Division 1 - DRS - Barrie Delf bdelf@castlepoint.gov.uk
Hadleigh Forum B have kept their second place in the table but the point’s gap is getting closer. A very close 5-4 victory over Canvey A enabled them to push ahead with Tony Jacks unbeaten for the Forum team, including a good 5 set win over Ray Wilson. This stopped Ray from getting his own hat-trick with all the other players involved adding one point. Rawreth E are still in third, 4 points behind with a game in hand. This week they won 7-2 against Lentern D, with John Blackman and Trevor Ward scoring 3 each and look now that they have a good opportunity to take the runners-up spot, with results in the final few weeks very important. 4th placed team Customs A are 7 points behind Forum with a game in hand and are capable of catching them up too. Customs beat Lentern E 6-3, Roy Thomas scoring 3 and backed up by Dale Gutteridge with 2. Mike Worship scored 2 for the Lentern team but was unable to make any impression on Roy
Division 2 - DRS - David Barnes dbarnes89@btinternet.com
Hockley B continued their push for promotion brushing aside RESSC 9 – 0. Matthew Stringer was again Hockley’s star, but was well supported with maximums from both Neal Klyman and Dennis Squirrell. Castle Point B kept pace with the Hockley, overcoming Warehouse D by the same score. Tony Ayliffe was the man of the match, although hat tricks from both Keith Neville and Martin Roberts gave Castle the full nine points. Despite a hat trick from the home team’s Paul Ogden, Hullbridge E lost 5 – 4 to Canvey C. Bob Shingleton-Smith chipped in with one win for the home side. However, two wins each from the visitor’s Geoff Banthorpe and Rob MacDonald, and one from Gordon Johnstone swung it Canvey’s way
DIVISION 3 - DRS Paul Strutt paulstrut@tiscali.co.uk
Warehouse E picked up an easy 7-2 win against Customs B for whom nothing seems to go right. Struggling with injuries and absentees to even get a full team, they could only put out Richard Kidd and Mark Rose and then saw Richard aggravate a shoulder injury which forced him to switch from right to left handed. To his credit he still managed to win a game so definitely brownie points to him! Bradley Atkinson and Tamas Mezo got the points for Warehouse. Not so easy for Warehouse in their next game as they lost, surprisingly, to Canvey D 5-4 in a closely fought match. Canvey, the home side, got off to a good start winning the first two games and then led 3-1 and 4-2 before Warehouse pulled it back to 4-4 going into the final game. The fight back ended there however, as Stuart Curham proved too strong for Steve Chaffey. Stuart and Ross Warner both won 2 for Canvey plus one for Ray Baker, whilst Tamas Mezo was unbeaten for Warehouse with Bradley Atkinson providing the other point. Hockley C have now taken a firm grip on the Division 3 title following two crushing wins against Warehouse E 8-1 and their own E team 9-0.This puts them 15 points clear of Invicta B in second plus they have a game in hand. The win over Warehouse saw Paul Henlen and Stuart Adshead both score hat-tricks plus a brace for Laurie Witte with Bradley Atkinson getting the consolation for Warehouse. Against their E team Jon Knight replaced Paul and it was a hat-trick for each of them in a match which saw 8 of the 9 games won in straight sets. Ron Rogerson and Steve and Archie Brace were those unfortunate enough to be on the receiving end
