Minda Sinkus maintained his good form with three wins over a top three side for the second week in a row. His victims this week being the strong Thorpe Bay A trio of Paul Sayer, Paul Whatton and Mark Stones.  Unfortunately for the Millers there was just one more victory for them, a Peter Radford win over Paul Sayer meaning that the Bay were able to come out as overall 5-4 winners despite Sinkus’s MOM display.

Leaders Rawreth A were in ruthless mood as they saw off Rawreth C in the derby match of the week 9-0. Rawreth only dropped one set all night when Steve Kerns lost 3-1 to Charles Sweeney.  It is results like this against potentially tricky opponents that have seen Rawreth to the top of the division so far this season.

Bottom club Lentern B went down 7-2 to Castle Point this week although there were good wins for Paul Churn over ex-teammate Dave Page and Chris Jacob. Lentern turned up with 2 players and must regroup for next year for life in Division 1.

As expected Lentern A are moving well clear of danger as they play their games in hand and get all their players back available for selection. This week the team of Django Fung, Norbert Fullerton and Lewis Ewers defeated Hadleigh Forum 8-1 with the Forum’s consolation win coming from Dave Bassett over Fullerton. 

Regards  Duncan Taylor

Division 1  

Coincidentally, Hockley A played twice this week (one a re-arranged game) and took on the 2nd and 3rd place teams. Both games were won 8-1 which means that they are now the Champions and can look forward to the first season in the Premier (although a return for coach Pang). In the first game against Hullbridge C, Tim Pang and Dave Colwillscored maximums with the consolation point for Andy Seaman against Matt Stringer. In the second game against Customs A, it was exactly the same (Tim and Dave inflicting only the 3rd and 4th defeats for Roy in the year), this time with Roy Thomas taking the point against Matt Stringer. It looks like Customs A will finish in the runners-up spot (needing only 4 points from their last two games to be certain) and be joining Hockley in the Premier.

Rawreth E were unable to take advantage of the fact Hadleigh Forum B were without a game but were able to close the gap to 4 points thanks to a close 5-4 win over Lentern E. Mike Worship regained his form to win all three, supported by Colin Clements with 2. Wayne Farmer with two for the Lentern team put up the most resistance. 

Hadleigh Forum C continued their run of wins with a 5-4 win over Invicta A. Mark Everard was unplayable on the night and scored a maximum for Forum, Although Michael Piper and Steve Marr did score two each to make it a very close encounter, Steve particularly unlucky losing to Mark in the 5th set, 6-11. 

Canvey A fielded a full team and proved too strong for bottom club, Hockley B, winning 6-3. It could be a bitter sweet year for the Hockley club with the A team gaining promotion and the B team staring at relegation. Ray Wilson with a hattrick and Terry Giddens with two scored the bulk of the points for Canvey, whilst Liam Squirrell added two for the Hockley side, losing narrowly 12-10 in the 5th set against Ray. It may have been a different story for the Hockley side if Liam had been available and playing all of the season. 

Warehouse B promised a lot early season but have fallen away since the new year to end up mid-table. This week they beat Lentern C 5-4, which has eased the relegation fears of the Lentern team who are almost home and dry for another season in the first division. Tony Wright scored a good 3 points for Warehouse (including a 5th set win over Mike Grout in the final match of the night, whilst consistent Mike scored two for Lentern. Everyone else contributed one point for their respective sides.

Finally, Lentern D lost a close match 5-4 against Runnymede, but both teams will welcome the points in trying to avoid relegation. It looks likely to go down to the last week to decide the relegation spots.Tony Millward scored a welcome maximum for Runnymede whilst Peter Lucraft and Dave Kirston scored two each for Lentern with, unusually, skipper Peter Pond unable to add any points to the match.

Regards, Barrie Delf

Division 2

With two weeks to go, Hullbridge D are still in the box seat for the divisional title. Although they are in second place, behind Castle Point B by eleven points, crucially, they have two games in hand. 

This week Hullbridge D’s Jo Hills, Dan Payne and Shannon Rolfe demolished bottom team Castle Point C 9 – 0 away. Meanwhile, Castle Point B tried to keep their noses in front with a commendable 6 – 3 victory at fourth-place Hullbridge E. Keith Neville was again ‘Steady Eddie’ with a hat trick, whilst Martin Roberts chipped in with a pair of wins.

Third place Canvey C did their best to stay in touch with an 8 -1 win at home to Hockey C. In-form Tony Westwell and Talbot Wiseman were both undefeated, whilst David Chenerygot a consolation win for Hockey.

Canvey C continue to draw away from the foot of the table. They came away from their trip to Rawreth G with a 5 – 4 win, despite the home side’s Andy Deadman recording a maximum.

Hat tricks from Cliff Noakes and Paul England inspired Wakering to a 7 – 2 home win against Warehouse D. Andy Humphries and Dave Walton won one game each for the visitors.

Jan Thorpe and David Barnes were the stars for Rawreth F in their 7 – 2 win at Warehouse C. Graham Back and James Spencer got one each for Warehouse.

Regards  David Barnes

Division 3

Only three games to report on this week and two of them involve Rawreth H. The results mainly focus on the teams in 4th, 5th and 6th spots but we’ll start with leaders Canvey D.  They did their title chances no harm at all in thumping Rawreth H 8-1 with hat tricks for Craig Aukett and Harry Keys and a brace for Terry Castile. They were far too strong for a young Rawreth side but Matt Barber gave his all for them and deservedly got their consolation point. Albeit having played a game moreCanvey now sit 13 points clear of Invicta B and 19 points clear of Hullbridge F. 9 points will give them promotion and 15 points the title and their last game of the season is against second placed Invicta B! An exciting end to the season is predicted.

Defeat for Rawreth H also in their second match against Hullbridge G means the best they can finish is 5th ,andthey are currently 11 points behind Hockley D and both teams have 3 games to play. Rawreth, again fielding a very young side, lost 7-2 to a more experienced Hullbridge G team for whom Dave Booroff took the honours with three wins with two for Lewis Ritchie and Bill Hoy. Matthew Barber again got the consolation points for Rawreth.

Hockley D sit in 5th spot 17 points behind Hullbridge G after a 7-2 win at Invicta C. A lively and good humoured match saw Hockley race into a 3-0 lead with David Cross having an excellent 5 set win against Keith Baxter, 11-9 in the 5th, but were then pegged back as Keith and Dave Youngman picked up wins against Laurie Witte and David respectively. Hockley then moved up a gear to win the last 4 games Brian Parker picking up a hat trick and David and Laurie both coming away with two wins each.

Team of the Week award goes to Canvey D as they march towards the title, and Player of the Week goes to Brian Parker of Hockley D who completed his hat trick without dropping a set.

Regards  Paul Strutt