Warwick Riga returned to league action after a break of 2 weeks and showed quite a few signs of rustiness as they made hard work of despatching their visitors from Bristol!

The first set started in a very promising manner for the Riga team with a number of quality rallies and good organised team play. However this was short lived as Riga toiled to keep their noses in front of a very committed young team from the South West who chased down every ball & made Riga work harder than anticipated before securing the first set with a power play from 6”7 Dutchman, Kees De Hoogh.

Before the second set started, coach Tom Young, emphasised that the problem was not necessarily the opposition but in particular the number of unforced errors on the Riga side of the net. Taking this on board, Riga started the second set in a far more promising manner but quickly returned to the lack-lustre performance which was dogging their evening. Speedwell took full advantage of this blip in form to build a small lead which Riga eventually managed to overturn right at the end of the set to clinch it 25 – 23.

Anderson: telling contribution

The third set seemed to see Speedwell’s resolve weaken & at long last the home side started to get a bit more fluidity in their attacks which enabled them to open up a fairly comfortable lead which on this occasion they did not relinquish. This set also saw the introduction of outside hitter Chris Anderson & setter Phil Hudson both of whom were able to make very valuable & telling contributions. The set was relatively comfortably won (25-20) and the first 3-0 victory for this season was secured.

Coach Tom Young was happy with the first ‘clean sheet’ of the season although he couldn’t contain his frustration with the relatively small margins in the first two sets. "Speedwell turned out to be a difficult opponent but we can only blame ourselves for that as we made most of the mistakes," he mentioned afterwards, "but the important fact is that we know that we can play a great deal better". Warwick Riga and defending champions Malory London are the only unbeaten teams in the first division at this early stage of the volleyball season and it could turn out to be a two horse race if both can maintain their form. Riga will play Malory in four weeks time and will need that period to get themselves ready for the occasion. The next game is on Saturday 25th October in Stoke against Newcastle Staffs.