Match Report: 18/11/06 National Volleyball League Division 1

Battling ‘Castle take the honours

Newcastle (Staffs) 3 - 2 City of Bristol

(23-25, 25-17, 27-25, 22-25,15-11)

City of Bristol arrived at Keele University for their clash with
Newcastle (Staffs) full of confidence, riding high in the top flight of
the National League having won every game this season and safe in the
knowledge that they had beaten ‘Castle on every occasion since their
return to the top flight back in 2003. Bristol are a well organised team
led excellently by experienced coach Gary Burton and in training
‘Castle’s coach Ant Viggars had reinforced the key characteristics of
their opponents: consistency and reliability.

‘Castle knew that they would have to turn in their best performance of
the season to gain a much needed victory and were hit hard in the
warm-up when starting wing hitter was struck in the eye by a stray ball
and removed from the line-up. Mark Speake took on the libero shirt and
Last season’s MVP Richard Guest took Cooper’s place on court. This twist
of fate proved fruitful as Guest shone throughout the match and scooped
Bristol’s nomination for player of the match. The first set was close
with neither team establishing itself and Bristol took it 25-23. The
second set saw ‘Castle move into top gear with some outstanding
defensive plays and slickly built attacks. Bristol were performing well
but were visibly disheartened by the uncanny ability of the home team to
apparently prevent any attack from hitting the ground and ‘Castle pushed
on to dominate the set 25-17.

The visitors recovered in the 3rd which was far tighter, but ‘Castle now
appeared to have the measure of Bristol’s powerful middle attackers and
backed up their floor defence with a consistent block. Viggars withdrew
himself from the court at the crucial moment, introducing Jon Pennock to
provide a full compliment of front court attackers and this switch gave
‘Castle the momentum at the crucial moment as they took the set 27-25.

At 10-7 up in the 4th set ‘Castle were starting to really stamp their
authority on the game as Dave Lovell stepped up the pressure with
accurate jump serving, only for Bristol captain Mike McCarthy to fall on
his team-mate Jevgenijs Palancevics’s foot and turn his ankle. This
delayed the game by 5-10 minutes and as is often the case in such
circumstances it was Bristol who powered their way back into the game to
come from behind and take the set 25-22.

After an hour and three-quarters on court the match went into a 5th set,
and from the off ‘Castle took the upper hand thanks to some
uncharacteristically wayward attacking from the visitors who made 3
consecutive hitting errors, giving ‘Castle an 8-3 lead at the change of
ends. Although Bristol rallied late on to make the set closer, ‘Castle
had enough bites of the cherry to finish the match off through Ant
Viggars.

The team now prepares to travel to London for a league encounter with
Polonia next Saturday (25th), making the same trip as they did two weeks
ago for the National Cup match.


Squad: Will Roberts (c), Ant Viggars (player-coach), James Cooper, Sam
Bragg, Dave Lovell, Jon Pennock, Richard Guest, Matt Rogers, Mark Speake
(libero), Adam Brewer, Falko Drijfhout

Will Roberts