London Docklands Volleyball returned to winning ways in five-set thriller against local rivals London Lynx

London Docklands Volleyball returned to winning ways in five-set thriller against local rivals London Lynx.

After a disappointing performance last Sunday in Sheffield, Ian Legrand's men ensured they retained the bragging rights of east London volleyball.

When Docklands led 19-16 in the third set, after already taking the first two sets, it looked as though the home side would ease to a 3-0 win.

But Lynx coach Al Karakoc called a time out and a Docklands' serving error gave Lynx some hope.

The visitors then set about punishing this lapse as kills by veteran Ed Ekanem and Wilco Burghout tied the scores at 19-19.

Further errors by Docklands assisted Lynx's plight, including a rare rotation fault on Docklands' serve.

This gave Lynx their first set point at 24-22 and a block by Burghout on Alexis Blair sealed the third set for Lynx.

Before this stage, Docklands had been in control with Daniele Di Bella running his offence intelligently whilst Docklands' serve was putting Lynx's passing unit under constant pressure.

Docklands enjoyed commanding leads in both opening sets and coasted to 25-18 and 25-21 victories.

After winning the third set, Lynx were loud and confident again, taking the game back to Docklands and Karakoc's men edged the fourth set 25-22.

Boris Halatchev starred for Docklands in the fifth set shoot out sealing a 15-10 win with his eighth kill of the match.

Legrand said: "We've always enjoyed some fierce battles with Lynx over the years and it wasn't a surprise that we went to five sets."

Docklands, travel to second from bottom Newcastle Staffs on Saturday.