In Division 1 of the Southend League this week, with leaders Basildon A not playing, Matchpoint A closed the gap between the sides with a convincing 7 – 2 win against visiting Rawreth Megazone C. Stephen Heard was the Matchpoint’s star with an unbeaten hat trick. Team mates Dan Stewart and Debbie O’Neil won two each. However, neither could overcome Garry Hartgrove who bagged both the visitors’ points.
In a bottom of the table clash, Wakering put some daylight between themselves and visitors Hadleigh Forum C. Both Callum Turner and Paul England were unbeaten for the home side, whilst David Thomas, Graham Farmer and Mark Everard won one each for Forum in a 6 – 3 victory for Wakering.
After a spell playing up for his A team in the Premiership (and making a useful contribution there) Adam Jackman returned to playing for Brand Identity B this week. He made an instant impact by winning all his contests in a 6 – 3 victory at home to Mapledene. Team mate Mick Grout won two and Dale Gutteridge won one. For Mapledene, Lin Roff had one success and Charles Yeung recorded two.
With leaders Basildon A not playing this week, Matchpoint A closed the gap between the sides with a convincing 7 – 2 win against visiting Rawreth Megazone C. Stephen Heard was the Matchpoint’s star with an unbeaten hat trick. Team mates Dan Stewart and Debbie O’Neil won two each. However, neither could overcome Garry Hartgrove who bagged both the visitors’ points.
In a bottom of the table clash, Wakering put some daylight between themselves and visitors Hadleigh Forum C. Both Callum Turner and Paul England were unbeaten for the home side, whilst David Thomas, Graham Farmer and Mark Everard won one each for Forum in a 6 – 3 victory for Wakering.
After a spell playing up for his A team in the Premiership (and making a useful contribution there) Adam Jackman returned to playing for Brand Identity B this week. He made an instant impact by winning all his contests in a 6 – 3 victory at home to Mapledene. Team mate Mick Grout won two and Dale Gutteridge won one. For Mapledene, Lin Roff had one success and Charles Yeung recorded two.
Report by David Barnes
All the top teams were in action this week in Division 2 with the biggest clash coming between top of the table Stanford B and third placed Canvey B. Stanford won 6-3 but it was a battling performance from Canvey who had to call up Ray Baker from their C team to make up the side. Having Trevor Hayes in your team means you’re always going to be in with a chance of points and he picked up two wins on the night beating Mark Downey and John Handscombe and spare a thought for Des Duffield who went the distance in all his games but only came away with one win against Handscombe. For Stanford, it was the unbeaten Adrian Armstrong who led the way maintaining his 100% record despite being pushed to five sets by Duffield. Mark Downey weighed in with two wins and Handscombe got the other point. Stanford lead by 15 points at the top.
Canvey’s loss meant they dropped down to fourth place in the league as Hockley C took the opportunity to leapfrog, them beating Rawreth Megazone B 7-2. Mike Worship recorded another hat trick, despite being taken to five sets by Steve McQuillan, and he was supported by braces from Paul Ogden and Paul Strutt. Both these two fell foul however, of the always awkward Richard Kidd. Graham Back made up the Rawreth team.
Invicta B fell to their fifth defeat in a row succumbing 8-1 to second in the table Matchpoint B who showed their potential for the future fielding three teenagers in Max Mayo, Alex Bowden and Ollie Milchard. Only two games went the distance and both of them featured Invicta’s John Blackman who secured an impressive win against Bowden coming back from two sets down to win 7/11 8/11 11/9 12/10 12/10. Unfortunately he then fell to defeat against Mayo who won 13/11 7/11 11/8 9/11 14/12. This defeat leaves Invicta bottom of the table.
Milchard found himself in action again later in the week as he captained his own Matchpoint C team against Stanford C and he picked up two important wins beating Chris Crooks in four sets and Martin Winter 12/10 in a deciding fifth set. He was beaten, however, by POTM Vaughan Chambers who was himself extended to five sets by Zach Samuels. Two wins for Winter and a single for Crooks gave Stanford a 6-3 win Samuels getting Matchpoint’s third point beating Alwine Jarvis.
Player of the Week – Ollie Milchard
Team of the Week – Matchpoint B
Report by Paul Strutt