Report written by Dan Turnbull

Riga men continued their winning start to the 2009/10 season on Saturday with a hard fought win over longtime rivals London Docklands.

‘Docklands and Riga have enjoyed a fierce rivalry for over thirteen years and Docklands lead the head-to-head 16-9.  However, Docklands have only won one of their four matches at the Alan Higgs Centre.’ (Andy Hopper - Docklands Manager)

Prior to the game Riga already knew they would be without libero Leo Trench, missing through injury.  In addition new signing Tomasz Kwasniak was forced to return home to Poland mid-week for personal reasons.

The opening set was a tight affair with the teams still level at 13 all.  Docklands made the first move with strong hits from either wings giving them a 13-17 advantage.  A service run from Chris Anderson turned a 2 point deficit into a 2 point lead (22-20), before 2 kills from Piotr Rybarczyk and a block from Dan Turnbull gave Riga the opening set 25-23.

Riga errors early in set 2 gave Docklands the lead which they would never relinquish.  Strong Docklands play meant Riga were never able to get back into the set and Riga began focusing there minds on the 3rd set.

An early Riga time-out (2-5) in set 3 had the desired effect with blocks first from Anderson & Kees de Hoogh and then Anderson & Phil Wyles bringing the scores back to within a point.  Strong play from Docklands along with Riga errors let Docklands pull away (11-16). A pick-up from Turnbull and hit from Abdelhakim Aissaoui started the Riga fight back.  Service runs from Anderson and then Wyles backed up with a couple of big blocks from Rybarczyk turned the set around in favour of the home side sealing the set 25-22.

Docklands came out fighting at the start of the 4th set looking to take the match into a deciding 5th set.  With the early points traded, big hitting from Docklands saw them gain an advantage (7-10).  Tying the scores at 10 all Riga were back in the set.  Blocking pressure from Docklands re-established there lead and at 17-22 the 4th set seemed over.  A late rally from Riga, looking to gain some momentum for the deciding set, was in part thanks to a service run from Anderson but Docklands held on taking the set 22-25.

The momentum gained from the end of set four continued into the 5th set.  With de Hoogh at the service line Riga built a 7-3 lead.  A successful attack from Anderson saw the teams swap ends with Riga 8-4 up.  The change in ends appeared to unsettle Riga, and after a service error, net touch, hit out and finally a Docklands block the scores were tied at 9.  A de Hoogh block got Riga going again before Aissaoui was able to wipe off the Docklands block (13-11).  A service ace from Turnbull gave Riga 3 match points which they took at the second time of asking thanks to a Docklands hitting error (15-12).

The fixtures don’t get any easier for Riga as next up they travel to London to face last seasons 4th placed team Polonia (26/09/09) followed by another trip to London to play 3rd placed Malory (10/10/09) and then host to last seasons ‘double’ winners Sheffield (17/10/09).

MVP was awarded to Kees de Hoogh, that’s 2 from 2 this season!

Riga Squad: Dan, Piotr, Phil W, Kees, Chris A, Hakim, Bart, Tom Y (jnr), John

Coach: Tom Young