Division 1 leaders Stanford Le Hope A made a bright start to the New Year. A 6 – 3 win away to Hockley C extends their lead at the top to two points. Mitchell Jones was again their POM, easily winning all his matches. Dave Hancox added two and Peter Weatherall one. Hockley’s David Chenery, Aaryan Vatsa and Joseph Odegbami each won one.
Second place Invicta A overcame Brand Identity B 5 – 4 despite skipper Tony Ayliffe suffering with the flu. Mick Grout had an outstanding night for the visitors, taking the POM award and winning all his matches. However, two wins apiece for Steve Marr and Lee Marson and one from Tony won it for Invicta.
Bottom side Hadleigh Forum C recorded their first win of the season beating Canvey A 5 – 4. Ray Wilson will feel a little aggrieved having won all his contests for the visitors. However two each for Satwant Gill and Graham Farmer and one from Mark Everard saw the home side over the line. Jo Hills got Canvey’s other success.
Rawreth Megazone C could only muster two players for the visit of Lentern. It was a case of “what might have been” as the visitors won 6 – 3. Gary McCarthy won two and team mate Colin Clements one for the home side. Paul Sims was unbeaten for Lentern.
A Bob Skews hat trick led RESSC to a 6 – 3 win at Rawreth Megazone D, who also couldn’t find a third player. George Davis won two, and Charlie Kauders-Boothby one, for the home side.
The match between Mapledene and Hadleigh Forum B had to be postponed because Mapledene’s premises were not available.
Division 2
The New Year started with a bang for Debbie O’neill who picked up her first maximum of the season leading her Matchpoint B team to a 6-3 win against Invicta B. It was a match that could have been closer with three games going to five sets but two of those went in favour of Matchpoint to give them the edge. O’neill was pushed all the way by Mike Keeble who also lost another five set match to Ben Murray. Jack Riley’s brace backed up O’neill’s hat trick to add to Murray’s single point. For Invicta Mike Keeble eventually got a win defeating Riley whilst Sarah Ball and Keith Baxter also grabbed a single win each.
Biggest surprise of the week was Basildon B’s 9-0 thumping of Runnymede only their second win of the season. Andy Roff’s opening five set win, 15/13 in the decider against Andrew Humphris, must have inspired the ‘New towners’ to begin the New Year in style and they continued in fine form after that with Jenne Seibolt and Graham Bland proving just too strong for their opponents. Only Bland’s second match of the season and a POTM performance.
Elsewhere in the league leader’s Matchpoint A came away with an expected 7-2 win against bottom club Rawreth Megazone E but the scoreline didn’t tell the whole story. Apart from James Elliot, who recorded the perfect hat trick, team mates Jeremy Giffin and Lucy Elliot were pushed all the way by Rawreth’s Richard Kidd, Amar Al-Soufi and Jaspreet Singh with five matches going the full distance. Three of those matches involved Matchpoint’s Lucy Elliot who managed one win against Singh but Jeremy Giffin did better winning both his five set matches before completing his hat trick. This performance should give Rawreth some confidence as they enter the second half of the season.
In contrast to the last game the closest match of the week, Basildon A’s 5-4 win at Canvey B, was surprisingly straight forward as no less than seven games were decided in straight sets. Still with Christmas in mind Les ho-ho Hoey recorded another perfect hat trick whilst team mate Arun Joy brought some belated New Year joy winning two. Failing to add to their tally was Stephen Walters who missed out in the only five set match of the evening conceding a 2-1 lead to Tony Westwell. Andrew Murray picked up two wins for the Islanders with Des Duffield adding the fourth.
Player of the Week – Debbie O’neill
Team of the Week – Basildon B
No sooner had the Christmas and New Year celebrations ended before it was time for competition to
resume in Division 3.
League leaders, Matchpoint ‘C’ got off to a great start in their match against Rawreth Megazone ‘F’
and raced into a 4/1 lead before Megazone rallied to win the last 4 games for a 5/4 victory. For
Matchpoint there were 2 wins each for Lotte Mills and Max Mayo, including a fine win for Max over
the experienced Jan Thorpe. Both Jan and Ethan Nunn recorded 2 wins for Megazone and it was
Ethan who clinched the match in the final game of the night, beating Max in 4 sets. Graham Back
was the other point winner for Megazone.
Canvey ‘C’ kept up the pressure on the top teams with a 6/3 win against Hadleigh Forum ‘D’.
Another POM performance and hat-trick here for Trevor Hayes, ably assisted by Stephen Parker who
was also unbeaten. A win apiece for the Forum trio of Todd Barker, Sineh Ball and Douglas Brown
over John Saunders.
Second in the table, Stanford ‘D’ took on the juniors of Evolve and, to no great surprise, came away
with a 9/0 win. Vaughan Chambers was the POM with a ‘perfect maximum, with unbeaten
performances also from Andrew Jessop and Peter Moxham, although Peter had to dig deep in his
game against Aaron Price, recovering from the loss of the first two sets to crawl over the line at
13/11 in the decider.
The Hockley ‘F’ juniors came up against Stanford ‘C’ and another whitewash was on the cards as
Stanford reeled off the first 8 games with minimum fuss. However, Albie Richardson had other ideas
and he stopped the rot, beating Mandy Till in 4 sets and, in doing so, recorded his first win of the
season. Well done Albie! Randy Santiago was the POM here for Stanford with skipper Mark Farley
also unbeaten.