Melbourn won 17-8

The Seconds came into the final round of matches of the 2025-26 Cambridgeshire winter league still very much in contention for promotion as Division 3 runners-up. Melbourn sat third in the table prior to the final games, but we were away to Champions Stamford whilst promotion rivals Hunts County played host to mid-table side Peterborough. With Hunts holding a single point advantage in the standings prior to the matches, and also due to play a day later than the 2nds, the advantage was with them… but could we put the pressure on by winning at Stamford?

The evening started with the Bradshaws in combination, Kate (1) taking on Spike Marlow whilst teenager Will (5) face off with Adam Brown. Let’s start with Will, because his performance summarised how far his game has come on both this season in general, and across it as well – his level in this one was noticeably ahead of the match he played at Stamford for the 1sts before Christmas (and that was a good performance as well). The key difference was in his attacking play, as the defence, movement and lunging was already there three months ago. Will is now getting more confident on his drops, both knowing when to play them, and keeping them much tighter to the tin than previously. However, his key strength remains his extraordinary court coverage, retrieving many balls that Adam considered certain winners, leaving the Stamford player dumbfounded at times. This was enough to keep Will’s nose ahead throughout each game, ending with him winning 15-11, 15-12, 15-11.

Things were proving more move up-and-down for Mum Kate next door against Spike, though. It hadn’t looked like that would be the case when Kate rattled through the opening game, which prompted memories of her 3-1 win over Spike at Melbourn in the autumn. But she struggled to maintain this in the second, errors creeping in to see it levelled up. Kate refound her form in the third to cruise through this one, her deadly volley drops once again leaving the bigger and taller man floundering. However, Spike is not a power player, he is also a touch merchant and from game four on he began to get the better of the feathered exchanges, pulling level at 2-2 and then putting together a string of points to surge into a big deciding game lead. Kate had Spike worried when she strung five consecutive points together, to come back to 13-10, but a key point where Spike just managed to reach a ball for a counter-drop proved decisive as Kate fell 15-7, 6-15, 15-8, 12-15, 11-15.

Meanwhile Matt Walker (4) had got underway against Alex Boughton. A weather-vane for Matt’s game is his volley drop – when two of these worked perfectly in the first four points, things looked extremely promising. This continued for a game and a half, Matt winning the opener and then establishing a lead in the second. And then, for some reason, the wheels started to come off – drops into the tin, leading to frustration, leading to more errors. That saw game two lost from a promising position, and when game three went the same way, from 13-8 up in fact, Matt’s chin was on his chest. He even declared himself psychologically beaten when talking to teammates after the third. But deeds didn’t match words as Matt dug in hard in the fourth. This was tight, tight, tight… but the volley-drops began to function again and Matt claimed it. And with that, he was flying again, racing out into an enormous lead in the fifth (13-2 from memory) to cruise home for arguably his best win of the season (Matt has the most victories of any of the 2nds squad), coming through 15-8, 11-15, 13-15, 15-11, 15-6.

As all this was happening Richard Gouriet (3) was showing the benefits of confidence on the next-door court. Richard had claimed a breatkthrough win the previous week, his first for Melbourn, and he took that into a clash with Jason van der Westhuizen as a thunderous start left the Stamford player floundering. The first game was over in the blink of an eye, 15-3, as Richard’s movement and early taking of the ball was keeping Jason stuck in the back corners. This was a little too good to be true, but crucially a much tighter second went Richard’s way of two icy-cool rallies from 13-all were converted, the 2-0 deficit proving far too much for Jason to overcome as Richard powered through 15-3, 15-13, 15-9.

The final match of the evening pitted Jan Brynjolffssen (2) against Josh Goodwin. As with Richard directly before him Jan started off in imperious form, holding the T and cutting the ball off into the front corners to race through his opening game. He also won most of the first few points of the second, until a casual attempted kill for a 5-0 lead went into tin, and the match turned. Josh began to read Jan’s drops and race forward to counter. The game became tight, going to the Stamford man in the end. However, the third seemed to have Jan back on track as he kept the ball deeper and established big leads. It was 12-6 at one stage, but this seemed to induce a wavering of focus. Josh stormed back, with Jan’s head in a spin leading to him calling one of his own shots down on game ball at 14-13 when no-one else had seen this. Two points later Josh had won the third 16-14… and now Jan was where Matt had been after game three. Except, in his case, there was no coming back. Instead a complete collapse followed, with Josh also now flying in his confidence resulting in Jan going down 15-6, 13-15, 14-16, 3-15.

However, a 3-2 win meant a 17-8 scoreline. That put the ball into Hunts County’s court… which they returned with interest by winning all five strings against Peterborough (20-5). Given the one point lead they had held before these final matches that meant the 2nds would have missed out whatever the outcome of their matches, an important fact for Kate and Jan after they had blown winnable strings.

It all added up to third place in the Division 3 table in the end for the 2nds. Melbourn won the most matches of any team in the league, 13 out of 16; Stamford, the champs, were 12-4, whilst Hunts County’s record was 11-5… but too many of them were like this one, only won three strings to two. The area to improve to get over the hump and into Division 2 next season is easy to identify (delivering on it is another matter!).