WEEK 4 REPORT WINTER LEAGUE 17-18

SDTTL 2017-8 Week 4 Reports

  • Premier Division

It was an early retirement to the bar for Hullbridge A and back to the practice table for Warehouse A, after the former came out on top 8-1. Kevin Caldon and Stuart Gibbs went unbeaten for the ‘bridge, with Kim Shead picking up an impressive win against Richard Brown for the losing side. 

There was a closer game for one of the other title contenders as Rawreth A beat Thorpe Bay B 6-3. Charles Sweeney was in fine form recording a hat-trick. George Reeves won two and Kevin Read one as Kieran Skeggs maintained his good start to the season with two wins.

Stanford-le-Hope beat Hadleigh Forum B 5-4 this week in what will probably be an important game in the battle for survival in the Premier division. Rahul Sharma continued his excellent start to the season with a triple for Stanford. 

Elsewhere there was a decisive 8-1 win for Rawreth B over Hullbridge B. Babul McLeod and Bruce Kettle were both unbeaten for Rawreth. Tim Cramphorn scored the solitary win for Hullbridge over the dogged defence of Eric Green.

And finally, it was a night to forget for Rayleigh Mill as they were soundly thrashed by Brand Identity A. Chris and Simon Jacob were unbeaten, and only Colin Chatfield showed some resistance for the Millers, with a hard fought victory over Barrie Delf.

Duncan Taylor DRS

  • Division 1 

All change at the top, with a surge, the young team from Hullbridge E jointly lead the table after a good 6-3 win over Canvey A. Adam Jackman lead from the front with an unbeaten night, with Phil Puckey and Ray Wilson taking him to 5 sets. James Goddard was able to add two games and Dan Zeffie one to complete the Hullbridge scoring. Improving youngster, Harry Keys for Canvey was able to win two good games for the team and one from Ray Wilson winning a close 5 setter over Dan Zeffie after being 2-1 down completed the Canvey scoring.

Lentern B are on level points after another 6-3 win over Hockley C. Once again, John Lott led the way with a fine hattrick, Brian Spencer, added two in support with Peter Cranmer adding the final point. Hockley were thankful to Stuart Adshead in his first game with two wins and Josh Copeland with one. Alex Barnetson was unable to make any impact on the match, losing all 3 games in 5 sets, although there were no 3 set wins in the whole match so everyone was in with a chance.

Hullbridge C are showing their strength in depth this year, having played no less than 8 players already in the team. The ‘squad rotation’ system from Bill Smith seems to be working and this week they earned a 7-2 win over Invicta A. Rod MacLennan scored the bulk of the teams points with 3, supported by Matt Rolfe and Mike Johnston with two each. Invicta had no response to the overall strength of the team but Steve Marr found some form to win the two games for Invicta, Mike Piper and Neil Daines unable to make any headway.

Hadleigh Forum C were stopped on their winning run by Customs A, winning their first match of the season 6-3. Roy Thomas was back on form completing a Hatttrick, backed up by Brian Rackham with two and Dave Morgan with one. Charles Yeung scored two for Forum but with only Mark Everard adding a further point, Invicta could have no more impact. Customs leap-frogged over Invicta with the win, leaving them to linger near the bottom.

In the final game this week, previously unbeaten Brand Identity B were brought back down to earth with an 8-1 win by Rawreth C. The Brand team had no answer to Garry Hartgrove and Trevor Ward who both went unbeaten, with Mike Grout picking up the consolation game against John Blackman. Again, with only one game going to 3 sets, Brand were in with a chance in every game but could not capitalize.

Barrie Delf DRS

  • Division 2 

A quirk of the fixture list means there were only four matches in Division 2 this week. However, in one of them, one of our members of the 100% Average club sadly fell by the way. Perhaps it’s the commentator’s curse but, in the Hullbridge F home game against Canvey B, Harrison Sadler unfortunately lost his unbeaten record to the visitors’ Des Duffield. There was some comfort for his Hullbridge side though, as they came out 5 – 4 winners in a close contest. Des and Tony Westwell both won two, whilst Harrison and Will Skelt got two each for the home side and Ellena Hart one win.

The biggest win of the week was Wakering’s 8 – 1 hammering of Hockley D. Adam Deadman keeps himself in the 100% club with a Player of the Match unbeaten performance. The home side’s Nigel Cook was also undefeated. James Spencer got the visitor’s single win, overcoming Paul England 11-4 in the fourth set.

Canvey C succumbed to Basildon Hospital 6 – 3 at home, despite a hat trick from their star player, Andrew Murray. Two wins apiece from the medics’ trio of Kevin Smart, Clive Beauchamp and Chudi Ukpaka meant they were comfortable winners.

Another 6 – 3 home defeat was inflicted upon Invicta B, for whom Barry Murphy, Mike Keeble and Andy Humphris each recorded a single win. They were far too generous hosts to Stanford Le Hope B, for whom Dan Harris put in a fine Player of the Match performance, being invincible all night. Two wins from John Handscombe and one from Mark Farley completed their victory.

David Barnes DRS

  • Division 3

In a result held over from week 3 Warehouse D ended convincing winners against Rochford LTC 7-2, but having raced into a 5-0 lead they were pegged back by wins from John George and Gordon Smith and, if two five set matches had gone the other way, it would have been even closer. Oliver George led 2-0 against Graham Back before Graham used his experience to win the fifth set 11-7, and Les Carroll did exactly the same against John winning 11-5 in the fifth. Les and Graham both won their three matches with Larry Lisner picking up the remaining one.

Hullbridge H chalked up their first win of the season in fine style with a crushing 9-0 win against Customs B. The Bridgers have had some tough opponents so far this season but their line up of Lewis Ritchie, Brian Farmer and Tony Molisso was too strong for the Taxmen. There were three five set matches which could have made the score closer, one of them being a great comeback by Lewis against Amar Al-Soufi. Having lost the first two sets he won the next three 11-7 12-10 12-10 to set up his first hat trick of the season and take the man of the match award. Richard Kidd and Alex Clark made up the Customs team.

Canvey D sit top of the table by 1 point after a 6-3 win against Hockley E. They raced into a 5-0 lead before two late wins by the ever improving Gary Linzell and one from Brian Parker made the scoreline more respectable. Talbot Wiseman was man of the match confusing the Hockley team with his pimpled bat but he was taken to five sets by Andrew Strutt who fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 down before conceding 11-4 in the fifth set. Geoff Banthorpe picked up a brace and Gordon Johnstone one for Canvey.

For the second time this season Janet Finch was forced to concede two games after feeling unwell and that let Invicta C chalk up a 6-3 win against Hullbridge G. John Golding was in fine form winning all his matches and Keith Baxter just edged out Sue Reece in five sets to give them the other point. Sue was in another five set match against Chris Gregory coming back from 2-1 down to win 11-5 in the fifth and Bob Shingleton-Smith went slightly better, coming back from 2-0 down against Keith again winning 11-5 in the fifth. We hope Janet is feeling much better now.

It was a closely fought match between the youngsters of Hullbridge I and Warehouse D with the Warehousemen leading 3-1 at one stage only for the youngsters to fight back to 4-4 before Steve Higgins won the decider against Josh Jones to clinch the win for Warehouse. The result could have been more decisive but Hullbridge won all three five set matches two by Ben Hoskins and one by Joe Skelt. Josh got their other point. Star man for Warehouse was Joe Bennett, unbeaten on the night, with Steve Higgins recording a brace. Jim Higgins made up the team.

In something of a surprise result Brand Identity C beat the much fancied Warehouse C team 5-4 in another cliffhanger. There was never more than one game in it all night and with the scores locked at 4-4 John Beddow and Conrad Gomes stepped up to decide the match. They didn’t disappoint with another close match, Conrad going 2-1 up before John fought back to win the last two sets 11-5, 11-5. 

Brand Identity now sit second in the table. John and Jenny Seibolt both won two plus one from Colin Smith whilst Dave Walton was man of the match with another hat trick for Warehouse.

Player of the Week  Lewis Ritchie

Team of the Week   Brand Identity C

Paul Strutt DRS

 
Author: via Southend Table Tennis League
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