Melbourn lost 17-7

The Seconds had a tough match on paper when we hosted title chasers Newmarket 1sts.
Things started well though when Thomas Higginson (5) put in a typically energetic and tenacious performance to defeat Charlie Crisp 3-0. Thomas was in good touch from the off pressurising his opponent relentlessly and not allowing him to gain any solid advantage. Make no mistake, Charlie is a strong match player but Thomas did not allow him to settle. Since the start of the season Thomas’s game has developed, introducing more shot variety and a tighter serve, all resulting in convincing squash. The first game was competitive with Thomas winning 15-12. After that Charlie could not keep up with Thomas who played with increasing confidence and authority. He won the next 2 games 15-9 and 15-8.
Meanwhile next door Gareth Jones (3) was up against the experienced Matt Pearson. The first two games were nip-and-tuck towards the latter stages, but sadly for Gareth once each reached 10-all or thereabouts errors crept into his game… and were eliminated from Matt’s. One of these methods is more effective! All was not lost though as Gareth had worked Matt very hard in the opening two games, and by now the Newmarket player was positioning himself very deep, allowing Gareth the front court to attack. He took advantage to win the third, though it took a tie-break after Gareth saw a late game lead wiped out (again the same pattern). The fourth was once again nip-and-tuck until, for the fourth time, Gareth was unable to sustain things at the crunch. He did resist well at the very death, saving a couple of match balls but Matt converted the third as Gareth fell 11-15 / 9-15 / 16-14 / 13-15 – and left the court wondering what might have been in a winnable match.
Up second on Court 1 was Mark vs Mark – Melbourn’s Mark Asker (4) taking on Newmarket’s Mark Price. The initial exchanges had Mark A struggling as Mark P’s preference for taking the ball in short on the drop or boast caught the Melbourn player on the back foot and too deep on numerous occasions. However Mark A is a tough competitor, and he scrapped and scrambled, recovering the deficit and instead getting himself to game-ball at 14-13. A rally ended with a drop shot in the backhand corner from Mark A and a turn away in celebration. However only he had seen an apparent second bounce, Mark P believing he had retrieved the ball and none of the balcony seeing one either. Mark A actually had to be called back on court to hear it was 14-all and not 15-13. Four rallies later he left it again, 1-0 down rather than 1-0 up 😲. Some advice from teammates saw Mark A adjust his court position to be much higher, which did two things for the second game – it induced feelings akin to vertigo by being further forward than is comfortable but also worked as planned as Mark A was now getting to Mark P’s attempts to go short, which instead became set ups for the Melbourn player to pounce. Sadly for the home side though the effort needed to get far enough out was draining Mark A and as he tired his court position dropped deeper again… and Mark P was able to make hay in the front court once more. It all added up to Mark A’s first reverse for ages in a team match, losing 15-17 / 15-8 / 8-15 / 11-15.
Colm O’Gorman (2) was playing his first game back after a recent bout of Covid, and despite a successful fitness test the day before was a little concerned pre-match about how his energy levels would hold up. Colm started well and scoring was even up to 8-8 when his opponent, Santiago Uribe Lewis, put in a convincing run of 5 winning rallies which Colm could not claw back. The first game was lost 10-15. A similar pattern followed in the second game when at 7-7 Santiago pulled away again to win 15-10. Undoubtedly, a lack of game time was Colm’s undoing whereas Santiago looked comfortable and waited patiently to make a winning shot or force Colm to make an error. Colm made a great effort in the third to get back into the game and the result of the third was in doubt until 12-12 when Santiago forced a 15-13 win and an overall 3-0 win.
That result meant Jan Brynjolffssen (1) was playing for pride and consolation points against Hamish Jogee. The match started ice-cold, with each player making a horrendous unforced error, gifting the opening two points to each other. But once they got to 1-1 the match could start properly! It was quickly apparent that Hamish was looking to attack early and short, Jan doing his best to stay high and give himself a chance to pick up the touch shots and power kills. Despite lots of lunging retrieves from Jan, Hamish was still able to take the opening two games. The visiting player seem on the brink of a 3-0 win when a nip-and-tuck third appeared to be going his way as 12-all went to 14-12 to Newmarket. However a lung-busting rally saved one game ball and then Jan tried a risk/reward quick serve, Hamish going for the expected volley kill… and tinning it. Four points later Jan had game three pocketed, and the match was ON. Game four started even, but a burst of points from 5-all put Jan in command and had Hamish (who had already been showing signs of tiredness in game three) really blowing. Some easy kills polished the game off and had Melbourn confident the turn around could be completed. However it turned out that Hamish was saving his remaining gas for the fifth, which started in complete contrast to the first with one spectacular kill a piece, but then gradually unravelled for Jan as Hamish pulled out all his shots to take it and the match. Game scores were (Jan first) 10-15 / 10-15 / 17-15 / 15-9 / 8-15.
The overall result was a 7-17 loss.
Seconds skipper Roger Woodfield commented after the match “This was a typically dogged Melbourn performance with everyone giving their all against a strong Newmarket team who deserve their position near the top of the table. Thomas continues to impress but Jan’s heroic effort was the highlight for me”