author=Will Roberts

matchdate=26/2/06
EVAREF= m1-53
home=Cambridge
away=Newcastle (Staffs)
division=M1
Match Report=That Sunday feeling!

Cambridge 3 – 1 Newcastle (Staffs) 25-23, 25-18, 18-25, 25-19


Following the impressive win the previous night versus London Polonia,
Newcastle (Staffs) made the long trip to Cambridge who had all but
secured their division 1 status with a straight sets win over Sheffield
the night before. In contrast to the match at Keele on Satruday, this
match was played in front of a small crowd with little atmosphere in
what was a fantastic facility, and the ‘Castle performance seemed to
reflect this apparent lack of energy within the venue.

With Jon Pennock returning, but middle-blocker Falko Drijfhout
unavailable, 'Castle were again not at full strength, but nevertheless
started the match strongly. Ant Viggars, who had earlier in the season
indicated that he may be on the verge of hanging up his knee-pads rolled
back the years to inspire his younger team-mates with classy intelligent
hitting throughout the match. Early on this was matched by his
team-mates, but with Richard Guest pulling up with a back injury no more
than 10 points into the game, Newcastle could not raise themselves in
the first two sets and went 2-0 down.

Coach Viggars used all his available players to try to change things
round, and in the 3rd set, 'Castle managed to get a hold on Cambridge’s
two star attackers, Canadian Andy Lynn and Czech Vaclav Petricek. 16
year old Adam Brewer was introduced as a middle blocker to try to
counter the threat of Cambridge's two unsung middle blockers whose
height was causing 'Castle many problems in alliance with their equally
tall Dutch setter. Young Brewer did a good job and Cambridge realised
too late that their attack needed to adjust and 'Castle drew themselves
back into the match at 2-1.

Unfortunately for 'Castle, the jump serve of Canadian Andy Lynn really
got firing in the fourth set, and with limited personnel to call upon,
he gave Cambridge a prolonged run of points mid-set to open a large gap.
Pennock was introduced to replace Viggars, and he injected some energy
into the Staffordshire team who rallied well to embark upon a run of
unanswered points themselves, but, just as it looked as though the
visitors may be inspired to take the game into a fifth set, Cambridge
closed out to win 3-1.

A disappointing result for Newcastle, who have lost all of their Sunday
matches this season with performances that have certainly not matched up
to what they would hope for, and have regularly produced on Saturday
evenings. The team now faces City of Bristol on the 18th March knowing
that a win would give them a record of 10 wins and 8 defeats, and in all
likelihood a top 5 finish. If they are to do this it will be without
captain Will Roberts, plus squad members Sam Allen, Dave Lawton and Dan
Glover who will be representing the club at the junior last 8s
tournament that day, with Roberts as the coach, plus Adam Brewer who
will be playing for Redhill (Stourbridge). Overall though, a great
weekend for Newcastle (Staffs) VC who had a total of 9 teams in action
in all competitions, with the under 15 girls playing with distinction to
narrowly lose in the semi-finals of the Midlands Championships on
Sunday, following the u15 boys the previous day.