Melbourn lost 15-8

Hunts vs Melbourn was sixth against seventh in Division 3, with the situation unclear whether it is one or two to be relegated with the Division playing short numbered with just 8 teams this season. With just 5 points between the teams at the start of play (in Hunts favour) it was a biggie.
First on court were Sean Hamilton (4) against former Abottsley player (and Cambs County back in the day) Tony Barker and Thomas Higginson (5) against home skipper Billy Bremner. No, not that one…
Thomas and Billy had had an epic in the opening half that Thomas won 3-1, by basically wearing Billy out (he is very fit for a 50 , but more than twice Thomas’ age). The opening game saw Tom struggling to get enough blows on Billy to win the game. He looked quite frustrated after it. Wrongly because whilst Tom might have been one down the greater damage had been done to the home player. Properly pyrrhic stuff – with more victories like this all would be lost. Or indeed with no more victories as Thomas’ lightness on his feet and fleetness of foot, combined with solid and sensible hitting up and down the walls gradually took command. It was never easy, but the match gradually tipped further and further the youngsters way until he had collected a 12-15 / 15-11 / 15-8 / 15-11 win.
Meanwhile taking on Tony was not a good match up from Sean’s perspective – the Hunts player’s movement might be nowhere near where it once was, but all the racquet head control is still there. Put a ball loose and it was dead. Not the style for someone whose preferred method is to run and chase, coping with the occasional loose ball by retrieving response, which is Sean’s method. Tony soon had Sean’s number, putting the ball high to his backhand and then moving straight to the front corner expect the short reply – when it came it was counter-dropped for a winner. Sean was having more success when asking Tony to move rather than play shots, i.e. attack the weakness rather than the strength, but maintaining it was the problem. Apart from a spell at the start of the second game, which Sean clung on to win in the face of a fight-back from Tony, this was always heading in one direction really – Sean lost 6-15 / 15-13 / 8-15 / 12-15.
The next string to start was the seconds, with Liam Murphy taking on Andy Budd. Liam came into the game feeling rather under-Squashed – he hadn’t been on court since a team game nearly three weeks prior due to a combination of work and illness (that one). Initially this resulted in a freshness in Liam’s player we haven’t seen recently as we got flashes of what he is capable of – one lunging backhand dropped that was flicked fast into the opposite nick showed the racquet skills at his command. He was initially coping with Buddy’s own flicks and boasts… but then the lack of court time (and lack of confidence from only a few wins this season?) came to haunt Liam as he got defensive when 13-8 up in the first game. This eventually went away 17-15, and Liam’s head appeared to be dropping when the second followed it 15-8. Game three brought a second wind though, Liam working hard to fashion a 13-11 lead late on. Could he pull one back? Limping with a sprained ankle wasn’t helping (apparently this had actually happened in the first game, but, reader, I only noticed it in Game Three). It began a nasty mix of not wanting to make mistakes, wanting the rallies over quickly, and Buddy being on it. The match ended with a 15-17 / 8-15 / 14-16 defeat. So close to something morale boosting, but not quite.
Meanwhile next door Mark Asker (3), who absolutely, definitely totally isn’t on a long winning run in team games that I’m banned from mentioning again, took on Simon Joyce.
This was a little and large encounter, with Mark taking the roll of the big bully. His power and his ability to use his frame to shield his shots had Simon in the same place as many other opponents previously – scrambling around behind for balls that came powerfully and short. And, basically, that was it. Mark was always in control of this, able when he needed to string two, three, four point runs together to pull gradually clear and win 15-6 / 15-8 / 15-8.
That sent it to the first strings, where Jan Brynjolffssen took on Matt van den Bos. The opening game was nip and tuck as the players exchange points, Jan finding himself able to chase down most of Matt’s boasts and variations, but then not quite as adept at putting the ball away from the front of the court. Too many cross kills. There was very little in it but from 13-all it was Matt who took the next two… at the cost of his favourite racquet, though. A new weapon lasted for a chunk of game two, though Matt was already suspicious of it when he started (already broken I believe). However when he change to a new wand this proved effective as Matt accelerated away to leave Jan slightly bemused to be 2-0 down. Hmm. However by now Matt was clearly struggling with the pace, his breathing already laboured – and that told in game three as whenever a tough rally was played Jan was able to take the next two double quick thanks to out-of-gas errors. Back to 2-1 and the Melbourn man confident. Misplaced as it turned out as Matt changed up his tactics at the start of game four, keeping the rallies short and loopy, which meant his still had some air in his lungs for the denouement. This went as far as a tie-breaker, and Jan had a game ball for 2-2 (and a big favourite tag), but he couldn’t covert, then lost the next two points stretching but not making it to drops into his forehand corner. Which meant a game that really could have gone either way ended as a 13-15 / 8-15 / 15-10 / 15-17 defeat for the Melbourn player.
And that meant a 15-8 overall defeat that extended the gap between the teams from 5 points out to 12. Dang.
Jan was skippering for the day as Roger had sent Thomas out in his place (Billy was VERY grateful for that!), so it was left to the stand-in captain to comment “It was a really tight match overall. On another day any of me, Liam or Sean might have won our strings – we all had our chances. But the clear performance of the night was Thomas, who played excellently to grind down a solid and experienced match player.”