A week of very tight results in the Southend Premier division with three of the games going to the wire and ending in a 5-4 scoreline. The first came as Rawreth A inflicted the first defeat of the season on Brand Identity A. Kevin Read led the way with 3 wins backed up by 2 wins on his Southend debut for Daniel Bronziet, his hatrick denied by Simon Jacob who has started the 25/26 season very well indeed.
The second tight match came as Rawreth B beat Hadleigh Forum A 5-4 despite the player of the match and three wins going to Forum’s Neil Barker. Rawreth’s Debby Auvache, Kim Shead and Andrew Halling all contributing to the win. The final 5-4 result went the way of Hockley A against two man Thorpe Bay B. Notable wins on the sight for Sanjay Saptarshi as he got the better of former Men’s singles champion Matt Spero and the ever reliable Keith Willett.
A 6-3 scoreline next but no less close as we saw 7 of the 9 matches on the night go the distance between Basildon A and Stanford A. Arun Joy proving the difference in this tight affair taking all of his three singles ably supported by Garry Hartgrove and Rob Burton. Martin Archie with two for the visitors.
Elsewhere, Rayleigh Mill continued their solid start to the season with a 6-3 win over Invicta A. Duncan Taylor, Colin Chatfield and Steve Maltby with three, two and one win respectively. A good win in this one for Invicta’s captain Tony Ayliffe over Chatfield.
In the final result of the week a slightly more one sided affair but I guess that was expected as current champions Thorpe Bay A saw off the challenge of Premier Division newcomers Matchpoint A. Ian Wall, John Poysden and Chris Ballad with three wins a piece.
Report by Duncan Taylor
Hockley B consolidated their position at the top of Division 1. Notwithstanding their 9 – 0 score at Wakering A, there were a couple of very close ties. Keith Abbott edged a victory over Wakering’s Martin Shaughnessy 12 – 10 in the final set. Then Mick Grout, debuting for his new club, took Keith to another five-setter, eventually succumbing 9 – 11. Keith’s team mate David Colwill took the player of the match prize, whilst Eamonn Hall was also unbeaten.
Hadleigh Forum C pushed visiting second-place Hockley C all the way, eventually yielding 4 – 5 in the final rubber of the evening. The visitors’ Stephanie Haddrell narrowly missed out on a hat trick, losing to veteran Graham Farmer 11 – 6 in the fifth. Team mate Will Evesham had no such trouble, taking the POM award for his maximum.
Stanford Le Hope B recorded their first win of the season, taking their match against visiting Basildon B 7 – 2. The home side’s Rob Salvage was unbeaten, whilst team mates Jake Nelson and Dave Hancox got two victories each. Basildon’s Dale Gutteridge and Tony Molisso had to fight hard for their single victories, each winning in their final set.
Rawreth C’s Adi Kamma maintained his unbeaten start to the season when his team visited Mapledene. Team mate David Gatheral’s two wins were his first of the season. Despite two wins from Mapledene’s Bill Smith and one each for Andy Seaman and Lin Roff, Rawreth took the match 5 – 4.
Report by David Barnes
Potential promotion candidates Matchpoint B and Wakering B met this week and it was Wakering who ran out convincing winners 7-2. Callum Turner led the way again with three wins dropping just one set all night with Michael Grout and Andy Deadman both weighing in with a brace each. Dennis Squirrell beat Deadman for one point and Colin Barham got the other for Matchpoint after a close five set battle with Grout clinching the decider 12/10.
While those two battled it out Canvey B took the top spot with a 7-2 win against Invicta B. In truth the score could have been a lot closer four games going to five sets but all won by Canvey. The one player who wasn’t involved in a five set match was Canvey’s Terry Giddens who raced through his matches winning all three without dropping a set. Tony Westwell added two more and Des Duffield one before he had to concede his last match through injury. Andrew St. John claimed Invicta’s other point beating Duffield and he also took Westell to five sets losing 11/13 in the decider.
Stanford C picked up their first win of the season thrashing Basildon C 8-1. Mike Trendell took the POTM honours with a hat trick with Vaughan Chambers also winning three plus two more wins from Peter Moxham. Chambers had to fight hard for two of his wins going to five sets against Andy Roff and Victor Galben. Galben and teammate Michael Elemide are both making their debuts in the league this season and will need time to settle at this level. Elemide did have the satisfaction of getting Basildon’s consolation point beating Moxham in four sets.
Final game of the week turned out to be the closest and one in which everyone turned out to be a winner. Hockley E just got the edge on Matchpoint C 5-4 with every player getting at least one win. The scoreline could, in fact, easily have gone the other way as the two matches that went to five sets both went the way of Hockley. John George went two sets down to Zachary Samuels but stormed back to win the next three 11/9 12/10 15/13the closest encounter of the evening. That sequence was repeated when Amar Al-Soufi took on Roger Sherman also losing the first two sets before winning 11/9 11/8 12/10. George and Al-Soufi both added a second win and Neal Klyman gave Hockley their fifth point denying Ollie Milchard’s hat trick for Matchpoint. Sherman and Zachary Samuels got their other points.
Player of the Week – Terry Giddens
Team of the Week – Wakering B
Report by Paul Strutt
In Division 3 a young Evolve ‘B’ team took on a (considerably) older and more experienced Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ team. The evening started well for the juniors when Oliver Willson earned a three set win over Dean Johnston in the opening rubber. Thereafter, however, it was one way traffic as Forum reeled off the remaining eight games with the loss of only two sets.
In the first of this week’s matches, Canvey ‘C’ visited Stanford ‘D’, but found their hosts in an uncompromising mood. Despite some close 5-setters, a 9-0 home win was the outcome. Hat-tricks for Andrew Jessop, David Arnett and Toby Cornelius, a youngster on his first league outing.
Both of the Evolve junior teams were in action this week. To start with, Evolve ‘B’ travelled to Hockley to take on their ‘F’ team. It was a tough evening, though, for the youngsters who managed to win only one set against the Hockley trio of Ben Brown, Bob Garlick and Gary Beck.
The following night, another visit to Hockley, this time by the Evolve ‘A’ team. On this occasion, however, a much better outcome for Evolve. Their opponents, Hockley ‘G’, are another all junior team, but on the night they were no match for the Evolve trio of Sasha Syderenko, Zac Eighteen and the POTM, Miles Bygrave. Hockley’s only point on the night came from Boris Kolev who overcame Zac in a close 4-setter.
At the end of the week, a much closer affair as Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ played host to Wakering ‘C’. Things were going well for the home team as they lead 4-1, only for Wakering to claw their way back and a force a deciding game. This saw the evergreen Douglas Brown up against Deepak Nanda, making his league debut. Things started well for Douglas as he opened up a two set lead, but Deepak had other ideas, as he took the next two sets 15/13, 18/16 to force a fifth set. Whether he ran out of steam or Douglas’s experience came into play, I don’t know, but it was Douglas who eventually came out on top with an 11/5 win, to secure a 5/4 win for his team.
Report by Dave Woolmer