Melbourn Squash Club II set to remain a Division Four team after defeat to Nuffield Health

Melbourn Squash Club II suffered final-day heartbreak as a 10-4 defeat to Herts Division Four promotion rivals Nuffield Health saw them miss out on the league title.

The match had started well for Melbourn as Moises Estrelles Navarro (3), who took his personal record for the summer to eight wins and just one defeat after he recovered from losing his opening game on a tie-break to win through 3-1.

However, Nuffield struck back as Aidan Hird (2) saw his match develop in the opposite direction. After the first two games were shared, Hird was outpaced by a rapid teenager as he fell 3-1.

The top string decider saw both players start nervously, but Melbourn’s Jan Brynjolffssen (1) more so than the home player.

Brynjolffssen settled in game two, giving himself a chance to level, but key errors at the end of the game left him with a mountain to climb and he ended up going down 3-0.

Defeat is likely to mean that Melbourn will remain in Division Four for another season, with skipper Brynjolffssen saying: “We started the season very well and were top at halfway but have been clinging on for the last few weeks – winning just three of our last nine games shows we weren’t really ready to go up. Division Four is the right level for our players at the moment.”