WINTER LEAGUE 16-17 WEEK 22 REPORT

Sdttl 2016/7 Season Week 22 Reports

Premier Division   (Somehow we have overlapped Duncan’s Reports, so 2 weeks reported here)

Week 21    As is often the case with large margins of victory, they can often hide some very competitive individual matches. That was certainly the case as Customs went down 9-0 to Lentern A with Customs losing out in some tight sets, no more so than the unlucky Dale Gutteridge who was on the wrong end of a 11-9 in the 5th defeat to the irrepressible Paul Brown.

Title contenders Hullbridge A suffered a scare this week as they came up against Rayleigh Mill side of Peter Radford, Duncan Taylor and Steve Sawyer. Radford and Taylor winning two each leaving the score at 4-4 going into the final game of the night between Taylor and his Essex County teammate Kevin Caldon. Although Taylor took the first game deuce it was the Hullbridge player, as he has done so many times this season, who came out on top to give his side the vital win.

Elsewhere, Dave Bassett provided the only resistance for Hadleigh Forum against Thorpe bay A this week. Bassett won his side’s two points in a 7-2 defeat with good wins over John Monk and Paul Sayer.

And finally, third from bottom Hockley A put even more distance between themselves and the relegation zone with a 7-2 win over second from bottom Stanford le Hope. A maximum from Matthew Stringer was backed up by two wins apiece from Liam Squirrell and Tim Pang.

Week 22    Two results to report this week for Rawreth B. In the first, on a night of high quality Table Tennis, a very strong Hullbridge B side just edged their Rawreth equivalent B team 5-4. With so many games going to either 4 or 5 sets it was clear that either team could have ended up as the eventual winners. The second was a good night for Rawreth B they beat Rayleigh Mill 8-1. The Millers only success coming when Colin Chatfield beat Mike Hayes. That man Matt Spero was at it again. Earlier in the season he had problems when his bat broke, this time around he was having problems trying to glue new rubbers on. He still managed to win his 3, and 1 of those 3 was with one of his team mate’s bat However the MoM award goes to Bruce Kettle who picked up 3 wins but 2 of which went to 5 sets, showing his never say die attitude.

Elsewhere there were big wins for the top three sides starting with Rawreth A who ran out 8-1 winners over Hadleigh Forum A, the consolation win is worth a mention though as it was a good win for Hamish Innes over County Vets player Kevin Read. Rawreth A’s title rivals went one better and both won 9-0. Thorpe Bay A over Hockley A and Hullbridge A over a two man Customs A side.

Attention moves away from the league next week as players focus on the Southend 2017 Annual Closed Championships, but when we return it will be a thrilling end to the season in the Premier Division with only one point separating the top three sides with Thorpe Bay A and Hullbridge A now installed as joint favourites but I’m sure Rawreth A will still have a say in matters.

Duncan Taylor, Premier Div. DRS

Division 1    Hadleigh Forum B’s lead at the top is now 45points with a game in hand over Invicta A, with Rawreth C chasing with games in hand.

In this week’s games 1st played 2nd with Hadleigh Forum B emphasizing their dominance with an 8-1 victory over Invicta A to widen the gap further. Gus Heath and Mick Tappenden provided maximums with an additional two from Tony Jacks. Michael Piper grabbed the consolation point beating Tony 3-1 to inflict only his second loss of the year, the first being against Steve Marr from Invicta in the reverse fixture. With Gus only losing one in the year and Mick only losing three there are slim pickings for the remaining teams in the division.

A point behind Invicta in 3rd comes Rawreth C, who ironically played 4th placed team Canvey A and came away with a 6-3 win. Chris Aukett scored a maximum for Rawreth backed up with two from Gary McCarthy and one from Colin Clements. Ray Wilson put up the stubborn resistance as normal taking two for the Island team who fell short. Rawreth do have two games in hand on Hadleigh but not enough points to catch up. They do however look to be able to take the second place spot again, but not sure if they will want to return to the Premier so quickly.

Hullbridge D continue their good form with a 7-2 win over bottom club Castle Point B. A solid all-round performance from Ben Matthews with 3, and Adam Deadman and Jo Hills with two each saw them home and into the fifth spot in the league. Mike Grout earned the two consolation points for the Castle Point team who are now looking certain to finish in bottom spot unless they can turn their fortunes round.

Lentern C had a close 5-4 win over Hockley B, with Pat White scoring a hard fought hat trick for the Lentern team providing the main points for the win, inflicting only the 6th loss of the campaign for Dave Colwill. With Dave Colwill and Dennis Squirrell scoring two each for Hockley they were unlucky to end up on the losing side.

Hullbridge C continue their resurgence, this week with a 6-3 win over Hadleigh Forum C. Captain Andy Seaman led the way with three wins, ably supported by Bill Smith with two, and unlucky not to also get a maximum, losing 13-11 in the fifth set to Tony Mace, and Richard Gill with 1, for his fifth win of the campaign. Tony Mace did well to get two for the visitors.

Barrie Delf, Div 1 DRS

Division 2    Stalwart Tony Coeshall was again the lynchpin in another Runnymede victory. His hat trick in his side’s home fixture against Castle Point C clinched a 5 – 4 victory. David Jacob got two of the visitor’s points.

Rawreth E found Basildon Hospital too much of a handful. Maximums from both Kevin Smart and Jay Shivapujimath gave the visiting side a comfortable 7 – 2 win, although there were several close games.

Hockley C showed no mercy towards their hosts Wakering, handing out a 9 – 0 drubbing. Josh Copeland, Martin Scarfe and Stuart Adshead, were all in fine form for Hockley as they maintain their promotion push.

Canvey C’s young Harry Keys was given one of his sternest tests to date. Despite giving away nearly sixty years in age, Invicta B’s Barrie Murphy took Harry the full distance in a tense match. Harry’s youth eventually overcame Barrie’s experience by the narrowest of margins as Harry pinched the final set 11 – 9. Barrie had some consolation, though, managing one victory on the night. Harry won all his three to give hosts Canvey a 7 – 2 home win. He was well supported with two wins each from Stuart Curham and Ross Warner.

Leaders Hullbridge E’s youngsters also came across a couple of players with many years’ experience in RESSC’s Stan Dyson and Bob Skews. Both managed one victory apiece. However, maximums from Reece Harris-Griffiths and player-of-the-match Daniel Zeffie, saw Hullbridge to a 7 -2 success.

Warehouse’s James Spencer was the only home team player to put up meaningful opposition to visitors Canvey B. Unfortunately, his two victories were not enough, as a hat trick from Talbot Wiseman and two wins each from Tony Westwell and Des Duffield gave Canvey a 7 – 2 victory.

David Barnes, Division 2 DRS

Division 3   First and second placed Hockley D and Stanford Le Hope B met in their long awaited top of the table clash and by all accounts it proved to be a match of epic proportions. This ‘clash of the Titans’ saw both sides fielding their strongest sides as Hockley sought to avenge their only defeat this season and Stanford sought to hang on to their record of being the only unbeaten side in the Division.  Hockley raced into a 3-0 lead but were pegged back to 4-2 before Alex Barnetson met Adrian Armstrong in what proved to be the key match of the evening. Alex won the first set but then found himself 2-1 down before taking the fourth set 11-4. A win for either side now would have been crucial and it turned out to be as close as you could get with Alex just nicking it 11-9. At 5-2 up this clinched the win for Hockley and the final two games went one each way to leave Hockley 6-3 winners on the night.  There were some very good matches and amazing point play throughout the evening and Stanford did have the consolation of taking one record away from Hockley and that was David Chenery’s unbeaten record as he lost in straight sets to Dan Harris. Alex finished with a hat trick and maintained his own 100% record so far this season, David won two and Dan Patynski got one for Hockley. Dan got a brace for Stanford and there was one for Adrian Armstrong. John Hanscombe missed out on the night.  For those of you who like to do the maths Hockley need 7 points from each of their remaining 7 games to clinch the title, providing Stanford win all theirs 9-0!!

Elsewhere in the Division Rawreth F pulled off something of a surprise with a tightly fought 5-4 win at home to Hullbridge G. Having Ryan Williams back in their team made all the difference as he won all three of his games including the final match of the evening with the score locked at 4-4. Keenan Ford got one win and George Davis the other but George had to fight really hard to get his coming back from 2-1 down against Bill Hoy before winning the last two sets 11-2, 11-9. A crucial win as they were 4-2 down at that stage. Dave Booroff got a brace and there was a point each for Bill and Lewis Ritchie for Hullbridge.

Invicta C and Hullbridge F locked horns in a long and hard fought match where four games went to five sets and another three went to four. Despite the closeness of the games the result was never in doubt as Hullbridge raced into a 5-1 lead and finished 6-3 winners. The five set games were shared with Janet Finch ousting Dave Youngman and Bob Singleton-Smith coming back from 2-0 down against John Golding to win for Hullbridge, and Dave reversed that result when he played Bob, also coming back from 2-0 down. John Golding got the better of Janet coming from 2-1 down. John finished with two wins and Dave got the other point for Invicta whilst Sue Reece, Bob and Janet all got two for Hullbridge.

Canvey D eased to a 9-0 win against Warehouse E with Geoff Banthorpe. Tom Jarvis and Rob McDonald making up the winning team. Geoff completed the perfect hat trick not dropping a set.

Customs B were unfortunate to find themselves without a third player on the night and went down 6-3 to Hockley E in what promised to be a close game. Gary Linzell took the honours for Hockley winning both his matches with one win for Ron Rogerson, whilst Amar Al-Soufi also won his two for Customs plus one win for Richard Kidd.

Player of the Week – Alex Barnetson for his match winning performance against Stanford

Team of the Week – not that I’m biased, but it has to be Hockley D!

Paul Strutt, Div 3 DRS

Author: via Southend Table Tennis League
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