Results stayed very much to form in the latest round of matches in the Southend Summer Table Tennis League Division 1 with the top teams winning comfortably but we did see probably the closest match of the season so far when Invicta took on Basildon.
At the top of the table Northlands completed the perfect 9-0 whitewash against Canvey the team of Keith Adam, Kim Shead and Paul Brown not dropping a single set.
Brand Identity stay comfortably in third place after chalking up two 9-0 wins against Canvey and Stanford. The Jacob brothers Simon and David together with Steve Muth did the damage against Canvey repeating Northlands feat of a perfect whitewash. Against Stanford David Jacob, Jenny Harrison and Adam Jackman took the honours meeting a bit more resistance from the Stanford trio of Peter Weatherall, Pat White and Rob Salvage. The doubles pairing of White and Salvage almost got them off to a winning start against Jackman and Harrison but the Brand pairing came back from 2-1 down to take the deciding set 11/5. There were several close four set matches after that the closest being Jenny Harrison’s win against Pat White 9/11, 12/10, 13/11, 16/14.
Hockley find themselves in a comfortable fifth position after an 8-1 demolition of RESSC. Sid Dorn picked up his first wins of the season beating Ron Coutts and Bob Skews whilst Stuart Adshead also weighed in with two wins also beating Skews and then just edging Tarun Goel in a close five set match. Joseph Odegbami picked up the other singles win against Coutts but Tarun Goel got RESSC’s consolation point beating him in four sets. Two of the doubles went to five sets in both cases RESSC fighting back from 2-0 down to 2-2 only to lose the deciding fifth set.
Invicta stay just above Hockley in fourth place after beating Hadleigh Forum 7-2. Forum started the match well winning the first doubles but promptly lost the next four before Anton Ranjit-Singh claimed their second point beating Barbara Chabior in straight sets. Tony Ayliffe and Lee Marson both won their singles for Invicta but Ayliffe was pushed to five sets by Ranjit-Singh and there was another close five set match in the final doubles with Ayliffe and Chabior just edging Ranjit-Singh and Colin Barham 11/9 in the fifth.
By far the closest and most exciting match of the week was the encounter between Invicta and Basildon. No less than five matches went to five sets including the first four games of the evening leaving the score at 2-2. Tony Ayliffe and Lee Marson set the tone for the evening coming back from two sets down against Lin Roff and Garry Hartgrove winning the final set 11/8. Szymon Jarka levelled things up for Basildon with a 12/10 final set win against Martin Shaugnessy before Ayliffe restored Invicta’s lead with another comeback win from two sets down winning 11/9 in the fifth against Roff. The score see sawed back and forth after that with Basildon leading 4-2 before Invicta pulled it back to 4-4 leaving the final doubles as the deciding match. Marson and Shaughnessy lined up against Hartgrove and Jarka and it was the Basildon pair who edged the first two sets 12/10 11/9 before Invicta fought back to level the match winning 11/9 11/8. The decider turned out to be a little more straightforward as Hartgrove and Jarka took the win 11/7 and the match 5-4.
Basildon stay in second place in the division.
