21st May 2005
England v Norway 2:3 25:10, 14:25, 9:25, 25:22, 11:15

This was the first of two matches with England hosting Norway at
the American International School in Cobham.  Both teams have been involved
in the World Championships with England going to Czech Republic for their
second round tournament next weekend while Norway was knocked out in their
round 1 tournament against Romania, Belgium and Belarus earlier in the
month.

This first match was a strange one!  England with Danny Weemes, Matt Jones,
Andy Sinclair, Efe Eruero, captain Alex Bialokoz, setter Ben Pipes and
libero Andrzej Saller won the first set with ease, greatly helped by a serve
run by Matt Jones taking England from 17 to set point.  Saller, Jones and
Sinclair were Englands service receive unit in this set.

The next two sets were very different stories with Norway leading in both
from the start and England apparently without any capacity to take control.
Norway played very effectively through the middle in these sets with Oivind
Hordvik, Ole Martin Kleivenes and Geir Eithun all producing problems for
England's defence. In the third set coach Ian Legrand substituted Steve Fee
into the passing unit replacing Andy Sinclair, replaced setter Ben Pipes
with Andy Vincett and later substituted Danny Weemes with Steve Roper at
9:22 but Norway was not to be stopped.

Andy Vincett remained on court to set in the fourth set and Sinclair, Fee
and Saller were the passing unit with Matt Jones hitting through 2.  Andy
Vincett made two lovely pick ups behind England's block early in the set and
Steve Fee firmly put the ball down inside Norways block to equal the score
at 4:4.  Andy Sinclair evened the scores again at 7:7 with an off block hit.
England then maintained a lead with Alex Bialokoz stating his presence with
two blocks later in the set.  England took the fourth.

In the 5th set, it was Norway's good defence that frustrated England's
attacks on many occasions and they led 5:8 at the change round.  Danny
Weemes returned to England's court replacing Andy Sinclair, Matt Jones
returned to the passing unit and Ben Pipes came back to set but England
could not prevent Norway taking the set and the match to the delight of
Norwegian supporters in the crowd.

Most would agree that this was not England's finest match although
individual players had some good moments.  Their loss of middle players Alex
Porter, Mark Brown and Stuart Watson through injury has had its effect on
the team as England's middle play in the last year has been very effective.
Captain Alex Bialokoz was also playing with a sprained ankle.  Coach Ian
Legrand thought though that it was poor ball control that lost the second
and third sets.  However, he and the team are now looking forwards to the
second match tomorrow and the World Championships round 2 next weekend.
Norway will return home to play in the European Championships against
Romania, Bosnia/Heregovina and Moldova.

Barbara Totterdell