Southend Summer League Division 1
Week 7 report
Hanging on the coat tails of leaders Rawreth are second and third placed Basildon A and Brand Identity and they came head to head in this week’s Division 1 matches.
Surprisingly it was fairly straight forward for Basildon as, apart from two singles defeats for Kim Shead and Les Hoey, they won fairly comfortably no matches going beyond four sets. Ian Wall was in fine form for the ‘New Towners’ winning both his singles although Richard Jackman kept him to four close sets, and he continued his form into the doubles winning both his games. Shead and Hoey had already given the home side the lead with the first doubles of the evening and giving them a clean sweep. Brand’s singles successes were surprisingly convincing with Shead losing to Jackman 11/3 11/2 11/2 and Hoey losing to David Jacob 11/5 11/4 11/4. Shead beat Jacob and Hoey beat Dale Gutteridge to complete the scoring.
Leaders Rawreth finally came up against some opposition this week as Invicta A managed to contain them to a 6-3 victory and they also had the unfortunate advantage of being given the final doubles as Anthon Ranjit Singh had to pull out with a serious injury. A ruptured tendon estimated to keep him out for six weeks. Ranjit-Singh and Lee Marson actually started the evening well for Invicta comfortably beating Caroline Cole and Keith Adams in straight sets and this plus further wins for Marson and Paul Sims against Cole gave Invicta their points. Andrew Halling and Adams both won their singles but Halling was pushed all the way by Sims who fought back from two sets down only to lose 11/6 in the deciding fifth set.
Joseph Odegbami enjoyed the perfect evening in Hockley A’s 6-3 win away at Stanford A. Two singles and two doubles wins formed the bedrock of Hockley’s win, Keith Abbott beating Pat White to give them five points and then combining with Stuart Adshead to make it six in the final doubles of the evening. Odegbami made short work of beating Pat White and Russell Bright both in straight sets but team mate Adshead was easily beaten by both Bright and Peter Weatherall to keep Stanford in touch. Weatherall also defeated Abbott in straight sets so the match score was actually level at 3-3 before Hockley clinched the last three games.
By far the closest game of the week, and probably the longest, was Wakering’s thrilling 5-4 win away at Basildon B. Leading 3-1 at one stage Wakering were hauled back to 3-3, level again at 4-4, before clinching the win with the final doubles game of the evening. No less than five games went to five sets so no early nights for these two teams. Callum Turner was again the star for Wakering winning both singles and doubles but he was pushed all the way by Lin Roff who fought back from two sets down before losing 11/6 in the fifth set. Team mate Zac England went to five sets in all but one of his matches which included a great comeback against Ashokkumar Sivanandam. He was two sets down then won the third 11/9, a titanic fourth 16/14, and then cruised through 11/1 in the fifth. Basildon kept it tight throughout Jenne Seibolt beating Paul England in five sets, Roff beating Zac England also in five and Sivanandam beating Paul England. Zac England and Turner won the final crucial doubles in straight sets against Sivanandam and Roff. Player of the Week – Joseph Odegbami of Hockley A
