Despite losing the first game in all five of the head-to-head encounters, York’s men’s 1sts fought back hard to record a tight victory over visiting Durham 1sts.
Meanwhile the women’s 1sts won just one game in their match with Sheffield 1sts, succumbing to a convincing whitewash defeat.
David Potter was first up for the men, but faced a torrid start as his opponent effectively utilised the drop shot to take the opening two games. The third game saw longer rallies as Potter fought back into the match, but he ultimately was unable to continue this momentum into the fourth game, ending up with a 3-1 defeat.
In an entertaining encounter, Jon Holden levelled the overall score with a 3-1 victory. Like his team-mates, Holden got off to a disappointing start, but soon started to establish his authority on the game. He was forced to work hard for the victory, with each of the three games Holden won going beyond 11 points into the ‘two clear points’ zone. Though the Durham player did save the first match point, it gave only temporary respite as Holden came through to confirm the individual victory.
The scores weren’t level for long, though, as Myles Knight on the adjacent court came up against a strong opponent from Durham. Knight fell two games behind, but looked set to pull one back in the third as he stormed out into an early lead. The resilient Durham player, though, never gave up on the game and pulled it back level, before jumping out to a 13-11 victory, re-establishing Durham’s slender advantage.
York needed two victories from the top two seeded players, and Matt Lewis and Ed Shannon came up with the goods. Lewis lost a close first game, before returning the favour in the second to level the scoreline. He jumped out into a lead in the third, before letting this slip. However Lewis regained his composure to win the game and come within one of victory. His opponent had other ideas, and in another close game it was the Durham man who had the edge taking the match into a final game. That game, though, was somewhat of a damp squib, as Lewis came through with relative ease. Once again, the scores were level.
At the same time, Shannon was in the middle of a marathon encounter in the deciding match. The game was characterised by long exchanges between the two players in a game of the highest quality. Shannon lost the first game, but bounced back to win the next two. In the third, the Durham player appeared to visibly tire, but somehow fought through the pain barrier to take the fourth. This was in spite of a sumptuous misdirection shot by Shannon, who feigned to play a drop shot to the right, before flicking the ball to the left instead, leaving his opponent wrong-footed.
This set up a deciding game in the deciding set, and as both teams watched on from the balcony, it was Shannon who came out on top. The game went to-and-fro early on, but Shannon strung together a run of points to open up a lead, and in the end had little trouble despatching the demoralised Durham player, so completely a crucial win for York.
Unfortunately, the tight encounter of the men’s match was not matched by the women, as they were outclassed by Sheffield. Alexia De Lambilly got the encounter underway, and was unfortunate to drop the first game 10-12. The next two games, however, were won comfortably by Sheffield, whose player possessed a strong serve, and this was indicative of how the remainder of the match would go.
Ashley Foo stepped up next, and the York girls were given hope as she took the first game. However this was only a false dawn, as the Sheffield player eradicated the errors which had plagued her game in the opening exchanges. She showed guile to fight back and won the match comfortably in the end.
The match was already slipping away from York, and both Angelina Foo and Becca Alexander found themselves up against strong opponents. Despite a great effort from the girls, who did not give up on the matches even after falling behind, neither could record a win as Sheffield stormed to a 4-0 triumph.