PVC beat last year's chamions

There are some occasions when the few rise up to win against the many.....well, on Thursday 2nd November, with several players unavailable, a team of just 6 stood at Hermitage to take on their nemesis. Perhaps Hermitage had too many players, and hence they didn't all warm up. Perhaps the memories of Jordan's fabulous hit in 2005/6 being called out at a critical point made the 6 rise up, but rise up they did.

With Chris and Keith setting, Raj and Mike through the middle and Jordan and Geoff taking position at four, the game began.

For a change, PVC got off to a great start. A poor decision to let a
painful scoop for Hermitage win an early point (duly acknowledged by their player, but point taken anyway !), but this failed to lower PVC morale: this game was one match we all wanted to win.

The digging early on was exceptional, making the task for the setters that much easier. Sure, we made use of Jordan's impressive fire power out at four, and he made some frankly astonishing hits in return. However, the rest of the team rose to the challenge and played a blinding forst two sets. Balls that looked to be flying out were retrieved with gusto, blocks put up across the front court and point after point, PVC relentlessly drove
forwards.

The team served, dug and hit as one, digging and hitting like a
diggyhitty thing....Hermitage, whilst fielding a team of good players, never got into their stride and PVC took the sets, 25-19 and 25-18. Victory was assured. Towards the end of the second set, John arrived, rather flustered for having been forced to be late......he stepped on court, but really hadn't had the benefit of the Johnson-esque warm up that had got the team their victory mood......
...the set began poorly, with PVC going behind early on. One champagne
moment for this reporter was a Jourdan hit that took a touch and then ricoched off 3 more Heritage players with each handling it like it was a red hot cannon ball, on it's way out the back of their court....but it was
too late. Some bizarre points shuffling when we were 6-11 down (or was
that 7-10....or 6-12....who knows ?!) didn't help, with about a 4 minute discussion around what was going on.....the set went on, a tired PVC trying to get back into the winning stride, but the set petered out to Hermitage.

A celebratory lemonade at the Field Head was rapidly followed by a double win on the IPA tankard front....but that is another story.

The 100% PVC winning start to the season continues......Yeah !!!

Squad
Chris (c), Keith, Mike, Raj, Jordan, Geoff.