Rawreth A have strengthened their grip on the Division 1 title of the Southend Summer League after beating Basildon B 7-2 this week. This puts them 12 points clear of rivals Basildon A who do have a game in hand and, of course, meet Rawreth in the final game of the season. A 9-0 win for Basildon would leave them just three points behind and everything to play for.

Having pushed the A team all the way last week they would have been hoping that the B team  could do a similar job against Rawreth but their team of Kim Shead, Russell Mills and Norbert Fullerton gave little away. Racing into a 3-0 lead Lin Roff held them up beating Mills in straight sets but they had to wait until the final match of the evening to get another when Roff and Andy Seaman combined to win a gruelling five set doubles against Shead and Mills 15/13 in the fifth.

Basildon B’s defeat has left the door open for Hockley A who move into third place after beating Canvey A 6-3. Andrew Murray and Terry Giddens started the evening well for Canvey edging out Stuart Adshead and Brian Bissenden in a five set doubles but Hockley then won the next five games to put them firmly in charge. Murray then beat Bissenden in their only singles win of the night before Jo Hills and Giddens won the final doubles against Bissenden and Joseph Odegbami. Odegbami claimed two singles wins for Hockley and Adshead and Bissenden one each. They are now two points clear of Basildon B and have a game in hand.

Stephen Heard was in fine form for Matchpoint A as he led them to only their second win of the season 6-3 against Stanford A. He won both his singles and doubles and received tremendous support from Hannah Harbour who also won both her singles plus one doubles. Sarah Ball combined with Heard for her doubles point. Pat White and Adrian Armstrong both got the better of Ball and White and Rob Salvage also got a point in the doubles.

Hockley B look extremely likely to finish their season without a win as they lost 9-0 to Hadleigh A. Paul Strutt and Richard Kidd almost gave them a winning start but lost in five sets to Neal and Todd Barker and Kidd went to five sets again against Todd but went down 14/12 in the decider. Apart from that it was very much plain sailing for Hadleigh Berti Makoli making up their winning team and taking the player of the match honours. Hockley stay bottom of the division and Hadleigh move up to fifth.

Team of the Week – Matchpoint A

Player of the Week – Stephen Heard

Report by Paul Strutt