After a disappointinbg start, Phil Songhurst is relieved to see his team notch up a first win at Duffield ...
Duffield 1-4 FPD Savills Nottingham
Dan Jenson lost to John White 9-6, 7-9, 7-9, 9-7, 3-9
Paul Hargrave lost to Simon Parke 8-10, 5-9, 5-9
Laurence Delasaux lost to David Evans 3-9, 2-9, 7-9
Kevin White lost to Nick Douglas 12-14, 7-9, 6-9
Cassie Jackman beat Jenny Duncalf 9-2, 9-4, 9-3
After such a disappointing start to the season, the trip to East
Midlands rival Duffield on Tuesday evening was a must win encounter for
the former champions.
Indeed, Duffield had been a poor hunting ground for Nottingham in recent
years and so the omen's weren't so good.
However, with the Derbyshire's outfit's top player away, the prospects
looked better than expected and the team's performances on the night
bore out this expectation.
Unusually, first on court were the number one seeds with former world 5,
Dan Jenson taking on Nottingham's world 2, John White.
In a game lasting over an hour both players showed exceptional
athleticism and retrieval skills but also an abundance of unforced
errors.
Jenson went out quick in the first, going to a 5 - 1 lead before White
woke up after having only stepped off a flight from Canada some 7 hours
earlier. He pulled back to 6 / 7 down with a succession of tight balls
down the backhand wall and a trademark kill from Jenson's serve but the
Ausie played out the game to take it 9 /6 with and excellent crosscourt
pass and White's final tin.
Points were traded in the second with never more than two between them.
White had his nose in front throughout and again used his backhand drop
volley to good effect to draw level at one all.
The third game was the crucial one with Jenson again focussed and moving
to a 5 / 0 lead. Again White countered with a succession of gruelling
rallies, pushing Jenson into deep trouble and playing the winning drop
or deceptive crosscourt. He clawed it back to 7 all with a stoke which
Jenson verbally disagreed with. The resulting conduct stroke awarded to
White gave him game ball - which he duly took with Jenson tinning an
attempted winner.
The conduct stroke was a correct but brave call by the referee and one
only hopes others will follow suit so as to see consistency in this
area.
The fourth followed a similar pattern to the second game but with the
score at 4 all White hit three tins in a row to give Jenson the upper
hand. But again White started to rally deep and pulled back to 7 all at
which point a burst ball upset his rhythm. Jenson used the new cold
ball to good effect in closing out to take level at 2 all with a tight
stoke call.
White started the fifth with fresh impetus and raced to a 5 / 0 lead,
subjecting his opponent to draining rallies.
Although Jenson pulled a couple of points back, White was flowing and a
succession of stunning winners and a final winning sublime drop saw the
Scot take the match 3 / 2.
Meanwhile, on the adjacent court, the Nottingham 3 * 4 players had gone
about their business in a quiet yet efficient manner and had wrapped up
the match for Nottingham with two straightforward wins.
First of all Nick Douglas took out former Nottingham team-mate, Kevin
White 3 - 0 in little over 30 minutes. The first was a critical game
with Douglas taking it 14 / 12.
Douglas' superior power and fitness saw him stay ahead in the 2nd & 3rd
games and thus maintain his 100% record this season.
Following Doulas' win, David Evans made even lighter work of England
junior player Laurence De La Saux winning in under half an hour and for
the loss of only 12 points.
So with the points safely in the bag, Nottingham's up and coming England
player, Jenny Duncalf took to the court with World No. 6 Cassie Jackman.
After several excellent results in recent weeks one could have forgiven
Jackman's apprehension at facing Duncalf. For the second time this
season Jenny showed her potential in defeat. Last month she played a
good game against Sarah Fitzgerald and there were times in this match
when she had Jackman working very hard to gain control. Indeed, better
shot selection at critical times and full concentration for the whole
game will see the young Yorkshire woman rise further up the rankings for
the remainder of the season. Losing 0 - 3, all games followed a similar
pattern with hard rallies early on before Jackman put together a string
of points to pull ahead. She came from 1 - 2 down in the first in a
single hand to take the game. The same happened from 5 / 4 in the
second with four unnecessary tins giving Jackman the advantage before
trading points up to 5 / 3 in the third. Jackman pulled away again to
take the expected point for the home side.
Final match on could have been trouble for Nottingham's Simon Parke.
Home favourite, Paul Hargrave is a dangerous opponent who's taken many a
scalp in his time.
Parke's been having a hard time of it lately but always works incredibly
hard in these matches. The first game was tight all the way with Parke
going into a 6 / 3 lead after three tins from Hargrave. Parke kept his
nose in front to take the game 10 / 8.
Hargrave moved further up the court in the second with the hope of
cutting out Parke's penetrating shots and and several occasions played
outrageous winners much to the thrill of the partisan crowd. However
Parke used good length and long drops to steer his way to 8 / 5 and game
ball. He took this first time with a superb cross court pass.
A combination of Hargrave tins and telling Parke drops saw the
Nottingham player storm to an 8 / 1 lead in the third before Hargrave
countered back up to 5 / 8. A no let call upset Parke enough to see him
slam a volley nick from Hargrave's next serve and the match was his.
Nottingham now move up to 4th in the league and are only 7 points behind
the leaders Manchester.
The next home game is critical but with John White away the visit of
Wolverhampton is going to be as tough as ever.
The match is on 18th November at 7pm on the Park courts - tickets
available on 9417022
