UniSport Guildford 1 lost to Surrey Health & Racquets Club 4
Wednesday 20 February 2008
UniSport Guildford were in a mood to celebrate their National Champion, Alison Waters and in so doing presented her with a bottle of champagne before the match against Surrey Health & Racquets Club. But that was the only thing that UniSport were left celebrating after the match.
Stephanie Brind might have thought that after the fanfare Waters received she might have been distracted but she did enough to bank winning points for UniSport and disappear into the night to drink her bubbly.
Jesse Engelbrecht was pitted against Ben Ford, who seems to like Guildford and has rarely had an off night here. Engelbrecht was to a degree out of sorts but that was to belittle the excellent play of his opponent who hit winners from all over the court and only got into difficult as he slowed up towards the end of the match. The tactical changes employed by Engelbrecht needed to be in place in the first game as it was too little too late to make a real impact on the match overall. Quickly the match had been levelled, too quickly 1 - 1.
Alex Ingham’s match saw his opponent Steve Richardson stride into play with his howitzer racket with some powerful shots. Ingham was stunned although successfully did some assault and battery of his own, but to no avail and the first game disappeared in haste to give the visitor a good start. A rejuvenated Ingham returned to the court for the second game rolled his sleeves up, built an early lead with some good varied play and never lost his way claiming the second to get back on equal terms. The trend was to be repeated in the third with Ingham controlling the rallies well making his opponent cover a lot of court. But Richardson proved himself to be a gritty fighter taking the fourth comfortably and surging away in the fifth.
Stephen Meads gave a warm welcome to Davide Bianchetti, the Italian who is well-known to Guildford fans. Meads blitzed his way to an 8-5 lead in the first game with a typical bouncy and enthusiastic display. Just when one more winner would have clinched the first game, the supply dried up and Bianchetti effectively reeled him in. Increasingly as the match wore on there was sadly to be only one winner here as Meads fell further behind with no prospect of being able to turn it around. Surrey had claimed their match winning points at 3 - 1 games.
The number 1 string match saw the return of former Guildford player Peter Barker in opposition colours against Stacey Ross the popular Guildford number 1. On the evidence of this match, Barker is a much improved player as we saw in the corresponding match in the first half, but Ross was perfectly capable of making this a real match. But it ended up being a match that never quite caught fire as both players threatened to play some excellent squash without ever delivering. Barker took the first game before Ross got himself going, a situation which was immediately reversed in the second making it 1 - 1. The third became interesting, but Ross was now playing under the increasing handicap of his neck problem and although he got close, Barker nicked it and then proceeded to close out with Ross getting frustrated. An overall match score gave Surrey Health & Racquets a 4 - 1 winning margin, further stretching their lead at the top of the table.
That concludes the home match calendar for season 2007-8. It just remains to make the short journey to St Georges Hill to complete the fixture list in a fortnight's time.
UniSport Guildford 1 lost to Surrey Health & Racquets Club 4
Stacey Ross 1 lost to Peter Barker 3
3 - 9, 9 - 3, 7 - 9, 5 - 9
Stephen Meads 0 lost to Davide Bianchetti 3
9 - 11, 5 - 9, 3 - 9
Jesse Engelbrecht 0 lost to Ben Ford 3
3 - 9, 7 - 9, 8 - 10
Alex Ingham 2 lost to Steve Richardson 3
5 - 9, 9 - 3, 9 - 7, 2 - 9, 6 - 9
Alison Waters 3 beat Stephanie Brind 0
9 - 6, 10 - 8, 9 - 3
