Sdttl 2016/7 Season Week 20 Reports
Premier Division Castle Point A recorded a 7-2 win over Customs A this week. Roy Thomas scored impressive wins over Chris and Simon Jacob but came up short against Barrie Delf, who managed to beat Thomas for the first time to record a maximum.
Peter Radford was once again in fine form as he led his Rayleigh Mill team, with three wins in a 7-2 win over Warehouse A. He was ably backed up by Rob Harris and Steve Maltby who both recorded a brace.
There was a close game as Hadleigh Forum got the better of Rawreth B who were, on this occasion, without Matt Spero. The Forum won 5-4 thanks to two wins for both Hamish Innes and Neal Barker, and a win for Tony Jacks over Colin Barham. Rawreth’s points came from Mike Hayes and Eric Green.
In the race for the title Hullbridge A kept up their push with a convincing 8-1 victory over Hockley A. The match featured a great consolation win for Liam Squirrell over the experienced Glenn Johnson.
Hullbridge A’s title rivals, Rawreth A also won this week as they overcame Stanford le Hope 7-2. Captain Charles Sweeney recorded a hat-trick, but there were good wins for Rahul Sharma and Chris Hancox over Kevin Read and Lee Prentice respectively for the away side’s two points.
Duncan Taylor, Premier Div. DRS
Division 1 Canvey A have still not won a game in 2017 (since Nov 2016) but remain in second spot in the league. This week Hadleigh Forum C won a close game 5-4, with Charles Yeung and Mark Everard scoring two each. Ray Wilson was unbeaten for the Island team and was unlucky to end up on the losing side, but with a 34 point gap to the league leaders, who were without a game this week, it looks as though Canvey will need to battle for second place and start to win a few games convincingly.
Invicta A are now just a point behind Canvey in 3rd and had a good 6-3 win over bottom club Castle Point B. A solid team performance from Steve Marr, Neil Daines and Mike Piper saw them all score two points, however, the thorn in their side was Mike Grout who was unbeaten for the Castel Point side, earning them three valuable points.
Warehouse B slip into 4th spot with a 6-3 win over Hullbridge D. Again a good allround team performance with James Spencer, Tony Wright and Micky Baker each scoring two eased them to victory. However, POTM accolade goes to James Goddard who was playing up for the D team, and fresh from his schools success, took all three points for the Hullbridge side, with an unusually subdued Ben Matthews unable to get on the scoresheet.
Lentern C took on their D team in a Lentern derby and came away with the bragging rights winning 8-1. Pat White and Martin Archie each scored three points and Mark Jupe added the other two, only losing to Peter Pond who saved the blushes and scored the consolation for the D team.
The final match for this week was a 6-3 win for Hockley B over Hullbridge C. A great performance form Craig Aukett saw him take three points for Hockley, with Dave Colwill adding two in support. No-one in the Hullbridge team was able to make a telling contribution, with Andy Seaman, Bill Smith and Lin Roff all adding one point along with Paul Strutt from the Hockley team in a match where everyone contributed.
Barrie Delf, Div 1 DRS
Division 2 The latest team to suffer at the hands of leaders Hullbridge E were Rawreth E. Like many teams before them, Rawreth had no answer to their visitors superior fire power and succumbed 9 – 0. Young star Adam Jackman was again player of the match winning all his games. However, team mates Daniel Zeffie and Reece Harris-Griffiths were also in contention for the accolade, only maths separating Adam from the other two.
Second place Hockley C will feel a bit aggrieved that, for their away fixture at Runnymede, the home side gave rare starts to Tony Coeshall and Tony Millward, both vastly experienced players. Tony Coeshall promptly won all his games, whilst Tony Millward won two. He was just unable to get the better of Hockley’s Stuart Adshead, losing a very close match 11 – 9 in the fifth. Stuart ended up with two wins, whilst there was one win each for the home side’s Tina Hutchinson, and Hockley’s Josh Copeland in a close fought 6 – 3 home win.
Canvey B missed an opportunity to close in on Hockley when they travelled to RESSC. The home side have put some good results together lately and are proving difficult to beat at their Rawreth venue. A hat trick from Bob Skews, with two for Stan Dyson and one win for Dave Newton gave RESSC a fine 6 – 3 victory. Canvey’s Tony Millward, Talbot Wiseman and Des Duffield each recorded a single win.
Despite the gifted youngster Harry Keys again returning three wins out of three, his Canvey C side went down 6 – 3 to visitors Castle Point C. Two victories apiece by Mark Sayce, Sean McNabb and David Jacob did the damage.
An excellent hat trick for Sam Thompson wasn’t enough to clinch the match for Rawreth D when they visited Wakering. The home side’s Stewart Mills, Cliff Noakes and Nigel Cook each won two in a straight forward 6 – 3 home win.
Jay Shivapujimath was Basildon Hospital’s player of the match in their 8 – 1 victory over Castle Point D. He was assisted by three from Clive Beauchamp and two from Mike Smith. Castle Point’s Colin Smith salvaged some pride for the home side with his single win.
David Barnes, Div 2 DRS
Division 3 Ryan Williams was in fine form for Rawreth F against Hockley F as these two young teams fought out an exciting match down at the Warehouse. Hockley never led on the night but held on throughout until at 4-4 the last game of the evening saw Ryan clinch the match for Rawreth against Josh Jones. Boasting an 85% average it was, perhaps, no surprise that he won all three of his games, but he had to work hard for his wins especially against Ben Cook. Ben won the first two sets both 12-10 but then lost the crucial third by the same score before Ryan came through 11-5, 11-7 to win the game. Keenan Ford picked up two wins for Rawreth and Harry Sawford did likewise for Hockley with a point each for Ben and Josh. Finlay Cameron missed out for Rawreth.
There was another close finish for a Hockley team and again the result went against them as their E team went down 5-4 at home to Hullbridge F. The result was determined a lot sooner as Hullbridge raced into a 4-1 and 5-2 lead and Hockley’s late fight back was not enough to prevent them picking up their third successive win. Star of the night was Sue Reece as she picked up three wins including two 5 set matches against Roger Sherman and the shy and retiring Laurie Witte. Sue was, in fact, two sets down against Roger but won the third 11-9 and completed the win 11-5, 11-9 in the final sets. Bob Singleton-Smith provided the backup with two wins whilst Gary Linzell got a brace for Hockley and there was a point each for Laurie and Roger.
Invicta C went down to Canvey D 7-2 but the match was far closer than the score suggests with no less than five games going to five sets with Canvey winning four of them and all fought out over three and a half hours!. Geoff Banthorpe and Gordon Johnstone were the heroes for the Islanders winning all their games but Geoff was involved in two five set battles against John Golding and Keith Baxter and Gordon also went to five against Keith. They both showed plenty of fighting spirit with Geoff coming back from two sets down against John and Gordon doing likewise against Keith. Rob Mcdonald got his point after another five setter against Jon Gould winning 13-11 in the fifth. Keith got his point with a win against Jon and, as a fitting way to end the evening, Invicta finally won a five set match as John overcame Rob after losing the first two sets.
Second in the table Stanford Le Hope B proved far too strong for the young Hullbridge H side winning 8-1, but there was a consolation point won by Harrison Sadler who just pipped Mark Farley in a tough five setter. Dan Harris and Adrian Armstrong won all their games for Stanford.
Customs B also proved their strength against bottom of the table Rochford LTC with a comprehensive 9-0 win. Richard Kidd, Dean Johnson and Amar Al-Soufi made up the winning team.
Team of the Week – Canvey D for winning their marathon against Invicta
Player of the Week – Sue Reece of Hullbridge F for her match winning hat trick
Paul Strutt, Div 3 DRS
