Malory Eagles underlined their resolve to retake the Division One title this year with a 3-0 demolition of second-placed London Docklands.

Coach Jefferson Williams’s mood matched the dark sports hall at Bacon’s College after a poor training session on Friday night.

The starting lineout was setter Richard Dobell, opposite James Cooper, outside attackers Luciano Pinter and Marc Richardson, middle hitters Mark Brown and Andy Omoshebi and libero Steven Fee. The team were keenly aware of the game’s importance, warming up well but nervously.

Set one started with Malory relinquishing the first point to Docklands before opening a five-point lead with well-placed serving from Dobell and inspired outside attacks from Richardson.

Seizing on their opportunity, the Eagles continued to pile on pressure with the stalking middle of Brown helping to rack up a 13-4 lead.

A well-timed serving run from Docklands’ Mohammed Sliti narrowed the lead, forcing Williams to call a timeout and resettle his team.

Refreshed, the Eagles once again grabbed points in their push to 25. A second time-out from Docklands failed to arrest Malory’s progress and the Eagles won with an impressive 25-15 scoreline.

Set two started evenly with Malory determined to maintain their lead and Docklands keen to get back into the game.

A loss of concentration in the Eagles team gave Docklands an unchallenged run of 6 points taking them to the all important 20 point hurdle.

At 23-14 to Docklands, the set changed dramatically.

A phenomenal serving run from Richardson supported by his team’s excellent all round play brought Malory back into the set.

Docklands were drained, unable to resist Malory who pushed on to claim the second set, 26-24.

The Eagles, calm but confident, emerged for set three focused on maintaining their momentum.

Docklands unloaded all they had but were held back by continued middle dominance from Omoshebi and Brown and unstoppable attacking from Richardson.

Docklands remained within touching distance throughout the set but always trailed the masterly Malory machine.

Tactical substitutions and timeouts from Docklands’ coach Ian Legrand failed to turn around his team’s fortunes as the Eagles pushed on to take the set 25-21.

Malory are now second on 25-3 behind league leaders Sheffield, but have a game in hand. This coming weekend sees Malory play host to fellow Londoners Lynx.