KO Cup semi-final, 8th March 2003, London Malory v Warwick Riga
London Malory 3
Warwick Riga 0 (28-26 25-18 25-20)
Warwick Riga lost in the semi-final of the volleyball knockout cup for the second year running. Last Saturday London Malory, the current cup holders and national champions, proved too strong against a mediocre Riga team who gave them the opportunity to defend the cup after a 3-0 win (26-28, 18-25, 21-25). The result means Riga miss out narrowly yet again on a cup final appearance which would have been the icing on an overall very successful season in which the team has made tremendous progress. The Warwick team have two league matches left to play in which the team should secure third place in the overall standings in National League 1
The first set of Saturday’s game showed the Riga team at its best. Malory took the early initiative but good defensive efforts from the whole team kept the Warwickshire outfit trailing by only three points in the middle of the set. Difficult serving and a few good blocks from the Warwick boys brought the score back level again at 20-20. A very attractive game developed from then onwards and the teams traded points all the way up to 26-26,the game literally on a knife edge! However at this score controversy erupted when the referee awarded Riga the point on a technical matter but after a 5 minute dispute between the Malory captain & first official the decision was reversed & Malory were allowed to serve once again. This disastrous refereeing decision gave Malory a huge reprieve & immediately the momentum swung back in the Londoners favour and they took full advantage of the distraction and scored the next two points to secure an excellent set 28–26.
The Riga team were visibly shaken by this incident and still upset by the time the second set started. Malory on the other hand were full of confidence and took the initiative from the beginning of the set and quickly opened up a 5 point lead which they never relinquished at any point & never allowed Riga back into the set. The frustration for Riga was quite clear & the harder they tried the more silly mistakes kept creeping in to their play & really Malory were allowed to cruise through the set without any major problems. One or two of the Riga team were now looking fairly dejected & couldn’t erase the memories of the debacle which had taken place at the end of the opening set!
The third set showed the same characteristics as the previous one and combined with a complete lack of fighting spirit on the Warwick side of the net, the final outcome was never in doubt! Many individual mistakes combined with a smooth running London team meant that Riga never came back from a small but decisive gap established at the beginning of the set which resulted in a third set score of 25–21 to the defending champions.
Coach Tom Young was very disappointed after the match. ‘One bad refereeing decision lost us the first set but we can only blame ourselves for what happened after that. I still think that we could have won the game but not without our normal composure and team spirit,’ he said afterwards, ‘ we are at our best when we play as a team because we don’t have strong dominant players in our squad. We turn into a mediocre team as soon as we stop communicating on court and fail to correct each other’s mistakes.’
The Riga team must now pick themselves up after this huge disappointment & make sure they secure 3rd place in the top flight with victories in their 2 remaining league fixtures. Coach Young insists there will be no slacking off over this period & wants to continue the excellent progress that the team has made during this season & firmly believes that they can have an even better season next year if the work ethic remains.
Tom Spijkers
Warwick Riga had beaten last year’s losing finalists Newcastle (Staffs) 23:25
25:23 25:17 25:15 in the last round and clearly relished the possibility that
the Cup holders and League champions were vulnerable following their defeat in
three sets by London Docklands a week ago. Riga had already beaten Nottingham
Rockets and Ellesmere Port Eels to get that far. London Malory’s cup run, on
paper, had been somewhat easier as they beat in turn Guildford International,
University of London and Cambridge, the quarter-final victory coming 21:25 16:25
20:25.
So the first set was tightly contested and Riga had their chances to start with
the encouragement of a set under their belt. However, they just failed and, in
sets two and three never had their nose in front so, close as the two sides were
at times, the all-pervading excitement of the first did not return and although
the appreciative crowd enjoyed volleyball of a high standard and buckets of
commitment, the tense atmosphere of the opening exchanges were not repeated and
Malory eased their way into the Cup Final.
Malory had opened the contest full of confidence against visitors who started
cautiously and, with attacks from Morf Bowes and Andy Carr and strong blocking,
notably by Richard Dobell and Alex Bialakoz, were soon 7:4 up. However, Riga
responded and gradually drew closer then, with an excellent wipe off the block
by Kees de Hoogh to finish a superb rally and a mighty block by Phil Wyles and
Dave Nason to deny Morf Bowes, they were level at eight all. The scores were
still level at 23:23 when Tom Young called a time out for Riga. They had
attacked intelligently, frequently hitting off the block, Tom Spijkers and John
Gilling often catching the eye only to be matched by the Malory attackers,
including Mark Brown who was having a good game. Joe Mildred served into the
net. Riga had their first set point; Joe Mildred made amends by spiking from
backcourt to deny it them. Dave Nason smashed with a deflection off the net to
earn a second; again Malory saved the day. A poorly timed call for a time-out by
Jefferson Williams caused some confusion at 26 all and in consecutive rallies
Dave Nason hit wide, then long and Malory breathed a collective sigh of relief.
Sets two and three were remarkably similar. Riga were playing well and Malory
were making rather more mistakes than we are used to seeing but, nevertheless,
outscored the visitors thanks to more penetrating or stronger serving. In other
areas of play there was little between the teams. The attacks and blocks matched
each other in their respective ways. Backcourt play was excellent and the
liberos, Mark (Sparky) Fearn of Riga and Chris Hay of Malory had sound all-round
games. Thus Malory eased away to lead 17:12 before taking the second by seven
points and to 17:13 before winning the decider by five.
Warwick Riga played with a lot of spirit, showed power and skill and
demonstrated determination and promise. But today was again London Malory’s day
so the final on 5th April will be London Malory v Sheffield or London Docklands
who play on Sunday (Docklands won 3-0 ed.).
Douglas Barr-Hamilton