PNH Properties Chichester 4 beat UniSPORT Guildford 1

Wednesday 30 January 2008

UniSPORT were given the best possible start by Alison Waters who started at a furious pace to leave Suzie King, making her debut for PNH Properties Chichester, floundering in the blocks trying to make sense of a hasty 2 - 0 deficit. The third game was more relaxed for Waters, taking her foot of the gas for a while, she allowed the Chichester player chance to find her feet and with due credit King played some attractive shots and pushed Waters to finish the match at the tie breaker stage. This was to be the last taste of success on the night for UniSPORT Guildford after this early 1 - 0 lead.

Tim Vail effectively managed the match with Jesse Engelbrecht in masterful style. Vail rarely put a foot wrong, showing a high degree of patience before unleashing some pin point accurate winners to all corners of the court. There were neither loose balls nor errors from the Vail racket, which left Engelbrecht frustrated in the extreme on a night when he did not actually play that badly. With due haste Vail ensured that the match score was level at 1 - 1.

Young Alex Ingham was matched with the vastly experienced Peter Genever, who was given some things to think about by Ingham who is beginning to put some useful rallies together but lacks consistency at the moment to trouble the older generation. PNH Properties Chichester 2 - 1.

It was hard to make sense of the number 2 string match between the Chichester number 2, veteran Alex Gough, and his opponent, Stephen Meads. This was very much a yoyo match with Gough taking the lead and never really losing it but at the same time getting himself into a tizzy during the in between games. Gough is a highly skilled practitioner of the sport, but looked like he was well out of sorts in the 2nd and 4th games but always rallied around to ensure that he finished in front. 

Stacey Ross always fancies his chances against Azlan and plays with confidence as a result. Ross has beaten Azlan before in the PSL but not for a while. Azlan has risen to number 17 in the world rankings, Ross is top 50. There was not that big a difference on the night. The first game was even all the way and Ross lapsed into error at the business end of the game. In the second game Ross gained a lead and managed to hang onto it and close out the game to level the scores. The tactical content was largely cat and mouse with Ross trying to vary the pace and shrewdly put together a confusing mix of patience and winners. This was to some degree effective as Azlan was more error prone than one might have expected. There were clear signs of fatigue for Ross, but Azlan was not finding it easy to draw Ross into energy sapping rallies as Ross endeavoured to shorten the rallies and vary his attack. It was indeed an interesting contest marred only by the fact that Ross ran out of legs. Azlan held it together well in the end but was probably relieved to hit a cross court winner into the nick to earn his winning bonus and avoid the inconvenience of a 5th game, 3 - 1 to Azlan.

This was a clear 4 - 1 win for second place PNH Properties Chichester who will consider this a good day at the office. UniSPORT Guildford, however, will need to regroup to face Probuild Bristol, who are also strong contenders for the play offs. The entertainment will once again be of a high order if not the result so see you next week Tuesday 5th February at the Varsity Centre 7pm start for UniSPORT Guildford v Probuild Bristol. 

M'hmed Azlan Iskander 3 beat Stacey Ross 1

9 - 6, 6 - 9, 9 - 5, 9 - 6

Alex Gough 3 beat Steve Meads 2

9 - 6, 6 - 9, 9 - 5, 3 - 9, 9 - 5

Tim Vail 3 beat Jesse Engelbrecht 0

9 - 6, 9 - 1, 9 - 5

Peter Genever 3 beat Alex Ingham 0

10 - 8, 9 - 1, 9 - 5 

Suzie King 0 lost to Alison Waters 3

2 - 9, 2 - 9, 8 - 10

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