MEN’S FIRST DIVISION
London Malory beat Sheffield 25:22 25:14 25:22
John Kane Sports Centre, Brunel University, Osterley,
Middlesex.
Saturday 25th March 2006
Sheffield lost their way in the late stages of the middle
set to mar an otherwise exciting contest in which they looked capable of
surprising the champions and Cup Finalists whose thoughts must be turning
towards the next trophy the destination of which is to be decided on 22nd
April: ironically in Sheffield, at the English Institute of Sport. It will be
surprising if they now lose the league.
Malory seemed rather stunned by their visitors’ opening
after winning the first point with a good hit by Morf Bowes while the block was
covering Alex Bialokoz’s decoy jump. Sheffield moved into a 3:7 lead with a
surprise second ball attack from Dave Clayden, sharp cross-court hits by Sam
Bussey and Matthew Howe, a back-court smash by Sam Thompson and a deep serve by
Sam Bussey that induced a poor dig from the host’s defence. However, the error
appeared to wake the home side and improving play took them to 8:10 when Keith
Trenam called a time out. It only
encouraged Malory who forced him to call another at 12:11. That one settled his
young side and the rest of the set was magnificent with Matthew, Sam Bussey and
Peter Casson shining for Sheffield and Joel Miller too after coming on as
substitute for Sam Thompson while Andy Carr, Alex and Morf produced great net
play in block and smash and Joe Mildred began to come into his own. Sheffield
closed to within a point when Sam Bussey hit off the block on Sheffield’s right
to make it 22:23 but he then served wide to give Malory set point and, although
Matthew attacked with venom, Mark Brown and Andy Carr blocked with equal
determination.
The exciting play and tiny difference in scores continued
for the first part of the second. Then, quite unexpectedly after six all,
Sheffield failed to respond when Malory raised their game. Suddenly they were
11:7 down after a brace of shots by Morf on the right in which he clipped the
block to score. Sheffield stopped the slide for a while but the six point gap
persisted to 18:12 when Keith Trenam called a second time out and Andrew
Omoshebi came off the Malory bench for Mark. At 21:14 Jefferson Williams asked
Aaron Stolberg to serve instead of Andy Carr while Keith called on Keiran
O’Malley to set in place of Ben Wilkinson.
Sheffield did not score another point although they deserved one when
Aaron served 1˝ metres wide only for
the ball to land on a defender’s foot.
The third set was worth the journey to Osterley and the
admission money. Sure, there was a smattering of errors, several of them
unforced. Sheffield will be annoyed with three service faults but even more by
shouting “Out!” to a serve six inches inside the sideline by Morf and a
rotation blunder on 22:20. Malory will be equally peeved at their own three
service faults, for falling for a clever hit down the right line by Joel Miller
to close to 18:19 and for failing to cover the block when Joel saved match
point hitting off its fingers. However, in between there was excellent play by
both sides: Sam Bussey underlined his claim to a Most Valuable Player
nomination with an inspired performance but he was aided well by Peter,
Matthew, Joel and Dave before he was replaced by Anthony Hignett in the closing
stages as his side showed what it could do. Yet it was to be Malory’s day not
least because of Richard Dobell’s distribution to all his attackers made easier
by a sound back court where libero Grant Martindale played a major if
unspectacular role. Morf Bowes was the other nomination for MVP and I heard no
disagreement with that.
Oh! There is one other important piece of news: Malory are
playing in new red shirts. The television coverage of the Cup Final won’t look
as though it’s in black and white.
London Malory:
Starting six: Alex Bialokoz, Morf Bowes, Mark
Brown, Andy Carr, Richard Dobell (captain) and Joe Mildred.
Libero: Grant Martindale.
Other players: Steve Fee, Andy Omoshebi, David
Rijvers and Aaron Stolberg.
Coach: Jefferson Williams.
Sheffield:
Starting six: Sam Bussey, Peter Casson, Dave
Clayden, Matthew Howe, Sam Thompson and Ben Wilkinson.
Libero: Adam Hunsley.
Other players: Anthony Hignett, Joel Miller,
James Mousley and Kieran O’Malley.
Coach: Keith Trenam.
League Table:
(leading positions) P W L F A Pts.
1. London Docklands 17 14
3 46 20 45
2. London Malory 16 14
2 46 16 44
3. City of Bristol 17 10
7 35 28 37
4. Newcastle, Staffs 18 9 8 32 37 36
5. Cambridge 17
9 8 36 29 35
6. Warwick Riga 17 8 9 32 31 33
7. London Polonia 16 8 8 38 31 32
8. Sheffield 17
6 11 26 40 29
9. London Aquila Lynx 17 6 11 24 41 29
Acknowledgements: EVA web site and results
service.