Southend Summer League Division 1 report
Week 6
League leaders Rawreth were in imperious form as they head towards the Division 1 title annihilating Stanford A 9-0 and losing just two sets all night. The Stanford trio of Peter Weatherall, Pat White and Derrick Pearson couldn’t really get close to their opponents for whom Keith Adams again took the POTM award although team mates Arron Chandler and Kevin Read were only marginally behind him in terms of performance. This was Stanford’s biggest defeat of the season so far but can probably be forgiven against such an impressive side.
Another team enduring a comprehensive 9-0 defeat were Hockley B, still without a win this season, and now outplayed by Invicta A. Keith Willett made his first appearance of the season for Invicta and easily won his games and the POTM award, and team mate Lee Marson also completed a perfect night unbeaten. Anthon Ranjit-Singh conceded the only set of the night to Hockley debutant Nischal Chugh who performed well despite the overall result and offered a crumb of consolation for the home team.
Brand Identity kept up their pursuit of Rawreth beating Basildon B 8-1 with Richard Jackman and Simon Jacob picking up maximums and Dale Gutteridge winning one of his singles but went down in straight sets to Dawn Baldry to give Basildon their consolation point. Lin Roff almost added a second win, also against Gutteridge, but was eventually edged out 11/9 in the fifth set. Basildon remain with just one win to their name this season.
In the closest game of the week Hockley A went down to Basildon A 6-3 thanks to Ian Wall returning to his old stomping ground and showing Hockley what they have been missing. The evening started off closely however and wins were exchanged in equal measure until the score reached 3-3. At that point Basildon put their foot down on the accelerator and won the final three games conceding just one set in the doubles. Wall’s performance was backed up by a singles win for Kim Shead and, more importantly, three doubles victories for the ‘New Towners’. Hockley equalled their opponents in the singles Sanjay Saptarshi beating Les Hoey in straight sets, and then Kim Shead in a close five set match coming back from 2-1 down to win 11-8 in the deciding set. Joseph Odegbami also beat Hoey in three sets but couldn’t repeat that success against Wall. Shead beat Eamonn Hall to add to Wall’s two wins. This was Basildon’s fourth win of the season their only defeat coming against Rawreth.
Player of the Week – hard not to choose Keith Adams, yet to drop a set this season.
