Jets sneak past Kings2

Our last away game of the season started like most of our away games with Josh and I standing in the cold making increasingly frantic calls to each other to see if Kishy was on his way, followed by bombing it up the motorway in a car kept at Mauritius temperatures, skidding into the car park and legging it on to court just as captains were called!  With Hastings having the men's Division Two league title in the bag and us already having second place all tied up, our coach and our setter decided that playing for Vipers in their title decider against Eastbourne was an acceptable excuse for bunking off.  This meant Wilko stepped into his favourite position of setter, with Iain as opposite.  Matt and Josh played through the middle and Kish and Dom were the outside hitters with Dan as libero, and Bernard on the bench. We made an inauspicious start to the first set losing the first six points while the team got used to a different setter, when we finally won the serve and moved off that rotation Iain decided anything they could do so could he and Jets took the next six points with no reply. Josh served next for us and also had a strong run of serves with Matt Lay and Dom front court and hitting well we got our noses in front and stayed there.

OK on to set two and Bernard was on for Kish.  Dom decided to get in on the strong serving action and helped Jets get off to a 8-0 lead with help from Josh and Bernard teaming up well to make some strong blocks and powerful attacks.  Matt Wilkes was starting to find his range and mixed the sets up and the whole team were hitting well. Josh nearly took someone's head off and after that we cruised to a 25-12 victory and were starting to think about an early finish and something to eat.

So we were 2-0 up, who needed Andy and Martin? In set three Kish was back on for Bernard and a little complacency started to creep in, the back court cover was a little slower and we weren't finding 2 with our first ball.  Everyone then stepped up and we were all trying too hard to make the killer hit. Kish had one of his moments of madness deciding to spike their serve and was astounded when the referee gave the point to Kings! We were drifting 16-23 down when Matt Lay decided that he still wanted to make the Market Diner and creamed a ball that Kings didn't get anywhere near and then proceed to serve to get us back to 23 all, with a little help from Dom front court . It wasn't to be and in spite of all the momentum being with Jets, Kings defence held strong and they clawed over the line to win 26-24.

Jets always struggle in the third set so no one was too concerned we'd take it in the fourth set, no worries.  Kish and Bernard changed again and off we went.  This time both teams were a little cagey and we traded points throughout the whole game.  Wilko surprised everyone including himself with some great smashes helping us to get to 22-22, but Kings defence was again very mobile and they were picking up balls we thought were dead.  Again they just finished the set winners 25-23.

It's been awhile since Jets have gone to five sets and no one wanted to be the one to tell Andy we had dropped points.  Without Martin there to look to in a tight corner everyone stepped up with great coverage and calling back court and everyone hitting well front court.  Matt Lay was looking for and finding the gaps with his tip and we took the final set 15-11!

Thanks to Steve (Dom's dad) for driving half our team to the game and being the lone voice of support for our longest game of the season, yes it was longer than the sharks game!  MVP went to Bernard for, I think the 8th time (Andy correct me if I'm wrong) it's lucky for him the MVP doesn't have to bake!  Unfortunately taking two and a half hours to play our game meant that we couldn't meet up with the Vipers at the Market Diner to celebrate them claiming the Men’s Division 1 title, but congratulations!

Sorry for another long match report we don't all have Debbie's talent for being funny and succinct!  Don't worry Andy and Martin will be back after Easter (I hope).