Sdttl Winter League 15/16 - Final Week Report

The final game of the week came as the already relegated Lentern B went down 8-1 to Rayleigh Mill with three wins a piece from Peter Radford and Minda Sinkus. Wayne Farmer with the consolation win for Lentern over Rayleigh's very own Steve 'Magic' Maltby.

While the relegation places are decided there are a couple of rearranged games that are being played this week which will decide the outcome of the Premier division. 

Can Rawreth A get the three wins that will see them take the title? Look out for the final report of the season next week to find out.

Regards, Duncan Taylor

Hockley A rounded off their fixtures with an 8-1 win over Lentern B, thanks to the consistency of Tim Pang (90% win rate) and Dave Colwill (82.54% win rate). Brian Farmer had an excellent win over the third member of the team, Matt Stringer (75.93% win rate) to deny the champions maximum points.

Customs A finished their season with another victory, 6-3 over Hullbridge C who saw th return of Bill Smith for their match. Roy Thomas (94.67%) was again the mainstay of the team with Brian Rackham adding two. Andy Seaman scored two for the Hullbridge side, but mention needs to be made of Jo Hills, playing up from the D team, who took Brian Rackham to 5 games and took Roy close and was playing really well.

Rawreth E were in unforgiving mood against Runnymede, winning 7-2 thanks to a maximum from veteran Mike Worship (74.51% win rate) and two each from Trevor Ward and Colin Clements. Tony Millwardplayed well for Runnymede scoring two which keeps them off bottom on games won from Hockley B.

Mixed emotions for the Hockley club, with the A side winning promotion to the Premier and B side finishing bottom and relegated but did not go down without a fight. In their final two games they had to meet the B And C teams of Hadleigh Forum, both strong mid-table teams. In the first encounter Hockley B got the better of HadleighForum C by 5-4 thanks to a maximum from Liam Squirrell (66.67% win rate), Graham Farmer and Mark Everard scoring two apiece for the Forum team. In a re-arranged game, Hockley B lost by 5-4 against Hadleigh Forum B, again Liam Squirrell acquitting himself well with a hattrick, but two apiece for Tony Jacks (64.52% win rate) and Anthon Ranjit-Singh with the experience of Dave Woolmer adding the final point for the victory, means that the Hockley B club end up bottom of the table. 

The same team for Hadleigh Forum B had lost quite convincingly to Canvey A in the previous week, Terry Giddens (62.71% win rate) and Ray Wilson (73.24% win rate) proved too much for the Forum side and pushed them up a place in the table, edging out Hadleigh Forum C from 6th spot. 

Finally, in the mid-table clash between Invicta A and Warehouse B, the Warehouse team proved too strong with Micky Baker taking a welcome maximum (and a good win over Neil Daines) supported by Harry Small and Tony Wright with two each. Neil Daines scored the two for Invicta.

Regards,  Barrie Delf

2nd Division

Current leaders Castle Point B finished their campaign with a comfortable 7 – 2 win away at Warehouse C, with reliable Keith Neville man-of-the-match again. James Spencer and Harry Small gained a win apiece for Warehouse. However, Castle keep looking over their shoulders, eagerly awaiting outstanding results involving second place Hullbridge D. They are 21 points behind with three matches in hand. Is it better to have the points won, or the games in hand?!

Third placed Canvey B completed their season with a fine 7 – 2 home win over Basildon Hospital. Tony Westwell’smaximum led them to victory, whilst the visitors’ Kevin Smart put up a good fight with two wins. A special mention for veteran Geoff Banthorpe, who stepped into the breach, playing up for Canvey, and winning two.

The bottom two teams met for their final fixture. Unfortunately, the result was academic, as both home team Castle Point C and Warehouse D are already relegated. Castle’s John Beddow took the opportunity to record his second maximum of the season in his side’s 5 – 4 win. David Jacob supported John with two wins, whilst Andy Humphries was Warehouse’s best player getting a brace.

The youngsters of Hullbridge E have had an excellent season and, had earlier results gone their way, they could have been in the promotion mix. Their season ended with a 7 – 2 home win over Hockey C, thanks to an Adam Jackman hat trick. James Goddard and Dan Zeffie able assisted, with two wins each. Stuart Adshead won two for the visitors.

Youth visited experience in the RESSC versus Canvey C fixture with the experienced RESSC home side just edging it 5 – 4. The three young Canvey players - Stuart Curham, Ross Warner and Harry Keys, all turned in outstanding performances. Harry Keys was unbeaten, overcoming both Stan Dyson and Ron Coutts.

Regards, David Barnes

3rd Division

The Division 3 title duly found it’s way into the hands of Canvey D this week when, needing only a point to clinch the title, they overcame their main rivals Invicta B 6-3 in the final match of the season. Fittingly the vitalpoint was won by their star player this season, Harry Keys, who beat John Golding in straight sets completing his 7th successive hat trick. He has only lost 2 matches all season, as has his team, and sits proudly on top of the averages with just over 95%.

A great season for Canvey then who, after two defeats in their first eight matches, have since won 14 games in succession and deservedly become champions. Terry Castile (2) and Ray Baker (1) made up the winning team on the night whilst Invicta’s points came from Richard Verrinder (2) and John Golding (1). A good season for them to, finishing second and gaining promotion, it may be that the late season injury to Richard could have meant an even closer finish between the two teams.

Hullbridge F finish in third spot and had a close match in their final game just edging out Customs B 5-4 with Ann Lane beating Mark Rose in the final game of the evening to give them the win. Everybody in this match came away with at least one point but Paul Ogden finished with a hat trick taking his average for the season to just under 95% and, like Harry Keys, losing just two matches all season.

Another 5-4 finish between Hockley E and Warehouse E with the home side winning the final game of the evening to clinch the win thanks to Harry Sawford’s 4 set win against Larry Lisner. Young Harry played probably his best game of the season with not only good attacking play but with a great deal of consistency. Harry was backed up by two wins each for Jim Nariel and Ron Rogerson but none of them could get the better of Tina Hutchinson who took the Player of the match award with a hat trick.

Hockley F brought out their big guns for the last game of the season Martin Scarfe and David Chenery both getting hat tricks and cementing what has been an excellent debut season for both players. They beat Customs B 7-2, Gary Linzell winning the other point with Mark Rose and Amar Al-Soufi scoring for Customs.

The youngsters of Rawreth H finished their season with a win beating Invicta C 6-3 in a largely good humoured and sportsmanlike match. Matt Barber was their star player on the night winning all his games but the big surprise was a defeat for Ryan Williams who was beaten in five sets by Dave Youngman who got a brace on the night. Ryan should not let this result detract from an excellent season however, which sees him finish 4thin the averages. Plenty more to come from him next season I suspect!

There are still one or two results outstanding but none which will materially affect the league positions so congratulations go again to our Divisional Champions Canvey D and Runners Up, but also promoted, Invicta B

Good luck to all for next season!

Regards, Paul Strutt