(28/01/2001)
It was left to the Women’s Division Three side to put some cheer back into the club’s National League line-up after the Men and the Women had failed to extend their recent unbeaten runs in Divisions One and Two respectively. The Men saw their seven match winning streak end at second-placed Portsmouth on Saturday with a three-one defeat. The Women’s Division Two team lost out three-nil to high-flying Leeds on Sunday, which left the Division Three side’s three-two victory over Oxford Students at the Castle Farm Leisure Centre, Kenilworth as the club’s only National League win of the weekend.
The visit to Portsmouth was always going to be the biggest test of Riga’s resurgence in the last couple of months. With formidable opponents in the shape of England internationals Morph Bowes and six foot eight Marcus Russell, the visitors’ task was huge. However in the first set they rose to that challenge and made second-placed Portsmouth, victors over the current League Champions Malory only two weeks ago, look distinctly ordinary. Tom Spijkers and captain Tom Young were particularly effective in the Warwick attack, whilst Vincent Joubert, John Gilling and Richard Meade were on top blocking form. Good defence and service reception allowed Phil Wyles to show why he has received an England call-up by orchestrating the Riga offence to deadly effect. The resultant 25 - 18 score line flattered a Pompey side in disarray.
Set two again started brightly for Warwick but despite having the chances to take a commanding lead, they frittered away their opportunities. That is a dangerous thing to do against any side, let alone one placed second in the table with pretensions to go higher. With Morph Bowes on service, Portsmouth gave cause for Riga to rue those missed chances. A five point lead opened up in the home side’s favour which, despite a rearguard action by Spijkers, Young and Gilling, was enough to see them home, 25 - 17. Portsmouth now had their tails up and stormed into a 9 - 3 lead in the third set, again thanks to the jump serving of Bowes. It was a deficit from which Warwick were destined not to recover. With Marcus Russell now freed from the shackles Riga had so effectively applied earlier in the match, Pompey closed the set out 25 - 17.
The fourth set produced a better performance from Warwick. New signing Kees de Hoogh made his debut for the team and helped them go point for point with their hosts. However a Bowes blitz with the scores tied at 15 apiece destroyed any lasting hopes of a Riga revival and a disappointed team capitulated 25 -16.
"The first set we dominated and I could tell they were worried," said skipper Tom Young after the match. "From then on they got better and we didn’t hit the heights. Bowes made all the difference for them and if we could have got hold of him, then it would have been a different story." The Women’s Division Two side were given short shrift against second-placed Leeds on Sunday. Shorn of captain Rachel McCarthy, who was ill, and with several other players under the weather, the Riga performance was understandably below par and the three-nil defeat writ large from early in the game. "With so many players not performing, we got the result we deserved," reflected coach Paul Sutton afterwards. "Still I’m confident we’ll bounce back against Tameside in a fortnight."