London Docklands v City of Bristol 25:18 25:15 25:16

Bacon’s College Sports Hall, Rotherhithe, London SE16

Saturday 25th November 2006

The crowd was stunned when this match ended in just 51 minutes. Everyone had come prepared for five sets. Cushions placed on seats. Evening arrangements made for late; mealtimes postponed. Second against third in the league with similar records, it had to be close. Indeed it looked for it for a while as the visitors enjoyed a slender lead. Docklands went in front for the first time at 11:10 and extended it to two points only at 18:16. Then, suddenly, they took control. Hard as Bristol tried, they could not regain the initiative and they grew increasingly despondent as the match slipped from their grasp.

The fixture was the 250th with Ian Legrand in charge of the Docklands team and he will have been as delighted with the way his side played as with the gift with which he was presented at the end. With Efe Eruero, Cyril Kubr, Alex Porter and Enrico Savoia all itching to get court time, the squad was well motivated and produced its best. In fact, only Danny Primus got any time off the bench as he featured briefly in the third set as server.

Dejan Miladinovic and Neil Masters became twin tormentors with their wing hitting. Dejan, the more powerful got the Most Valuable Player nomination but Neil, the more accurate, must have been close behind. Middle hitters Boris Halatchev and Martin Blake varied their plays effectively as Nicolas Ruh was able to turn in a virtuoso performance as setter in front of excellent back-court displays by Alexis Blair and Albrecht Glitz. Albrecht was unusually lightly used in attack but his serving always caused anxiety as did that of Neil and even Martin enjoyed one long spell of serving success. Blocking was excellent and key to their achievements.

Yet Bristol’s blocking always looked good too and it was hard to see why the side fared so badly. The serving was not as targeted and they seemed to have a smaller repertoire of moves but the quality of their play suggested they should have been challenging much more closely. Essentially, the difference was one of attitude with Docklands the more determined set of players and, by the third set, body language explained it all: Docklands were relaxed, smiling and enjoying themselves; Bristol were tense, grim and down hearted. Their setter, Artur Kwiecinski, received Ian’s nomination as MVP but, with Gary Burton, he will be asking why a shining performance suddenly turned dull and why a side that has been enjoying such good results was unable to relight the blaze.

They will need to bounce back next weekend when league leaders Polonia travel to Bristol but Docklands will be visiting Malory also next Saturday and, although the champions lost again today: in Cambridge, they cannot be underestimated. Indeed, all the day’s matches are significant. Congratulations to the fixtures compiler!

London Docklands

Starting Six: Martin Blake, Albrecht Glitz, Boris Halatchev (captain), Neil Masters, Dejan Miladinovic and Nicolas Ruh.

Libero: Alexis Blair.

Other players: Efe Eruero, Cyril Kubr, Alex Porter, Danny Primus and Enrico Savoia.

Coach: Ian Legrand. Assistant: Andy Hopper.

City of Bristol

Starting Six: Alex Burt, Gary Burton (captain), Artur Kwiecinski, Robin Miedzybroozke, Jiri Petrash and Matthew Pierce.

Libero: -

Other players: Mike McCarthy and Tony Sullivan.

Coach: Gary Burton.

Douglas Barr-Hamilton

Men’s First Division

League Table P W L Sets Points

(Leading positions) F A

1. London Polonia 8 7 1 23 7 22

2. London Docklands 8 6 2 18 7 20

3. City of Bristol 7 5 2 17 9 17

4. Sheffield 8 4 4 15 15 16

5. Warwick Riga 8 4 4 14 14 16

6. London Malory 7 4 3 17 12 15

7. Thames Valley 8 3 5 12 18 14

Acknowledgements

English Volleyball Association web site and results service.