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Philips- Manning Handicap Cup - quarter final After over two hours of struggle, Brentwood women get the upper hand Anglia Ruskin University’s Mildmay Sports Hall saw another classic match in the Essex Handicap Cup last Thursday as Chelmsford second team met Brentwood Divas, the ladies national league side. After two hours the match still hung in the balance and only in the final rallies did the visitors come through to take the result. The Phillips-Manning Handicap Cup is named after two young Brentwood players who died in a tragic road accident at the Poole Volleyball tournament some years ago. By pitting together sides, but giving the ‘weaker’ on paper side a start and playing up to 30 points, the competition has a habit of throwing up epics of which this was certainly up there. Although Divas started with a four point advantage their match plan under coach Rees Warren was to attack and this they did throughout. Chelmsford meanwhile concentrated on no errors attack and a strong defence – perhaps it was no surprise that with these contrasting tactics the rallies were long and sapping. Chelmsford used all their squad during the match – the setting rotating between captain Richard Bohannan and Attwell Mlilo who was Chelmsford’s stand out player, with a brief appearance of player/coach Ken Edwards for the third set. The middle attack again saw three players used in Anna Szafraniec, Marcin Kawulski and Hisham Ruhomutally fresh from his player of the match performance last week against Romford. Outside attackers were Rob Smethurst, Thorsten Herbertz, playing in his farewell match before return to Germany, Alicia Hector and Tom Ashley. In what was a high quality encounter, there were three turning points in the match. In set three, with the sides equal at 24-24 Chelmsford’s Herbertz stole the show with some fine serving backed up by strong work at the net to take the set 30-24 and put Chelmsford 2-1 up. The tables were turned in set four when at 29-23 up Chelmsford stood with seven match points at their disposal. At that point an injury during a block to Hector unsettled the home team and by the time they recovered the set had slipped away 30-29. The last and decisive turn came with Chelmsford leading 15-12 in the deciding 5th set. Having gained the initiative they were looking like taking the set when in a long rally the Brentwood attackers who were at last beginning to look like flagging, suddenly burst back into gear. Hitting every attack hard into the corners the momentum swung back in favour of the visitors and they closed out the game 30-20, by far the biggest margin between the teams of any set. Coach Edwards summed up ‘What a great game to be involved in. We have only ourselves to blame for not taking the fourth set and we must learn to take the key points and not think we have things in hand. Special mention of Attwell who played throughout the match and this is his first competitive outing after a pre-season injury. He was an inspiration to us. We wish Divas well in their future rounds’. This result still leaves Chelmsford pitted against Brentwood teams in two other Essex finals when the first team play Whackers in the Rucanor Cup, whilst the clubs two ladies sides meet in the Janet Bedford Cup. These matches are on Sunday 13th June at Brentwood International Centre.
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