Matchbericht ¦ 1. Liga ¦ Grasshopper IV win the League!

GC IV had a tough match against Schaffhausen to end the season with a lot riding on it.  Level on points with Winterthur who were odds on favourite to beat Uster in their last match, with Schaffhausen only two points behind, the result of this match would decide between winning the league, or ending up in third place...

GC IVs season started strongly, with four wins and a draw taking us clear at the top of the league at the end of the first half of the season.  We weren't able to keep that up in the second half though, suffering two defeats, allowing Winterthur to catch us on points, and Schaffhausen to close the gap.  A good win in our penultimate match against Uster left us in a strong yet precarious position for the final match.

Against Schaffhausen we fielded the same team as we had for the first half draw, though we'd rather changed the order.  Fernando rightfully took the number one "sacrificial lamb" spot, allowing me some respite, and Paul overtook Carsten to take third position.

Carsten and I started the match off, with Carsten taking what seems to have been a fairly comfortable 3-0 victory.  My match was close, but I managed to keep the pace steady enough on a very bouncy court and thankfully took the win 3-0 aswell. Paul also had a very close match, with his first game going to 15!  After sneaking this, he was also able to keeep his nose in front to close out the match with a 3-0, and seal the victory for the team.  Finally Fernando was up, against Thorsten Fuchs.  An unusually slow start saw Fernando tinning out regularly to lose the first 11-4, after which he did manage to wake up a bit!  A better performance in the second was followed by a 12-10 victory in the third - after which he looked extremely grateful for the break! He wasn't able to repeat his performance in the fifth, with Thorsten taking the victory with an 11-9. 3-1 to Thorsten, but more importantly a 3-1 win for GC IV.

With Winterthur taking a 4-0 win against Uster, both teams finished with a 26-14 tally in matches.  GC IV hung on to the first position though, for a great end to a tough season!

A big thankyou to everyone who played for us - both the regulars and all of you who stepped in when we needed helping out.   Here's looking forward to another great season next year :-)

Mark

Herren 1. Liga, Group B