both teams be at full strength?!?]

Jan Brynjolffssen and Will Bradshaw of the 2nds were called up to fill the gaps, Jan playing his first Division 1 match of the season and Will the first one of his life.

Jan (4) was up against George Montgomery, which reprised a Division 3 first string encounter from last season. That match had been a good battle with lots of up-and-down the wall Squash, George eventually winning it 3-1. This one was much more staccato, with many three or five shot rallies… and George eventually winning it 3-1! Plus ça change, plus c'est la même chose.
Game scores were 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 9-11… and in no way did Jan go to bed recalling the drop shot at 9-10 in the fourth that clipped the top of the tin with George nowhere close. If it had been up we were into a tie-breaker, and then who knows? And if my aunt… well you know the rest.

Jan and George play out a typical length rally

Also coming off court with What Might Have Beens in his head was Will (5), whose Division 1 debut pitted him against an experienced campaigner at this level, Simon Morris (aka Mozza).
It took Will a little while to settle into things during which the opening game escaped him, but once into his play his rapid court coverage and retrieving got into Mozza’s head. The home player’s usual accuracy deserted him as he tried to put things extra tight as Will was picking up everything, even Mozza’s faded top-spin backhand volley drops [an adapted Badminton shot??], which often bamboozles opponents. The end result was quite a bit of tin.
At this stage Will seemed to have the measure of the match. He rode the defence and the forced unforced errors to win the second and build a 10-7 lead in the third. However two very determined rallies from Mozza saved the first couple, and then on the third Will tried to force a winner in and that one was gone too. From here it was on to a tie-break, which the home player eventually won.
Will couldn’t lift himself up emotionally after that, going down 8-11, 11-9, 12-14, 2-11. His post-match analysis was accurate and clear-headed though: he needs tighter drops to be able to kill off situations when he has his opponent out of position.
TL;DR is Will’s defence is comfortably Division 1 standard already; if he develops his attack he will be a real hot potato for opponents at this level.

Moving on to the regular 1sts, Mark Oppen (3) had a tough task on his, um, plate, as he took on Jon Hand.
Jon is an extremely useful player, with lots of attacking options in his armoury, and also good movement. There isn’t a lot of obvious weaknesses to go at. Mark fought hard, producing his usual scrambling defence, pace-off-the-ball defending and once-in-a-while the occasional Leisure Centre boast (he is lining up for one in the photo) but this wasn’t enough to get beyond 8 in any of the games as he was beaten 5-11, 8-11, 7-11.

Next to try his luck was Miles Jeanneret, who was playing Rob Vyvyan at second string. This was not a style match-up to Miles’ liking as Rob has incredibly racket skills, able to produced ultra-tight winners if he is able to set his balance, and do that right from the get-go of a rally. This prevented Miles from getting the match into his preferred up-and-down the wall Squash, where his deceptively fast movement and excellent use of his long frame comes to the fore. Game 1 was over pretty quickly, but in the second Miles began to find the early rally variety needed to keep Rob off-balance and therefore unable to execute his kills. However, come the conclusion of the game Rob upped it a couple of notches, with 9-5 slowly dwindling to 9-11. And that was really all she wrote, Miles going down 5-11, 9-11, 3-11.

Miles vs Rob, Match Ball

That mean Vinod Duraikan (1) went on court to face Neil Steedman looking to avert a 5-0 loss. This was the third meeting of the players in recent seasons, with both the previous ones ending 3-0… but one win each. Given that maybe the writing was on the wall for Vinod when Neil took the opener 8-11. Vinod was mostly on the back foot for that one, his low ‘T’ position giving Neil too much time to develop both the front corners and able to go across Vinod’s bows. Vinod tried to push up in the second, but found his touch wasn’t there on the night. Determined play built a lead in the opening phases of the third. However, from mid-game the pattern of the match re-asserted as Neil took over the controlling position, Vinod eventually going down 8-11, 5-11, 7-11.