SDTTL Season 2022-3 Reports Week 1
Premier Division
Well, it is good to be back, and we have three results to bring you from the Premier Division after the first week of league action.
One of our favourites for the title this season have really hit the ground running. I talk, of course about Rawreth A who with the addition of Liam Squirrell will surely be there or there abouts come the end of the season. Squirrell teamed up with the Mauthoor brothers Yasir and Zayd to record a 9-0 victory over their Rawreth B Team. The B Team didn’t not help their cause by only fielding two players, but Paul Brown and Harry Keys were unable to trouble the top side at Rawreth.
A much closer game at Rawreth the next night though as Rayleigh Mill got their season off to a winning start over Rawreth C. Duncan Taylor with 3 wins and Peter Radford with 2 proved enough to get the Millers over the line against the experience trio of Eric Green, Babul McLeod and Bruce Kettle. The match was played in a good spirit but there was one negative and that was what looked like a nasty shoulder injury to the Mill’s Colin Chatfield who was unable to complete his nights work, we wish Colin a speedy recovery.
Andy Cunningham picked up where he left off last season as he picked up 3 wins for Hockley A in their 6-3 win over Irons A.Cunningham was ably supported by Sanjay ‘The Sensation’ Saptarshi and Matt Stringer who picked up two and one win respectively. Reece Seddon with two wins a single victory for Richard Brown for the away side.
Duncan Taylor DRS Premier Division
Division 1
It seems a case of ‘normal service resumed’ for the teams with a history of leading the division. Joint favourites for the title are Brand Identity B, who followed up a 6-3 win last week with a 7-2 success at home to Canvey A. Barrie Delf again took the POM award with a maximum, without dropping a set. However, colleague Adam Jackman was almost on a par, only losing one set all night. Mick Grout got the other win, whilst Joanna Hills and Ray Wilson got one each for the visitors.
The other favourites are Hockley B. They are a bit slower out of the blocks, having had their match last week cancelled for the Queen’s funeral. This week they went on the long journey to Stanford Le Hope A. It was a worthwhile trip, though, coming away with an 8-1 win. Daniel Patynski’s hat trick made him Hockley’s star. However, he was well supported by a maximum from Joerg Poeschus and two from Stuart Adshead. Saad Abdullah got Stanford’s consolation point.
Another team with a good previous track record are Mapledene. However, they were only able to muster two players for their away match at Lentern. Consequently, they went down 6-3. Lentern’s veteran John Tendler took the Player of the Match accolade with teammate Ian Cranstone getting two and Peter Lucraft one. Andy Seaman got two for Mapledene, and Lin Roff one.
Mick Tappenden was in fine form for Hadleigh Forum B, winning all his contests in his side’s away fixture at Rawreth D. He was well supported by two from Paul Fawell and one from David Woolmer in a 6-3 win. Justin Jeffery got two, and Adam Deadman one, for Rawreth.
Hockley C met Rawreth E. Rawreth’s Garry Hartgrove’s hat trick proved to be the difference between the sides and gave him the POM award. His match against Oliver George was probably the best match of the evening, with Ollie taking a two-set lead before Garry moved up a gear and won the next three. Not far behind that match was Joerg Poeschus’ one against Rawreth’s Trevor Ward. It was a classic case of attack versus defence which went all the way to the fifth set before Joerg edged it 13-11. For Rawreth, Colin Clements weighed in with two wins and Trevor got one in a 6-3 home win.
David Barnes Drs Div 1
Division 2
Just two games to report on in Division 2 and it was a bit of a baptism of fire for the newly formed Hullbridge A who found themselves on the end of a 9-0 whitewash at the hands of Selbourne. This was not totally one sided however, as youngsters Dan and Ben Stewart both just missed out on debut wins, Dan losing 12-10 in the fifth to Richard Reibold and 13-11 in the fifth to Andy Roff, whilst Ben went down 11-8 in the fifth, also to Andy, surrendering a two set lead. Promising signs there though for Hullbridge. Debbie O’Neill found the going too hard whilst Jenne Seibolt took the MOTM award only dropping one set all night.
There were no such long matches in the other match between Wakering and Runnymede where the home side came out on top 6-3. This was a good all round team performance from Paul and Zac England and Stewart Mills all winning two games each, but none of them came close to Dmitri Kisil who won all his games dropping just two sets. Andrew Humphries and Tina Hutchinson made up the Runnymede team.
Paul Strutt Drs Div 2
Division 3
Three matches to report on in the first week of competition.
In the first, the juniors of Hullbridge 'B' had a tough introduction to league table tennis, going down 0-9 to Hockley 'D', with John George the man of the match. However, these are early days and, with the guiding hand of coach Liam Squirrell behind them, they are sure to improve as the season progresses.
The young Rawreth 'G' team fared slightly better but still went down 2-7 to Megazone. There were wins for Ellis Hartopp and Aaron Price, but maximums for Richard Kidd and Jaspreet Singh and a win for Edward Philcox over Francesca Wilson secured the win for Megazone.
Finally, a hat-trick and man of the match performance from Dean Johnson on his debut for Hadleigh Forum 'D' was in vain as his team were edged out 4-5 by Invicta 'C'. This turned out to be a very close affair with 5 of the 9 games going the distance. This was a good team performance by Invicta with 2 wins each for Brendan Raja and Trisha Winter and 1 win for Jonathan Gould. Mention should be made of Forum skipper Jean Catley, who played despite carrying an injury. She finished without a win to her name, unfortunately going down in the 5th set in each of her games.
Dave Woolmer Drs Div 3
