Richmond vs Newcastle (Staffs)
National Volleyball League Division 1
1/10/11
Kingston Arena

On the hottest ever October day in the UK, ‘Castle has the long trip to south west London to contend with an whilst it was around 30C outside, it felt much hotter for the team on their mammoth 4 hour minibus journey. Travelling without the unavailable Stew Ross who had been so impressive when on court at Cambridge last week, ‘Castle leapt into action from the start to again try to take immediate control of the match.

The game started with ‘Castle receiving and despite an inch-perfect pass from Heath, Allen’s set to Shenton was blocked by Richmond who took the early lead. This was far from the story of the match as 17 year old Shenton dominated at the net and took the MVP. With so many of ‘Castle’s team towering above 6 foot 4 or so, the block is a real asset to the team and so it proved in the first set which was taken with relative ease. ‘Castle never really put their foot on the gas but played a simple steady game and wore their opponents away to finished it comfortably 25-15.

The second set was dominated unfortunately by Richmond’s confusion about their rotation which caused a lengthy delay to play which was never satisfactorily solved as they appeared to have been out of rotation for a significant period with their numbers 7 and 9 serving for four rotations in a row! For ‘Castle though, the game continued to be all about the block and Allen set off a run of big blocks, followed by the more likely interventions of McKellar, Shenton, Yates and Bradbury.

The third set was one of limited quality unfortunately as the match fizzled out towards its conclusion. Lovell shuffled his pack once again for the third set, bringing Saward into the serve receive and switching Shenton to play the opposite role. Richmond withdrew their highly effective left handed opposite player and replaced him with the veteran Italian Scatigna-Gianfagna who also troubled ‘Castle with his blocking and his own height in attack. The set was very scrappy with Richmond again guilty of slowing the game down unnecessarily and seeming to be confused about their rotation all too often, and they stayed in touch with the visitors, 8-6 and 16-12 down at the technical time-outs. Lovell used the double sub of Jenkins and Yates for Shenton and Allen, and it was when the reverse double sub was used that ‘Castle finished off the match thanks to a determined and focused serving run from Allen which saw ‘Castle end up 3-0 winners, 25-15, 25-18, 25-18.

Squad:
Allen, Bradbury, Heath, Jenkins, Lovell, McKellar, Roberts, Saward, Shenton, Yates