WEEK 11 REPORT, PART 2 OF WINTER LEAGUE 21/22
Premier Division
Four games to bring you from week 11 of the Southend Premier Division. We have joint leaders at the top of the table so we will start with their (Thorpe Bay A and Rawreth A) results. Both recorded good wins, Rawreth A recording a 9-0 win over Thorpe Bay B with Kevin Read, Zayd Mauthoor and Yasir Mauthoor going unbeaten. The closest Thorpe Bay B got to a win was when both Kieran Skeggs and Richard Stubbington pushed Zayd to a fifth end.
Thorpe Bay A were also convincing winners with a 7-2 victory over Irons B. Captain John Poysden leading the way with three good wins and two apiece for Paul Whatton and Paul Sayer, both beaten by recent Brentwood league Men’s Singles finalist Keith Adams.
Rawreth B overcame Rayleigh Mill 6-3 with Eric Green taking the player of the match award with three wins over Rob Harris, Colin Chatfield, and George Reeves. Reeves and Chatfield replied with wins over Bruce Kettle and Reeves also beat Babul McLeod.
In the final game this week we saw Irons A put in a strong performance over Hadleigh Forum A. Richard Brown and Reece Seddon won their three games and the only blot on the Irons copybook was a 5 set win for Dave Bassett over Dave Bowles.
Duncan Taylor DRS Premier Division
Week 11
After a string of five postponements in a row, Ashingdon youngsters were back in action this week. Unfortunately, they hosted a top side in Hockley B. The outcome was only ever going to go one way - a 9 – 0 away win. We hope Keanan Ford, Katie Tanner and Evie Knaapen all took something positive away from the match.
Reportedly, there was some great table tennis played between Hockley C and Runnymede C in their match this week. Hockley just edged out Runnymede in the last game of the evening. Two wins each for Paul Strutt and Ollie George and one win for Brian Bissenden saw Hockley home. However, Dmitry Kisil took the POM prize winning all his games. Dmitry's match against Ollie was probably the best match of the evening in a big hitting contest which saw some great rallies, smashing and retrieving, with Dmitry coming back from 2 - 1 down to take the fifth and deciding set 11/8. That win made the score 4 - 3 to Hockley and then Phil Digby levelled the match by overcoming Brian in four sets. Phil had started the evening slowly against Paul but came to life in this contest with some big hitting on both flanks. With the pressure on, it was left to the veteran Paul to see Hockley home beating Steve Wisbey in four sets and sealing the match 5 – 4 for Hockley.
Brand Identity’s Barrie Delf had a busy and fruitful week. Firstly, he made a guest appearance for Hadleigh Forum B for their visit to Canvey A. Forum’s captain David Woolmer is to be congratulated on his resourcefulness, as he was also able to recruit journeyman Colin Barham for the match. The recruitment paid dividends, as Barrie won all his matches to take the POM award and give Forum a 5 – 4 win. Colin chipped in with one win, as did David. The home side’s Peter Cray and Ray Wilson each won two rubbers.
The next evening Barrie was in action again, this time for his own Brand Identity B side, as this time they travelled to play Forum’s C team. Unfortunately, the hosts could only raise two players and Brand Identity ran out 9 – 0 winners, with Barrie taking another POM award.
Visitors Lentern B were too overwhelming for Invicta A. An Ian Cranstone hat trick gave him the POM award and led to a 6 – 3 away win. Invicta’s John Blackman had two wins, including a close victory over Gus Heath that was earned 11/9 in the fifth set. Tony Ayliffe got Invicta’s other success, whilst Gus won two and Wayne Farmer got one for Lentern.
Only two players turned out for Rawreth D for their visit to Mapledene. Charlie Kauders Boothby and Amber Sturgeon are to be congratulated for their continued enthusiasm, despite a 9 – 0 deluge from the home side.
(It is very pleasing to report that, for the first week in some time there were no postponements!).
David Barnes DRS Division 1
Week 11
Table toppers RESSC produced their worst result of the season against Stanford B but a 6-3 win would probably be considered a good result by most other teams, so convincing has their season been. Bob Skews, who tops the averages so far this season, was unbeaten once again and he was supported by two wins from Richard Gill and one from Kevin Smart. They did meet some strong resistance from Stanford particularly in the form of Robert Salvage, who is also having an excellent season. He beat Richard and Kevin and John Handscombe, had an exciting five set win also against Kevin.
Another team who might have expected a more convincing win on the night was Canvey B who overcame Customs by the same 6-3 score. Daniel Kellard was POTM with his three wins, Lee McGonagle weighed in with two and Jo Hills the final win. Resistance came from Richard Kidd who beat Jo in straight sets and then came back from two sets down against Lee to win in five. Amar Al-Soufi also got the better of Jo and also went to five sets against Lee, but this time it was Lee who overturned a two set deficit to win.
Wakering maintained second place with an 8-1 win against Invicta B, Zac England and Stewart Mills were unbeaten neither dropping a set all night but Steve Lennox spoilt the party by pulling off a somewhat surprising straight sets win over Paul England.
Brand Identity C kept up the pressure on Wakering also recording an 8-1 win over Stanford C. Szymon Jarka and Jenne Seibolt won all their games in perfect fashion but Steve King got the consolation with a straight sets win against Richard Reibold who also had to battle all the way against Jake Santiago coming back from 2-1 down to win 15/13 in the deciding set.
Stanford C had Mark Downey to thank for their 5-4 win over a two man Invicta C side winning both his games against Dave Youngman and Brendan Raja. Both Brendan’s wins came in five sets against James Parker and Dave Arnett.
There was another close encounter between Hockley E and Canvey C with the home team coming out on top 5-4 despite a POTM performance from Kevin Walsingham who lost the first set of the night to Neal Klyman but won everything else after that. Hockley’s win came courtesy of two wins each by Tony Molisso and Dave Cross and one from Neal. Spare a thought for Ray Baker who lost two of his three in five sets succumbing to Dave after being two sets up. Steve Parker picked up the other point for the Islanders.
Bottom of the table Hockley D are still winless but fought well against Hadleigh Forum D albeit having only two players didn’t help. David Thomas was unbeaten for Hadleigh as you might have expected and Jean Catley provided the other point by beating Keith Denyer. Keith got a consolation win by beating Sineh Ball whilst captain Graham Gregory claimed a useful brace beating Sineh and Jean.
Player of the Week – Kevin Walsingham
Team of the Week – Wakering
Paul Strutt DRS Division 2
