Hockley A had to call up two players from their B team this week in the Southend Premier Table Tennis League to play the league leaders and current champions Thorpe Bay A. A tough task at the best of times. Hockley duly lost the match7-2 but their points came from two significant wins. Firstly, Dan Patynski reversed an early season defeat to Paul Sayer by beating him in five hard fought sets coming back from 2-1 down and clinching the final set 11/5. A great win for Patynski against the highly rated Sayer. The other point, and perhaps of even greater significance, came from 14 year old Elliot Brackenbury who beat England Vets International John Poysden in four sets. Brackenbury was stepping up from the Hockley B team for the second time this season and, having won all his games previously, he has added another impressive name to his list of conquests. He, and fellow Hockley teenager William Evesham, are becoming increasingly highly regarded in local table tennis circles. Thorpe Bay’s Chris Ballard got the better of all the Hockley team to take the Player of the Match award.
The Champions elect go marching on! Hockley B’s 7 – 2 win away to Hadleigh Forum B, gives them a comfortable, if not unassailable, eighteen point lead over their nearest rivals, who have two games in hand. David Colwill’s hat trick was the basis of this week’s success, although Stephanie Haddrell and Stuart Adshead added two victories each. Tony Jacks got both Forum’s scores. However, commiserations to Forum’s Anthon Ranjit-Singh. Things could have been so different – he lost all his games in five sets.
A close fought encounter between Mapledene and Wakering A ended in a 6 – 3 win for Mapledene. Dawn Baldry was the player of the match, ending up unbeaten. However, there were some close very run things, with no less than five encounters going the whole way to five sets. Dawn was supported by two wins from Dave Reynolds, making his season’s debut, and one from veteran John Tendler. Victor Xi Wei got two wins for Wakering and Martin Shaughnessy one.
This week’s other two contests both resulted in 8 – 1 home wins. When Basildon B visited Rawreth C only a Dale Gutteridge 11 – 8 victory in the fifth set against Adi Kamma saved his team’s blushes. Paul Brown was again in fine form for Rawreth with an unbeaten performance matched by team mate James Grimston.
In a similar vein, Stanford Le Hope B went down 8 – 1 as they ventured onto the island. Canvey A recorded an almost perfect night with maximums from Peter Cray and skipper Ray Wilson. Only Dave Hancox’s fifth set victory over Bob Skews in the penultimate meeting of the evening saved Stanford from a whitewash.
With the end of the season now just a couple of games away for most clubs, the Division 2 title has now been finally decided after this week’s results. Beforehand there was still the mathematical possibility that Matchpoint B could equal Wakering B’s points total but a win for Wakering and a surprise defeat for Matchpoint have confirmed what everyone has known for some time, Wakering are Division 2 champions and will be promoted to Division 1 next season. They are one match away from finishing the season unbeaten and they deserve many congratulations.
Wakering beat second placed Canvey B 6-3 to clinch the title and, as it has been for most of the season, Callum Turner and Michael Grout supplied their points whilst Stewart Mills, stepping in for regular Paul England, found the going a bit too tough. Canvey though, didn’t go down without a fight, as the opening two games both went to five sets with both Turner and Grout having to come back from two set deficits against Terry Giddens and Trevor Hayes respectively. The other games went pretty much to form after that but Grout was pushed again to five sets by Des Duffield. Canvey still sit in second place but Matchpoint B are just three points behind and have a game in hand.
Matchpoint B’s defeat came surprisingly at the hands of relegation threatened Hockley E. A much changed Matchpoint side were without their top players John Lott, Hannah Harbour and Dennis Squirrell and brought in Ollie Milchard from their C team alongside squad members Lotte Mills and Colin Barham. Hockley made one significant change to their team with David Chenery getting just his second runout of the season coming back after injury. The match was virtually over after the first four games with Hockley storming into a 4-0 lead with two wins for Chenery, one for Richard Kidd and a significant five set win for Richard Coulon over Barham. Milchard led a bit of a fightback in the second half as he chalked up wins against Kidd and Coulon and Mills also added a point but Kidd beat Barham in five sets and then Chenery completed his hat trick to secure a 6-3 win. Hockley stay one but bottom but are just four points behind Matchpoint C with a game in hand.
Matchpoint C picked up a surprise win themselves beating Hockley D 5-4 Richard Sloman clinching victory in the final game of the evening. It was an all round performance by the Matchpoint team with Sloman and Samuel Morgan both winning two and Roger Sherman the other point. It was a Hockley player who took the Player of the Match award however, as Brian Bissenden remained unbeaten all night including a hard fought five set win against Sloman. Paul Ogden got Hockley’s other point.
Basildon C are now 10 points adrift at the bottom of the table after they were edged out 5-4 by Invicta B. That meant that all three teams immediately above them won their games and are now separated by just four points. The evening had started perfectly for Basildon with Dave Walton coming back from a two set deficit against Sarah Ball to win 11/9 in the fifth and then wins for Richard Reibold and Andy Roff gave them an impressive 3-0 lead. It suddenly went downhill for Basildon however as Invicta raced through the next five games to give them the win. Ball made the crucial breakthrough winning another five set match against Reibold coming back from 2-1 down. Two wins for John Blackman and another five set win for Trisha Winter over Roff gave them an important win.
Team of the Week – Hockley E
Player of the Week – David Chenery
Report by Paul Strutt
Harry Venables turned in an unbeaten performance for Invicta ‘C’ as they just got the better of their long-time pursuers at the top of the table, Hockley ‘F’, with 5/4 the final outcome. Steve Lennox added a couple of wins, but it was a blank night for Invicta skipper, Mike Keeble. Ross Collins was the best on the night for Hockley with 2 wins.
Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ made the trip to Hullbridge to take on Matchpoint ‘D’, and emerged as 8/1 winners. Douglas Brown was the POTM with a straight sets hat-trick, with Jean Catley also unbeaten. Cooper Hill was the Matchpoint point scorer with a win over Sineh Bali.
There was a big win for the junior Hockley ‘G’ side. Wakering ‘C’ were their opponents and 8/1 the final score. Perry Lazell and Kris Chankov fired maximums for the home side and George Higgins added a double. Jacek Bednarek was the solitary winner for Wakering with a straight sets win over George.
The Evolve ‘derby’ ended in a convincing win for the ‘A’ team over their ‘B’ team and, as a result, they have now moved above Hockley F into second place in the table following this 9/0 triumph. Sasha Syderenko, Miles Bygrave and Teddy Kent were all in dominant form with just one set dropped between them all evening.
So, with Invicta ‘C’ already crowned as champions, the battle to be runners-up takes centre stage. Following this week’s matches, Evolve ‘A’ have moved above Hockley ‘F’ into second place, but only one point separates them, with both teams having played the same number of games.
Report by Dave Woolmer