In week 9 Division 3 of the Southend League Invicta C climbed to second in the table following a 9/0 win away at Matchpoint D. Trisha Winter was the POM here, well supported by her wingmen Brendan Raja and Andrew St John. Blake Stewart came the closest to a win for Matchpoint, going down in 5 sets to Raja
Stanford D werealso 9/0 winners this week. The Hockley F juniors put up a brave fight, winning a number of sets along the way, but the greater experience of the Stanford trio told eventually. Randy Santiago was the POM after his flawless maximum.
The final match played this week involved another junior team, Evolve, up against Hadleigh Forum D, with Forum emerging as 6/3 winners. Douglas Brown led the way for Hadleigh with an unbeaten performance. However, he was pushed all the way by young Miles Bygrave in the opening match of the evening (a remarkable age difference of over 70 years between these two players). Despite losing the first two sets against his wily and experienced opponent, Bygrave fought back to take the game to a deciding set, only to come up just short at 9/11 in the end. Perhaps inspired by his performance in his first game, he went on to record straight sets wins over Ivan Arabadzhiev and Sineh Ball. Nova Narayanan added the extra point for Evolve.
In week 10 Canvey C notched up their first win of the season when they took on Stanford D. The result a 6/3 win for the Islanders, with Steve Kemp and Che Martin at the forefront, both unbeaten on the night. A win apiece here for the Stanford trio of Andrew Jessop, Karen Kempster and James Parker.
Basildon B continue to forge ahead at the top of the table. Another big win, this time 8/1 at the expense of Invicta C, saw them stretch their lead to 14 points. Skipper Andy Roff with another maximum here, but it was teammate Dave Walton who took the POM honours, winning his three games without dropping a set.
The youngsters of Evolve hosted a (somewhat older) Rawreth Meggazone E team. A fine hat-trick from Ben Berwick, backed up by two wins for Leo Goodey and a single win for Teddy Kent saw them run out 6/3 winners on the night. Graham Back with a brace and Ro Brett with one win were the points scorers for Megazone.
Matchpoint D are now in third place in the league following a 7/2 victory over Hockley F. Richard Sloman led the way for Matchpoint, with his maximum added to by Samuel Morgan and Cooper Hill with two wins each. For Hockley there was a win each for Kris Chankov and George Higgins. The game of the night saw Hill come from behind to eventually get the better of Higgins, with the score 8/11, 17/15, 11/7, 9/11, 10/12 in Cooper’s favour.