Melbourn lost 6-10

The penultimate match of Herts Summer League Division 2 sent the 1sts to St. Albans to take on Nuffield 2nds.

First on court were Jan Brynjolffssen (3) and Mark Castle. A nervy first game saw Jan struggle to find his lengths, whilst Mark was more consistent into the back corners, the home player winning it 15-11. The second was even tighter, breaking Jan’s way 15-13 after he fought off a comeback from Mark towards the death; a number of game points came and went, but on the last a mistake allowed Jan a loose ball to put away.
The third was the best of the match as Jan managed to keep it away from Mark’s reads and force his opponent into the deep corners instead. However, this proved a false dawn as Mark won the fourth, and then took the fifth after a tie break, as two saved match balls from 12-14 counting for naught. Jan lost 11-15, 15-13, 15-9, 12-15, 14-16.

The other two strings were both played over a PAR-11 format as time was now pressing – Jan and Mark had eaten up over an hour for their string. Melbourn struck back as Matt Sampson (1) picked up a win over Tim Bloomer, taking the first two comfortably (11-3, 11-1) but then seeing a concerted effort for the home player give him the third (6-11). However Matt dug in to win the fourth 11-9 to complete the victory.

That meant Miles Jeanneret’s second string clash with Andrew Green was the decider. Unfortunately the styles didn’t work in Miles favour as Andrew high pace, high attack game saw rallies end before Miles more cerebral version could take effect. The first game went past in the blink of an eye (6-11) and whilst the second was closer (9-11) it still went Nuffield’s way. For game three Miles fought fire with fire, rather than with ice, and this worked to the extent of 11-9… but he had burned himself out doing it and lost the fourth 11-4 as Nuffield took the spoils on the night.