Southend and District Table Tennis League
Congratulations to Stanford Le Hope A on winning the Division 1 title. They go into the Premiership next season for the first time in the club’s history. Also, they have managed to recruit Mitchell Jones, a player who will grace the higher echelon, underlined by his winning this year’s SDTTL Closed Championship’s Men Singles title.
It is a measure of how well Invicta A did this year, and how hard they pressed the leaders all the way, that the final standings showed Invicta only five points behind. (Due to Rawreth Megazone D retiring their team mid-season, expunging their results from the table would mean the gap was only three points). This was achieved with a squad of only three players.
Both leaders and runners-up won 9 – 0 this week. Invicta went to Lentern and gained a very impressive win, whilst Stanford overcame Mapledene at home.
At the other end of the table, Hadleigh Forum C picked up the wooden spoon, collecting only two wins during the whole campaign. However, they came quite close this week, when they visited close rivals Hockley C. There were some quite close five-setters, but eventually Forum went down 5- 4. Mark Everard put up the most resistance, winning two in a POM performance. However, Paul Ogden and Ollie George mirrored this for the hosts, with Ollie’s father, John, adding a decisive single. Tony Mace and Satwant Gill contributed one each for Forum.
In what may well turn out (sadly) to be RESSC’s last competitive match in the league, their visit to Rawreth Megazone C resulted in a 6 – 3 defeat. Skipper Bob Skews has had an excellent season, but was only able to record one win; whilst colleague John Holland managed two (including a marathon five-setter against Trevor Ward which he took 12 – 10 in the fifth). Gary McCarthy was the host’s star, winning all his games and taking the POM award. He was backed up by Trevor with two wins, and George Davis with one.
In a close match between Hadleigh Forum B and Brand Identity B, Forum edged it 5- 4, despite a hat trick from the visitor’s POM Barrie Delph. His teammate John Lott was unfortunate to miss out, losing all his games in the fifth set. Two wins from Dave Woolmer and Tony Jacks and a single from Mick Tappenden gave Forum the win, whilst Mick Grout got Brand’s other win.
