Battle of the Eagles (Round 1)

In the latest round of London League fixtures, an eagerly anticipated
fixture paired the White Eagles men's first team playing host to their
second team counterparts.

As the match began, a tight, tentative, and nervous start was made by
both teams before the first team built a 13-7 lead by reeling off five
straight points.

The second team were not overawed and began to claw their way back into
the match with a series of well set power plays, and chiefly through
Wolfram LANGE's deep and hard-hitting serves. With the deficit reduced and the
teams tied at 16-16, a tough talking timeout was called by M1 coach Chris WHITBREAD in an effort to readdress the balance of play. This seemed to
take instant effect as the first team re-established a lead of 21-18
through the help of costly plays by the second team, and in particular
by Roger MULLINGS. From here, M1 enforced a tough defensive line to help close
out the set 25-20.

A controversial first point kicked off the second set and helped M2 take
an early lead. Rafal WLODARSKI, representing the first team saw his serves
help the team roll of seven points in succession to lead 10-6. The
second team looked disjointed and this showed in their performance.
However their sprit never diminished and tried to make a decent attempt
of a comeback, but went down 25-21 as M1 clinched the second set.

In the third set, an all round superb performance was exhibited by M1s Jalal EL
ACHKAR. His serves saw six straight points to help set up a 7-2 lead and
was influential in the team's defensive play. With the bit between their
teeth, the first team edged towards the set and match with a 25-17 win,
guided by their inspirational leader and man of the match b.

WEM1 beat WEM2 3-0 (25-20, 25-21, 25-17)

SQUAD

Benoit DISCH
David MARWICK
Vincent TAMALE
Chris WHITBREAD (Captain)
Jalal EL ACHKAR
Rafal WLODARSKI

MAN OF THE MATCH

Chris WHITBREAD


report by Francis Boateng