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Phillips Manning Handicap Cup game 18th Janaury 2009 Southend beat Chelsmford 2 by 3-1 22-30, 30-15, 30-28, 30-27 Player of the match Tom Storkey Handicap Cup start not quite enough for Chelmsford Chelmsford 2 travelled to Southend on Sunday to play the tall and fast improving Southend Comets, their premier team in the Phillips-Manning Handicap Cup. In this competition one side starts with a points difference which reflects their relative position in the leagues, here 11 points in each set to Chelmsford. This often leads to close matches and so this proved. Chelmsford knew this was to be a hard match from the moment Comet’s main attacker Kurowski blasted the ball from way above the Chelmsford block onto the court in the second rally. However, the Comets plan to blast their opponents off court began to unravel as they sacrificed accuracy for power. All too often the Chelmsford starting six of Bohannon, Marder, Peacock (capt), Storkey, Parkinson and Ruffell were able to watch the ball sail out of court or dribble down the net. For their own part, Chelmsford played steadily taking the shot when it was there and keeping the ball alive when it was not. An increasingly frustrated Southend relied ever more heavily on Kurowski but when he was back court failed to score. Chelmsford looked comfortable taking the first set 30-22. In the second set Southend’s setter Mark Davies found a rich vein of serving. The cool conditions magnified the movement he was able to put on the float service and Chelmsford time outs at 11-5 and 19-5 could not stem the flow. Chelmsford were unable to control the ball and when they could any attacks were soon snuffed out by strong blocking by the home team. Chelmsford’s woes were added to when Southend’s England cadet Tim Reynolds towered over the block and hit the ball so hard he knocked Chelmsford’s setter Sylvie Parkinson to the floor with a ball to the face. No damage was done but a few points later saw the match was levelled with a 30-15 set to Southend. After such a poor set, it would have been easy for Chelmsford to fold, but they are made of sterner stuff. Chelmsford regrouped for the next set moving Bohannan to setter and Gentry to outside hitter with Reeve and Marder each taking spells as the other outside hitter for the rest of the match. This was in many ways the set that got away with Chelmsford at one stage holding a 28-19 advantage on the back of good work from Storkey and Ruffell. But a series of poor service receives against good serving from Thrale allowed Comets to sniff a comeback. Point by point they gained in confidence and Chelmsford were very disappointed to see their advantage dissolve to a 30-28 set loss. The visitors continued to battle in the next set although by now Southend were using better tactics awaiting their chance to hit over the Chelmsford block and allowing the rally to continue where this was not possible. Kurowski was a constant threat at the net only being blocked once in the whole match a combined effort by Bohannan and Peacock. At 23-23 Southend had caught up the handicap and looked favourites, but Chelmsford fought on and matched Southend point for point. Storkey who had set all game came into his own with some hitting as well and was later to be awarded Chelmsford’s player of the match award by the officials. Maybe it was an error by the scoring desk refusing Chelmsford’s second time out request (it turned out later an earlier Comets time out had been entered in the wrong box), maybe it was just tiredness of constant jumping to block the taller Southend attackers but in the end the set went to Comets 30-27 for a 3-1 win. Chelmsford can reflect that with several players not yet age 16 and for nearly 2 hours they had stretched a taller and more experienced side. In the final analysis they were only a few points away from a 3-1 win, but the records will show that it is Southend that go into the semi-finals. |