SDTTL - 2017/8 - Week 9 Reports

• Premier Division 

There were some intriguing games at the top of the Premier division this week with all the teams in contention dropping points. Last year’s Champions Hullbridge A recorded a narrow 5-4 win over Lentern A, due in no small part to Kevin Caldon’s three wins and a win a piece for Dave Bowles and Stuart Gibbs over Norbert Fullerton. British League teammates Keith Adams and Django Fung recorded two wins each for Lentern. 

Elsewhere Rawreth A went down 5-4 to Rayleigh Mill who do have the potential to beat anyone on their day. With games in the next two weeks against the other two title rivals, it will be interesting to keep an eye on their results. The win last week was down to a fine maximum from Minda Sinkus backed up by two excellent wins for Colin Chatfield over George Reeves and Kevin Read.  Sinkus, most impressively, took the scalp of Chelmsford Men’s Singles Champion Ross Saxby.

With those two teams dropping points, Thorpe Bay A made some ground on them by defeating Rawreth B, but they did lose three games in the process. Paul Sayer was unbeaten but there were good wins for Babul McLeod and Bruce Kettle over John Poysden and for McLeod over the very consistent Mark Stones. 

There was a tight match between Hullbridge B and Hadleigh Forum B this week with some very close games and every player made a contribution.  Forum raced into a 3-0 lead only to be pegged back to 4-4 by the Hullbridge team's mixture of youth and experience.  The match was eventually decided in the final end with hat-trick hero Tony Jacks' narrow five-set victory over Dan Young.   For Hullbridge, Dave Calleja led the way with two wins, and there were first Premier League wins for Dan Young and Dan Zeffie.  Anthon Ranjit Singh and Mark Everard, playing up from Division 1, scored a win each, backing up Tony Jacks’ fine effort to see Forum over the line.

Thorpe Bay B scored big points this week by beating Stanford-le -Hope 8-1. The scoreline does hide the fact, however, that three of the opening four games went to five sets. Rahul Sharma recorded the consolation point for Stanford with a good win over Richard Stubbington.

Another 8-1 win, this time from Warehouse A over Hadleigh Forum A. Kim Shead and Martin West were unbeaten and Mark Rudland, playing up from division 1, picked up two good premier division scalps.

In the final game of the week, Matt Stringer stopped his Hockley side from a whitewash against Brand Identity A by picking up impressive wins against Chris Jacob and Barrie Delf. Wins against two such wily opponents shows the level of maturity Stringer has in his game, although on this occasion he could not get the better of man of the match Richard Jackman.

Duncan Taylor DRS

• Division 1

Lentern B are two points clear at the top of the league but this week were taken all the way by Hadleigh Forum C, before taking the win by 5-4 thanks to unbeaten MOTM John Lott in the 7th end.  John was ably supportd by Brian Spencer who added two, but losing out to Graham Farmer in the final match of the night. Graham also beat Paul Sims but was unable to overcome John, losing in straight sets, leaving Hadleigh in 6th place.

Canvey A find themselves in 2nd place on matches won thanks to a convincing 7-2 win over a strong Warehouse B team. Harry Keys played extremely well to win all his three backed up by Ray Wilson also unbeaten on the night. Phil Puckey secured the final point with a 5 set win over Berti. The two Tony’s. Millward and Wright added a point each for Warehouse who fall to equal 10th place.

Hullbridge E returned to winning ways with a 6-3 win over Invicta A. Adam Jackman led from the front with a POTM performance picking up all three points, in close 5 setters over Steve Marr and Mike Piper. Reece Harris-Griffiths added two more, one of which again was a 5 set game against Steve with Dan Zeffie adding the final point. Mike Piper added two for Invicta with Steve adding the final point, Neil Daines unable to make any impact on the match, leaving them in mid-table.

Hockley C are in 4th with a game in hand over those above them, playing bottom club Lentern C next week.

Customs A continue their steady climb up the table to 5th position with a 7-2 win over Rawreth C, their 4th win in the last 5 games. Roy Thomas and Dale Gutteridge found some form to remain unbeaten for Customs with Brian Rackham adding the final point. Chris Nunn, playing his first game was a bit rusty but managed to pick up a win against Brian, winning 21-19 in the 4th end and John Blackman added the other point for Rawreth leaving them in 10th but with games in hand.

Hullbridge C picked up their first win in 4 weeks with a dominating 7-2 win over bottom club Lentern C.  Pen-holder, Mike Johnston and Rod McLennan both were unbeaten with Captain, Andy Seaman picking up the extra point. Mark Jupe and dogged defender, Dave Kirston picked up the points for Lentern who find themselves 4 points adrift at the bottom with no win since the first week of the season. 

Brand Identity B had a bottom of the table clash against Hockley B and came out on the wrong end of a 5-4 loss. Antipodean, Dave Colwill had a good match, although Sean McNabb took him close taking him to 5 sets and there was a first season run out for Dennis Squirrell who will need to get back into the swing of things. Keith Abbott added two more points for Hockley. Mike Grout performed well for Barnd adding two points with Dave Jacob and Sean McNabb adding one each, leaving the two clubs in trouble at the bottom of the league.

Barrie Delf DRS

• Division 2

Canvey C find themselves back at the top of the league after a 9-0 win over bottom club, Runnymede. The winning team of Andy Murray, Stuart Curham and Steve Robinson had a reasonably early night with only two games going the full distance of 5 sets. Unfortunately, the Runnymede team of Barbara Shead, Anne Adlington and Tina Hutchinson will need to regroup and search for that elusive first win.

Wakering are on level points despite losing 5-4 to RESSC who move into 6th spot and will still have a say over the title by the end of the season as they have a game in hand over those above them. Bob Skews played well for RESSC and was unbeaten on the night winning a close 5 setter against Adam Deadman 12-10 in the fifth set. Sarah Mapes and Ron Coutts backed him up by winning one each. Adam, contributed two wins to the Wakering effort, with Zac England also winning two.

Rawreth D move into 3rd place, a point behind the leaders, thanks to a 7-2 win over Hullbridge F. Mike Nunn, playing up from the F team and maintaining his 100% record helped the cause with Sam Thompson maintaining his 100% record was the mainstay of the points for Rawreth, with Brad Nunn adding the final win. Harrison Sadler and Elena Hart did well to earn a point each for the Hullbridge side.

Hockley D received an early Xmas present when high flying Basildon Hospital arrived with only two players. Unfortunately one of them was Kevin Smart and his pimpled bat confused all the Hockley team to give the Hospital their three points in a 6-3 loss. Hockley did manage to overcome Albert Harrison and that gave them just their second win of the season and some much needed points.

Canvey B fielded a full-strength team this week and played well to get a 6-3 win over Rawreth E. Andy Deadman played very well for his hat trick for Rawreth and it was a shame that they could only field 2 players. Gavin Warner, Des Duffield and Lee McGonagle all picked up a point for Canvey with wins over Jack Himpfen-Jones, along with the 3 forfeit points. This pushes the Rawreth team towards the dogfight at the bottom of the table allowing Canvey to climb to mid-table.

David Barnes DRS

• Division 3

No doubt about the match of the week in Division 3 as league leaders Hadleigh Forum D crashed to their first defeat of the season 5-4 against Canvey D. Gordon Johnstone was the match winner for Canvey displaying some true Scottish grit to win two five setters against Satwant Gill and Ashley Brett. He came back from 2-1 down against Satwant and 2-0 down against Ashley plus a more straight forward three set win against Tony Mace.

Geoff Banthorpe provided the back up with a brace of wins but Ray Baker missed out on the night. Tony Mace won two for Hadleigh and there was a point each for Satwant and Ashley. This means that title rivals Hockley E and Brand Identity have closed the gap on Hadleigh who are now level on points with Hockley and two points ahead of Brand Identity but they do have a game in hand on both.

If you want to see a close game this season then look no further than Customs B who were involved in their fourth 5-4 result of the season just missing out against Warehouse C.  Once again Dave Walton was the inspiration for the win, still unbeaten this season and turning in another man of the match performance. There were two key games early in the match both going to five sets and both won by Warehouse. Alex Clark pushed Graham Back all the way before going down 11-7 in the fifth and Amar Al-Soufi took Dave to the fifth just missing out 11-9 in the final set.

Second placed Hockley relied on a strong all round team performance against Rawreth F winning 6-3 but none of their players could overcome Jan Thorpe who took the Man of the Match award with a hat trick. The ever improving Gary Linzell pushed him to five sets but went down 11-9 in the final set. Gary, Brian Parker and Ron Rogerson all recorded braces for Hockley who extended their winning run to five games whilst ending Rawreth’s run of five wins at the same time.

Third in the table Brand Identity C extended their winning run to six matches proving too strong for the youngsters of Hullbridge I winning 7-2. Richard Reibold came away with a perfect hat trick, not dropping a set, and although without their star player this season, John Beddow, Andy Ruff stepped into the team and came away unbeaten. Dave Humphreys got the other point. Josh Bartlett and Joe Buscombe got a point each for Hullbridge.

The two Rawreth junior teams enjoyed contrasting fortunes with the G team picking up their first win of the season 7-2 against a two man Rochford TTC team whilst the H team lost 7-2 against Hullbridge. Alice Cole picked up the MOTM for the G team in her first appearance of the season with Emily Kidd also recording a hat trick, while James Baulkwill picked up a point. Gordon Smith and Oliver George got a point each for Rochford the latter being his first win of the season.

The H team went down fighting against Hullbridge with two games going to five sets and another four going to four sets. Robert Wood was 2-1 down against Bill Hoy before winning the last two sets 15-13, 11-8 and Robert Bates also got the better of Bill in four. Dave Booroff and Lewis Ritchie were both too strong for their opponents winning all three of their games although Lewis was taken to five by Robert Wood winning 11-9 in the final set. This third win in succession for Hullbridge moves them up into fourth place overall.

Disappointingly there was another match forfeited as Stanford Le Hope C were unable to field a side against Hullbridge G.

Player of the Week – Gordon Johnstone

Team of the Week – Canvey D

Paul Strutt DRS