Match Report: Watford YMCA 2, Away 19th December 2004

2-3 loss: 23-25, 25-13, 22-25, 25-11, 6-15 (side-out scores: 12-13, 18-7, 9-11, 17-4, 0-8)

Team : Jem Clark, Jonathan Glenn, Nigel Collins, Nishi Saran, Sara Clark, Sascha Stemme & Steve Smith (Chris Seal was delayed in Birmingham)

Set 1 rotation (1 to 6): Nishi (OH), Steve (S), Jem (MB), Sascha (OH), Jonathan (S), Nigel (MB).

Set 2: Sara came on to set instead of Jonathan.

Set 3: Jonathan came on to set instead of Steve.

Set 4: Steve came on to set instead of Jonathan.

Set 5: Jonathan came on to set instead of Sara.

We raced to a 15-8 lead in the first set and surged again to 21-14 before subsiding to lose 23-25. The first referee was strict on handling and not impressed by power volley blocks and deep dish sets. Blocking was good, cover, dig and setting OK but spike selection poor when a couple of percentage hits would have taken us through.

In the second set we sprinted to 13-1, but allowed a partial comeback to 19-11 before taking the set 25-13, scoring 10 points in all off Steve's well-placed serving.

The third set was more evenly matched with regular side-outs until Watford scored 3 on service to go into an 11-15 lead and Vale never managed to pull back the difference. Jonathan caught Watford with a couple of well-placed second ball volleys and Sara converted average digging into good sets but again we made too many hitting mistakes.

With everyone taking notice of the team talk on percentage hitting, we stormed through the fourth set 25-11, scoring on each rotation with good dumping by Nishi, mobile cover by Nigel & Jem, and superb power hitting by Sascha.

Finally our frailties were exposed again in the fifth as we failed to win a serve and went from 3-4 to 3-9, then steadying to swap side-outs until losing 4 in a row to lose 6-15.

Nigel.