25-23, 25-16, 23-25, 25-20

Report By Neil Masters


London knights made the short journey east to meet with Tendring. Both teams had met previously before knights won promotion 4 seasons ago.

With a win each from their opening matches the teams desire to maintain their 100% record was evident to see.
Knights fast play stunned Tendring in the opening points and took another good service run from Stuart Dove to bring Tendring in touching distance at the first technical time out.

Excellent receiving from captain Sebastian Widlarz and crucial playmaking from Liam Chinnery took Tendring ahead but a run of 4 lost points dragged Tendring back into a dogfight.

Player/Coach Neil Masters made a double substitution and Tendring were able to move through their sticky rotation and strengthened their front row attack. Ben Wilson hammered his first jump serve forcing an error from the opponents and creating a small chance for Tendring to steal the first set. Dove made sure with a counter attack and Tendring went 1-0 to the good.

A change in starting line up saw Sergey Dupleca and Mitchell Lawrence enter the fray. Dupleca managed to lose the blockers on several occasions and with a combination from huge blocks from Sonny Chaney, Tendring took an early but impressive lead. It was a lead they would not give up.  Unprecedented hitting from 6'9", ex-GB captain Alex Porter blew knights away and Tendring strolled past the line 25-16.

With an early lead and a sense of game over.  Tendring's assertiveness softened and with several mental errors including a farcical moment when Masters mistakenly entered the court Tendring gave up their lead. After being promoted last season Tendring were used to finishing off matches without any fightback. In a division above there would be no similarity and knights seized the moment taking the set by a narrow margin.

Tendring now spurred on by their willingness not to repeat the same errors sprinted into a large lead. James Baker, 16,  making his national league debut displayed excellent back court awareness for someone of his age making chances for Tendring's lead to become unassailable. It was Captain Widlarz who's display won him the Janice Porter award that stood out and was his reception that led to Wilson finishing off the Knights team.