Opponents: City of Bristol 1 Competition: National League Division 1 Date: Saturday 3rd November 2007 Venue: Bacon's College Result: W 3-1 (29-27, 19-25, 25-20, 25-21) Headline: Primus leads his side to important win Author: Andy Hopper
London Docklands Volleyball have returned to winning ways with a solid team performance against City of Bristol. The visitors had started the season as one of the title favourites especially after signing young prospect Dami Bakare. However, their form so far this season had been inconsistent and they arrived at Bacon's College looking for their first away victory in over a year. Bristol started confidently with an ace by Robin Miedzybroozke and kills by Bakare and Alex Burt taking them 6-3 up. However, two points from Efe Eruero and four Bristol errors saw the lead reverse as Docklands went 10-7 ahead. Docklands looked comfortable and extended their lead to five points with the help of aces from Nathan French and Francesco Riginelli. But some clever hitting from beach specialist Miedzybroozke lifted his side as they levelled the scores at 22-22. After working hard to get back into the match Bristol then set about shooting themselves in the foot by gifting Docklands four service errors in a row. But Docklands could not take full advantage as Bristol kept on siding out to tie the scores. It was not until a deft serve by Eruero disrupted Bristol's passing unit and as they tried to scramble the ball up, referee Maciej Chodzko-Zajko called a handling error to give Docklands the set 29-27.
Bristol took heart from their performance towards the end of the first set and after cutting out their unforced errors they put Docklands on the back foot. Docklands were struggling to pick up Bristol's varied attacking play and quickly found themselves 20-13 down. With a second set victory in sight Bristol seemed to tense up as errors crept back into their game to help Docklands narrow the gap to 21-17. However, Bristol recovered their composure to close out the set 25-19.
After coach Ian Legrand made a couple of adjustments to Docklands defence, his side started to have more success in the back court and with Alexis Blair and Nathan French controlling the Bristol serve, captain Danny Primus was able to run his offence more positively. Service runs by Klaus Thummert and Eruero effectively won the set for Docklands by mid through the set. Despite a mini-comeback by Bristol a kill by Thummert sealed the set for Docklands 25-20.
In their previous ten encounters, Docklands had never lost to Bristol and they came out of the blocks quickly at the start of the fourth set determined to extend their winning run. Two consecutive blocks by Primus on Miedzybroozke seemed to hit Bristol's confidence and further points from all of Docklands' hitters seemed to take the set away from the West Country side. After an ace by Thummert took Docklands 17-10 up it looked as though the match was all but over. However, four Docklands' errors in a row gave Bristol hope and forced Legrand to call a time out to regroup. His side managed to stem the flow of Bristol points but two more errors by Docklands and a Miedzybroozke kill saw Docklands lead reduce to just one point at 21-20. But after Thummert gave Docklands some breathing space, Primus went back to serve. He produced one ace and further service pressure helped Boris Halatchev to achieve his only block of the match. It was left to Thummert to hand out the killer blow to take the set 25-21.
Afterwards Legrand was pleased with this side's performance, "That was a real team effort today and after a disappointing loss last weekend we showed good spirit to turn it around." After over four years of trying captain Danny Primus was awarded Docklands' Black Knight for the first time. He said, "It's been a long time coming but I'm really glad to break my duck. It was important we won today and the team pulled together to get that win."
Next week Docklands begin the defence of their KO Cup crown at home to Stowmarket from Division 3.
Docklands: Halatchev 3 kills (9 attempts), Riginelli 12 (33), French 8 (23), Thummert 16 (35), Eruero 6 (17), Primus 2 (7), Blair (Libero). Subs not used: Gaitan, Phillips.
Bristol:
Pierce 1 (5), Polkingthorne 6 (9), Campostori 0 (0), Musalimov 8 (25),
Bakare 10 (29), Burt 9 (17), Miedzybroozke 17 (43), Gouiran (Libero).
Black Knight: Danny Primus