| Prem Div After a break for the Annual Southend Championships, it was back to league action. With the top two teams only having two games left to play we can ‘stop the count’ and declare “Thorpe Bay A as the winners of this year’s Premier Division”. We will do an end of season report which will talk about this in more detail, but it only feels right to offer our congratulations now that it is mathematically impossible for Rawreth A to catch them.The reason that Thorpe Bay are in this position was the form of all of their players but in particular Paul Sayer who again his week recorded three wins against Brand Identity A, and John Poysden who before this week had not lost a single game in the division. That amazing record went this week as Poysden lost to the also in-form Simon Jacob. That Jacob win along with a win for Steve Muth over Mark Stones led to the 7-2 scoreline which took Thorpe Bay over the line for the title. Thorpe Bay B have now finished all of their fixtures and look like they will finish third, a big part of their success comes down to how well Kieran Skeggs is playing and he backed that up by winning all 6 games over the last two weeks against Rawreth C and Hadleigh Forum A in his side’s 7-2 and 9-0 wins. There was a rare win for Rayleigh Mill in week 25 as they beat Rawreth B 6-3. Peter Radford in good form with three wins over Arron Chandler, Peter Barrett and Norbert Fullerton, two wins for Colin Chatfield and a good win for Steve Maltby over Barrett. In the final match of week 25 there was a good win for Hockley A over Rawreth A including three wins for their talisman Andy Cunningham over Kevin Read, George Reeves and Zayd Mauthoor. Ian Wall chipped in with two wins and a single victory for Matt Stringer led to the 6-3 win for the Plumberow School based side. Div 1. This week’s match between Hockley B and Brand Identity B may be pivotal for the final destination of the Division 1 title. Brand Identity only managed one success on the night with Jenny Harrison overcoming Tarun Goel. Maximums from Hockley’s POM Dan Patynski and Dave Colwill, together with two wins from Tarun, gave Hockley a surprisingly comfortable 8–1 victory. Having played one fixture less than the other teams at the top, the title looks to be in the bag for Hockley. Elsewhere, Lentern’s 8–1 away win at Rawreth E gave them the momentum to move up to second place and push Brand Identity B into third. However, the second, third and fourth-placed teams have all now played the same number of fixtures and are only separated by five points, so things can still change. Martin Archie was Lentern’s star and POM, although his colleague Ian Cranstone was also unbeaten. Gary Hartgrove got Rawreth’s consolation, overcoming Paul Sims. Fourth-placed Invicta A overcame visitors Mapledene 6 – 3 thanks to another Lee Marson hat trick. There were also two wins for Tony Ayliffe and one for Steve Marr. Steve Woodley felt unwell during his contest with Lee, so had to retire hurt, nonetheless, he was Mapledene’s best player taking two wins. Mike Johnston got their other one. A Harry Sawford maximum earned him the POM award in his Hockley C side’s 7–2 away win at Rawreth D. Ollie George and Brian Bissenden got two successes each for Hockley. The improving Jake Nelson and Noah Unstead each got one win for Rawreth. The fixture between Hadleigh Forum B and Canvey A unfortunately had to be postponed due to a fixture list clash. It will be rearranged for later in the month. Div 2 Not counting a walkover for Hadleigh Forum C against Rawreth F, two of the three games played this week also turned out to be 9-0 scorelines, Wakering and RESSC coming out on top against Stanford B and Selbourne respectively. The one match that didn’t finish 9-0 was Canvey B’s 6-3 triumph against Runnymede. A good all – round performance by the Islanders team of Terry Giddens, Des Duffield and Tony Westwell who all won two games, but couldn’t get the better of Tony Millward who completed a POTM performance getting all three points for Runnymede. No joy then for Tony’s teammates Barrie Edgar and Tina Hutchinson and it must have been an early night on Canvey as only two games went beyond three sets all night, and those two only went to four. This win pushes Canvey up to fourth in the table level on points with Runnymede but having played one game less. Wakering’s 9-0 win against Stanford could be said to be a little flattering as three matches went to five sets, Mark Downey missing out twice against Paul England and Andrew Deadman, and John Handscombe surrendering a two set lead also against Andrew. Zac England was the star performer on the night not dropping a set and Wakering’s win keeps them in third place in the league one point above Canvey. Remarkably, despite their lofty position, they have lost (8) more games than they have won (6) this season. Chris Crooks completed the Stanford team. RESSC against Selbourne pitted top against bottom but, unfortunately for Selbourne, the result was exactly as would have been predicted. Jenne Seibolt came closest to getting a point for Selbourne taking a two set lead against Ron Coutts 11-9 15-13, but a remarkable turn round saw Ron take the next three sets easily 11-5 11-6 11-4. Andy Roff managed an odd set against John Holland and Mike Worship but that was the closest they got against the champions elect. RESSC have just two games left to play to complete an impressive unbeaten season. Div 3 To start with, the result of a match that had to be abandoned a few weeks ago after one of the players was taken ill. Canvey C hosted Invicta B and it was the away team who were 7-2 winners on the night. Steve Lennox and Sarah Ball were both unbeaten for Invicta with Steve taking POM. Mike Keeble picked up their other point. Che Martin and Steve Parker with a win each for Canvey. In their scheduled match this week, Canvey C came up against the long-time league leaders Hockley D, who showed no mercy and romped to a 9-0 win. Another POM performance here from the impressive Jeremy Giffin, backed up by his teammates Tony Molisso and John George who were also unbeaten, although John was pushed to a final set decider by both Stephen Parker and Ray Baker. Vaughan Chambers led the way for Stanford C as they recorded a 7-2 win over Hullbridge B and he was well supported by Randy Santiago and Mark Farley who both recorded 2 wins. Max Mayo was the points winner for Hullbridge but it was a blank night for Oliver Milchard and Jeff Gritzman. Invicta B kept up their pursuit of Hockley D at the top of the table and, following a 9-0 win over the Rawreth Junior side, retain a mathematical chance of joining them on equal points come the seasons end. Despite the one-sided scoreline, the standout performance of the night came from Leo Goodey who pushed the very experienced David Barnes all the way before finally losing 13-11, 9-11, 11-6, 11-13, 8-11. Hockley E were 7-2 winners over Hadleigh Forum D. Ben Cook was in good form for Hockley, following up last week’s maximum with another unbeaten performance here. There was also a brace each for Graham Gregory and Ellis Marley. Forum’s points came courtesy of fifth set wins for Todd Barker and Jean Catley over Graham and Ellis respectively. |
