Melbourn won 15-10

The 1sts, somewhat depleted by self-isolation and also carrying an injury, just survived one of their tightest matches of the season so far to maintain their 100% winning record in Division 2.

The first matches on court pitted Ed Aspelling (4) against Jeff Filmore and Jan Brynjolffssen (5) up with Alec Sarkissian. Both visiting players struggled in their opening game, each losing it heavily (Ed 15-6 and Jan 15-8). However following a tight second which he nicked on the break Ed got his mojo going with crisper hitting and tighter play to come through 3-1 (6-15 / 16-14 / 15-9 / 15-8). Jan also looked like he might claim a 3-1 as he won his next two and got narrowly ahead late in the fourth. He lost that one on a tie-break however, though the effort it cost Alec to scramble level made a difference at the start of the decider as Jan established a handy lead. This got whittled down a bit as closing nerves kicked in, but Jan eventually came through 3-2 (8-15 / 15-11 / 15-12 / 15-17 / 15-11).

It was soon apparent that Mark Oppen (3) was struggling with a leg injury as he battled against both that and Neal Cooke. Mark was moving sort of OK during rallies, but was obviously pulling up in obvious pain at the end of them. This had a cumulative effect in games as Mark saw late, albeit narrow, leads evaporate in the first two games. The third was nip-and-tuck, but once again a close one went against Mark as he lost 3-0 (15-17 / 13-15 / 15-17). In truth it was a remarkable effort on one-and-a-half legs!

Kate Bradshaw (2) was up against a player of distinctly contrasting style in Ady Payne. The Peterborough player was clearly after a powerful length game, but that isn’t Kate’s style as she player her usual aggressive cut-out Squash. Which player had the upper hand kept changing, the first two shared on tie-breakers before Ady claimed the third. Kate looked on course for the fourth when she established an 11-6 lead, only to get cautious, sending her drops 20 centimetres above the tin instead of the previous 1 (which had been driving Ady up the wall). This, sadly, saw her advantage evaporate as she lost 1-3 (15-17 / 17-15 / 12-15 / 12-15).

That meant Vinod Duraikan’s match against James Best at top string was the decider for the evening. When Vinod was edged out in the opening game it meant Melbourn had lost the first of all five strings. However in four of these we recovered to win the second, Vinod effecting the greatest turn around of all as he took his 15-4! At this point and in the third Vinod had James on a string, working him all around the court. However in the fourth the home player dug in, leading to far-and-away the best Squash of the evening. Errors were few and far between and winners very difficult for either to come by as the game went the distance and then sum. However the question of whether younger necessarily meant fitter was left unresolved as Vinod eventually claimed it 18-16 to avoid a decider and instead complete his 3-1 (11-15 / 15-4 / 15-7 / 18-16) success, to his teammates relief. Thanks for bailing us out!

The hard-fought win meant the 1sts stay second in Division 2, but will overtake Ely for the halfway lead if they win their final pre-Christmas game this coming week as Ely have already completed their first half of the season programme.