Sdttl 2016-7 Reports - Week 12
• Premier Division.
They say you can’t win the title before Christmas but you can lose it. Current champions Rawreth A are certainly a long way from losing the title, but their grip on the silver trophy loosened slightly this week as they were taken all the way by Thorpe Bay B in a titanic battle, just edging it 5-4. There were two fine five set wins for Richard Stubbington over George Reeves and Charles Sweeney, and equally good wins for Rawreth Juniors’ coach Keiran Skeggs over Reeves and Kevin Read. Reeves was perhaps suffering from his exploits over the weekend at the Eastern Vetts Masters where he performed well alongside a number of other Southend players.
The performance of the weekend by a Southend player at the Masters event had to be Kevin Caldon, who was back to his imperious best, picking up both the over 50s singles and the over 50s doubles with Norfolk based Sean Malloy. Kevin also picked up an excellent win in the over 40s against a player some of us who play Chelmsford league will remember, Neil Charles. It was great to see the Southend league so well represented at a national event. I hope I haven’t missed anyone, but in addition to Caldon and Reeves, I certainly spotted Jan Fuller, Peter Radford, Duncan Taylor, Chris Jacob, Glenn Johnson, John Poysden, Terry Guymer, Lin Roff, Debbie Auvache, Fred Lockwood and Keith Phillips making a good account of themselves.
Back to the league action, and a high-quality match and great evening saw Lentern emerge 6-3 victors over Rawreth B. For the winners, each player picked up two games, but it was the inspirational Matt Spero who again was MoM scoring another hat-trick.
The final three games of the week were one-sided affairs with Thorpe Bay A and Hadleigh Forum recording 9-0 victories over Castle Point A and Customs A respectively, and Stanford-le-Hope not fairing much better, going down 8-1 to Warehouse A.
Duncan Taylor, Prem. Div DRS
• 1st Division.
Hadleigh Forum B continue to lead the pack and this week had a convincing 8-1 win over Lentern B. Gus Heath and Tony Jacks produced unbeaten performances this week with Mick Tappendenadding two, narrowly losing out to Paul Sims 13-11 in the fifth set who saved Lentern’s blushes. Meanwhile the chasing pack seem to be falling further back and it seems this will be Hadleigh’s year.
There was a classic 2nd v 3rd battle this week, with Canvey A coming out on top, but still 13 points behind Hadleigh, after a good 6-3 win over Lentern C, who remain in 3rd place. Ray Wilson returned to winning ways for Canvey remaining unbeaten and supported by Gavin Warner (2 wins) and Phil Puckey (1 win). Pat White played his part for Lenterngetting the better of both Gavin and Phil in 3 sets with Wayne Farmer also adding a point. Martin Archie ended pointless for the first time this season, losing two in 5 sets and one in 4.
Rawreth C sit in 4th spot but have a game in hand over the teams above them. This week they proved too strong for surprise bottom club Lentern D, winning 7-2. Diminutive Mike Worship played with a big heart to win all 3 of his games, especially in the close game with Peter Pond winning 12-10 in the fifth set. John Blackman and Gary McCarthy each added two to the winning score, and singleton points for Peter Pond and Peter Lucraft was the only consolation for the Lentern side, who will need to pick up points soon to avoid a relegation dogfight.
Meanwhile, the other team at the bottom, Castle Point B, took on Warehouse B to try to ease their relegation worries. It was a first turnout for veteran Ev Lucas for the Castle Point team, but he was unable to add to the points tally against a strong Warehouse team for whom, Martin West was unbeaten. Tony Wright and Micky Baker added two each with consolations from Tony Ayliffe and Keith Neville to keep them one place from the bottom.
In the last game this week, Hadleigh Forum C had a strong win over Hockley A by 7-2. On this occasion, Mark Everard put in a top performance winning all three including only a 3rd loss for New Zealander, Dave Colwill. Tony Mace and Russell Bright returning from injury scored two each for the Forum team, Dave Colwill scored both the points for Hockley
Barrie Delph, 1st Div. DRS
• 2nd Division.
Congratulations to bottom-of-the-table Castle Point D on winning their first match of the season. A maximum from captain Richard Riebold led them to a surprisingly comfortable 6 – 3 win over Warehouse C. Richard was aided by two wins from John Beddow and one from Colin Smith. Andrew Humphris scored two for the very sporting visitors.
Castle Point C had a less successful outcome when they entertained Hockey C. Their visitors came away with a 6 – 3 victory, with two wins apiece for Martin Scarfe, Joe Lock and Stuart Adshead. However, none of their team were able to overcome the home team’s Chris Jacob. The much experienced player is recovering from a shoulder injury and, on this form, looks ready for higher things.
The match between Rawreth E and RESSC was decided in the final rubber of the night, when RESSC’s Sarah Mapes overcame Jack Himpfen-Jones to seal a 5 – 4 away win. It was a good night for RESSC’s Rob Skews, being unbeaten. Botond Mezo and Matt Barber won two each for Rawreth.
Thanks to two consecutive hat tricks from their young star Harry Keys, Canvey C put together a couple of good results. Firstly, they overcame RESSC away 7 – 2 and then followed that up with a 6 – 3 win at home to Wakering. Both RESSC’s points came from Rob Skews, whilst Cliff Noakes got two of Wakering’s.
David Barnes, 2nd Div. DRS
• 3rd Division.
Division 3 leaders Hockley D have increased their lead to 15 points over Stanford Le Hope B and Warehouse D after a crushing 9-0 win against Rawreth F. They were perhaps a little fortunate that they didn’t come up against young Ryan Williams especially as their own top two players, David Chenery and Alex Barnetson, were missing from their line up, but the team of Jim Nariel, Dan Patynski and Gary Linzell (playing up from their E team), were far too strong for the Rawreth youngsters. Keenan Ford showed some resistance taking Jim to five sets but otherwise no match went beyond three. Congratulations to Gary who took the man of the match award.
Stanford had, what appeared on paper, a seemingly easy match against Hockley F but, having to make enforced changes themselves, they were forced to fight all the way by a team struggling near the bottom of the table and only just ran out winners 5-4 still preserving their unbeaten record. John Handscombe was unbeaten for Stanford but there were two good wins for Josh Jones and one each for Graham Gregory and Alex Summers for Hockley. Mark Farley got the other two for Stanford.
This result, however, enabled Warehouse D to close the gap on Stanford and they now sit level on the same points and number of games won and it is just Stanford’s unbeaten record that keeps Warehouse third. The Warehousemen had a comfortable 7-2 win against Hullbridge H, experience proving the difference with Dave Walton leading the way with a maximum, backed up by two each for Phil Mardle and Ro Brett. Harrison Sadler and Abiaz Afzal scored one each for Hullbridge.
Warehouse E, one but bottom of the table, had a comprehensive 9-0 win over Rochford without dropping a set, and this win has enabled them to close the gap on Hockley F to one point. Joe Bennett, Steve Chaffey and Lindsey Carroll made up the winning team.
Match of the week goes to the mid-table clash between Hockley E and Invicta C with man of the match Keith Baxter leading his team to a winning position at 3-2 up only to see the final match start with the scores level at 4-4. After Keith’s early first win of the night two long five setters saw Ron Rogerson and Kevin Blythe come out on top for Hockley, before Keith and Dave Youngman gave Invicta a 3-2 lead. Two more wins for Kevin and Ron put Hockley in front but Keith levelled the scores once again. The last match saw Hockley’s Andrew Strutt and Invicta’s Jon Gould, both without a win on the night, go head to head and, in a topsy- turvymatch, Andrew came back from 1-0 and 2-1 down to take it to the fifth set and then sneaked home 13-11 in a tense and exciting end to the evening.
Best performance of the week came from Customs B who overcame Canvey D 6-3. The Islanders bright start to the season has been blemished this being their second defeat in four games, and although they still sit fifth in the table they are now 14 points behind the second placed team and a massive 24 points behind the leaders. Defeat this week was down to two great performances from Mark Rose and Richard Kidd which saw them both record maximums against the experienced line up of Rob Mcdonald, Geoff Banthorpe and Steve Parker.Their reward is rise of one place up the table but, more importantly, they get my
Team of the Week award – Customs B
And my Player of the Week goes to – Richard Kidd
Paul Strutt, 3rd Div. DRS
