Opponents: City of Stoke
Date: Saturday 17th February
Venue: Bacon's College
Result: 3-1 Win
Headline: Giant Killing Docklands Do IT Again
Author: Andy Vincett

Last weekend, in the National Volleyball Cup Quarter-finals, 2nd Division London Docklands, having knocked out 1st Division Warwick in the previous round, set out to slay the even bigger giant of Stoke and become the first 2nd Division club in recent memory to reach the Cup semi-finals.

A capacity packed Bacon's College worked up a fierce atmosphere that greeted every Docklands point with a roar of approval. The players rewarded them too, not just with some of the finest play seen anywhere this season, but with four incredible sets of Volleyball and a finish so tense as to be worthy of the final itself.

In the opening two sets neither team could carve out a margin of greater than four points at any time. Both sets went to the wire. London setter Andy Vincett blocked emphatically to take the first set and, despite a late rally of powerful jump serves from team-mate Alexis Blair, Stoke closed out the second. 1-1.

LDVC, 16 matches unbeaten before this tie, had no fear of their opponents and were able to back up their quality with a determination that meant they would not give in. But Stoke, a top five Division 1 side for 10 years, are proud of this statistic and the two sides matched each other stunning point after stunning point.

When the home side forged ahead 2-1 to their supporters' tumultuous acclaim, Stoke Captain, Barker, was so incensed as to lash out at a chair and earn himself a yellow card. This put London Docklands 1-0 ahead in the fourth set even before the first serve and in a game so close how critical this was to prove.

If the previous sets had had it all, then somehow the fourth set went further. Stoke, facing defeat, and Docklands, pushed on by their vociferous support and coach, Legrand, contrived to exhibit Volleyball of supreme levels. Setting of incredible speed and guile and hitting of awesome power couldn't win points as both defences excelled and the teams battled through the set point for point.

Docklands' middle hitters Martin Blake and Yassir Slitti dominated the net and outside Ned Groy was typically "Tank-like", But no light shone like Alec Rak who in the last set turned on his best performance this season demanding the ball and dispatching it for a winner each and every time.

However, had it not been for Barker's earlier caution, LDVC would have lost this set when they trailed 25-24. It was a twist that would cap the game perfectly because, when Vincett served Docklands to the set, match, and semi-finals, 27-25, the crowd erupted one last time, and the home subs and staff rushed the court in delight, the heavy burden of blame rested solely on the shoulders of the Stoke captain. Even the broken chair managed a smile.