London Malory beat Warwick Riga 28:26 19:25 25:14 25:22

Raynes Park High School, London SW20

Saturday 20th January 2007

A fascinating mixture of excellent play and unforced errors painted a picture of the progress being made in Malory’s team rebuilding as they swapped places with their opponents in the middle of the league table. It was like teacher v pupil with Riga playing the role of the former until the Londoners clicked and began to play with the sort of authority we are all used to seeing.

Malory nearly threw away the first set. They had asserted themselves after an even opening to move from six all to 16:9 but committed too many faults as Riga, example set by Kees de Hoogh, closed to 20:20. The match then came to life as the teams traded point for point. Malory first had a set point at 24:23, Riga at 25:24, Malory again at 26:25 and, finally, at 27:26 which they converted. Strangely, they did throw away the second. It had been very close indeed until the score reached nineteen all with John Gilling outstanding for Riga and Steve Fee for Malory. A service fault, two hits into the net, one onto the antenna: it became easy for Riga.

Noticeable throughout these sets was poor timing between setter Richard Dobell and new team mate, Danny Weemes: curious for two international stars. However, in the third understanding began to grow and the pair were the vanguard for a period of Malory supremacy that took them to untroubled success in the third, easing from 15:10 to 25:14. It looked the ideal opportunity to introduce Dammy Bakare to the line up and from two all he gradually began to impose his height and power on proceedings. Initially, they continued in the same vein in the fourth but coach Tom Young settled his team with a time out at 7:2 and, although the effort was not to win the set, it led to them to outscore Malory for the rest of the match. Both sides continued to make mistakes and serving errors were particularly frustrating but both also mixed in some brilliant moves and intelligent volleyball. They were to bring a nomination for Most Valuable Player to Riga setter Phil Wyles who frequently out-thought the opposition and who covered vast distances to ensure good passes; Steve Fee was Riga’s nomination. He was the most consistent of Malory’s attackers and his jump serves have improved massively in both power and consistency this season. The visitors were to close to 23:22 to threaten to take the match into a fifth set but an unstoppable smash through the middle by Danny Weemes followed by a block by Alex Bialokoz and Steve Fee to deny the Riga attack earned Jefferson Williams a sigh of relief.

London Malory

Starting Six: Alex Bialokoz, Andy Carr, Mark Burns, Richard Dobell (captain), Steve Fee and Danny Weemes.

Libero: Grant Martindale.

Other players: Dammy Bakare, Aaron Stolberg and Jefferson Williams.

Coach: Jefferson Williams.

Warwick Riga

Starting Six: Chris Anderson, Chris Anderson, Kees de Hoogh, John Gilling, Phil Wyles (captain) and Daniel Turnbull.

Libero: Luca Molinari.

Other players: Tomasz Morawski, Damon Minotti, Martijn Stroo.

Coach: Tom Young.

Douglas Barr-Hamilton

Men’s First Division

League Table P W L Sets Points

Leading positions F A

1. London Docklands 11 11 2 27 8 29

2. London Polonia 10 7 3 23 13 24

3. Sheffield 11 6 5 23 18 23

4. Cambridge 11 6 5 20 21 23

5. London Malory 10 6 4 24 16 22

6. City of Bristol 10 6 4 21 16 22

7. Warwick Riga 11 5 6 20 22 21

Acknowledgements

English Volleyball Association web site and results service.