SDTTL – 2017/8 – Week 11 Reports

• Premier Division

There was a big result at the top of the premier division this week as Thorpe Bay A continued their strong start to the season with a huge 8-1 victory over title rivals Rawreth A. Certainly too early in the season to say it was a fatal blow to Rawreth A but it certainly has wounded the former champions. A good win for Ben Warner over Joe Kennedy was all Rawreth had to show for their efforts as Kennedy went on to beat Kevin Read and Charles Sweeney while the two Pauls (Whatton and Sayer) went unbeaten.

Meantime, current champions Hullbridge A were being pushed all the way by Rayleigh Mill in front of a capacity crowd in the all new Match room @ Hullbridge. The crowd made up of players and coaches from across the league (see photo) came because they were expecting some good table tennis and I don’t think they were disappointed. Kevin Caldon, as so often, was the stand out performer winning all of his three matches with Reece Seddon and Sam Hume chipping in a win each against Steve Maltby for the 5 points needed for the win. Minda Sinkus and Duncan Taylor took the four wins for the Millers both getting the better of Hullbridge’s young guns.

Stuart Gibbs gives Kevin Caldon advice in the lovely refurbished Hullbridge Sports Associations Match Room

There was a great demonstration of defensive skills by man of the match Richard Jackman for Brand Identity this week as his side beat Warehouse A. The evening culminated in two nip and tuck matches with Warehouse managing to prevail on both to make the overall match score respectable at 6-3.

A very enjoyable evening ended with a convincing 8-1 victory for Rawreth ‘B’ over Hadleigh Forum ‘B’ that saw maximums for Eric Green and Babul McLeod and 2 wins for Simon Neale. Mick Tappenden won Forum’s sole point with a close 5 set win over Neale while mention should also be made of Tony Jacks who led Neale by 2 sets to nil only to fall just short at 7/11 in the fifth. There was also an 8-1 scoreline as Hullbridge B overcame Stanford le Hope with Rahul Sharma picking up the consolation win against Dave Calleja.

The final game of the week saw a Lentern A side of Wal Bada, Eddie Ogbebor and Norbert Fullerton beat Hockley A 7-2. Man of the match was the unbeaten Bada while there were good wins for Harry Small and Matt Stringer over Ogbebor and Fullerton respectively.

Duncan Taylor DRS

• 1st Division

Hullbridge E jump to the top of the table with a 5-4 win over Brand Identity B, but didn’t have it all their own way. Dan Zeffie and Adam Jackman scored two each with the final point coming from Reece Harris-Griffiths. Mike Grout’s stubborn defence was too much for the young team to overcome and he was unbeaten on the night, Dan Zeffie coming closest taking Mike to 5 sets and being 2-0 up. There was a good win for David Jacob over Reece to add the final point for Brand Identity to keep them 3rd from bottom.

Canvey A pulled themselves up into 2nd winning a see-saw match with Rawreth C by 6-3. Veteran Terry Giddens scored a maximum for the Island side with none of the Rawreth players able to get to grips with his pimpled bat. Ray Wilson added two, winning a close 5 setter with Chris Aukett, 13-11 in the fifth end and again in 5 against John Blackman from 2-1 down, but unusually losing to Colin Clements in 5, despite being 2-0 up for only his second ever win over Ray. Peter Cray added the final point for Canvey. Colin Clements scored two, with Chris Aukett adding the final point for Rawreth.

Lentern B are in 3rd position, 4 points behind the leaders with a game in hand, but without a game this week.

Hockley C are in 4th also with a game in hand over the two leaders, and helped their cause with a close 5-4 win over bottom club Lentern C. David Chenery and Josh Copeland scored two each for Hockley with Stuart Adshead adding the fifth point. Mark Jupe was unbeaten for Lentern and was unfortunate to end up on the losing side, with only Peter Pond able to add another point.

Hullbridge C had a good 5-4 win over Customs A with captain Andy Seaman leading from the front with 3 wins. With Rod Maclennan and Matt Rolfe adding a point each this gave the Hullbridge team the close win. Brian Rackham added two for Customs with Dale Gutteridge and Dave Morgan adding one each in a match where everyone contributed.

Hadleigh Forum C were another team that were involved in a 5-4 defeat, but this time against a two-man team from Invicta A. For Invicta, Steve Marr scored a good hat trick, with Tony Ayliffe adding two wins for the overall win. Mark Everard was the only Hadleigh player to win a point, overcoming Tony in 3 sets. Charles Yeung and Graham Farmer were able to pick up the forfeited points from the missing player.

In the fifth 5-4 result this week, Warehouse B had a good win over Hockley B, thanks to a POTM award winning performance from Tony Wright who earnt his first hat trick of the season, including inflicting a second loss for the season for Dave Colwill. Tony was backed up by Tony Millward with two to take the close win. A good Hockley team performance, with Dave Colwill with two and Joe Lock and Keith Abbott with one each gave Hockley the much-needed points to keep them one off the bottom of the table.

Barrie Delf DRS

• 2nd Division

The Division is very tight with only 7 points separating 1st from 7th in the league, every match is a mini cup-final for everyone involved.

RESSC are currently leading by a point following a 9-0 victory over Invicta B. The RESSC team of Ron Coutts, Bob Skews and Mike Worship proved far too strong, taking all 9 games and dropping only one end, meaning an early night for all concerned. Andy Humphris, Mike Keeble and Barrie Murphy were the unlucky team on the end of the RESSC onslaught.

Rawreth D slip into second with an impressive 8-1 win over previous leaders Wakering who fall to 3rd. Sam Thompson retained his 100% record with three wins along with 3 for Colin Barham. Olivia Jones added two for the convincing win, with Paul England scoring the consolation for Wakering and stopping the whitewash. The game could have had a different scoreline and does not reflect how close it was with no less than 5 games going to 5 sets, all won by Rawreth.

Canvey B are in 5th place, but have played 1 or 2 more games than their closest rivals. A good 5-4 win over close rivals Basildon Hospital to give them a 2 point cushion. Gavin Warner and Des Duffield scored two each for Canvey with Lee McGonagle adding the final point. Chudi Ukpaka played really well to score 3 for the hospital team, but Kevin Smart with an uncharacteristic off night was able to add the only other point to leave them short.

Finally, Runnymede posted their first win of the season by 6-3 over close rivals Rawreth E. A good hat trick from Barry Edgar backed up by two from Barbara Shead and one from Tina Hutchinson saw the Runnymede team home. For Rawreth, all the team were able to score a point, with George Davis, Matt Barber and Keanan Ford all getting on the scoresheet.

Dave Barnes DRS

• Division 3

Unfortunately there were three results not in at the time of going to press but none that involved the top teams in the division. Leaders Hadleigh Forum D maintained their position showing no mercy to the young Hullbridge I side winning 9-0. Regulars Tony Mace, David Thomas and Satwant Gill were a class above their opponents although Daniel Mansfield did give Tony a scare leading 2-1 at one stage before losing the crucial fourth 15-13 and then crashing 11-2 in the fifth.

Brand Identity C stayed second recording their eighth win in succession by disposing of Hockley F 9-0. Colin Smith, Richard Reibold and Jenne Seibolt were too strong for a young Hockley side but Aaryan Vatsa and Alex Summers did manage to extend Jenne and Colin to five sets respectively whilst Ben Cook went to four sets in two of his games.

Invicta C’s 7-2 win at Warehouse D pushes them up another place to third although they were pushed hard by the Warehousemen with only one game going to three sets. Six matches went to four and two matches to five and they actually led 2-1 early on but this was a good all round team performance by Invicta for whom Chris Gregory took the MOTM honours with Dave Youngman and Rob West both winning two. Joe Bennett and Lindsey Carroll got a point each for Warehouse and Steve Chaffey was unlucky to lose two of his games both in five sets.

Hockley E, who were without a game this week and also are next week, still occupy fourth place but they are now only two points ahead of Canvey D who moved up one place with a 7-2 victory against Warehouse C. Canvey put out probably their strongest team of Talbot Wiseman, Gordon Johnstone and Geoff Banthorpe in a match which featured the clash of two unbeaten players, Talbot and Dave Walton. Their match proved to be pivotal as the scores were level at 2-2 but, despite losing the first set 13-11, Talbot never looked back after that and ran out an easy winner 11/5, 11/5, 11/5. Boosted by that Canvey went on to win the next four games and with that line up they will be a hard team to beat in this division. It turned out to be a bad night for Dave who then lost again to Gordon who came back from two sets down to win the next three 11/9, 11/8, 11/9. Gordon and Geoff both won two to back up Talbot whilst Dave and Conrad Gomes got the points for Warehouse.

Hullbridge G maintained their recent record of lose one, win one, by beating Customs B 6-3 but they could not get the better of Amar Al-Soufi who won all his games on the night. Sue Reece, Bob Shingleton-Smith and Ann Lane each got a brace for Hullbridge.

Team of the Week Canvey D

Player of the Week Talbot Wiseman

Paul Strutt DRS