The race for the Division 1 title took a major turn this week as whilst one contender, Rawreth A, cruised to a customary 9-0 victory the other, Basildon A, found themselves in their toughest match of the season so far against, somewhat ironically, their own B team. The narrow 5-4 win for the A team means they are now five points behind their rivals who they must play in the final match of the season next week. They will need to beat them 6-3 as a minimum to pip them to the league title.
The form book would have pointed to a comfortable win for Rawreth when they played Invicta A but they received an unexpected bonus when their opponents could only field two players. That made their progression even more straightforward and resistance was limited to Tony Ayliffe’s five set battle against Peter Barrett. Ayliffe lost the first two sets 12/10 11/9 but then fought back winning the next two sets by the same scores to set up the decider. Unfortunately for Invicta Ayliffe couldn’t maintain his form and wilted, losing 11/2. The defeat leaves Invicta in eighth place in the league.
Basildon A’s possibly title deciding match with their B team saw a stunning start by the underdogs as they won the first three matches and then led 4-1 with the A team’s title aspirations apparently in tatters. Garry Hartgrove then led the comeback beating Peter Hilton quickly followed by wins for Lee Marson and Rob Burton and sealed by Burton and Hartgrove winning the final doubles. Dawn Baldry and Peter Hilton both won one singles for the B team and two doubles wins for Baldry and Lin Roff and Baldry and Hilton. The result lifts the B team into third place two points above Hockley A who have a game in hand. The A team will be hoping that Les Hoey and the unbeaten Ian Wall will be available for the crucial final match.
Stanford A welcomed back their talisman Mitchell Jones for their match against Hadleigh A and he provided another match winning performance winning both his singles and doubles and with a single point provided by Derrick Pearson they clinched a 5-4 victory all decided by the final doubles. Hadleigh’s points came courtesy of singles wins for Berti Makoli, Martin Turner and Todd Barker and a Turner/Barker combination in the doubles.
Matchpoint A finally picked up their first win of the season and they did it in style beating Canvey A 8-1. Three of the first four games went to five sets but that left Matchpoint 3-1 up and they cruised through the remaining matches conceding just two sets. Hannah Harbour was the star of the evening finishing unbeaten but team mate Debbie O’neill matched her all the way but did have contend with a strong performance by Kevin Walsingham who pushed her to five sets. Canvey’s consolation point came courtesy of Lee Mcgonagle who came back from 2-1 down against Dan Stewart clinching the decider 11/7.
Team of the Week – Basildon B
Player of the Week – Hannah Harbour
Report by Paul Strutt