With the top two teams in Division 1 of the Southend Summer league without a game this week, the stage was clear for some of the chasing teams to make an impact and close the gap at the top.
Third placed Brand Identity must have been hoping for a good win against Invicta but found themselves in a see saw battle not settled until the final game of the evening. They certainly had the edge in the singles winning four out of the six on offer thanks to Steve Muth and David Jacob, both unbeaten, but Invicta won two out of the three doubles to keep them in the match until the final game. Invicta actually led 4-3 with two games to go but Steve Muth levelled things up to take it to the final doubles and Invicta must have been hopeful going into it. Tony Ayliffe and Lee Marson lined up for Invicta against Steve Muth and David Jacob but their hope of pulling off a shock win disappeared quickly as Steve and David ran out 11/9 11/5 11/7 winners to give Brand a 5-4 victory.
Hockley pulled off the biggest win of the week storming to a 9-0 whitewash of Stanford which keeps them in fifth place but now level on points with Invicta albeit they have played a game more. High points for Stanford were hard to find their best performance coming in the doubles between Mark Downey and John Handscombe for Stanford and Harry Sawford and Stuart Adshead for Hockley. Stanford held a 2-1 advantage at one stage before the Hockley boys turned up the heat and won the last two sets 11/6 11/8. Other than that Joseph Odegbami claimed the POTM award for his straight set singles wins against Chris Crooks and John Handscombe plus two doubles wins dropping just one set. Stanford stay seventh in the table.
RESSC finally won their first match of the season and lifted themselves off the bottom of the table with a hard fought 6-3 win at Hadleigh Forum. Four games went to five sets but the key to the win was in the doubles all won by RESSC. This must have been frustrating for Forum’s Tony Jacks who won both his singles and took the POTM award but still finished on the losing side. John Holland, John Tendler and Tarun Goel made up the winning team whilst Dave Bassett got Forum’s other point beating John Tendler.
