Saturday 14th November:

Another `Home Tie Saturday` for the Club, and this one serving up a feast of local derbies.

Feature match for the day was the Fabulous Suettes V North Lanarkshire VC, and it was a corker. The Suettes trying to get back on the winning trail, NLVC fighting for their survival in the top flight, lots of pressure on both sides.

The Suettes were boosted by being able to field a full team for the first time this season, and they raced into an early lead. NLVC understood they had to serve tough to negate the fire power of the home side, but they took too many risks with their service which led to a string of errors. First set to the home side. The second went the same way as the first with the Suettes moving into top gear and dominating from start to finish. Set three saw the visitors step up their game and compete. Coach John French ran the bench for the home team and this created some hesitancy, but not for long, and the match was captured with a 3 to 0 win and a very solid performance.

First match of the day saw the City of Ragazzi Ragazzi lose in a nail biting five set thriller to league leaders City of Edinburgh. The match was a contrast of styles with the counter punching Edinburgh team demonstrating some astonishing field defence, and the home side never quite getting into fifth gear.

The first set went to Edinburgh; the second to Ragazzi ; the third set went to Edinburgh ; the fourth to Ragazzi ; and the players faced the race to fifteen points in the fifth. The home side turned leading at 8, and the visitors ran out winners 15 to 13. The home side stuttered to serve with any kind of real impact, the visitors defended like demons. The home side never quite got its blocking unit functioning, and the visitors continued to make stunning pick ups the whole time. The home side hit some fantastic winners, and the visitors made their fabulous defence count for transition points consistently; game over!

It was hard to feel bad about this loss as both sides played so very well, however championship wins are built on the back of this type of performance!

The last match of the day pitted old rivals Su Ragazzi II against Bellshill Cardinals. The matches between these two always throw up passion and intensity; this one was just the same. Su II have been having a torrid time of it of late, and have struggled all season to find either belief or playing form: and they emerged from this powder house of an encounter with a stunning 3 sets to 2 win!

Brian O’Neil guested for the Ragazzi team, having just stepped off a plane from Shanghai: he played well. Stuart Haddow is playing himself back into rhythm after a very fractured early part of the season and he was the best player on the court. Kevin Curran and Dave Cormie had their best performances of the season, Callum Johnston was simply immense, and Tomasz Kostek ran a very forceful and balanced offence; and it took all of the Ragazzi players hitting top form to win this one.

Ragazzi Coach Andy Dalziell was organised and calm and steered his troops through the match `hot spots`. The home side lost the first set, and there was a doubt about their ability to rise to the occasion: the doubts answered when they won the second and third sets. The opportunity to close out the match in the fourth set was lost in the response from the visitors who refused to lie down. The fifth set saw the home side take an early lead and turn at eight looking at victory, but again the visitors would not lie down. A 14 to 13 lead for the men of the Su II team became 14 each, became 15, then 16 each. The nerves were frayed, the tension was unbelievable, and 17 each became 18 each; Kevin Curran made a fantastic hit at zone two, then went to the baseline and served an ace for a 20 to 18 win for Su Ragazzi! Phew!!

The question was asked if that was a corner turned for the home side; time will tell. What is for sure is that the players demonstrated the type of intensity and desire to win which has been missing from many of the early season performances. What is for sure is that they had to work as a team and rely on each other to emerge with the win from this very bruising encounter; what is for sure is that the win was hard fought for, and can be used as a catalyst for change; time will tell.

The `Battle of Wishaw` day ended with the home Club winning two out of three matches: not bad, but not as good as three out of three.