Reinhardt hits treble for U18s
U18S PUT FIVE PAST NOTTINGHAM FOREST
MELBOURN Squash Club’s first team rounded off their Division One regular campaign with a 16-9 win at bottom-of-the-table Ely firsts.
Gareth Jones (5) made an impressive debut for the firsts as he recorded a straight games win over Lee Moll, overcoming initial nerves to play some of his best squash in the third.
Ely struck back though as Kate Bradshaw (4) fell 3-2 to Jack Woor despite Bradshaw twice recovering from a game deficit, quickly followed by Mark Oppen (3) being beaten 3-0 by Jack’s brother Jamie Woor.
EMILIA REINHARDT struck a quick-fire hat-trick as Cambridge United Women U18 thumped Nottingham Forest 5-0 and leapfrogged their rivals to secure a second-place finish in the Junior Premier League at Cambourne Village College on Saturday.
After a relatively subdued opening 45 minutes, the game came alive after the break with four goals in nine breathless second-half minutes including Reinhardt’s treble with Jasmine Fox and top-scorer Natasha Coe also getting on the scoresheet.
Unfortunately a win for championship rivals Derby County meant the Rams now cannot be caught at the top of the table but that shouldn’t take the gloss off a fine debut season for Sean Greygoose’s team who still have the Cambs Invitational Cup to look forward to.
The first chance fell to the home side after nine minutes when a Serena Cobb pass found Millie Docking out wide on the left. The striker did well to cross to Lily Horsler who had an a powerful shot blocked by the Forest goalkeeper.
Docking headed over from a corner and then combined well with Holly Plummer to set up Gwendolyn Davis-Jones who shot narrowly wide.
Forest, who started level on points with the young U’s, had a few shots on goal as the half drew to a close but none seriously troubled LilyGrace Cooke in goal.
Within a couple of minutes of the re-start the game burst into life when Reinhardt dispossessed the centreback and ran through on goal before neatly slotting the ball wide of the on-rushing keeper.
Then on 51 minutes Daisy Hay put in a strong challenge to win the ball and surge forward, she found Reinhardt just outside the penally area and did well to set up Fox who finished confidently.
The goals were coming thick and
Vinod Duraikan (2) pulled Melbourn back level pegging with a solid 3-1 win over Chris Purkiss, but it still looked like the visitors were heading for defeat when Chris Shaw (1) fell two games to love down to Ben Mitchell.
Shaw fought back though, winning the next three 11-5, 11-4, 11-7 to give Melbourn overall victory.
The win kept Melbourn Squash Club eighth in the table, but they are only now four points ahead of March, who have a game left whilst Melbourn have completed all their fixtures.
Dropping to a final position of fast and two minutes later Reinhardt got another when she shot into the top corner from 20 yards. The forward completed her hat-trick on 56 minutes after picking the ball up on the half-way line, running through to goal and shooting in off the Forest keeper to make it 14 goals for the season.
The young U’s completed the rout on 80 minutes when Reinhardt was brought down in the area by a crude challenge from the keeper and Coe slotted the spot kick home for her 24th goal this term.
Coach Greygoose praised the performance over 90 minutes.
“Previously the girls have struggled with first-half performances and showed a little bit of nerves, however we changed the shape slightly and we were really pleased with how we started the game especially against the wind,” he said. “We created a few chances and made the keeper work.
“We spoke about the second half looking more aggressive with and without the ball and being more on the front foot.
“The girls started the half really well and scoring four goals in the first ten minutes showed how dominant we were.
“Emilia took her hat-trick really well and I was pleased with the different types of goals we scored.”
Greygoose was also delighted the defensive performance and a second consecutive clean sheet.
He added: “In the first half Lily in goal hasn’t had much to do which shows the effort of those in front of her. There are still a few areas we need to tidy up and will work on, however the main aim of this season was to create a group that are developing and learning but also coming up against different challenges which this season has given us.
“We are really pleased with the girls and how they are developing but we also know that there is still ninth seems almost certain, and that will mean winning a play-off with the runners-up from Division Two to retain Melbourn’s top flight status for another season.
Melbourn seconds promotion hopes are probably over after they suffered an agonisingly close 10-14 defeat against key rivals Cambridge thirds.
The teams came into the match in third and second place in the table respectively, with Melbourn looking for a victory to close an 11-point gap the city side held over them.
The evening started well for the hosts as Colm O’Gorman (4) came loads they can learn. All the praise has to go to this group and the willingness to listen, learn but also how they keep the standards really high. We look forward to finishing the season away at Oxford in a couple of weeks time.”
And on securing runners up spot after going toe-to-toe with Forest and Derby all season, Geygoose through in straight games (3-0) against Sanjay Poria, though O’Gorman only the second after an epic tie-break.
Next door Kate Bradshaw (1) had built a two-games-to-one lead on James Buckley, and appeared in control.
But, Buckley refused to give up, chasing down Bradshaw’s drop shots to turn things around by edging the last two games 15-13: 3-2 to the Cambridge player, and one string all.
Melbourn went back in front as Matt Walker (5) had too much control for Toni Coppolaro, Walker said: “Really pleased that the group have secured second place in the league and made it to a cup final. The bigger picture this season was to help aid the development and support these young players and results were a by-product of this.
“This season was a bit of an unknown in terms of what it was going to look like going up against winning 3-0, only for Cambridge to respond as Jan Brynjolffssen (2) fell by the same score to Chris Thorpe.
That sent things down to the final rubber, which pitted Gareth Jones (3) against Gift Nuka.
Jones started on top, winning the opening two games, but he was gradually worn down by Nuka’s fitness.
The key game was the fourth, and when Jones lost this he was a busted flush for the fifth, which went Nuka’s way to give Cambridge an overall victory that will almost certainly see them promoted rather than Melbourn. established sides like Derby, Forest, and Watford, however the girls have been brilliant. We will look to finish the season in Oxford with a positive performance and result and then start to work towards the cup final.”
The young U’s have a weekend off before they complete the JPL season at East Oxfordshire Elite on Saturday, April 6.