PNH Properties Chichester v UniSPORT - Tuesday 29 January
Wednesday 23 January 2008
UniSPORT Guildford travels to the south coast for the derby match with rivals PNH Properties Chichester. UniSPORT is languishing at the foot of the table separated from St George's Hill by 7 points. Whereas PNH Properties Chichester are in the play off places at second in the table at the half way stage of the season. All the form points to a Chichester win by some margin, but matches between these two teams have often been more of a lottery than the league places might suggest.
UniSPORT will take some comfort from the number 5 string match between Suzy King and Alison Waters where the disparity would appear to be considerable especially bearing in mind the current good form of the UniSPORT player and also her impressive world ranking of 12. This should give UniSPORT the start it wants.
Peter Genever, until recently, always used to spearhead the Chichester attack at number 1 string so for UniSPORT's Alex Ingham to run into him at number 4 string is likely to test the junior's credentials to the limit and will make a win here unlikely.
Tim Vail, player manager and acknowledged expert at the PSL formula, has an interesting opponent from the UniSPORT ranks in Jesse Engelbrecht. Engelbrecht is newly crowned South African number 1 with a world ranking of 75 and has enjoyed a much improved run of form of late. This looks on paper like 'match of the day'. Recent head to heads give Engelbrecht the slight edge but who would bet against Vail in the PSL as this is where he has always delivered some spectacular results. The outcome of this match could well be pivotal as to how the match result is determined. Should UniSPORT be successful here then, it is not impossible to look for winning points.
Although the odds are stacked against Stephen Meads, the veteran renews his rivalry with Alex Gough still sitting at 20 in the World rankings. The Chichester veteran has maintained his world class form admirably and is likely to be too strong for Meads on this occasion. There will be some world class skills on show here offset by a long standing rivalry, which probably will not affect the outcome results wise.
The hoped for decider will match Malaysian number 2 Azlan Iskandar with UniSPORT's Stacey Ross. The difference in world rankings is palpable with the Malaysian at number 15 against local hero Ross who is number 47. There was some time ago a result between these two contestants that favoured the Guildford player but times have changed since then along with current form and it suggests that overall PNH Chichester will prevail and continue their quest for the play offs, leaving UniSPORT to ponder the fact that the squad is probably a top class player short of troubling the very best teams in the league.
- Mohm'd Azlan Iskandar v Stacey Ross
- Alex Gough v Stephen Meads
- Tim Vail v Jesse Engelbrecht
- Peter Genever v Alex Ingham
- Suzy King v Alison Waters
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