Opponents: Sheffield 1
Competition: National League Division 1
Date: Saturday 27th September 2008
Venue: Bacon's College, Rotherhithe
Result: L 3- 1 (25-20, 13-25, 23-25, 11-25)
Headline: Sheffield show ominous form
Author: Andy Hopper

London Docklands Volleyball opened their home account in the national league against old foes Sheffield. The home side welcomed back Boris Halatchev and gave a debut to new signing Wayne Davies who as fate would have it played for Sheffield in the last three seasons whilst he studied in the steel city. Davies is not the only player Sheffield coach Keith Trenam has lost since his side won the cup and came second in the league last season. Trenam now has to do without Joel Miller who has joined the Great Britain programme whilst Sam Bragg is playing in Germany. Sheffield's options have been further depleted simply by their second team joining them in the top division. Trenam used to be able to call on reinforcements from Sheffield 2 but now that they are in the same division, playing up is no longer permitted and both squads are fixed for the season. However, with the experience of captain Andy Sinclair, Sheffield are again expected to be title contenders this season and Ian Legrand's squad knew they would have a tough match on their hands.

Docklands started brightly and quickly took an 11-5 lead. Halatchev was swiftly into the game and setter Alex Gaitan was able to give all his hitters early opportunities to find their range. Two rare blocks by captain Alexis Blair kept Docklands in charge and they coasted to the set win, 25-20.

Sheffield had started to gain momentum towards the end of the first set with Docklands finding it particularly difficult to stop Sinclair and Alex Robertson. At the start of the second set a disastrous run of points for Docklands saw the score go from 6-4 down to 13-4 and the set was practically over. Legrand tried to change things, bringing in Davies, Danny Primus and Adam El Kass and although the flow of Sheffield points dried up slightly the set was already gone.

Sheffield continued their good run in the third set and an ace by Anthony Hignett forced Legrand to call a time out 9-4 down. Davies rose to stop his old team-mate's run and then a series of serves by Blair helped tie the set at 10-10. The game was finely balanced and despite Sheffield twice sneaking into a two point lead another run of Blair serves got his team back into the set and his third ace of the match saw Docklands take a 21-19 lead. However, two quick Sheffield kills and a Docklands' error suddenly saw the visitors back in charge and two further points from Sinclair gave Sheffield the set 25-23.

Docklands had let a good chance slip away and once Sheffield got on top in the fourth set there was no way back. Sinclair and Robertson were again dominant but were ably supported by Hignett and Dave Clayden who continued to breach Docklands' defence. In the end Sheffield prevailed 25-11, Docklands' lowest 25-point set score since November 1999.

Docklands now have two weeks to prepare for a tough away trip to face Coventry and Warwick Riga.

Black Knight: Danny Primus

Docklands: Kaptein 3 kills (14 attempts), Davies 7 (19), Halatchev 7 (11), Bos 2 (4), Mills 6 (19), Gaitan 1 (4), El Kass 2 (10), Blair 8 (23), Primus 0 (2), de Oliveira (Libero). Sub not used: Apostolov

Sheffield: Robertson 15 (32), Sinclair 13 (28), O'Malley 0 (3), Clayden 8 (15), Mintoft 4 (6), Hignett 7 (13), Mousley (Libero). Sub not used: Green.

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