After the latest round of matches there is a new name at the top of Division 1 as Rawreth beat Stanford A 8-1 to move one point clear of their rivals both teams now having played five games. Basildon A sit second after demolishing Hockley B 9-0 and Basildon B are in third place on 35 points, four behind their A team. There is another new face, however, sitting in fourth place as Hockley A have jumped from seventh on the back of an impressive 8-1 away win Hadleigh Forum.

Rawreth’s defeat of Stanford was down to two unbeaten performances from Kevin Read and Russell Mills with Paul Brown winning one singles but losing to Martin Archie. Whilst all but one of the other singles were over in straight sets the match between Brown and Rob Salvage was an epic five set battle with Brown eventually coming out on top 14/12 11/13 11/9 14/16 11/9. Stanford are in fifth place and their good start to the season has come to an abrupt halt losing their third match in succession.

Hockley A are the surprise team of the week their 8-1 victory at Hadleigh Forum coming thanks to good performances from Eamonn Hall, Brian Bissenden and teenager William Evesham. Their only loss was the final doubles of the evening but they had to fight hard in their other games three going to five sets and two going to four. In all the five set matches Hockley were 2-1 down so the team showed great fighting spirit to win those games. Anthon Ranjit-Singh and Martin Turner got the consolation point for Hadleigh.

Les Hoey, Rob Burton and Lee Marson made up the Basildon A team which outclassed Hockley B only three games going beyond three sets and noticeable that all three featured Hockley’s Ross Collins who moved up from their C team for the match. His best performance came against Marson taking him the distance before going down 11/3 in the deciding set. Hockley remain without a win this season.

Invicta pulled off a surprise win at Basildon B winning an extremely tight match 5-4 in the final doubles of the evening. 3-1 down at one stage and then 4-3 Malcolm Henstock levelled the scores before Paul Sims and Tony Ayliffe saw them home. Ayliffe is a man in form at the moment picking up his second successive maximum with the other point coming from Henstock and Ayliffe in the doubles. Lin Roff took the honours for the home team winning both her singles and a doubles with Andy Seaman, with Seaman defeating Sims in five sets for their other point.

Team of the Week – Hockley A

Player of the Week – Tony Ayliffe