Southend1 Beat Stowmarket In Five
What a game! Right down to the wire in the fifth. A see-sawing, high quality, injury-occurring match was eventually won by the home team, Southend1, who will take their 100% record to Brentwood in two weeks time.
Set 1 was a muted affair from a Southend perspective. The anticipation of a tough match vs a strong Stowmarket team transferred itself into caution and an atmospheric vacuum. The passion was missing and the quality was only provided by the Stowmarket wing attackers who made hay whilst Southend struggled to get out of the blocks. Infact, getting to 23 in the set was a result in itself for such a poor showing.
Set 2 did not start much better. However, the seeds of improvement began to sprout. Setter Mark Davies, despite an unusually wayward first ball, began to find his range and his attackers duly started finding the Stowmarket court floor. Things were looking better: Paul Prossser through four was attacking with effective intelligence and Rick Carr through middle was keeping the Stowmarket block honest and thus helping keep the outside hitters to a single blocker. The Southend quality had improved but so had Stowmarket’s – players 5 and 6 both had high kill rates in set 2. And moving into squeaky bum time, Southend were 17-20 down. A tactical change was required: up stepped the legendary steady and unspectacular Graeme Roberts. An amazing pickup and several error-free plays later Roberts was the hero as Southend turned things around for a 27-25 set win.
Set 3 and things got drastically worse for Southend. A tactical change to the rotation by captain Frith (trying to be clever) put Bailey to four and Prosser to middle in the hope of using Bailey’s 6ft 5in frame to full effect. Sadly, with Southend 6-9 down the wheels really came off. Bailey took a knock an unhealed knuckle injury and had to go off in quite some pain. Southend were in a pickle. Ricky Carr came through four having never played previous anywhere but middle. Confusing front re-jigging and general lack of concentration and Southend quickly lost the set 25-19.
Set 4 was the beginning of the Lazarus-like comeback. Bailey, despite serious injury, insisted on returning to the action. The team instantly knew the match had gone beyond volleyball: we were doing this for Bailey. With Southend’s improvement came Stowmarket’s tiredness. Southend smelt an opportunity. The Southend service receive led by libby Sam Birkinshaw was giving Davies all the options. Stowmarket could not deal with the renewed power of the Southend attack: Stuart Coussins through four and, Southend MVP, Andy Frith through opposite were firing missiles of which the Stowmarket block had no answer. Jubilantly, Southend took the set 25-15.
Set 5 saw Bailey unable to continue. Having once again re-jigged the rotation, Carr came back into the action in the middle with Roberts through four. Stowmarket were no longer as lethal in attack as sets 1-3 and Southend took advantages of their errors. Prosser and Davies served tough and stacked up the points. At 14-11 Frith served for the game and promptly served out. Coaching calmness under pressure clearly hadn’t been self-learnt. At 14-12, the rally was long but eventually Stowmarket buckled under the pressure with an attack into the net. Southend WIN!
Great effort by all the team in an adrenalin pumped performance. Big thanks to scorer Tim Husk, ref Charlie Hedgecock, liner Leasa Williams – great job. But biggest plaudits go to Bailey – we did this for you: now go get an x-ray and get better soon!
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