MEN’S FIRST DIVISION
London Docklands beat London Aquila Lynx 20:25 25:19 25:17
25:13
Bacons Sports Centre, Rotherhithe, London SE16.
Saturday 18th February 2006
The club from Southwark beat its Tower Hamlets rivals from
across the river in a match of a high standard that suggests there are benefits
from several quality matches a week provided by the London Challenge Trophy
competition currently in the group stages. Given their relatively low league
position, Aquila opened in a most impressive manner but, as the game
progressed, it appeared that only the lack of confidence that eighth place
brings prevented them from continuing to impose their will on the proceedings.
Aquila began by powering to a 1:3 lead in the first set with
good hits from Ben Wilson and Jalal El Achkar before Docklands recovered to
four all with attacks from Dejan Miladinovic and Albrecht Glitz. It was
nail-biting stuff from that point to nineteen all, with the scores either equal
or showing a tiny Docklands lead. Apart from on service in mid-set, there were
very few errors and the volleyball was a joy to watch. Then Lynx grabbed a
19:20 lead and Ian Legrand called a time out.
A great back court smash by Dejan Miladinovic levelled the scores again
before Jalal El Achkar regained the lead and Ben Wilson made it two points.
Another Legrand time out and Aquila’s confidence went sky high. El Achkar
served an ace, then two hard serves in succession on the unfortunate Ned Groy;
one dig went wide, the next into the roof. The set was secure.
Docklands came out for the second with more resolve and with
Neil Masters in place of Ned Groy while Aquila appeared rather too casual. The
home side was quickly 4:0 up and Stuart Fullerton was screaming for and in a
time out. It settled his players but they never looked like closing the gap
they had allowed to open although they did reduce it to two points between 5:3
and 7:5. After that Docklands reasserted their authority and forced another
time out when they led 19:14. Albrecht Glitz surprised everyone with a delicate
dump to make it twenty and Aquila changed their setter, bringing on Abdel Karim
Ghazi and, although his arrival did not immediately stem the slide, it signalled
a rally that saved four set points before a typical Glitz cross-court smash
from the left made it one set all.
That was the end of Aquila’s challenge despite battling
vainly on for the remaining two sets in which they were never in front. Indeed,
they slipped quickly to a 7:1 deficit in the third and were always going to
find it difficult to recover from so bad a start although they did pull back to
15:13. They went 9:3 down in the fourth, settled and closed to 9:6 and then
crumbled before a blitz by Miladinovic and Glitz and some fierce blocking in
which Efe Eurero and Boris Halatchev also featured that saw them down and out
at 21:9. Once again, they saved their best play for the last with Ben Wilson
and Nicolas Guillet’s smashes matching Neil Masters and Dejan Miladinovic’s but
it was too little too late. Docklands’
title hopes are still alive.
Aquila nominated Dejan Miladinovic as Most Valuable Player
while Docklands chose Nicolas Guillet. The latter normally plays his volleyball
in the third division with the club’s second team but he fully deserved the
honour and should return to humbler duties with his confidence increased. His
team mates badly need a win to work on theirs. The former had an excellent game
and his colleagues will be looking for a repeat in next Saturday’s key
encounter with title holders, Malory, in Osterley.
London Docklands:
Starting six: Efe Eurero, Albrecht Glitz
(captain), Ned Groy, Boris Halatchev, Dejan Miladinovic and Nicolas Ruh.
Libero: Alexis Blair.
Other players: Martin Blake, Alex Inglot, Jesse
Kaptein, Neil Masters and Danny Primus.
Coach: Ian Legrand.
London Aquila Lynx:
Starting six: Antonio Codrington, Nick Davies,
Jalal El Achkar, Stuart Fullerton (captain), Nicolas Guillet and Ben Wilson.
Libero: -
Other players: Abdel Karim Ghazi.
Coach: Stuart Fullerton.
League Table:
P W L F A Pts.
1. London Docklands 15 12
3 40 17 39
2. London Malory 12 11
1 35 12 34
3. City of Bristol 13 8 5 27 21 29
4. Newcastle, Staffs 14 7 7 25 29 28
5. London Polonia 13 7 6 32 33 27
6. Warwick Riga 13 6 7 24 24 25
7. Sheffield 14
5 9 23 34 24
8. Cambridge 13
5 8 24 26 23
9. London Aquila Lynx 13 5 8 20 31 23
10. Loughborough
Students 14
1 13 8 41 16
Acknowledgements: EVA web site and results
service.