Southend League Division 1
Due to an electrical fault at the Rawreth venue, the scheduled match between Rawreth C and Hockley C had to be postponed. Hopefully, it will be played before too long.
There was a close fought meeting (and, no doubt, the tea and biscuits were readily available!) as Hadleigh Forum hosted Wakering A. The result could have gone either way, but it was Forum who edged it 5 – 4. No less than four out of the nine contests went to five sets. The first one was between the home side’s captain Dave Woolmer and the visitors’ Barbara Chabior. It was taken by Dave 14 – 12 in the fifth. The next was between Anthon Ranjit-Singh and Wakering’s Martin Shaughnessy. This again resulted in a home win 12 – 10 in the fifth. After these first two battling encounters, things settled down somewhat. Firstly Forum raced to a 4 – 0 lead, then Wakering pulled it back to 4 – 2. POM Anthon then stopped the recovery and won the match for the home side with victory over Xi Wei. However, there was still time for Wakering to take the last two rubbers. It was hard work though, both going to five.
In a bottom of the table clash, home side Basildon B gained some distance between themselves and bottom side Hadleigh Forum C with a 6 – 3 win. Chudi Ukpaka was again Basildon’s star, winning all his matches and taking the POM prize. Team mate Kieran Wood chipped in with a pair of wins and Dale Gutteridge added another. Graham Farmer got two for Forum, including a very close victory over Kieran 11 – 9 in the fifth. Mark Everard got Forum’s other victory.
Although the overall result was a close 5 – 4 win for home team Mapledene over Canvey A, unlike fixtures elsewhere, only one contest went to five sets – the very first one – with Canvey’s Ray Wilson overcoming Andy Seaman in the final round. Canvey’s Bob Skews took the POM award with two victories, but it would have been poor consolation for his side’s defeat. Andy and colleague Lin Roff got two wins each and Mike Johnston one. Ray Wilson got the visitors other two successes.
Report by David Barnes
All eyes were on Hockley this week in Division 2 as their D and E teams met both in search of points but for entirely different reasons. The D team have been on the brink of the promotion places all season but needed a big win to keep the pressure on the teams above them. The E team on the other hand are currently in a fight to avoid relegation and with injuries hitting the squad points were vital.
If ever the E team needed a hero then now was the time, and they found it in the return of David Chenery playing his first league match in probably over a year. He turned in a POTM performance with the perfect hat trick to lead his team to a surprise 5-4 victory. Richard Kidd backed him up with two wins whilst Brian Bissenden matched him for the D team with a point each for Paul Ogden and Paul Strutt. Hockley E are now eight points clear of bottom club Basildon C and just two points behind Matchpoint C.
Injuries have played a part in Matchpoint B’s recent form losing John Lott and still without Dennis Squirrell. Squirrell returned, however, for their match against Basildon C and he, and Hannah Harbour, both collected hat tricks as they ran out 8-1 winners. Olly Milchard stepped up from the C team to win two. With Squirrell back and Harbour still unbeaten this season it looks like being a close battle between them and Canvey B for the second promotion place. Ross Letham earned Basildon’s point the hard way beating Milchard in five sets. Matchpoint are just four points behind Canvey with a game in hand.
Matchpoint C remain in trouble at the wrong end of the table and were looking for points when they visited Stanford C. An opening hard fought five set win for Roger Sherman over Vaughan Chambers boded well for the visitors and they led 3-2 after Richard Sloman picked up two wins but it was all downhill after that as Stanford reeled off the last four games to win 6-3. Mike Trendell led the way for them with a hat trick, Chris Crooks weighed in with two and Chambers added the final point. Sloman was unlucky not to win his three for Matchpoint losing to Trendell in five sets.
Only three games completed this week as Runnymede had to concede their match to leaders Wakering B who have too many points already!!
Report by Paul Strutt
Another week and another big win for Invicta ‘C’. On this occasion, Wakering ‘C’ were the opposition but, apart from a Stew Mills win over Mike Keeble, it was a blank night for the visitors. Steve Lennox and Harry Venables were unbeaten for the league leaders, with Harry the POTM. 8/1 the final score here.
Second placed Hockley ‘F’ kept up their dogged pursuit of Invicta but fell further behind, despite a 6/3 win away at Canvey ‘C’. Skipper Gary Beck led the way with a maximum, but he was pushed all the way by Canvey’s Steve Kemp, who went into a 2-set lead before Gary recovered to take the game to a 5th set, which he finally won 12/10. Ross Collins with a double and Ivan Arabadzhiev with a single win provided him with good support.
A young Hockley ‘G’ side took on a considerably older Hadleigh Forum ‘D’ team, and it was no real surprise that age and experience prevailed over youthful enthusiasm. Kris Chankov did well to earn a couple of points for his team with wins over Sineh Bali and Douglas Brown, but they were the only successes on the night for Hockley. Jan Thorpe turned in another unbeaten performance for Forum as they ran out 7/2 winners.
Miles Bygrave was the stand-out player for Evolve ‘A’ in their match against Stanford ‘C’. His hat-trick included a hard fought 5-set win over the consistent Martin Winter. Nova Narayanan with a double and Sasha Syderenko with a single win provided the extra points in a 6/3 win. Martin won his other two games and Andrew Jessop added a third point for Stanford.
Evolve have been making steady progress up the table in recent weeks and have climbed to 4th place, with games in hand on the teams above them. A late push for promotion is not out of the question.
Report by David Woolmer