News
A triumph of brute strength for Men 2nd team
15th October 2007
A triumph of brute strength and ignorance- St Mary’s Richmond Men’s 2nd team win first match.
The very first match that Richmond have played in the Surrey League and one of the most extraordinary matches that I have ever been in. Entering the League in Division 3 and faced with a team of two young lads and four past their prime (being older still I am allowed to say that - Neil (cpt), and including one woman, it looked to us as if it would be a pushover after the warm ups and the easy first set win (25-18).
In the end it was a five set victory by a very narrow margin. The opposition, based around the American School at Cobham, soon realized that Walid Odah and Sam Phillips (u18 England south Junior), occasionally helped by the rest of us, were blocking nearly all their attacking moves.
Realizing that Richmond were playing with a “flat back three”, to adapt a soccer analogy, the opposition cleverly resorted to placing the ball in the four corners, especially position 4, thereby winning about 20 points out of their 100 or so, we donated most of the other 80 points to them. We got valuable experience, a euphemism for tripping over each other while trying to operate a simple two setter system.
The 2nd team looks forward to the rest of the season matches. Will they get easier?
Team List:
Andreas Koelblin, Artem Staponas, Neil Kenyon, Sam Phillips, Dave Nash, Marek Sokolowski, Walid Odah
Final Result: Richmond [3] v Sitting Ducks [0]
Set Results:
Richmond's Player of the Match:: Dave Nash
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