Week 10 in the Southend Premier brought us a couple of whitewash results, one expected win and one shock. I’ll start with the whitewash results that saw Rawreth A and Thorpe Bay A back to their best as they took all the points on offer against Invicta A and Basildon A respectively. The dominance of Chris Penrose, Daniel Bronziet and Charles Sweeney for Rawreth and John Poysden, Paul Sayer and Ian Wall for Thorpe Bay was underlined by the fact that only 5 of the 18 games went to a 4th end and none to a 5th and deciding leg.
The expected win went the way of Thorpe Bay B over Stanford A as Kieran Skeggs with three wins and two a piece from Keith Willett and Rich Stubbington led the Bay to a 7-2 win. The two wins for Standford coming from Joshua Freeman and Peter Weatherall.
So finally to the shock of the week and a defeat for the leaders against 10th placed Matchpoint A. Harry Sawford and Stephen Heard in great form taking three wins each against Rawreth B’s Kim Shead, Andrew Halling and Norbert Fullerton. The result lets Thorpe Bay A leapfrog back over Rawreth B by 4 points at the top but we are not even half way into the season yet so a lot more balls to be smashed, chopped and top spinned before we know who this year’s Champions will be.
In a clash between two sides at the wrong end of the Division 1 table, home team Stanford Le Hope B narrowly overcame rivals Hadleigh Forum C 5 – 4. Despite being on the losing side, Forum’s Paul Fawell was unbeaten and took the player of the match award. Mind you, it was very tight in his contest with the home side’s Adrian Atkinson, with Paul just squeezing it 11 – 8 in the fifth set. Adrian went on to win his two other bouts. Team mate Robert Savage matched this feat, whilst Jake Nelson added one further win. Mark Everard got Forum’s other success.
Second place Hockley C missed the chance to close the gap on the top team, losing 6 – 3 away to Mapledene. Their Elliot Brackenbury did his best to avoid the defeat, winning all his matches and taking the player of the match award. However, the home side’s trio of Lin Roff, Mike Johnston and Bill Smith were just too good for Hockley’s other players, Stephanie Haddrell and James Evesham. Mind you, Stephanie had some very close encounters. Bill just overcame her 11 – 6 in the fifth, then was even more unfortunate to lose 11 – 9 in the fifth to Mike.
Hadleigh Forum B took advantage of Hockley C’s slip up to move to only three points behind them, thanks to an 8 – 1 home demolition of bottom side Basildon B. There were hat tricks for both Forum’s Anthon Ranjit-Singh and David Woolmer, with David just shaving it for the POM prize. Basildon’s Dale Gutteridge overcame Michael Tappenden to avoid a complete whitewash.
A Peter Cray inspired hat trick led Canvey A to a commendable 6 – 3 win over visitors Wakering A. Bob Skews added two more for the home side, whilst Lee McGonagle edged a close match against Wakering’s unfortunate Jeremy Giffin 11 – 8 in the fifth. in a close fought match, Martin Shaughnessy took two wins and Barbara Chabior got one for Wakering.
Basildon C are off the bottom of the table in Division 2. After six consecutive defeats they have now won two games in succession their 5-4 defeat of Hockley E replicating their 5-4 defeat of Invicta B the previous week. Dave Walton was their hero this time winning all his games with team mates Richard Reibold and Anton Kudyniuk picking up a point each. Secret of their success was down to the three matches that went to five sets Basildon coming out on top in all three. That was hard on Hockley’s Richard Coulon who lost two of them but he did have a single success against Reibold. Richard Kidd picked up two wins for Hockley and there was one for Neal Klyman.
At the other end of the table there was another close fought match featuring the other Hockley team against Canvey B. Hockley D found themselves 4-3 down against the Islanders until wins for Brian Bissenden and Paul Ogden turned the tide in the home side’s favour. Crucial match here was Bissenden’s clash with the previously unbeaten Trevor Hayes which finished 14/12 12/10 12/10 in three closely fought sets. Paul Ogden and Howard Collins provided the other points for Hockley whilst Hayes and Des Duffield both picked up braces for Canvey. Tony Westwell missed out and Canvey remain in second place.
Hockley D’s narrow win left a chance for Matchpoint B to overtake them and claim third place and they did this in style romping to a 9-0 win against Runnymede which dropped their opponents to bottom place in the league. Hannah Harbour finished with a perfect hat trick, the evergreen John Lott followed suit and young Lotte Mills picked up her first hat trick of the season dropping just a single set. Matchpoint now sit one point ahead of Hockley D.
League leaders Wakering demolished Stanford C 8-1 which meant another three wins for the unbeaten Callum Turner, three wins for Paul England and a brace for Michael Grout. England had to fight hard for two of his wins beating Vaughan Chambers in five sets and then coming back from two sets down to beat Mike Trendell winning the last three sets 12/10 12/10 11/9. Trendell did get Stanford’s consolation point beating Grout in four sets.
Team of the Week – Basildon C
Player of the Week – Brian Bissenden
In Division 3 Hockley ‘F’ skipper Gary Beck led from the front as his maximum, added to two wins apiece from his teammates, Ross Collins and Bob Garlick, meant a 7/2 win for his team over Stanford ‘D’ and ensured that they kept up the pressure on the league leaders, Invicta ‘C’, who were without a match this week. Martin Winter was the best on the night for Stanford with two wins.
Matchpoint ‘D’ recorded their first win of the season with a comprehensive 9/0 win over Evolve ‘B’. With this victory, they moved above Evolve and off the bottom of the table. David McHattie was the Player of the Match, and there were also maximums for Poppy Sherman and Cooper Hill.
Teddy Kent and Miles Bygrave were both unbeaten as Evolve ‘A’ beat Wakering ‘C’ 6/3. It was a blank night though for Sasha Syderenko, but it was not for want of him trying. Two of his matches were lost in the 5th set, and the other was a close 4-set defeat. For Wakering there was a win each for Jacek Bednarek, Kamil Pachalko and Stewart Mills.
A maximum from Chong Shing Lam and a double each for his Canvey ‘C’ teammates, David Coverley and John Saunders, meant a 7/2 win for his team over Hockley ‘G’. Kris Chankov recorded two wins for Hockley, but he was denied his hat-trick in the final game of the evening, when he came out on the wrong end of a narrow 5-set match against Chong.
Premier Division report by Duncan Taylor
Division 1 report by David Barnes
Division 2 report by Paul Strutt
Division 3 report by Dave Woolmer