Melbourn lost 18-4

Melbourn 2nds ran into a very strong Comberton side that had added a new 1 and 2 since the first half clash between these sides, and consequently suffered a heavy defeat. In fact, without an unfortunate injury to one of the hosts, we likely would have got even fewer. But more on that further down.

The first matches on were Sean Hamilton (4) against Graham Broughton and Roger Woodfield (5) versus Stuart Elms.

Sean battled hard against Graham through the first game but was generally behind over the course of 90% of it. Fortunately the majority of the 10% where he wasn’t behind was the final couple of rallies as Sean retrieving and if we are honest some unforced errors from Graham gave the Melbourn player the opener 15-13. Unfortunately this wasn’t really with the balance of play, and once Graham had got the error count in check the match turned around, Sean trying his hardest through but falling 3-1 (15-13 / 5-15 / 10-15 / 3-15).

Next door Roger was finding things tough against Stuart, who was forcing the Melbourn player into a very deep position on the court and then going short. Simple tactics, but highly effective ones. Roger again fought as hard as he could and made the second relative close, but the 3-0 end result to Comberton always looked by far the most likely outcome. Game scores were 8-15 / 11-15 / 6-15.

Gareth Jones (3) was next on court taking on Tom Parker. Who had played #1 when the teams met at Melbourn. Knowing he was up against a strong player Gareth was talking about playing with patience. But once on court his normal attacking instincts couldn’t be reined in. Sadly this wasn’t an effective strategy against a counter-puncher would made hay to win comfortably 3-0 (5-15 / 6-15 / 5-15).

Colm O’Gorman (2) also looked up against it as Nathan Taylor, a new recruit to the Comberton cause and making his debut for them, wrapped up the opening game 15-11 and built a 10-4 lead in the second. Colm was doing all he could to fight and scramble, which was asking Nathan to play a number of extra balls each rally. Ultimately this paid dividends but not in a way anyone was happy with as a stretch resulted in Nathan doing something very nasty to the back of his knee. He could barely stand after this let alone play on and had to retire hurt thereby handing Colm a 3-1 win.

The top string match pitted Jan Brynjolffssen against Harry Hennessey. This was an enjoyable game with both players looking to play clean Squash, a number of rallies seeing many shots traded along either wall. The first game saw nip-and-tuck, Jan holding a 12-11 lead at one point but not quite being able to see it out and losing 15-13. The second was out-of-keeping as Jan failed to keep the pressure up, Harry got very confident and produce a number of increasingly impressive winners. This one finished 15-2 to the home player. A refocused effort from Jan made things competitive again in the third, starting to draw errors from Harry’s racquet again. However once again despite being tight (15-12), it was the Comberton player who won the key final rallies to complete his 3-0 victory.

2nds skipper Roger opined “This was probably the toughest side we have faced so far this season. As always, every Melbourn player competed as hard as possible and made the Comberton players work hard for their wins”