Chelmsford 2’s woes continued in their latest fixture at home to Billericay Amity as they threw away six set points in the fourth set after looking on course to take the match to a decider. Not even the good work by Ian Reeve, their player of the match, could steady the home ship as his son Louis served well for the visitors to set up a 3-1 match win

Chelmsford went into this match with a large squad of 10 players and although missing two first six choices could have no excuses about team selections. They started with player/coach Dave Gentry setting with the experienced Gary Mower with captain Richard Bohannan and daughter Rachel outside attack with Claudia Lambert and Ian reeve completing the line up as middle attack. The early rallies were close before Chelmsford eased away to take the set comfortably 25-19 set. Set two saw run outs for Matt Brooks and Louis Abraka who put the first ball away hard but then slipped into the background. Chelmsford struggled for cohesion in this set and seemed reluctant to hit hard so it was no surprise that Billericay leveled with a 25-21 set.

Set three saw yet another line up for the home side with a strong female presence as Doris Ogbebor joined Rachel Bohannan, Lambert and Carmen Neagu on court. This matched the visitors who played with three women throughout the match. Whist this was a good defensive line up again the lack of attack came back to haunt Chelmsford as they faded away to 25-15 with Pilgrim and Reeve spearheading the Billericay points machine,

Set four saw an all male Chelmsford line up which restored at least initially an attack although first ball had now begun to stutter which reduced the setters ability to put the ball where the hitters could attack. As a result it was often rally continues rather than a point. Nevertheless the visitors were themselves making errors and Chelmsford were gradually extending their lead which at one points stood at 21-13. At 24-17 poor shot selection allowed Billericay to regain serve and their Louis Reeve went for broke with fast flat serving. Chelmsford tried everything to break the serve with time outs and line up changes. But when the ball clipped the net at 22-24 and just dropped into the empty front court they should have realized it was not to be their evening. They eventually scrambled back the serve 25-24, but service into the net followed by the visitors keeping their nerve in attacking saw them through 27-25 for a 3-1 win.