With just two weeks to go until the end of the season in the Southend Summer League the situation is pretty clear at the top of Division 1as to where the honours will go. Rawreth, who have been top since the second week and who didn’t play this week, require just seven points from their last two games to clinch the title. They play Hockley A next week and their final match is against, essentially, their closest rivals Brand identity. For that to be the crunch decider will require a strong performance from Hockley.
The Hockley boys warmed up for next week with ease against their own B team winning 9-0 and only conceding one set all night. Ironically that came in the first set of the first match of the evening but after that it was all downhill for the B team. Stuart Adshead, Joseph Odegbami and Eamonn Hall took the honours and Hockley move up to fourth in the table.
Basildon A sit second in the table after beating Hadleigh A 7-2 but are still five points behind Rawreth and have just one game left to play. Mainstay of their win was Ian Wall who won both his doubles matches and didn’t lose a set in his two singles wins. Team mate Kim Shead wasn’t far behind him in terms of performance also winning both his singles but conceding one doubles loss, playing with Tony Ayliffe they lost in four sets to Jim Stait and Neil Barker. Barker got Hadleigh’s other point beating Ayliffe in straight sets but Ayliffe did record Basildon’s other point beating Berti Makoli in five close sets.
Stanford fielded reigning Southend singles champion Mitchell Jones for the first time this season and, not surprisingly, he led his team to a convincing 8-1 victory against Wakering. Peter Weatherall matched Jones unbeaten performance on the night but Pat White went down in five sets to Zac England to give Wakering their consolation point. England edged home 13/11 in the deciding set. England also went close to getting a second point as he took Weatherall to five sets he led 2-1 at one stage but lost the last two 11/9 11/9.
Brand Identity lost a little bit of ground on leaders Rawreth as they won 5-4 at Invicta. Richard Jackman won both his singles for Brand as did Steve Marr for Invicta but a win for Steve Muth and two doubles wins made the difference for Brand. Keith Willett beat Dale Gutteridge for Invicta’s other point. Marr’s clash with Muth was the highlight of the evening Marr winning with an incredible scoreline of 11/7 1/11 11/1 9/11 11/8.
Player of the Week – Mitchell Jones
Team of the Week – Stanford A
