Last Report - Summer League

Division 1

Week 12 report

There were three rearranged matches played this week to complete the fixtures for this year’s Summer League. Two games each for Invicta and Wakering and one each for Hockley B and Stanford. Pleasing to see all the fixtures completed despite one or two postponements and appropriate to mention at this stage some stand out performances.

Firstly, nobody could touch Keith Adams this season ten games played, ten games won, just one set lost. His unbeaten performance was matched, however, by Sanjay Saptarshi of Hockley A who also racked up ten wins, albeit he had to fight a little bit harder conceding five sets.

Worth mentioning also Lee Marson of Invicta the only player in the league to play in every match and Peter Weatherall of Stanford A who played just two games less.

The first of Wakering’s final matches was against Invicta but, apart from Callum Turner who won both his singles, they were outclassed by the Invicta side of Steve Marr, Keith Willett and Lee Marson. Willet took the player of the match honours thanks to his unbeaten performance in the doubles and the closest match of the night turned out to be the final doubles of the evening between Andrew Deadman and Turner for Wakering against Invicta’s Marr and Marson. The Invicta pair lost the first set 14/12 took the next two sets 11/6 11/5 only to lose the fourth set 12/10. They recovered again to take the final set 11/6.

Wakering’s final game against bottom of the table and winless Hockley B resulted in a straightforward 7-2 win but was notable for Hockley’s Aaryan Vatsa, playing his first game of the season, winning both his singles against Stewart Mills and Paul England. His win against England coming with a remarkable 4/11 22/20 14/12 12/10 scoreline. Callum Turner made up the winning Wakering team who had the added bonus of the final doubles being conceded due to Hockley’s George Clark being unwell.

Invicta finished their final game in style with an 8-1 win against Hadleigh. Paul Sims joined Marson and Willet and were largely untroubled apart from Marson’s five set win against Berti Makolli and the final game of the evening when Makolli and Jim Stait came back from two sets down in the doubles to beat Marson and Sims 5/11 7/11 11/9 11/6 11/9.

Player of the Week - Callum Turner

Team of the Week – Invicta A

Week 11 report

The Southend Summer League entered it’s final week with the title already decided but the battle for second place still up for grabs. Brand Identity were one point ahead of Basildon A but had the unenviable task of playing champions Rawreth, whilst the ‘new towners’ faced their own B team – a slightly easier proposition.

Basildon A’s team of Kim Shead, Rob Burton and Tony Ayliffe recorded a crushing 8-1 victory against their clubmates the only blot on their landscape being Ayliffe’s defeat in four sets to Chudi Ukpaka. Lin Roff came close to adding to that win against Burton but lost in five sets after holding a 2-1 advantage at one stage. Roff and Ukpaka combined in the last match of the evening to push Shead and Ayliffe to five sets in the doubles but apart from those games the A team were pretty much untroubled. This win put them seven points ahead of Brand Identity which meant they would need eight points from their final game against the champions!

A win by eight points was the result of this game but unfortunately it was Rawreth who were the victors finishing off their season unbeaten and as champions. Keith Adams, Daniel Zeffie and Paul Brown made up the winning team their one defeat on the night coming from Steve Muth’s straight set win over Brown. Apart from that Rawreth were largely untroubled the only surprise being that Adams conceded his first set of the season to Simon Jacob. Ten singles matches played, unbeaten, 30 sets won, 1 lost – a remarkable record!

Just to show consistency the final game of the week also ended in an 8-1 scoreline as Hockley A won their final game against Wakering. Joseph Odegbami claimed the match honours beating Callum Turner and Paul England in straight sets but he was pushed closely by Sanjay Saptarshi who also won his singles against Turner and Zac England but did drop a set on the way. Wakering’s consolation point came from a hard fought five set win against Stuart Adshead by Zac England. Hockley lie a respectable fourth in the table after that win and Saptarshi finished the season unbeaten.

Team of the Week – has to be Rawreth

Player of the Week – Keith Adams