Round 2 of the Summer League: Melbourn 1 vs Gosling 1

Melbourn won 10-4

Kate Bradshaw was on court first, taking on the Gosling number 2 Matt Robinson. Kate had already warmed up with their number 1, ex-pro player Alice Green, before Matt joined her on court. Matt made a rapid start with Kate unable to get into any rallies at all as Matt gained confidence in dropping and hitting perfect length most rallies. First game lost 15-4. Kate gave herself a stern talking to and came out of blocks firing in the 2nd match going into an early 9-2 lead. Matt got back to 10-10 but Kate quickly took the game 15-10 to give herself confidence for the match. The 2nd also went to 10-10 before Kate once again took it to 10. Matt’s confidence was waning as Kate went into a 12-6 lead in the 4th before closing out the match with another 15-10 win. 3-1 and 3 vital points in the bag!

Richard Gouriet was next up on court at number 3, taking on the left-hander Adam Faber, from Gosling. The first game was back and forth all the way to 9-9 before Richard raced to 14-9 and took the first game to 10. The 2nd game started with some long rallies on the warm courts, with players trading points early on. However, from 5-5 Richard strung some points together to get to 10-6 and then took the 2nd game (you’ve guessed it!) 15-10. The 3rd game was also a tight affair with the scores remaining close all the way until 12-12 before Richard got the vital points to win the game, and then the match, 3-0 and secure the win on the night for the team.

With the team having won the night, it was down to Mike Herd to take on Alice Green who had recently returned from a long injury layoff. However, Alice was still showing her class with incredibly tight drives, drops and great touch all over the court. Mike dug in and persisted with playing his own strong game but fell short in the 1st game to another 15-10 score line. The sixth of the night! Mike wasn’t feeling too optimistic after the 2nd game as he went down 15-6 before he knew it but said he was feeling good still. He wasn’t lying, as he came out quickly in the 3rd game and put Alice under some pressure to take that game 15-11. The crowd started to believe that Mike might nick another game as Alice started to look like she was under pressure, but she used her experience to play tight shots and with Mike narrowly tinning a couple of drops towards the end of the 4th game, Alice took it 15-9 to win the match 3-1.

Great result for Melbourn on the night, winning 2-1 with a 10-4 score line.