MELBOURN Squash Club continued their defence of the Hereward Cup with victory over St Neots in the semi final on Wednesday.

Jan Brynjolffssen (fourth) set the team on its way with a straightforward 3-0 win. Kate Bradshaw (fifth) had to dig deeper, as she fought back from 2-0 down. Bradshaw took the third and fourth games on tie-breaks, both 10-8, saving a match point along the way, and then edged the decider 9-6.

Dan Easton (third) found his opponents style very uncomfortable, but made a fight of the match nevertheless. He recovered from 6-0 down to win the opening game 9-7, and then repeated the trick after slipping two games to one down, but ultimately came up short, losing 3-2.

Ian Blows struck the decisive blow for Melbourn as he claimed a very competitive second-string match. Blows took the opener, but then lost the next on a tie-break. When the third also went all the way it was clearly the pivotal moment, as Blows won it 10-9 and then rapidly closed out a 3-1 victory.

Mark Oppen (first) played extremely well in a high quality match, and although he eventually lost 3-1, Melbourn progressed by three wins to two.

Melbourn will face Cambridge IIs next in a repeat of last season’s final.

Earlier last week, Melbourn IIs completed their first league campaign in Division Three with a 20-4 win over Leys.

Matt Walker, Gavin Thompson, Steve Durrant, Kate Bradshaw and Jan Brynjolffssen all won their respective matches.