Melbourn lost 6-11

The first were looking to bounce back from a couple of recent losses when we made the trip down to St. Albans to take on Nuffield 1sts.

First on was Jan Brynjolffssen (3), who was pitted against Helen Walsh. The first game saw Helen edge in front early, only for Jan to get his game going to turn around a 7-4 deficit into a large lead that allowed him to close things out by a good margin. Happy with this he looked to go again… but found Helen had upped her game whilst his own had stagnated, and just as quickly as it had been 1-0 it became 1-1, with Helen this time racing away with things with a string of points. The third was closer, but it was still the home player dominating as she consistently found dying lengths to catch Jan out in the back corners.
A reset was required (…overdue) and it came in the fourth as Jan put more dynamism into his play and aggression in his shot choice. This established a big lead, but then the intensity faded again and Helen came storming back. 12-4 turned into 14-11, and this was also whittled away to force a breaker. However, with things now on the line, Jan finally forced himself to go for his kills and took it 16-14. That, finally, seemed to make things click as his teammates advice that the front corners were open seeped through, Jan establishing a lead early in the fifth and holding it to the end this time to complete a breathless 3-2 win.

Eyes turned to Miles Jeanneret (2), who was taking on veteran Teejay Sagurno.
The first game saw Miles picking up lots of balls that Teejay clearly never expected him to, with Miles doing a good job of keeping Teejay pinned deep as well. That all added up to a clear game win. A bit of a slow start meant the second couldn’t be over as quick, but Miles gradually worked his way through it to establish a 2-0 lead. However, by now, Teejay was fully warmed-up and he took the third with some accurate play. Go again for Miles? Unfortunately not because not long into the fourth he felt something go in his upper inside leg (… groin). With extended rallies now not as good an option Miles was forced into attacking play that doesn’t particularly suit him, Teejay taking advantage of being in the front court to wrong-foot his way to a 3-2 win.

That meant Mike Herd’s top string clash with Jon Perolls would decide things. But this didn’t start well as an icy-cold Mike gave up the first five points with some atypical errors and soft rallies. The next few minutes were nip-and-tuck, with points consistently exchanged. Good… but not recovering that early deficit which, as the end of game 1 approached, put extra pressure on Mike to force things. Which didn’t work. Game two saw Mike taking a more proactive approach to rallies, moving Jon around and going for his drops. This time the early lead was in his favour and once again that proved decisive as the later parts of the game were saw Jon making the errors instead. The encounter tipped on a tight third that either player could have won… but one Jon had the upper hand in by a few crucial points from the mid-game, closing it out 15-13. This proved to be the breaking point as the fourth slipped away from Mike as well to leave him beaten 3-1.