Three games from week 7 of the Southend Premier Division but first a late result in from week 6 and it was a tremendously close battle between two very evenly matched teams in the shape of Rayleigh Mill and Irons A. Only one of the eight games was settled in three ends with four matches going the full distance, the closest being a 14-12 win for Eric Green over Dave Bowles. Green picked up another win over John Monk but like the other two Millers could not get the better of player of the match Reece Seddon. Seddon’s three games and a win for Monk over Colin Chatfield was their lot for the evening and the two wins for Green along with Bruce Kettle’s brace and the win for Chatfield meant a 5-4 win for the Millers.
Rawreth A and Thorpe Bay A continue their good form as they picked up 7-2 and 8-1 wins over Hockley A and Brand Identity A respectively. Hatricks a piece for Liam Squirrell and Kevin Read for Rawreth along with a single win for Charles Sweeny over Sanjay Saptarshi in the first match and maximum wins for John Poysden and Paul Sayer and two for Mark Stones in the second fixture. A good win for David Jacob over Stones for the consolation in that one.
Hadleigh Forum have been busy in the transfer market and new signing Mark Mulley got off to a flying start in his Southend career as he won his three games to help Hadleigh to a 5-4 win over Rawreth B. Teammate Neal Barker continued his early season good form picking up wins against Arron Chandler and Kim Shead but he couldn’t pick up the scalp of Peter Barrett who won two on the night.
Stanford Le Hope A hung on to first place in Division 1, thanks to a 6 – 3 home win over Canvey A. Yet again Mitchell Jones was their star. His maximum POTM performance was assisted by two wins from Russel Bright and one from Dave Hancock. Ray Wilson won two for Canvey and Joanna Hills the other one.
Lentern surprisingly lost at home to RESSC 5 – 4 and consequently slipped down the pecking order. The visitor’s John Holland won all his matches to take the accolades and skipper Bob Skews got the other two. Paul Sims was responsible for both Lentern’s successes.
Invicta A’s fine 7 – 2 away win at Mapledene moved them into second place. POTM Lee Marson was unbeaten, as was his team mate Steven Marr. Lin Roff and Anthon Ranjit-Singh got one victory each for the home side, and Tony Ayliffe one for Invicta.
Brand Identity B took advantage of Lentern’s slip up to move up the table. They overcame Rawreth Megazone C 6 – 3 away. Adam Jackman had an unbeaten evening to earn the POTM prize. Veteran John Lott added two and Michael Grout one. The home side’s victories came from Garry Hartgrove, with two, and Trevor Ward with one.
Hadleigh Forum B could only muster two players for their visit to Hockley C and consequently, the home side were able to record their first win of the season. Ollie George was Hockley’s hero, being unbeaten and Eamonn Hall picked up a point on debut. The visitors’ Mick Tappenden won two, and David Woolmer one.
Rawreth Megazone D obtained a 6 – 3 victory from their visit to Hadleigh Forum C, despite only having two players. Mike Hayes and George Davis were both too strong for the home side.
Matchpoint A returned to the top of the Division 2 table this week after a crushing 9-0 victory at Runnymede. Needless to say Evie Knaapen turned in another perfect POTM performance and was backed up by Harry Sawford and Jeremy Giffin. The only real sign of resistance from the home team came in the first match of the evening where Andy Humphris took Harry to five sets but after that it was plain sailing for Matchpoint six matches ending in straight sets.
Basildon A relinquished their position at the top by one point as a result of their 7-2 defeat of Wakering. It seems you have to be pretty near perfect to keep top position at the moment! The father and son combination of Paul and Zac England did the damage by both beating Robert Platt but otherwise Basildon’s Les Hoey and Arun Joy reigned supreme Arun completing the perfect hat trick. Robert’s point came with a win against Stewart Mills.
Matchpoint B’s young team beat Basildon B 7-2 with Jack Riley’s hat trick supported by braces from Alexander Deacon and Ben Murray but they met strong resistance from Jenne Seibolt who beat Alex and Ben and took Jack to five sets. No joy for Richard Reibold and Andy Roff.
Stanford B maintained their winning run chalking up their sixth successive victory by beating bottom of the table Rawreth Megazone E 8-1. Robert Salvage and Adrian Armstrong were the hat trick heroes with Mark Downey picking up two wins but succumbing to Richard Kidd in the final game of the evening thus preventing the whitewash. Stanford stay third in the table.
The return of Andrew Murray to the Canvey B ranks has given them a significant boost in their last two games and his hat trick was the cornerstone of their 7-2 win against Hockley D. Braces from Tony Westwell and Des Duffield helped clinch the win whilst single wins for Tony Molisso against his namesake and Paul Strutt against Des got the points for a still winless Hockley. The final game of the night produced the closest match as Paul let slip a 2-1 lead against Tony eventually going down 13/11 6/11 12/10 5/11 9/11.
Team of the Week – Matchpoint A
Player of the Week – Arun Joy
In Division 3 another Trevor Hayes maximum was the cornerstone of a 6-3 win for Canvey ‘C’ over Matchpoint
‘C’. Stephen Parker with two wins and Andy O’Rawe with a single win added the extra points for the
Islanders. Max Mayo with a brace and Blake Stewart were the points scorers for Matchpoint.
John George led the way for Hockley ‘E’ with an unbeaten performance as they narrowly overcame
Matchpoint ‘D’ Teammates Gary Beck and Keith Denyer added a win apiece to ensure a 5-4 win.
For Matchpoint there were two wins each for Richard Sloman and Oliver Milchard but it was a blank
night unfortunately for Jeff Gritzman.
A young Evolve side hosted Stanford ‘C’ and were on the wrong end of a 7-2 defeat. However, the
final scoreline does not reflect how close this match actually was. Three of the games went the full
distance with the Evolve player narrowly falling short in the deciding set on each occasion.
Stanford’s Randy Santiago, with a hat-trick, was the POTM, well supported by Karen Kempster and
James Parker with two wins each. For Evolve, there was a win each for Reuben Stracey and Aaron
Price. No wins for George Key, but he came so close, recovering from losing the first two sets
against Karen to take it to the closest of final sets, 9/11, 9/11, 11/8, 11/9, 9/11 being the final score.
The juniors of Hockley ‘F’ were involved in a close contest against Hadleigh Forum ‘D’. They led 4-2
but were eventually pegged back with Forum winning the last 3 games for a 5-4 win. Elliot
Brackenbury and William Evesham both won two games for Hockley, whilst for Forum there was a
brace each for Douglas Brown and Todd Barker with Jean Catley chipping in with the extra point.
Finally, Rawreth Meggazone ‘F’ were unable to field a team for their match against Invicta ‘C’ and so,
unfortunately, had to concede.
