Melbourn won 11-3

An feature of the Herts League is that each Division has a fixed night of the week, unchanging year-on-year. This report won’t consider whether this is a good or bad thing (there are benefits and costs!) but what we will note is that as Division 4 is on a Tuesday evening and Division 2 on a Wednesday, every week the 2nds play the night before the 1sts. And, so far this summer, the 1sts had followed the 2nds lead exactly: each got 3 points in week 1, with the ante upped in weeks 2 and 3 as absolutely identical scores were recorded: 10-4 win for both, followed by 1-12 defeats.

What would week 4 bring? Well, the gauntlet was thrown down by the 2nds the previous evening as they picked up a good 10-4 away win at Allenburys. Could the 1sts surpass that? With a little bit of wiggle room but not much, the first on court was Jan (2), who took on Neil Miller. After some initial testing out, Jan took a bit of command of the opening game as Neil’s preferred game style of tight touch shots was thoroughly undermined by the hot conditions (30C day) and the brand new and bouncy ball. With drops sitting up Jan was able to counter punch away.
Game two started with Jan getting away from the style that had worked, which was him 4-9 behind. However, a reset saw this scrambled back, Jan repeatedly finding a good length that allowed the ball to die in the back corners despite the lively conditions, Neil dropping his court position deeper to cover as a result which in turn opened up the front corners for drops and boasts. Despite the comeback Jan still had to save a couple of game balls, but having done so by committing to his shots Jan was able to take the breaker 17-15. This was a major psychological blow in tiring conditions, the third going to script as Neil looked increasingly exasperated, Jan wrapping up a 15-9, 17-15, 15-7 win to get Melbourn on the board.

Next on was Aidan Hird (3), who took on Kez Pestiaux. It was quickly apparent that the game style of the two players was rather similar, with both liking to hit powerful drives and looking for the kills. Aidan had the greater power on his shots, Kez was the more mobile, but Aidan’s power meant it was he on the front foot and Kez on the scramble. The first was quite nervy, especially towards the end as Aidan repeatedly got to game ball and then repeated tried to play delicate touch backhand drop shots to convert it, despite repeatedly telling himself “That is not your game!”. They didn’t work, but from 16-all a mis-hit return winner, followed by a tight serve and a mis-hit return from Kez that went down did, and Aidan was one up.
This seemed to settle him as the rest of the match saw Aidan looking increasingly comfortable about his game and the situation. With Kez running hard and scrambling it was never easy, but an unforced error was always around the corner as well to stop any momentum. Aidan also had a few mysterious misses (well, it wouldn’t be an Aidan match without them) but on this evening he was able to stay positive and avoid one or two ballooning into 5 in a row. That set the basis for two games of increasing comfort as Aidan wrapped up an 18-16, 15-12, 15-8 success.

Those two victories meant we had the bonus points for the overall win in the bag, taking us up to 9 for the evening with one string left. That pitted Miles (1) against Mark Ellis. Winning a game would match the 2nds once yet again, two and we would break the symmetry (to be fair zero would also break it… but that definitely wasn’t the aim!).
Game one was hard fought, with the lead changing hands on a number of occasions – Miles, Mark, Miles. That got Miles as far as 11-9 up, but from there Mark powered through to claim it, with Miles remarking he had played too many crosscourts and boasts in the game. A renewed focus worked a treat at the start of the second as Miles raced out into 6-1 and 9-3 leads. These were enough for him to cruise it through, catching Mark turning often enough to level at one game all. We were up to 10. Deuce with the 2s.
Hopes that Miles could roll the second straight into the third died swiftly as Mark came out with renewed intensity instead, this time the early advantage (8-2) going in favour of the away player and leaving Miles too much to do. We weren’t going to end up tying with the two again, where we? No we weren’t as once again the player starting fastest ran away with the game, and for the second time that was Miles. Only 8-4 this time but it was enough of a cushion… in part because Miles really hit the attacking gas late on in the game. It turned out after the end there was a reason for this – Miles had felt a nasty blister coming on and was giving it the death or glory treatment. It worked to square things up (and mean we had 11 points from the evening – nerr-nerr to the 2s), but there was a price to play in the fifth as Miles movement was noticeable hampered, especially on the turn. Mark exploited this ruthlessly to run away with that one to make the final score in the match 11-15, 15-9, 10-15, 15-9, 6-15, and the overall tie 11-3 in Melbourn’s favour.

Skipper Jan commented afterwards that “We got three good performances from our guys despite the conditions being tough. Miles pushed a strong player hard in what was a great match, and Aidan produced some of his best Squash on a match court, which was great to see. I was more and more comfortable as my match went on as it was clear the court conditions favoured my playing style more than my opponent.”

Melbourn lost 1-12

Week 3 of the Herts Summer League saw a renewal of old rivalries as Haileybury vs Melbourn threw up some match ups seen previously in other circumstances.

The third string provided the first of these as Richard Gouriet (3) took on Karl Pyle. Prior to moving to the Melbourn area Richard had been based in Hertford, which is where Haileybury draws many of it’s players from. Indeed Richard was a former Haileybury 1sts Captain, making him particularly determined to play this match… particularly when he found out Karl was playing as well; “I’ve known Karl for years”.
The impression given was back in the day Richard usually beat Karl, but this was potentially a different story after Richard’s five seasons away from Squash, a period Karl has played through and upped his level during. Still, it looked an even match on paper… but not on the court at first as Richard’s patient and steady approach was simply being overwhelmed by Karl’s more aggressive movement and shot selections. Around two minutes in it was something like 10-1 and Richard was looking bemused.
A late resurgence in game 1 made the final score a bit closer, but Richard was now in a bad spot as Karl’s confidence was up – he was pulling off all sorts of kills. Karl is a player who can get on particularly hot streaks and that left Richard scrambling in the second as well. The third was closer as Richard dug in hard and Karl cooled off a little. It got all the way to a tie-break, but this went Karl’s way to send Richard to a 8-15, 8-15, 14-16 loss… and a determination to do better in the return later in the summer.

Next on was Jan Brynjolffssen (2) against Matthew Savides. Atypically for the evening, these two were not former teammates – only one previous meeting instead of dozens. That previous clash had started with Matt absolutely waltzing through the first game 15-1 – Jan was determined to improve on that this time by being more dynamic and attacking from the get go, to try and disrupt Matt’s array of kills; despite the warm evening this was still going to be first strike Squash. We can only count this as a partial success as Matt still got away quick, though Jan did drag the score back from 11-4 to somewhat respectability by the end of the game.
The latter period of the first set the pattern for the rest of the encounter as it stayed nip-and-tuck. Jan was having success when he got Matt to move, but he needed to execute well – a couple of rallies that should have been kills were hung up instead, allowing Matt to move forward and counter-kill. This cost the second, and was something of a missed opportunity as Matt was showing signs of early onset fatigue in this game (hot day and a lack of food were blamed), something that only got worse in the third. Jan capitalised to win that comfortably, taking balls early to keep the pressure up and looking to go in behind Matt at every opportunity. The Haileybury player took the last few rallies off to rebuild his reserves to attack the fourth – an effective strategy as he came out all guns blazing for an early lead, something he held to the end as Jan went down to a 9-15, 11-15, 15-6, 9-15 loss.

That meant the evening was Haileybury’s before the top string, which pitted two former Bath Uni team colleagues against each other: Miles Jeanneret (Melbourn) taking on Alex Fuentes (Haileybury).
In their Uni days Miles had been the higher ranked player. However Alex has picked his game up in recent years, and got one over Miles in an encounter last summer for what I believe was his first ever win in the match-up. Alex has continued to get better since, with his Squashlevels up to 5.7k at the start of this one (Miles was on 3.3k). These levels were very evident in a one-sided opening game – the rallies were good, but it always looked like Alex was going to get Miles’ shots back: time and again we had long clean exchanges… that Alex won. Miles did claw a few points back at the death to make the score look more respectable, but without ever threatening a full turn around. Game two was the same… without the late mini-comeback.
Game three called for a change as doing the same thing repeatedly and hoping for different outcomes is a sign of madness.  What Miles opted for was playing against type and becoming Mr Attacking. And this worked! Whether it was a lack of focus from Alex, or simply him being caught out by Miles playing unexpectedly aggressive shots, Miles was back in the contest. There was never more than a point or two in it, with Miles having a couple of points he will look back on wistfully (a tight backhand kill at 12-11 up springs instantly to mind), but sadly it wasn’t quite enough to rescue a point against the head as Miles went down 8-15, 4-15, 13-15.

Melbourn 2nds hosted Ickleford 2nds in the 3^rd round of the Hertfordshire Squash Summer league.

First on court, Ickleford’s Siobhan Wilkins and Melbourn’s Colm O’Gorman. Siobhan’s higher level was apparent in the first game as she took an early lead with very accurate drives and drops. Colm, however was competing and managed to recover to 4:6 down. Siobhan upped the pace however and took control of the game, showing her ability to get into position quickly, patiently waiting for the opportunity to win the rallies. Siobhan took the game 7:15 and carried the momentum into the second game. Forging ahead, Siobhan played flawless squash, Colm managing to take 4 points later in the game as he tried to play his way back into the match.

Siobhan continued in the 3^rd, however Colm upped his game and kept the score closer, finding better position and varying his game, staying in touch up to 6:10, but he couldn’t sustain it and Siobhan was able to close out the game 8:15 and the match 0:3.

Next up, Sean Hamilton took on Ickleford’s Andy Moody. This was a close battle with 2 evenly matched players. Sean took a little while to settle into his rhythm, not having played much squash in the lead-up. This match was notable for many long rallies, both players determined to push the opponent to the back of the court, before seizing the opportunity to take the point.

Sean’s forehand drives in the first game were very effective and combined with the occasional drop, he was keeping his opponent honest. At 10:10 the first game was anyone’s however Sean dropped the pace and concentration marginally to let Andy off the hook and take the game 11:15.

Sean was playing well, and in a very similar second game, Sean reversed it, digging in this time at 9:9 and taking it 15:10.

Sean was feeling the effects of recent exertions (including a 2-day run across the north of England) and while he stayed competitive, he couldn’t sustain the energy level and let Andy take the third game 6:15.

Sean was determined to do better in the fourth game, introduced more variation including drops and boast, and kept it very close. At 13:13 it could have gone either way, both players looking very leg weary. Andy nicked it 13:15 and the match 1:3.

Meanwhile Matt Walker has started on the other court against Ickleford’s William Van Den Aardweg. Similar to the string 1 match, Melbourn were up against a much higher level player.

Matt stormed out of the blocks, applying huge energy, and established an early lead in the first game, but was pegged back at 6:6. William’s fitness and accuracy began to tell and he squeezed out an extra few points compared to Matt and got ahead at 10:13, finally taking it 11:15.

Again Matt was competing really well early in the second game, showing how he could push William to the back corners and taking his chances to drop accurately, putting William under pressure. However his accuracy failed him repeatedly throughout the rest of the game as he handed William the initiative, end 4:15.

Matt recovered well in the third, again competing strongly in the rallies and going for winners when the opportunity arose. In the middle of the game, William increased the pace and intensity to take the score from 4:4 to 6:13, getting into a match winning position. Matt dug in and went for it, taking the next few scores but slipped up with another error to cough up a match point. William ultimately taking it 9:15 and the match 0:3.

Captain, Colm noted how well Melbourn played against a very strong Ickelford team.