Men's 2nds cut down to size by steely Sheffield

KO Cup Second Round, 16th November  2002
Warwick Riga II 0 Sheffield  3 (13-25 18-25 21-25)
 

Saturday saw a stiff test for the Men's second team - taking on Division One high-flyers Sheffield in the 2nd round of the National KO Cup.

Still, a larger squad than had gone down to London for the last league game was available and coach Steve Howe was reasonably optomistic.
It was a concerned, if not nervous, Riga side that took the court in the first set. This was soon dispelled as we won the very first point of the contest - this at least avoided the team getting grannied i.e. losing 25-0!

Sheffield's superior power and fitness started to tell as they began to rack up the points and possibly we gave them a bit too respect  - almost before we knew it Sheffield had taken the set 25-13.
Set 2 saw the re-introduction of Graham Duckett into Riga action and the debut of Sascha Heuer for the club.

The pair added some strength into Riga's attack and the boys now put Sheffield under some pressure to make the second set rather closer at 25-18.
Graham Duckett (left) and Sascha Heuer
Set 3 saw the best Riga play yet, as we took the game to Sheffield.

At one point the Sheffield coach, Keith Trenam, was forced to call a time-out as his young charges, many of them junior internationals threatened to come unstuck.

Unfortunately for the lads we did not have quite enough and Sheffield finally took the set 25-21.
Still we were not disgraced and we did make the first Division lads sweat a bit,

So off into the Plate competition for the team, an away fixture against Second Division Leeds awaits.
 
Rob Clarke