Tendring V.C. 3 – 0 Danes Watford

25-20, 25-13, 25-22

Report by Alex Porter

Tendring Demolish Title contenders

Today was a top of the table clash that would separate the men from the boys in Division 3 East. Both teams having won every match so far, it was set to be a close encounter.

Due to a case of an violent and rather messy illness Tendring started the match missing key setter Nick Davies, thankfully through Tendring’s work with Essex University, the team was able to sign up former Latvian National Junior Championship winner Sergejs Dupleca. Dupleca’s first experience of the English NVL would be a strange one. The rest of the team consisted of Stuart Dove, Neil Masters, Seb Widlarz, Aaron Jones, Jamie Everett and Libero Liam Chinnery.

The match started with the pressure on both teams and it showed with each team making a service error. Dove got off to a great start with two kills and a block in the first few points. Masters followed up on this with two powerful kills through the outside. With the score level at 6-6 Tendring system was picking up Danes attacks and easily converting them, it was the simple balls that Tendring was struggling with. Jones scored a point in the middle with his classic paintbrush attack to give Tendring their first lead of the game, 8-7. Danes instantly took this back with some clever attacks off the block. Dupleca served into the net to extend Danes lead to 10-13, Tendring followed this up with another couple of silly errors to put Danes in a favourable position of 12-17.

The Tendring team started to relax at this point as it looked like the set may be slipping away but in fact the team needed to relax to be able to play. Masters nailed a ball down the line through position 4 and Jones roofed the Danes middle. Maybe Tendring weren’t dead and buried. A service error by both teams put the score at 14-17. Due to a classic English referring decision James Newman of Danes started to throw his toys out of the pram, this put a smile on the Tendring player’s faces but also disrupted the Danes concentration.

Suddenly all hell broke loose, Tendring went on a rampage. Masters started to play like he was back in Division 1, everything he touched turned to gold. Each pass was inch perfect and each attack hit the floor first time. In the process Dove had a couple of amazing pick ups. From 14-17 it was 21-19, Danes tried to play clever and wipe off the block but it only bought them one point. Masters killed 2 more balls to 23-20. Widlarz then got in on the action and rolled a ball down the line to secure the first set, 25-20

Set 2

The second set started the way the first set ended, Tendring took a 4-0 lead with kills from J. Everett, Dupleca and Dove. Good defence by the team allowed Dupleca have a number of options in transition, which put more pressure on Danes. Dove performed an amazing 2 to 2 shot, taking it to 8-4. Good block D and a kill by Jones pushed it to 10-6. It was now the turn of Widlarz to shine. Between 11-6 and 18-10 Widlarz won over half the points. Normally Widlarz only has one shot, hard, but in this brief spell he unloaded on one cross court ball, the rest he managed to roll, tip, wipe off or perform a little up and over shot, winning points like he was playing against beginners. To preserve Widlarz’s energy, Spencer Overton-White came on to serve for him. White stepped up to the challenge and put 3 tough serves in. Dove roofed a Danes shot through 2 and Masters got the guns out and hit a powerful shot through 4. At set point Dove was set a ball a bit too wide but managed to save it which is more than Danes could do. 25-13

Set 3

At 2-0 up coach Porter left Jo Cook on to give his some experience on NVL. After a long rally Widlarz put the ball away to make to the score 1-2. Cook got in on the action and won a joust at the net making to 2-2. Two good serves by Cook gave Tendring a 4-2 lead. Dupleca dumped a 2^nd ball over to make it 7-4. Three errors on the trot by Danes increased the Tendring lead to 10-6. Tendring started to take their foot off the gas, at the same time Danes got their act together and in a matter of minutes the game was balanced again at 11-11. Chinnery whose passing had been amazing all day shanked his only ball of the weekend to make it 11-12. Dove blocked a Danes attack in a 1on1 to keep Tendring in it. A service error by Danes, a paintbrush by Jones and a kill by Master brought the game level at 16-16. A tough serve by Dove and another kill by Masters pushed Tendring into the lead again at 19-17. The pressure showed for a few points with Jones missing a hit and Danes hitting out then service out. At 22-21 Dove blocked another 2 attack from Danes, Danes hit back straight away with a kill in the middle. Masters killed a pipe attack to give Tendring set and match point. Widlarz finished the game with an off tempo shot down the line.

Game set match Tendring.

MVP: Sergejs Dulpea