Men’s Division 1 Saturday 23rd April 2011 @ Batts
Round 1. The first match involved Ilford and Clacton. Ilford’s Essex 1st team player, Matt Spero, proved too strong, winning all his 3 games, whilst Clacton’s Gary Young and Greg Green were almost as strong, winning 2 games each – the match ending in a 5 all draw. In the other match, Southend & Harlow were also evenly matched, with George Reeves and Kevin Read winning a brace each for the ‘Seasiders’ and the very difficult Dave Langham winning 2 for Ilford; Southend just edging it , winning the tie 6-4.
Round 2. Harlow made up ground on Southend, with a 7-3 win over Ilford. Matt Spero won his first 2 games but injured his shoulder and lost out in his final game to Maciej Nakieski in 5 sets, 13-11 in the 5th. Maciej went on to win all his games for Harlow, supported by Dave Langham with 2. Southend had another close encounter beating Clacton 6-4, with consistent George Reeves and Kevin Read both winning 2 games for Southend.
Final Round. Going into the final round, only one point separated Southend and Harlow. Southend beat Ilford 8-2, with Matt Spero conceding his last 2 matches due to his injured shoulder. This left Harlow requiring a most improbable, 9 or 10 victory. But with Paul Cummings and Maciej Nakieski winning 3 each and Dave Langham 2, it all ended up, depending on the result of the last match of the tournament. This was a doubles and Clacton’s Gary Young and Colin Stallwood took the first 2 sets and Harlow’s chances looked slim; but back came Maciej Nakieski and Paul Cummings to level at 2 sets all and 8 points all, before they took the next 3 points and the match.
Southend and Harlow were declared joint winners on the day.
Men’s Division | |||||
Team | Played | Won | Drawn | Lost | Points |
Southend | 3 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20 |
Harlow | 3 | 2 | 0 | 1 | 20 |
Clacton | 3 | 1 | 0 | 2 | 10 |
Ilford | 3 | 0 | 1 | 2 | 10 |
Round 1 | Southend 6 Harlow 4 | Clacton 5 Ilford 5 | |||
Round 2 | Southend 6 Clacton 4 | Harlow 7 Ilford 3 | |||
Round 3 | Southend 8 Ilford 2 | Harlow 9 Clacton 1 |