NVL review (11th and 12th January) - Northampton women boost promotion hopes with Richmond 2 win
Northampton strengthened their Women’s Division 2 East promotion challenge with a hard-fought five-set victory over fellow high-flyers Richmond 2 on a weekend when league competition was scarce because of National Cup and Shield matches.
With a trip to Cardiff Falcons in the last 16 of the Shield on Sunday, the East Midlanders would have hoped for a swift conclusion to their Saturday league match against the Londoners.
However, it proved to be anything but simple and they had to twice fight back from a set down to eventually prevail in the fifth set tie breaker (22-25, 25-21, 19-25, 25-21, 15-11).
The result ensures they remain within striking distance of leaders Cambridge, having played two less games than their rivals.
The division’s other match saw Norwich Spikers move to just one point behind Richmond as they edged to a home success over Herts.
Although winning in straight sets, two of the three were decided by just two points as the Eastern club triumphed 25-23, 25-21, 29-27.
In Division Three North, York Falcons bounced back from their Shield exit a day earlier to outplay Manchester Marvels Mystics and claim a 25-17, 25-18, 25-6 success, moving them up to fourth in the table.
The Women’s Division 1 match between Richmond and London Inter Orcas was postponed and will be rescheduled in due course.
The men’s section also saw fixtures few and far between, but Norwich Spikers moved to within a point of second placed Loughborough Students with a game in hand in Divisi on2 Central after edging out Newmarket in a five setter.
The visitors from Norfolk looked to have things wrapped up as they cruised into a two-set lead, but the hosts fought back to level.
But Norwich dug deep and found it within them to grind out a tense 25-22, 25-19, 18-25, 22-25, 15-13 win and move to a 5-2 record.
Newmarket, meanwhile, are now in fourth place on the same points as the Spikers but with an inferior set quotient and having played a game more.
Nottingham Rockets capped off a great weekend by making it 10 matches unbeaten in Division 3 North Central after victories in their latest triangular matches.
Following on from Saturday’s Shield victory over Telford, they now look odds-on for the divisional title and promotion after beating both third-placed Chester and Darkstar Derbyshire 2 in contrasting circumstances.
Having only dropped four sets previously all season, the Rockets were pushed extremely hard by Chester before coming through to win in five (23-25, 25-27, 25-19, 22-25, 15-9).
Their victory over Darkstar was much more comfortable as they took the match in straight sets (25-18, 25-17, 25-14).
Chester could draw some solace after being edged out by Nottingham as they won the third match of the triangular in straight sets (25-15, 25-22, 25-17).
