Melbourn lost 12-4

This one looked a tricky task for the 2s as home side Allenburys had won all their previous matches. Appearances would not turn out to be deceptive…

However, things started well as Sean Hamilton (3) snapped and battled his way into a two-games-to-love lead against Gavin Bone. Sean was playing really well in these games… but was also getting all the breaks as mishits dropped perfectly over the tin, etc. Staying high up the court and looking to exploit Gavin’s discomfort on the backhand volley kept Sean’s nose in front through most of the third game, to the point where he had two game balls at 14-12. Sadly, at this crucial stage, Sean’s patience evaporated as he twice went for kills on his second shot of the rally, and spurned the chances. A nip-and-tuck breaker followed, but when it went Gavin’s way this was the turning point. From this stage on the home players confidence grew, and Sean’s diminished a bit. The luck also deserted him as very few edge-of-reach not-really-cleanly-hit balls sneaked over the tin. Sean fought determinedly until the end, but Gavin (a higher rated player on Squashlevels) just had a little bit extra in the clutch and won 3-2 (16-14, 15-9, 17-19, 10-15, 12-15).

Next on was Moises Estrelles Navarro (2) against Ian Collin. Again, this started promisingly as Moises made most of the running in the opening game. Moises was forcing Ian deep and reaching the attempted kills, allowing the Spaniard to play his favoured counter-attacking game. This resulted in a 15-10 opener… but Ian stepped it up from the start of the next one, getting higher up the court and more accurate on his kills. Moises was never out of things, but the balance changed from winning 5% more points to losing by the same amount. It all added up to a 3-1 (15-10, 11-15, 11,15, 12-15) loss.

The top string was therefore about pride only, with the bonus points already in Allenburys possession. Jan Brynjolffssen (1) struggled in game 1 against Benjamin Griffith, not feeling like he was striking the ball cleanly and never really getting going. A mental effort to push up the court at the start of the second seemed to catch Benjamin by surprise, and being in a better position allowed better shots – Jan established an 8-3 lead early on and kept his foot on the gas to level up. However after this game Benjamin proved he could adapt as well as he also pushed forward, and focused heavily on the opening few points of the next two games. Ultimately, when it came down to it, Benajmin was the better player and Jan could do little more as he lost 3-1 (8-15, 15-7, 7-15, 7-15).