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Essex Conference A Chelmsford 1 lost to Tendring 1-3 - set scores 17-25, 21-25, 25-13, 27-29 Good game – shame about the result After an easy victory at Tendring last month, Chelmsford found their hopes in the return match at Anglia Ruskin’s Mildmay sportshall, sabotaged by a much stronger visiting team. Tendring went away 3-1 winners with Stuart Fairley taking the Chelmsford man of the match award. Chelmsford were looking to rebound from last weeks Essex Conference A match against leaders Brentwood Wildthings with an easier game against Tendring who they had beaten 3-0 only a few weeks ago. Hopes were high for a good result with Stuart Fairley rejoining the already strong squad of John Hill (capt), Paul Bohannan (player/coach), Dave Gentry, Marcin Widzinski, Anash Vora, Steve Peacock, Laszlo Maklary and Ken Edwards. However, Tendring had different ideas and had strengthened their own squad with Dove, Chinnery and Masters all starting six players in their unbeaten National League team. Set one saw the pattern for the game emerge. Tendring served the better and attacked at every opportunity with the power from Dove and Masters often overpowering the Chelmsford defence. The home team relied on the height of Widzinski and later Maklary plus all round team work playing a more conventional game. Tendring meanwhile tried all the tricks to wrong foot the Chelmsford defence and took the early advantage with a 25-17 set win. The next set saw the tall Maklary join Widzinski in the home team attack with Fairley leading the defensive line with good positioning and fast court coverage. But Tendring were finding their setter Chinnery with nearly every first ball and he was able to release Masters and Dove to blast away the points. Throughout the match, the quality of the visitors’ first ball allowed them more chances to win rallies when all too often the home team struggled to mount a penetrative attack just shipping the ball back to the eager Tendring defence. Although Chelmsford were close right the way through in the final rallies the set drifted away from them for 25-21. The third set saw Chelmsford raise their game and take an early lead behind some clever serving from Hill that at last put the Tendring first ball under pressure. After a few further rallies Chelmsford found themselves 10-3 up and they cashed in on that lead with Fairley showing his attacking flair as well as defensive skills. The score of 25-13 to Chelmsford was a strange one against what was a close fought match. Coach Bohannan persevered with the seven players used throughout the game in set four and Chelmsford again played at high tempo pushing back the waves of attack from Tendring, returning the ball with interest. This was the longest and closest of all the sets with Chelmsford’s early lead chipped away so that by 19-19 the sides were even. Tendring crept ahead on the back of some fearsome hitting from Masters, only to see Chelmsford battle back with a memorable moment seeing Widzinski blocking far over the top of the net to snuff out Dove. The score swung back and forth and it was a rare ace serve that took Tendring to 28-27 and yet another set point. This time they were not to be denied and took the set 29-27 and the match 3-1. After the game coach Bohannan was full of praise for his players ‘This was a good all round team performance against a formidable Tendring sqaud. If they can play like this against Wildthings the title this season will be wide open again. For us everyone played to their best with Stuart Fairley perhaps the stand out player as I cannot remember an unforced error in his game tonight but I do recall some great recoveries and some awesome attacking.’ |