Hadleigh Forum are beginning to make an impact in the Summer League. Having been a bit behind the other teams in terms of games played they are now up to date and successive 8-1 wins have taken them up to third in the table six points behind Basildon A and ten points behind Hockley A but with a game in hand on Hockley.
Their latest success saw them crush Matchpoint A with Keith Willett taking the match honours but only just ahead of Richard Jackman also unbeaten. Team mate Berti Makoli found it a little harder losing to Richard Sloman in five sets but coming back from 2-1 down against Rob Harris to clinch the decider 11/4. Other than that only two other games went beyond three sets. Matchpoint sit sixth in the league but just seven points above bottom club Basildon B.
Stanford A sit fifth in the table and although they won again beating Invicta 6-3 they are twenty five points behind the leaders and too far behind, I think, to be considered a threat. Invicta can feel quite pleased with their effort in this match as they had to call on two players from their B team, Charles Morris and Trisha Winter, to complete their line up and this has been a continuing problem for them this season. Peter Weatherall won both his singles for Stanford but Invicta’s Tony Ayliffe matched that performance with wins over Rob Salvage and Vivaan Babbar. Two doubles went Stanford’s way but the final match of the evening saw Ayliffe and Charles Morris defeat Salvage and Weatherall in straight sets. Invicta now find themselves level on points with Matchpoint and above Hockley B and Basildon B.
Hockley B’s attempt to improve their position at the bottom end of the table didn’t meet with any sympathy from their own A team. The A team’s blend of youth and experience was far too strong for their more senior opponents and whilst two games went to five sets, both doubles, the rest did not extend beyond four. Result – a 9-0 victory. Joseph Odegbami, Elliot Brackenbury and James Evesham all remained unbeaten with Elliot taking the match honours. Paul Ogden and Brian Bissenden fought back from 2-0 down against Brackenbury and Evesham but lost 11/8 in the fifth and Paul Ogden and Paul Strutt actually led Brackenbury and Odegbami 2-0 but conspired to lose the next three sets 11/2 11/7 11/3. Hockley A stay top by four points from Basildon A who have a game in hand.
Player of the Week – Tony Ayliffe
Team of the Week – Hadleigh Forum
Division 2
With all teams now having played 7 matches, we are entering the business end of this Summer League season. The main protagonists, Canvey ‘A’ and Stanford ‘B’ are locked together on 52 points at the top of the table and the pair have opened up a small, but not yet significant, gap on the chasing pack.
Invicta ‘B’, Basildon ‘C’ and Stanford ‘C’ occupy the next 3 places in the table, but it seems likely that either Canvey ‘A’ or Stanford ‘B’, with the experience they can call upon, will be crowned as champions at the end of the season, but which will it be?
A clue maybe came in the latest round of matches when the top two locked horns at the new Canvey venue. Led by the evergreen Terry Giddens and the hard-hitting Peter Cray it was the home side who prevailed by a score of 6/3. However, the match was not without its controversy as the Stanford captain, Peter Moxham, felt that his team ‘wuz robbed’. On examination however, it seems that Peter had made an error in his team selection (he picked himself) and there was no need for a VAR review. Thankfully, reports from the scene suggest that the match was played in a good spirit, albeit with a liberal helping of choice language.
In other matches, Invicta ‘B’ were the weeks biggest winners an 8/1 victory over Matchpoint ‘C’, whose sole point came from young Cooper Hill, who got the better of Keith Baxter, in a game that went the distance, 11/8 in the decider. Andrew St John was the POTM here.
Basildon ‘C’ were 6/3 winners over Hockley ‘C’, despite the singles matches being shared 3/3. It was the doubles that made all the difference as Basildon came out on top in all of them. This led Hockley skipper Gary Beck to declare that he is’not a fan of doubles’. Basildon’s Chudi Ukpaka, who has great experience at a higher level, was the POTM.
The match between Stanford ‘C’ and Hadleigh ‘B’ was a very tight affair, the result only decided in the dying embers of the final doubles. This saw Stanford’s Vaughan Chambers and Randy Santiago come from behind against Jim Stait and Colin Barham to grab the game and match 11/9 in the deciding set. Speaking of Jim, it is good to see him back in action after a lengthy period off the table recovering from replacement knee surgery. He was the POTM with two singles wins, although he later admitted that he was very lucky with any number of nets and edges falling in his favour. Still, after the frustration he has endured, he maybe deserved a bit of luck.
Hockley ‘D’ entertained Canvey ‘B’ and, in a match played in a very friendly and enjoyable atmosphere, it was the visitors who came away as 6/3 winners, led by Che Martin who won all his matches. Hockley’s two young players, George Higgins and Anay Vatsa, put in promising performances, and this can only bode well for our league in the future.
Another fine effort from the ever improving Miles Bygrave, was not quite enough to prevent his Evolve side from slipping to a 5/4 defeat against the visiting Runnymede side. Miles won both his singles games and then joined forces with teammate Harley Dowding to come from behind in the final doubles to take the last 2 sets 17/15, 12/10 against Andrew Humphris and Steve Wisbey.
Report by Dave Woolmer