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Chelmsford continue unbeaten Chelmsford 1 continued the club’s winning streak by taking a narrow victory over Tendring by 3 sets to 2. In a well tempered but close match Chelmsford bounced back after losing sets 1 and 4 to clinch the decided and a win over their Essex Division 1 visitors for the first time in three years. Marcin Widzinski took the player of the match award. Chelmsford started the match with a familiar line up, John Hill (Capt) and Paul Bohannan (player/coach) filling the setting role, Steve Peacock and Anash Vora at middle attack leaving Dave Gentry at outside attack to be joined by the only new face Marcin Widzinski. Tendring brought a young side including several from their Regional Volleyball Academy and were captained by experienced player Liam Chinnery who played as single setter. Set 1 was a tale of each side sounding the other out. Chelmsford could not get their first serve to work and made unforced errors. For their part only Todd for Tendring seemed able to score consistently and his fast dipping jump serves also caused problems for the home side’s defence. Although the scores were seldom far apart a rare rotation error by Chelmsford towards the end of the set was enough to make the difference as Tendring ran out 25-22 winners. Set 2 started much better for Chelmsford and the setters became better at proving Widzinski with a ball he could attack and Vora made some memorable blocks. The side settled into a rhythm and with good teamwork all round forced Tendring to call time outs at 12-16 and 13-22 down. It was to no avail and with a 25-16 set it was 1-1. Coach Bohannan kept the starting six intact for set 3 and they rewarded this by quickly going ahead with some cleverly placed serves from Hill. A change of tactics by Tendring saw them ignore the middle attack and rely more on the hard hitting from Todd and Everett on the outside. Although this worked for as time, Chelmsford were now hitting the ball much more cleanly and from all positions with Gentry showing how even an indifferent set ball could be used to score points. Warzinski and Hill were picking up the harder shots and Chelmsford took the set 25-21. With a win in their grasp Chelmsford were strangely tentative at the start of set 4 and by the time Bohannan made the double substitution to bring on Edwards and Fairly they were 17-10 down. The changes caused some initial disruption and Tendring raced away to 25-13 and both teams were faced with a deciding set. Chelmsford kept the amended line for the fifth set which turned into a close affair at least for the early rallies. Neither side would give an inch and it was the steadier play form the reliable Chelmsford defence that gave them a slight advantage at change of ends at 8-7. With the set up to only 15 points it was important to be first out the blocks and this is what the Chelmsford team did. In a long rally that saw both sides at their best at full stretch the initiative ebbed and flowed until at last the Tendring attackers hit the ball out the back baseline. Having taken a 9-7 lead, Chelmsford polished off the remaining points to bring an end to a good team performance. It is over 3 years since Chelmsford enjoyed a win over Tendring and the result sets them up for their next Essex Division 1 encounter this time with Romford at Anglia Ruskin University warm up at 8.30pm Thursday 22 October. Chelmsford Volleyball Club train and play on Thursday evenings at the University and welcome players new and experienced both male and female. More about the club can be found at www.volleyball.co.uk/chelmsford/index.htm or from Ken Edwards 01245 474425.
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