After wins against their two biggest title rivals and an unbeaten start to the season it was Rawreth B’s turn to suffer an upset in week 9 of the Premier Division season as they went down 6-3 to Rayleigh Mill. It does go to show that the Millers are a match for any team on their day as they fielded one of their strongest possible line ups. Liam Squirrell won all 3 of his matches against Dan Zeffie, Gary Young and Peter Barrett with Duncan Taylor taking two wins and Colin Chatfield beating Barrett.
This result paired with the Thorpe Bay A result brings things much closer at the top of the division in what really will be an intriguing season. Thorpe Bay A for their part saw off Hockley A 8-1 with maximums for Paul Sayer and John Poysden. The single victory or Hockley coming by way of a win for Sanjay Saptarshi against Chris Ballard.
Elsewhere Rawreth A were in no mood to take any prisoners as the side of Kevin Read, Dan Zeffie (playing up from the B team) and Chris Penrose dispatched Basildon A 9-0 and there was a welcome win for Invicta A as Tony Ayliffe and Paul Sims led them to a 5-4 win over Stanford A.
In Division 1 despite only being able to find two players for their trip to Stanford Le Hope B, Canvey A were far too strong for their hosts. Both Bob Skews and Peter Cray recorded maximums to give the Islanders a 6 – 3 win. Dave Hancox came closest for Stanford, losing 11 – 4 in the fifth to Peter and 11 – 6 in the fifth against Bob.
Top team Hockley B were virtually unstoppable when they hosted Hadleigh Forum B. Hat tricks from the Player of the Match David Colwill and colleague Stuart Adshead, together with two successes for Keith Abbott, gave the home side an 8 – 1 win. Only blot on their copy book was caused by Forum’s skipper Dave Woolmer who overcame Keith in the very last rubber of the night.
Mapledene bounced back from a home defeat last week to win 7 – 2 away to Wakering A. The ever-consistent Dawn Baldry took the Player of the Match award by being unbeaten all night, a feat matched by team mate Andy Seaman. However, Andy was pushed all the way by the home side’s Martin Shaughnessy and Barbara Chabior, just squeezing past both in the fifth set. Bill Smith added another victory for Mapledene.
Rawreth C’s match away to Basildon B was postponed as Rawreth were unable commit any players. It will be played later in the month.
It will be a hard choice picking the team of the week in Division 2 this week, as two surprising results stand out. Firstly Basildon C, without a win so far this season, went to Invicta B with just two players and won 5-4 and then league leaders Wakering went to Canvey B, lying in second place, and handed out a crushing 9-0 whitewash!
Basildon’s win at Invicta came in the last match of the evening. Having found themselves 4-3 down first Andy Roff and then Michael Elemide won their singles to clinch a significant win. Elemide completed a hat trick, his first of the season, whilst Roff won twice losing to John Blackman in four sets for Invicta’s only actual win on the night. The only way is up now for Basildon C!
Canvey B were without the unbeaten Trevor Hayes for the match against Wakering but you still wouldn’t have expected a 9-0 scoreline in this clash of the top two teams in the division. Michael Grout put in the perfect performance on the night not dropping a set but Callum Turner, unbeaten this season and only having dropped one set so far, had to fight hard to overcome Terry Giddens, finding himself 2-1 down before winning the final two sets 11/2 11/5. Paul England made up the winning Wakering trio but he had to fight even harder to overcome Des Duffield 15/13 11/4 13/15 13/15 13/11.
Final games of the week saw the two Hockley teams take on the two Matchpoint teams and, perhaps not surprisingly, it finished with one win each.
Matchpoint C took on Hockley D and the match see-sawed throughout the evening an early 2-1 Matchpoint lead turning into a 4-2 deficit before a fightback saw both sides level at 4-4 when Hockley captain Paul Strutt brought home the victory with a straight sets win against Blake Stewart. Strutt and Paul Ogden both finished with two wins and there was a vital point provided by Gary Beck who had stepped up from the E team on the night. For Matchpoint Richard Sloman and Samuel Morgan also finished with two wins apiece.
In the reverse fixture Hockley E took on Matchpoint B and veteran John Lott took the POTM honours with a perfect hat trick whilst former Hockley player Roger Sherman weighed in with two wins and there was a single victory for young Lotte Mills. Her win came in a five set fight back against Amar Al-Soufi coming back from two sets down to record her first win of the season. Richard Kidd got the better of Mills and Sherman for the home side with Richard Coulon adding the other point. Hockley D and Matchpoint B sit third and fourth respectively after these results.
Team of the Week – Basildon C
Player of the Week – Michael Grout
The clash between the top two in Division 3 was a predictably tight affair, not settled until the final end, when Hockley ‘F’s Robert Garlick got the better of Invicta’s David Barlow to clinch a 5/4 win for his team. Prior to that, there was a maximum for Harry Venables, thus maintaining his 100% record for Invicta, and a single win for skipper Mike Keeble. For Hockley, Robert Garlick and Ross Collins both recorded a double, with George Clark adding the extra point. With both sides having played the same number of matches, Invicta has a 10 point lead over the rest of the field.
Kris Chankov’s maximum was to no avail as his Hockley ‘G’ side suffered a narrow 5/4 defeat at the hands of Wakering ‘C’. Anay Vatsa added the extra point for Hockley, but a brace each for Alwine Jarvis and Nigel Strike and a single win for Candice Geake were sufficient to get Wakering over the line.
It was certainly not a close match when Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ entertained Matchpoint ‘D’. A rapid 9/0 win for the home side was achieved with the loss of just one set. Jan Thorpe was the Player of the Match here, with maximums also for Douglas Brown and Sineh Bali (his first of the season.