Vipers played East Grinstead without Jimmy, Turbo and Mickey, but still had nine names on the score sheet.
The first set went to plan (14-25) with Andy, Edvin, Damo, Nigel, Andrew and Dom stepping in to the vacant outside hitting position. A few changes for the second set and all of a sudden the errors started to creep in! The odd serve error, shanked first pass and hit in to the net combined with great recoveries and determined play from EG saw them take the second set 25-20.
Strong words from the coach a few less errors and the Vipers took the third set 17-25.
The fourth set started poorly with the Vipers apparently unable to get a single serve in court, spikes still rising as they hit the back wall and more determined play from EG saw the match levelled at 2-2.
More changes from the coach resulted in Nigel moving to the outside, but still more serving errors resulted in the Vipers trailing 8-4 at the turn around. Time for the Vipers to dig very deep to try and avoid a very large dent in their title challenge. A few more serves in, less mistakes, solid hitting under pressure from Nigel and a bit of doubt creeping in to the EG team saw the Vipers bring it back to 13-13 and eventually crawl across the finishing line 13-15.
Phew! Now that was a very close shave. Very muted celebrations from the Vipers at the end of a tough match that saw way to many very basic errors against a well organised and improving East Grinstead team who surely must start to pick up more wins before the season ends.
Andy L picked up MVP with Damo picking up the very keenly contested title of "most serving errors every recorded in a single match".
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