There was heartbreak on the final day of the Summer Squash League as Melbourn saw their hopes of the title and probably promotion slip from their grasp.
The Melbourn College-based squash club had started the day top of Division Four but the 10-4 loss to promotion rivals Nuffield Health (St Albans) saw Haileybury move into pole position, while Nuffield, with a game in hand, are set to push Melbourn down to third.
It had started well enough for Melbourn as Moises Estrelles Navarro took his personal record for the summer to 8-1.
He recovered from losing his opening game on a tie-break to win through 3-1.
Nuffield struck back though as Aidan Hird lost the last two games to a rapid teenager, all after the opening pair had been shared.
That left the top string to decide the match and Melbourn's season.
Both players started nervously, the home player settling quicker than Jan Brynjolffssen to take the first game.
Game two was much more even but key errors at the end of the Melbourn skipper with a mountain to climb.
He lost that and then eventually the contest 3-0.
Brynjolffssen said “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 and that Division Four is the right level for our players at the moment.”
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