Some contrasting fortunes this week in Division 1 of the Southend League, two of the three fixtures finished 9 – 0, and the third 8 – 1.
Basildon A have taken over the top of the table spot, thanks to hat tricks from Les Hoey, Arun Joy and Rob Burton in a 9 – 0 drubbing of visiting Wakering. The home side were far too strong and didn’t drop a set all night.
Canvey A relinquished top spot and dropped to fourth place with a dramatic fall from grace, going down 8 – 1 at Rawreth Megazone C. Rawreth’s unbeaten Paul Brown took the Player of the Match award, although Garry Hartgrove was also unbeaten. Canvey’s only success came in the first rubber of the match when Bob Skew overcame Gary McCarthy. Joanna Hills was unfortunate to lose two of her three in the fifth set.
In the Hadleigh Forum ‘derby’, the ‘visiting’ B team overcame their ‘hosts’, the C team, 9 – 0. Tony Jack’s unbeaten threesome gave him the POM award, but both Mick Tappenden and Dave Woolmer were similarly successful. However, there were a couple of close ‘what could have been’ moments for the C team. Dave Thomas lost 9 – 11 to Tony in the fifth set and Graham Farmer lost 8 – 11 in the fifth to Mick.
Stanford B now sit an impressive twenty points clear at the top of Division 2 after a crushing 9-0 victory against Invicta B. The Stanford boys are sweeping all before them this season but all credit to Invicta who put up a strong fight despite the unflattering scoreline. Four matches went the distance with Trish Winter twice missing out against Rob Salvage and Mark Downey whilst Mike Keeble also took Downey the distance and John Blackman fully extended Russell Bright. Invicta have now slipped to one but bottom of the table one point ahead of Matchpoint C but with a game in hand.
Bottom side Matchpoint C went down 6-3 away at Hockley D who have now won their last three games and have moved up to fifth in the table. Their win came courtesy of hat tricks from Hannah Harbour and Elliot Brackenbury with Harbour not dropping a set. Brackenbury had to work a lot harder overcoming a 2-1 deficit to beat Zach Samuels and then going to another five sets before edging out Roger Sherman in the decider. Samuels, Sherman and Ollie Milchard all got the better of Graham Gregory.
Runnymede had an exciting 5-4 win against Stanford C coming back from 4-3 down to clinch victory in the final game. Andrew Humphris beat Peter Moxham in straight sets. Star of the show, however, was Tony Millward who claimed his fourth POTM award of the season. Basically, if Tony plays, Runnymede win! Humphris also got the better of Mark Farley to make it a brace but couldn’t get the better of Vaughan Chambers. All the Stanford boys got the better of Heather Stiles.
Unfortunately the match between Canvey B and Hockley C had to be postponed.
Team of the Week – Hockley D
Player of the Week – Hannah Harbour
In Division 3 Hockley E have moved up to second place in the table after two big wins. They travelled to face Stanford D in their first match and a good team performance resulted in a 7/2 win. Gary Beck was the player of the match, turning in an unbeaten performance, ably supported by teammates Ron Rogerson and Robert Garlick who recorded two wins apiece. Randy Santiago with the points for the home side. Their second match saw them take on a junior Hockley F team, who are finding the going very tough. A 9/0 scoreline was not unexpected, and only one set was dropped in achieving this.
Canvey C are another team who are struggling. Another two defeats mean they are still searching for the first win of the season. Their first match was against Hadleigh Forum D who are showing some good form. Todd Barker and Douglas Brown were unbeaten for Forum in their 7/2 win with Ivan Arabadzhiev adding the extra. Despite Che Martin’s maximum, Canvey slipped to another defeat on their visit to Rawreth Meggazone E, 5/4 the score in favour of the home side with Edward Philcox, Ro Brett and Graham Back all on the scoresheet.
Invicta C remain in third place in the league after a 7/2 win away at Evolve. Keith Baxter was unbeaten in this one, supported by David Youngman and Jonathan Gould with two wins each. Ben Berwick with a double for Evolve.
Hockley F picked up a couple of points when Rawreth Meggazone E came to visit. James Evesham was their hero with wins over Mike Webb and Edward Philcox, and he came so close to a hat-trick in his game with Ro Brett. Despite the setback of falling two sets behind, he fought back to level the scores only to fall short at 9/11 in the decider.
Stanford D inflicted the first defeat of the season on Matchpoint D with Randy and Jake Santiago both unbeaten for Stanford. Jeff Gritzman and Blake Stewart were the point winners for Matchpoint. 7/2 was the final score.
League leaders, Basildon B remain unbeaten following a 7/2 victory over Evolve, a match in which Andy Roff surrendered his 100% winning record, going down in 5 sets to Nova Narayanan. Indeed, Andy only just scraped past Ben Berwick, losing a two set lead before edging home 15/13 in the final end. Ross Letham was the hero for Basildon with a maximum.
Basildon top the table by 12 points from Hockley E, and by 16 points from Invicta C in third place. 1st Basildon B played 7, 52 points. 2nd Hockley E played 7, 40 points. 3rd Invicta C played 6, 36 points.
Divisional reports compiled by David Barnes (Div 1), Paul Strutt (Div 2) and Dave Woolmer (Div 3).