SDTTL - 2017/8 - Week 8 Report
- Premier Division
The Rawreth A team beat their B team counterparts 7-2 this week. The B team’s usual star, Matt 'hat-trick' Spero, was not quite at his best. However, nothing can be taken away from MoM Ross Saxby, whose performance in picking up his maximum bordered on the scintillating! Charles Sweeny and Ben Warner also proved too good for Bruce Kettle and the entertaining Simon Neale.
Another A versus B team clash this week featured Hullbridge’s top two sides. A weakened B team were no match for a strong A team, winning just the solitary set. It was, however, good experience for the two Hullbridge youngsters of Adam Jackman and Daniel Zeffie, who were called up for the first time in the Premier division.
A couple of comprehensive 8-1 victories this week for Brand Identity A over Hadleigh Forum B and Hadleigh Forum A over Standford-le-Hope. Chris and Simon Jacob were unbeaten for Brand Identity, supported by Barrie Delf, who was denied his three wins by Anthon Ranjit-Singh. Hadleigh Forum A’s wins came from Dave Bassett and Tony Jacks with three each and two from John Tendler, as he failed to get the better of Rahul Sharma.
Liam Squirrel’s impressive start to the season stuttered this week as he dropped the only two games lost by his side, to Harry Small and Matthew Stringer, as Thorpe Bay B beat Hockley A 7-2.
And in the final game of the week Thorpe Bay A beat Lentern A 6-3. Lentern could only field two players and while all Thorpe Bay players got the better of Paul Brown, they could not get past man-of-the-match and hat-trick performer Keith Adams.
Duncan Taylor DRS
- Division 1
Lentern B continue to lead the division by one point despite going down 6-3 this week in a surprise victory for Invicta A. In a great all round team performance, Steve Marr, Michael Piper and Neil Daines all scored two each. John Lott was able to provide the main resistance for Lentern winning two of his games, with Paul Sims winning the other game. The match swayed one way and another getting to 3-3 at one stage before Invicta won the last 3 games to take the convincing victory and push them up the table to 6th.
Hockley C slip into 2nd position with a comfortable 8-1 win over Brand Identity B. Alex Barnetson and Josh Copeland each scored three, with Stuart Adshead adding the other two points. Mick Grout added the only point for Brand although he was very unlucky not to pick up more with all of his games going to 5 sets. This pushed Brand Identity into 3rd from bottom in the table, but they do have points in hand over the bottom two.
Hullbridge E were without a game this week but move into 3rd place, 3 points adrift from the top. Another team without a game, Canvey A are in 4th a further point away.
Hadleigh Forum C are in fifth despite losing to bottom club Hockley B in a close affair by 5-4. This was a close match where no-one dominated or unbeaten. Dave Colwill and POTM Craig Aukett scored two each for Hockley with Charles Yeung and Mark Everard matching them for Hadleigh. The difference was Dan Patynski’s win over Graham Farmer, coming back from 2-1 down to clinch the extra point for Hockley and move them off of bottom place for the first time since Week 1.
Custom A’s resurgence continued with their 3rd win in 4 games, this time 7-2 against Lentern C which leaves Customs in 7th place and Lentern C at the bottom. An unbeaten night from Roy Thomas supported by two each from Brain Rackham and Dave Morgan ensured the points were going to Customs. Sue Body and Mark Jupe scored one each for the Lentern team.
In the final match of the week, Warehouse B scored a close victory over Hullbridge C by 5-4. Mark Rudland and Tony Wright scored two each for Warehouse with Dan Zeffie (playing up) scoring two for Hullbridge. Everyone else scored a point, with special mention to young Will Skelt playing up for the Hullbridge team as well, pushing Berti all the way and beating him 11-8 in the fifth.
Barrie Delf DRS
- Division 2
Wakering top the table this week by a point after a convincing 8-1 win over bottom-club Runnymede. Stewart Mills and Paul England were on top form scoring maximums for the Wakering team with Nigel Cook adding the other two points. Barbara Shead scored the consolation point for Runnymede in a close 5 setter against Nigel.
Stanford Le Hope B scored a good 6-3 win over Hockley D to push themselves up into 3rd place. A hat trick from Martin Winter and two from Mark Farley sealed the win with an extra point added by John Handscombe and unluckily losing his two other games both to 5 sets. All the Hockley players scored a point but could never get back into the game despite taking a 3-1 lead in the match, with Stanford taking the last 5 games.
Rawreth D are in 4th position after a crushing 7-2 win over fellow title rivals RESSC. Sam Thompson kept his 100% record with another 3 wins supported by Colin Barham with 3 and Jan Thorpe with 1. Ron Coutts and Bob Skews scored a point each for RESSC to post the points on the board.
In the final match of the week, there was an upset with Invicta B winning 7-2 against Canvey B. However, the explanation was clear in that Canvey only managed to field one player, Lee McGonagle, who played well on the night, beating both Barry Murphy and Mike Keeble to score Canvey’s two points but unable to overcome Andrew Humphris in the first game of the night.
David Barnes DRS
- Division 3
Unfortunately only four results received at the time of going to press this week so what I had hoped to be a bumper week for annoying firework related puns has turned into something of a damp squib! However I can give my full attention to one cracker of a match between Stanford Le Hope C and Customs B which produced a classic 5-4 result, all dependent on the last game of the evening, with no less than four matches going to five sets and another three going to four. The Taxmen rocketed into an early 2-0 lead thanks to a win for Richard Kidd against stand-in captain Brian Billins, and a sparkling five set victory for Dean Johnson against Zach Bates. Dean came back from 2-1 down, in a match that see-sawed either way, to win 8/11 15/13 2/11 11/9 11/13. Stanford found themselves 3-1 down before their fight back began with wins for Brian and Tony Papasifakis bringing them level at 3-3. Brian’s win over Mark Rose was another five setter with Mark coming back from 2-0 down only to lose 11/6 in the fifth.
Mark continued his love of five setters however, winning 11/9 in the fifth against Zach to put Customs back in front 4-3. Tony then completed his hat trick to make it 4-4 against Richard before Brian returned to the table to play a captain’s innings and beat Dean in five sets to win the match for Stanford. Tony took the MOTM award ( no one could hold a candle to him all night!), with Brian providing the other two points. Zach was unlucky not to add to the score losing two of his matches in five sets. Richard got two for Customs with a point each for Dean and Mark.
In a match that could have ended up a lot closer than the score suggests Hockley E notched up their fourth win on the trot 9-0 against their F team. One ‘guy’ who was unlucky not to get a point for the F team was Roger Sherman who went to five sets against the ever improving Gary Linzell and Brian Parker. In fact he started with a bang against Gary leading 2-1 before losing 11/9 in the fifth, and came from two sets down against Brian before surrendering 11/2 in the final set. Captain Andrew Strutt made up the hat trick heroes on the night ( his first one of the season) and, with no bias from me whatsoever, took the man of the match award as well. That win keeps them in second place in the table.
Table toppers Hadleigh Forum D might have expected tougher opposition from their visitors Hullbridge G but only Sue Reece and Bob Shingleton-Smith were able to turn out for them and Hadleigh romped to 9-0 win. Tony Mace, Satwant Gill and David Thomas cemented their position at the top now two points clear of Hockley E and with a game in hand.
Brand Identity C are in third after Rochford conceded all nine points unable to field a team for the second week running.
Player of the Week – Tony Papasifakis
Team of the Week – Stanford Le Hope C
Paul Strutt DRS
