SDTTL WL 24/25 - 1st REPORT
SDTTL WL 24/25 - 1st REPORTPREMIER DIV REPORTS from Duncan Taylor
After the first three weeks of the season the Southend & District Table Tennis League Premier Division is starting to take shape. A familiar look at the top as two of the favourites in Rawreth A and Thorpe Bay A have started with three wins each, with Rawreth currently sneaking into a 1 point lead. Joining these two on 3 wins are Rawreth’s club mates Rawreth B who have recorded good wins against Hadleigh Forum, Rayleigh Mill and Thorpe Bay B. There have also been strong starts from Irons and Brand Identity and I’ll wager Irons will be in the title race right up to the end this year with their new signing Lian Squirrell to play alongside Reece Seddon and the long standing Irons of Bowles, Monk, Brown and McCloud.
At the bottom of the table it looks like it might be a long season for Hockley B and Invicta with just the 1 point to show from their first three games but it is early days and I feel there will be lots of unexpected points won and lost in what will be the tightest title race for years. Some of the stand out performances in the first three weeks have probably been, Martin Archie’s three wins against Irons A, Duncan Taylor’s hattrick against a very strong Thorpe Bay A side, a welcome return to action for Essex player Matt Spero for his new side Thorpe Bay B and the first game of the season for the league’s top player and current Mens’ Singles champion Mitchell Jones. Jones comfortably won his three games against the league leaders and Stanford’s fortunes this year will very much depend on how many times they are able to field their strongest side. So we’ve seen some great table tennis in the first three weeks and we wish good luck to all teams for the rest of the season.
DIVISION 1 REPORTS from David Barnes
Week 1
Brand Identity B got off to a winning start to the season, thanks to player of the match Jenny Harrison’s hat trick and two wins each from Mick Grout and Dale Gutteridge. Their visitors, Hadleigh Forum C, narrowly finished bottom last season. David Thomas was their stand-out player winning both Forum’s points.
Newly-promoted Wakering were dealt a blow before the season even began, with the absence of two key players. Consequently, they could only field two players for their inaugural home game at this level against Rawreth Megazone C. Nevertheless, their Paul England made sure they didn’t disgrace themselves, winning two of his rubbers. Rawreth’s Gary Hartgrove was too strong for Paul, and took the POM award with an undefeated evening. Two wins each from team mates Colin Barham and Colin Clements ensured the away team a 7 – 2 victory.
Basildon A look like being a force to be reckoned with this season. Maximums from Les Hoey, Arun Joy and POM Rob Burton, gave them nine points against an experienced Mapledene side.
Closest clash of the week was in the match where Matchpoint A hosted Canvey A. The visitors have been boosted this campaign by recruiting the former RESSC captain Bob Skews. Two wins from Bob and two from Andy Murray, together with one win from Joanna Hills ensured Canvey a 5 – 4 victory. The home side’s Stephen Heard will consider himself unlucky to be on the losing side, despite recording a maximum. Alex Deacon got their other point.
Week 2
Canvey A continued their winning ways with a 6 – 3 home win over two-man Hadleigh Forum B. Ray Wilson earned the POM award, supported by Bob Skews and Peter Cray. The two Forum players didn’t disgrace themselves, though. Skipper Dave Woolmer won two and Mick Tappenden overcame Peter in a five-set thriller.
Forum’s other team in the division, their C team, narrowly overcame their visitors Basildon A 5 – 4. It was a team effort, with Tony Mace and Mark Everard winning two each and Graham Farmer one. Basildon’s Les Hoey took the POM prize, winning three. Jenne Seibolt got their other victory.
A Lin Roff hat trick led her Mapledene team to a 6 – 3 home success against Matchpoint A. Dawn Baldry added two wins and Mike Johnston one for the home side. Harry Sawford starred for Matchpoint with two victories, and Dan Stewart added another.
Week 3
Canvey A took full advantage of Wakering still being unable to field a full team by winning 7 – 2 away. POM Ray Wilson, Joanna Hills and Peter Cray did all the damage. For the home side, Paul England managed a brace to spare their blushes.
In a very close contest, Brand Identity B came out 5 – 4 winners over visitors Rawreth Megazone C. It was an all-round effort for Brand, with Mick Grout and Dale Gutteridge winning two each and Jenny Harrison one. Gary Hartgrove will be miffed to be on the losing side, despite his POM hat trick. Veteran Colin Clements got Rawreth’s other victory.
Biggest win of the week went to Mapledene, whose 8 – 1 home victory over Hadleigh Forum C was engineered by maximums from POM Andy Seaman and Dawn Baldry with Andrea Alleyne adding two. David Thomas’ single success ensured Forum’s blushes were slightly spared.
Hadleigh Forum B had better fortunes than their C team. A Paul Fawell POM maximum together with three from Tony Jacks and a single from Jim Stait gave them a 7 – 2 home win over Matchpoint A. there were single successes from the visitors’ Debbie O’Neil and Alexander Deacon
DIVISION 2 REPORTS from Paul Strutt
Week 1
The opening week of the 2024/25 season in Division 2 saw Hockley and Stanford do battle as Stanford B took on Hockley D and Hockley C took on Stanford C. Both matches finished 8-1 but neither club remained unbeaten as Stanford D and Hockley C emerged as winners.
First match of the season saw an experienced Stanford B side of John Handscombe, Rob Salvage and Adrian Armstrong take on a very inexperienced Hockley side of Hannah Harbour and teenagers William Evesham and Elliot Brackenbury. 8-1 sounds one sided but the Hockley team fought hard with Brackenbury just being edged out in five sets by Armstrong and Salvage, the latter game seeing a two game deficit overturned by Stanford captain Salvage. In addition Evesham claimed his first ever victory in Div 2 beating Handscombe in four sets. A good result overall however for Stanford who should be set for a strong season ahead.
In the other fixture Mark Farley had the unluckiest of nights for Stanford with all three of his games going to five sets but, unfortunately, winning none. His best chance came in his first game against Brian Bissenden where he led 2-0 but lost the next three sets 11/3 11/5 11/5. Bissenden went on to complete a hat trick beating Vaughan Chambers and Martin Winter. Stanford’s only success came in the second match of the night when Chambers comfortably beat Tony Molisso in straight sets. Hockley’s summer signing of Mike Worship paid dividends straight away as the ex RESSC man started with a hat trick.
Talking of summer signings Rawreth Megazone D appear to have pulled off a coup with Gus Heath appearing for them in their first match against Invicta B, scoring a perfect hat trick of wins and taking the Player of the Match award. A player of his ability in Division 2 should ensure a strong season for his team. Richard Kidd was in fine form for Rawreth also recording his first hat trick of the season whilst Graham Back picked up the other two wins but lost a fifth set battle 11/13 in the decider to Steve Lennox.
Talking again of summer signings and strong teams Matchpoint B fielded John Lott and Dennis Squirrell in their match against Canvey B and ran out 7-2 winners. Lott took the Player of the Match honours with a perfect hat trick whilst Squirrell and Alex Bowden shared the remaining points. Terry Giddens and Trevor Hayes with a point each for the Islanders. They look likely to be strong contenders also this season.
Runnymede got their season up and running with a 6-3 win away at Matchpoint C. With Dmitry Kisil and Tony Millward in the side they were always going to be hard to beat and so it proved as Millward recorded a perfect hat trick and Kisil won all his games just dropping one set. Unfortunately for debut maker Heather Stiles the opposition proved a bit too strong for her and she lost all her games to Roger Sherman, Oliver Milchard and Zachary Samuels.
Team of the Week – Matchpoint B
Player of the Week – John Lott
Week 2
Stanford B are the early leaders in Division 2 after their 8-1 demolition of their C team gave them a second successive win. Mark Downey and Adrian Armstrong emerged unbeaten on the night with John Handscombe adding the other two points. Mark Farley got the consolation point for the C team and they were unlucky not to add a couple more as Dave Arnett took Armstrong to five sets and Randy Santiago came from two sets down against Downey before missing out in the decider. Two wins then for the B team but two defeats for the C team.
Canvey B raced through the opening games against Rawreth Megazone D leading 4-0 before a mini fightback saw them run out 7-2 winners. Terry Giddens just pipped Trevor Hayes to the POTM award both winning all their games but Tony Westwell found it a little harder losing to Amar Al-Soufi and Steve McQuillan. No match went to five sets and five matches finished in three so presumably an early night!
Invicta B picked up their first win of the season thus condemning Hockley D to a second defeat, just edging home 5-4 in the last match of the evening. Sarah Ball and Steve Lennox both weighed in with two wins each with Mike Keeble adding the other point. Disappointment therefore for Hockley who fought back from 4-2 down to 4-4 before falling at the last hurdle, but they can boast the POTM in 12 year old Elliot Brackenbury who won all his games including a five set win over Keeble. Teenager William Evesham grabbed the other point for Hockley beating Keeble in straight sets.
Team of the Week – Canvey B
Player of the Week – Elliot Brackenbury - his first Div 2 hat trick.
Week 3
Big winners of the week were Hockley C who thumped Runnymede 9-0 and moved themselves into second place in the division. Runnymede were without their big hitters Tony Millward and Dmitry Kisil and the Hockley boys, Paul Strutt, Brian Bissenden and Paul Ogden, took full advantage conceding just two sets all night.
It's Matchpoint B who sit at the top of the table however, they chalked up their third win of the season beating Rawreth Megazone D 7-2. This side must be one of the pre-season favourites to get promotion with two promising youngsters Max Mayo and Alex Bowden in their side plus two seasoned veterans in Dennis Squirrell and John Lott. Lott, Mayo and Squirrell turned out against Rawreth who fielded their own seasoned veteran in Gus Heath. It was Heath who brought home their two points beating Mayo and Squirrell but Lott defeated him in three close sets 12/10 13/11 12/10 to record his first ever win against him. Amar Al-Soufi took a set off Mayo and Squirrell but otherwise it was plain sailing for Matchpoint.
At the other end of the table Stanford C fell to their third defeat losing 6-3 to Invicta B. David Barnes, Sarah Ball and Steve Lennox all recorded two wins for Invicta whilst Vaughan Chambers denied Ball and Barnes their hat tricks and Peter Moxham got the better of Lennox. Invicta now sit fifth in the table.
Canvey B got the better of Hockley D running out 6-3 winners. Kevin Walsingham was Canvey’s POTM winning all his games for the loss of just one set. Trevor Hayes won two and Ray Baker added the sixth point. For Hockley John George picked up a single win beating Baker but there were two wins for teenager William Evesham who beat Baker and then took the important scalp of Trevor Hayes coming back from 2-1 down and winning the decider 11/8. Earlier Hayes had got the better of another youngster, Elliot Brackenbury, this time winning 11/8 in the fifth.
Team of the Week – Hockley C
Player of the Week – John Lott
DIVISION 3 REPORTS from Dave Woolmer
Report for Weeks 1 and 2
After two rounds of matches, three of the teams that have played twice remain unbeaten.
Leading the way are Basildon ‘B’ who have only surrendered one point in their two victories. Skipper Andy Roff has led from the front with back-to-back maximums, and it was good to see newcomer Michael Elemide get off the mark with a double in his first match.
The junior Evolve TTA side found the going tough at times last season and managed only 5 wins. A different story so far this season, with two wins already, 14 points, and all 6 of the players used having made good contributions. Ben Berwick, Thomas Chan and Nova Sriman Narayanan have recorded maximums and their teammates Oliver Willson, Teddy Kent and Reuben Stracey have added valuable extra points.
Another largely junior team, Matchpoint ‘D’, have also won both their matches and occupy 3rd place in the table with 12 points, courtesy of 7/2 and 5/4 wins over Canvey ‘C’ and Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ respectively.
Invicta ‘C’ started the season well with a 7/2 win over Rawreth Meggazone ‘E’ with Brendan Raja turning in an unbeaten performance. Their next outing was a home match against Hockley ‘E’ and, although all their players got on the scoreboard, they slipped to a 6/3 defeat. Thus 10 points to date and 4th place in the fledgling league table.
Hockley ‘E’ have had just the one visit to the table so far, the 6/3 win over Invicta ‘C’ described above, with Gary Beck and Ron Rogerson unbeaten on the night.
Both Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ and Rawreth Meggazone ‘E’ have played twice but are yet to record a win. Forum started their season in the worst possible way, suffering a thumping 9/0 defeat at the hands of Basildon ‘B’. Their fortunes were much improved the following week when a Douglas Brown hat-trick and a point from Sineh Ball saw them pick up their first points of the season. Meggazone are also winless, the 3 points they have accrued so far coming from Mike Webb (2) and Ro Brett (1).
Stanford ‘D’, Canvey ‘C’ and Hockley ‘F’ have only played one match each but all have picked up at least 1 point. Andrew Jessop (2) and James Parker (1) were the Stanford point winners. Ray Baker was responsible for both of Canvey’s points and Kris Chankov secured Hockley’s solitary point in the clash of the juniors match against Evolve TTA.
