Melbourn won 10-4

Melbourn and Gosling ‘1sts’ convened in Welwyn for the second week of the Herts Summer League Division 2 season, though injuries and unavailability meant neither line-up bore much resemblance to the sides either club thought they were going to be sending out as their strongest team this summer.
What was essentially a Division 3 match masquerading as a Division 2 one got underway with Tom Higginson taking on Jon Noonan at third string. Tom’s fleetness of foot, a combination of balance, strength and speed (aka youth!) has undermined many opponents this season. But Jon swiftly came upon a method: holding his shots, waiting for Tom to move and then wrong-footing. This was leading to lots of false movements from Tom, and rallies staying short which was not in his interests. He was also getting trapped behind rather often as he lost the first game. The second was a battle of wills – could Tom wait long enough for Jon to be forced to play, and then chase the ball down? Often enough yes, he could and the match was reset to one-all. However Jon responded by breaking up the game even more, edging a narrow third and then building a lead early in the fourth as Tom got frustrated and dispirited. He eventually found the method right at the end – keep it very basic, make no mistakes, force Jon to make the play. However this only came when seven match balls down at 14-7. Four were excellently saved, but on the fifth Jon got a nice squeeze on the backhand wall and the match was over. Tom went down 10-15, 15-7, 13-15, 11-15.
Meanwhile the second strings, Aidan Hird and home player Mike Byrne, had started next door. Aidan started like a house on fire, his power play forcing Mike very deep which in turn led to atypical errors from the Gosling player’s racquet. The second game threatened to get close as Aidan lost his way for a spell in the middle after a promising start, but then cleaning things up with some good controlled play down the walls saw him stretch away from 10-7 to make it 2-0 pretty comprehensively. The third was nervy however as Mike began to find holes in Aidan’s movement and shot choices. It all got a bit tight and scrappy, which was also how it ended as two unforced errors from Mike’s racquet saw Aidan home from 13-all for a 15-4, 15-8, 15-13 success.
That sent it all to the first strings, where Jan Brynjolffssen took on Scot Adam. It was quickly apparent that Scot had plenty of shots, but if Jan could extend the rallies by staying steady and recovering to the ‘t’ decently these would favour him. This produced a contrast of styles, but evenly match ones as the first game was tight, all the way to a tie-break in fact. Scot had the first chance to wrap it up in this… and proceed to serve straight into the back nick, and when Jan dug out a good tight boast in response put a lunging drop tight over the tin and into another nick – an impressive (unstoppable?) way to see out a game. Game two also started nip-and-tuck, but this time around Jan’s grinding approach worked when it was expected to, in the latter stages, as he pulled away from being level pegging midway through to claim it 15-12. The same was true for the third, and more decisively so as Jan was up the court ready to volley-drop when Scot attempted cross courts. Game four started with Jan building a 7-3 lead, helped by a couple of stretching (read: desperation) counter-drop winners that drew audible incredulity from Scot (fair enough – they were lucky!). These shots arguably had an effect somewhat latter, but in the meantime Jan worked his way to 14-12 up after a number of lung-busting rallies (the one at 10-all was particularly epic). However Scot saved these match-balls and then earned a game-ball himself at 15-14. Jan saved this by pulling off the only backhand flick drop he attempted in the match (where did that come from??), then got himself another match ball with a tight backhand length, which was converted when Scot tinned a forehand drop – the effect of going too tight after the earlier pick-ups? Maybe, just maybe… Jan won 14-16, 15-12, 15-9, 17-15.
Jan, the 1sts skipper this summer, commented after the game “It was nice to win a competitive evening. Aidan getting a 3-0 victory on a rare appearance for the team was particularly pleasing – it would be lovely to have him playing more often – and I did just enough to see it out. Winning meant we have picked up decent points from our opening two games and are set up nicely for the season ahead.”