Melbourn won 15-6

After a week off for a bye, the seconds were back in action away to St. Ivo 2s for this one.

The first match on court was meant to pit Richard Gouriet (2) against teenager Kieran Weston-Favell. The only problem was this was Richard’s first time playing away to St. Ivo and he made the inexplicable error of looking for Squash Courts in the town of St. Ives, his teammates having miserably failed to communicate that these have shut and Ivo have been forced to relocate to Huntingdon.

Whilst we waited for Richard to nip along the A14, we watched Colm O’Gorman (3) take on Alex Chapman. This proved to be a pretty straightforward win for Colm as Alex hung deep in the court, but was still being pinned into the back corners. Colm was able to do pretty well as he pleased as he cruised to a 15-9, 15-5, 15-6 success.

By the time he finished, Richard was in the building. But whilst he was present on court, his game still seemed to be making its way to the venue as he struggled to find a length. Richard was also hanging deep on the court, expecting Keiran to play a typical teenaged game, but he has more variety than that and he kept catching Richard out too deep. It also became clear over the course of the opening game that Richard’s positioning was in part because he wasn’t moving properly. Apart from a brief spell at the start of the second where Keiran made a number of unforced errors it was all the home player, Richard going down 11-15, 11-15, 7-15.

Whilst this was going on Moises Estrelles Navarro (5) was taking on Shaun Smith. Shaun hit hard and ran hard, which was Moises tactics a year or so ago, but our Spanish star has added a lot to his game since then… expect he found himself a bit undermined by his own tactics. Uncharacteristic errors made game 1 close, but even so Moises won it. He then took the second comfortably. The third saw Shaun’s hard hitting cause Moises some issues, the home player building a 10-9 lead. He looked certain to make it 11-9 with a forehand drive down the wall whilst Moises was stood in the front backhand corner. However, a full diagonal court sprint somehow got Moises to the ball before the second bounce, and a big whack took it around the angles, past Shaun’s ear… and up into the far corner for the most unlikely winner. That took the wind out of Shaun’s sails, Moises wrapping up a 15-11, 15-4, 15-11 success.

Over on the other side Matt Walker (4) was up against Sean Gant. Sean is a familiar opponent in the Cambs Leagues, who has been active on the circuit for a number of seasons (just like most of our guys), which meant Matt was able to go on court with a clear game plan – push Sean deep, and then chop it short. Fortunately this is both a very standard tactical approach for Squash… and the one-two deep-short punch is Matt’s preferred method as well. It worked comfortably for two games, with the third being more of a battle as Sean dug in and chase up the court hard (… and Matt tinned a few – this happens sometimes). But despite a brief bit of a scare Matt was basically comfortable as he won 15-7, 15-4, 15-12.

Matt was far enough up that Jan Brynjolffssen (1) was able to start his match against Danny Caulkett jnr confident the overall win would be secured. But could he added some more points to help the team’s league position. The first game was close, but in the end Jan shaded it on a tie-break as his down-the-wall play kept Danny’s power shots under control. However, from this point on the match swung the Ivo players way as Jan began to try and vary things, going cross-court from the front corners… and repeatedly planting the ball straight on to Danny’s racket for counter kills. Danny’s serve also began to fire, especially in the second game, which he utterly ran away with.
The Fourth saw Jan try and straighten up and also get to the ball earlier so he wouldn’t be pressed so hard. However, despite making it closer it was still Danny with his nose ahead, the match finishing with Jan subsiding to a 16-14, 9-15, 4-15, 11-15 defeat.