Opponents: Guildford International Competition: National League Division 1 Date: Saturday 15th December 2007 Venue: Bacon's College Result: W 3-0 (25-10, 25-13, 25-19) Headline: Docklands end year with much needed win Author: Andy Hopper
After two straight losses London Docklands Volleyball ended 2007 with a much needed win against bottom of the table Guildford International. The east London side were keen to bounce back after their recent set backs and Guildford never stood a chance against a determined Docklands squad. The match marked the last appearance of Martin Blake for at least year as he goes off travelling in January. He produced a man of the match winning performance in his 148th appearance for the club to remind his team mates what they will be missing while he is away.
The game started evenly enough although ominously for Guildford the majority of their points were coming from Docklands' errors. Once Docklands eradicated these mistakes Guildford found the going tough after a run of nine Danny Primus serves took the score from 9-7 to 18-7. Jesse Kaptein and Nathan French were unstoppable at the net but the home side just failed to keep Guildford under ten points as Docklands took the set 25-10 in ten minutes.
Docklands started the second set as they ended the first with a Primus ace and a Blake block helping them take a 4-1 lead. A powerful service run by Francesco Riginelli stretched Docklands' lead but some repetitive Docklands' errors gifted Guildford some easy points that prevented an exact repeat of the first set. In the end another Riginelli service run killed off Guildford as Docklands secured the set 25-13.
Coach Ian Legrand introduced Adam Phillips and Klaus Thummert at the start of the third set but this change did not disrupt Docklands' momentum as they raced into a 5-0 lead. Maybe this caused Docklands' concentration to lapse as they failed to significantly stretch their lead as careless errors and some courageous Guildford play kept the bottom side in contention at 19-17 to Docklands. However, blocks by Blake and Thummert gave Docklands a five point cushion and kills by Kaptein and French sealed the set 25-19.
Docklands have now completed two thirds of their league matches and have a 7-5 win-loss record. With this in mind Legrand said afterwards, "We're about two wins short of where realistically we would have liked to have been. But we can still have a big influence on the league title this season and that will be one of our goals in the New Year". The departing and recently tattooed Blake also commented, "I'll miss the team but I'm sure they'll do well in my absence and I look forward to coming back to make it to 150 games."
Docklands'
league campaign now has a prolonged break until they host Warwick Riga
on 26th January. Docklands' next match is in the third round of the cup
against Reading VC on 12th January. The team from Berkshire are flying
high at the top of Division 2 and the cup champions will not be underestimating
their lower division opposition in the New Year.
Black Knight: Martin Blake
Docklands: Kaptein 11 kills (15 attempts), Phillips 0 (3), Riginelli 6 (11), French 8 (14), Blake 3 (7), Thummert 4 (8), Eruero 3 (4), Primus 1 (1), Blair (Libero). Sub not used: Sliti.
Guildford:
Vlcek 6 (21), Cernich 4 (15), Kernchen 2 (7), Todd 2 (9), Richardson 1
(3), Booth 1 (10).