Report by Alex Porter

National Sheild Quarter Finals

25-12, 24-26, 25-18, 26-24

 

Tendring travelled down to Guildford on Saturday morning missing head coach Neil Master but with a starting line up looking more like last season winning team. With Nick Davies back in the setting role and Liam Chinnery pulling on the libero kit again, the team where hoping to over power their opponents from the division below.

 

With assistant coach Alex Porter taking over the coaching duties for the day, he was able to bench himself and still put out a formidable team. In set 1, both teams started nervously as they tested each other out, but at 7-5 Tendring realised they were by far the better team. As Jack Bruce and Ben Wilson made easy work of the Guildford serve, Davies was having a field day, distributing the ball evening amongst his hitters. By the time the score reached 20-10 Tendring were firing on all cylinders with Seb Widlarz destroying them with hit after hit down the line, giving Tendring a 25-12 set win.

 

In set 2 Porter put out a mixture of old and young, with James Baker(16) and Mitchell Lawrence(16) getting a run out. Davies utilised the middle more, the speed and height of Lawrence and Joe Cook was too much for the Guildford block. At 19-15 the team was starting to show signs of complacency, so Porter gave Ben Ward-Cochrane(17) his second appearance in adult volleyball. Unfortunately Tendring’s game slowed down and Guildford got the upper hand running out 26-24 set winners.

 

The starting line up was reintroduced and from here the confidence grew again. Davies kept feeding Wilson and Stuart Dove who were easily fining holes in the block, plus Chaney was dropping the occasionally bomb in the middle. Guildford could see they were up against the wall and took their chances when they could but most of their attacks where soaked up by Jack Bruce or blocked by Joe Cook. As Tendring increased their lead to 4 points, they focused on their service which resulted in numerous free balls. In situations like this Tendring are unstoppable not only in their own division but probably even in the Super 8’s, in other words Guildford didn’t stand a chance as Tendring won the set 25-18.

                                                                                       

With the confidence flowing again Ward-Cochrane was reintroduced to the starting line up to give him some much needed experience.  After some poor passing from the Tendring receivers, Tendring found themselves down 6-1. Baker was introduced for Widlarz and produced a side out straight away. As Guildford maintained a 6 point lead you could see the subs were eager to get on. After trading for 12 points, Tendring found themselves 13-7 down, Davies and Widlarz were reintroduced and the team chipped away at the deficit. As the score reached the 20’s Tendring were the team with all the confidence again, Guildford were running out of ideas. Great hitting from Wilson and Chaney plus a couple of serves from Cook gave Tendring match point, which Guildford hit into the net.

 

Tendring are now through to the semi finals of the National Shield, against fellow NVL Division 1 rivals London Docklands. This will be Tendring’s third National Cup/Shield semi final in as many years.