Melbourn Squash Club’s two teams slip to Cambridgeshire League defeats after previous eye-catching victories
There was an element of after the Lord Mayor’s show for Melbourn Squash Club last week as both of their Cambridgeshire League teams were unable to back up a good opening win to the second half of the campaign.
For the first team this meant an 17-11 away defeat at Peterborough, which was a close match but also a deflating outcome for Melbourn seven days on from an away win at league leaders Hunts County.
There was next to nothing to pick between the players in all five strings, none of which was won in straight games.
However, at the end of things Melbourn only had two wins to their name, provided by Vinod Duraikan (3) and Miles Jeanneret (4), who won 3-1 and 3-2 respectively, while Peterborough claimed three wins as Matt Sampson (1) and Chris Shaw (2) both lost 3-2 alongside skipper Mark Oppen (5), who fell 3-1.
Defeat saw Melbourn drop to eighth in the Division 1 table.
The seconds, who sat second in Division 3, had a big game against third-placed Saffron Walden.
The evening started well for the home side as Gareth Jones (5) put in a composed performance to pick up a 3-1 win against a player with a notably higher ranking.
Nevertheless, Walden were nominally the stronger at every single string and only Jones managed to upset the apple cart as Kate Bradshaw (1), Liam Murphy (2), Ed Aspelling (3) and Jan Brynjolffssen (4) all lost 3-0.
Defeat saw Melbourn slip outside the promotion places for the first time this season as they fell to fourth.
Skipper for the evening Brynjolffssen said: “This was far and away the strongest side Walden have put out this season. They pulled out all the stops, and it showed.
“We were also at basically full strength but were simply outmatched. The match was played at an extremely high level for Division 3.
“If Walden can get the same team out regularly, they walk away with the title. But if we can get the same five out most weeks we will be in with a strong shout for second.”
