WEEK 2 REPORT WINTER LEAGUE 17-18

SDTTL 2017-18 Week 2 Reports

  • Premier Division

Our Champions from last year Hullbridge A couldn't quite back up their 9-0 whitewash in week one with another, but came pretty close as they beat Hockley A 8-1. The consolation win, and certainly worth a mention, came from Matt Stringer who did well to beat Reece Seddon. Another victory of note, which again was a consolation, was Martin Turner over Lee Prentice in Warehouse A's 8-1 defeat to Rawreth A. Charles Sweeny and Kevin Read were unbeaten in this one.

Paul Churn was in fine form for Lentern A as he, along with Keith Adams, won all his games against Brand Identity A. Debby Auvache, back from her exploits for England in the Six Nations, was unfortunately injured in her first game of the evening and couldn't complete her remaining games, resulting in a 6-3 win for Lentern.

The final game of the week saw a tight affair between Hadleigh Forum A and Rayleigh Mill. The Forum ran out 5-4 winners despite a hat-trick for the very much in form Peter Radford. The final game at 4-4 was one for the purists, as Steve Maltby took on John Tendler. And it was Tendler and his defensive wiles that prevailed over the Maltby counter-attack

Duncan Taylor DRS

• Division 1

Lentern B continued with another impressive 7-2 win over Hullbridge C to lead the table in the early weeks. Peter Cranmer (Essex over 70’s champion) came in this week and added 3 points in an unbeaten performance, ably supported by John Lott with 2 and Jan Fuller (playing up) with 2. Maxine Abbott returned to the table for Hullbridge and showed that she has lost none of her flair being involved in 3 close 5 set matches, winning two of them, 14-12 against John Lott and 11-6 against Jan. Lin Roff had an off week despite leading John Lott 2-0 at one stage and Richard Gill was also unable to help with the Hullbridge score

The young team from Hullbridge E continued their winning run and moved into 2nd spot with a 6-3 win over Customs A. Roy Thomas returned to form with the 3 points for Customs, the closest match being an 11-9 win in the fifth set over Dan Zeffie. The team of James Goddard, Reece Harris-Griffiths and Dan Zeffie all won their other two matches to make it a good all round effort. Dave Morgan and Brian Rackham were unable to add to the points despite a couple of 5 set matches that went the wrong way leaving them at the wrong end of the table    

Canvey A got back to winning ways with a convincing 8-1 win over Hockley B. Young Harry Keys played well to take all three alongside steady captain Ray Wilson to create the base of the win. Terry Giddens was able to add the final 2 points but was not able to beat Joe Lock, losing 15-13 in the fifth set in a close match that swung one way and another. Dan Patynski and Stuart Adshead were unlucky not to add any points for the Hockley side leaving them joint bottom at the moment.                      

Warehouse B were brought back down to earth by a Brand Identity B team that included experienced players Chris Jacob and Barrie Delf due to unavailability in a 7-2 defeat. The Warehouse team were unable to find a way past the tricky pimpled bat of Chris Jacob who took POTM and all three points on offer. Likewise, Barrie Delf, defending on the back wall for most of the time managed to get enough ball back in play to cause problems for the Warehouse team, also taking all 3 points. The 3rd Brand player was Mike Grout who endured 3 grueling 5 set matches, winning just one against Berti, despite being 2-0 down, but losing the other two to the two Tony’s, Millward and Wright for the Warehouse points.              

Hadleigh Forum C had a better week, winning 7-2 against Lentern C. Russell Bright returned to some form winning all 3, but being made to work hard by Sue Body and Dave Kirston who took them to 5 set matches. Graham Farmer and Mark Everard added 2 each for the Forum side, with Sue and Dave taking a game each for the Lentern points. Peter Lucraft was unable to add to the score despite being 2-1 up against Mark             

In the final match for this week Rawreth C gained their first win 6-3 over Invicta A who are yet to get their first victory of the campaign. A good performance from Garry Hartgrove, winning all 3 on his return to the Southend league. Colin Clements added 2 in support but lost 11-8 in a close 5 set match with Mike Piper. John Blackman gained revenge over Mike winning 11-7 in the fifth set to add the final point for Rawreth. Steve Marr and Neil Daines were able to add a point each for Invicta but could not make much impact in the other matches to leave them near the bottom of the table

Barrie Delf DRS

  • Division 2

Having missed out on the first week’s round of matches, Canvey B made up for lost time by walloping Runnymede away 9 – 0. Tony Westwell was marginally the player of the match, whilst his colleagues Lee McGonagle and Des Duffield also take their unbeaten records into next week’s fixtures.

Canvey C couldn’t quite emulate their other team in this division, recording a mere 8 – 1 home win over Rawreth E. Steve Robinson and Ryan Williams both recorded maximums, whilst Rawreth’s Andy Deadman saved his side’s blushes with an 11 – 9 victory in the fifth set in his match against the home team’s Andrew Murray.

A close 5 – 4 home win was the outcome when the youngsters of Hullbridge F entertained Hockley D. Despite going 4 – 2 down, Harrison Saddler’s second maximum (and PoM award) in consecutive weeks swung things in Hullbridge’s favour.  Jim Nariel and Harry Sanford won two each for Hockley.

Rawreth D’s Sam Thompson is another who’s started the season in fine form. He too was undefeated and was PoM for a second successive week when his side recorded a 6 – 3 home win over Basildon Hospital. Colin Barham’s two wins and Olivia Jones’ one took Rawreth clear of the Medics, for whom Kevin Smart won two and Mike Smith one.

Wakering’s Stewart Mills was their player of the match in a comfortable 8 – 1 demolition of Stanford Le Hope B. He was assisted by Zac England who also won all his matches. A special mention should go to the visitor’s Aaron Chandler, who was playing up from Division 3 and took his team’s only win.

David  Barnes DRS

  • Division 3

Four teams have started the season with two wins so Canvey D, Hadleigh Forum D, Stanford Le Hope C and Hockley F occupy the top four places.

Canvey raced to an emphatic 8-1 win against Warehouse D with hat tricks for Geoff Banthorpe and Talbot Wiseman and only Steve Higgins spoilt the whitewash with a straight sets win against Ray Baker. Only three matches went beyond three sets.

Hadleigh Forum won 6-3 at Brand Identity C thanks to an all round team performance which saw David Thomas, Tony Mace and Satwant Gill all record braces, but none could get the better of John Beddow who finished with a hard earned hat trick. This included a fine five set win against Satwant coming back from 2-1 down to win the fifth 11-6

Stanford may count themselves a little bit fortunate to come away with a 6-3 win from Hullbridge H who found themselves with only two players. Luckily for Hullbridge one of them was Brian Farmer, who won all his games in straight sets and showed he is well on his way back from injury after a lengthy lay off. Peter Hanscombe, Mark Downey and Brian Billins got the points for Stanford, whilst Bill Hoy missed out for Hullbridge.

Hockley F squeezed home in their match against Hullbridge I with David Cross providing a man of the match performance winning all three of his games, including the match deciding ninth game with the score tied at 4-4. Hockley never lost the lead all night but they were made to fight all the way thanks to two wins from David Zeffie and one each from Ben Hoskins and Josh Jones. Roger Sherman backed up David with a brace but Graham Gregory missed out despite two of his games going to five sets. Match of the night was David Cross coming back from 2-1 down against his namesake to win 11-7 in the fifth.

Closest game of the week was Invicta C’s 5-4 win at home to Warehouse C. No side was ever in front by more than one point and every player won at least one match with the first three games of the night all going to five sets. Tamas Mezo won the first of those against John Golding after being 2-1 down before Graham Back did likewise against Chris Gregory to make it 1-1. Dave Youngman then fought back from 2-1 down against Ro Brett to put Invicta 2-1 up.The results continued to swing either way until at 4-4 John finally settled the match in Invicta’s favour beating Graham 14-12 in the fourth set. John, Dave and Tamas all scored braces for their teams whilst Chris, Graham and Ro all picked up one point for theirs.

Another player returning after a long break following a hip replacement was Jan Thorpe of Rawreth F, who notched up a hat trick alongside Bradley Nunn and, together with a win for Rob Clarke, saw them to a 7-2 win against Rochford TTC. A notable first in this game, however, was a win for Travis Armstrong who beat Rob in the last match of the evening. We hope there will be many more to come!

Last, but not least, Hockley E overcame Customs B by the same score with the ever improving Gary Linzell taking the honours with a hat trick. He was almost pipped for the man of the match  title by team mate Ron Rogerson who was described as being a ‘revelation’ on the night! ‘Revelation Ron’ had to fight hard for his wins however, beating Richard Kidd 15-13 in a tense five setter after leading 2-0, and then coming back from two sets down against Dean Johnson to win 11-8 in the fifth. Phil Pond got the remaining point for Hockley while Dean and Richard got a point each for Customs.

  • Player of the Week  John Beddow
  • Team of the Week   Invicta C   

Paul Strutt DRS

Author: via Southend Table Tennis League
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