The top two teams were out of action this week in the Southend Summer Table Tennis League Division 1 so there was a chance for some of the chasing pack to make some inroads and close the gap.
Rawreth A accepted the challenge willingly against bottom of the table Basildon B completing a 9-0 victory which was nothing like as easy as it looked. After quickly going 4-0 down four of the last five games went the full five sets but Basildon just couldn’t get that vital fifth to clinch a point. Norbert Fullerton took the match honours but only after coming back from 2-1 down against Andy Roff and he was closely matched by Kim Shead and Andrew Halling who had the game of the night against Dave Reynolds eventually winning 11/9 11/13 11/5 8/11 11/5. A mention must go to Roff who played up for the B team tonight with three of his four matches going the distance. Almost but not quite! Rawreth stay fourth in the table eight points behind second placed Basildon A.
Team of the moment are Hadleigh A who moved into third place level on points with Basildon A after a 6-3 win against Hockley B. Keith Willett was the POTM winning all his games backed up by a single win for Richard Jackman and the team winning all the doubles. Eamonn Hall won both his singles for Hockley beating Jackman in straight sets and then coming back from 2-1 down to clinch a five set victory against Berti Makoli. Makoli unfortunately repeated that result against David Chenery. All three doubles went to Hadleigh as they maintain their push for the top.
Stanford’s season seems to have tailed off after starting with three consecutive wins they have now lost two of their last three games. Defeat came again against Matchpoint A in what turned out to be the closest game of the week decided by the final match of the evening.Matchpoint got off to the best possible start going 2-0 up and then leading 3-1 and 4-2 only for Stanford to fight back and level the match at 4-4. A straightforward doubles win in three sets for Stephen Heard and Robert Harris decided it. Heard completed an unbeaten evening with that win with Harris adding a further point plus two doubles. Josh Freeman won both his singles for Stanford with Peter Weatherall winning another and Freeman combined with Vivaan Babbaar to win the closest game of the evening against Harris and Dan Stewart 10/12 6/11 11/5 12/10 9/11.
At the other end of the table Invicta B picked up only their second win of the season beating Wakering 6-3. Paul Sims led the way for Invicta with two straight set victories and he was backed up by Tony Ayliffe who also won two but only after two much harder games. He was 2-1 down against Barbara Chabior before winning the last two sets 11/9 11/9 and was taken to five sets again by Michael Grout before winning the decider 11/5. Grout and Chabior both beat Malcolm Henstock and then combined in the doubles for Wakering’s third point. Wakering are two from bottom but six points clear of Hockley B and with a game in hand.
Player of the Week – Stephen Heard
Team of the Week – Hadleigh A
Division 2
It’s tight at the top! With only three matches remaining for each team, just 3 points separate Canvey ‘A’ and Stanford ‘B’ at the top of the table, with the Islanders holding that slender advantage.
In the latest round of fixtures, Canvey ‘A’ travelled to Hockley ‘C’ and came away with a convincing 8/1 win. Trevor Hayes and Kevin Walsingham were both unbeaten and the visitors also won all 3 doubles matches. Hockley’s only success came from George Clark who got the better of Tony Westwell in straight sets.
By way of a contrast, Stanford ‘B’ had a tough encounter at home to Invicta ‘B’. The visitors led 4/2 before Stanford got their act together and took the next 3 games for a 5/4 victory. Mike Trendell played a big part in this win as he was unbeaten in both singles and doubles. For Invicta, Mike Keeble, Sarah Ball and Andrew St John each picked up a point for their team, with Sarah and Andrew combining for a doubles win to open proceedings.
Hadleigh ‘B’ beat Hockley’D’ 6/3 in a match where the 6 singles games were equally shared, the doubles proving to be the difference. Hadleigh came out on top in all 3 of these, the closest of which saw Sineh Bali and Jan Thorpe recover from the loss of the first two sets to take the decider 11/9 against Ivan Arabadzhiev and Kamil Pachalko. Dave Woolmer won both his singles for Hadleigh, as did Kamil for Hockley.
The two Steve’s, Wisbey and McQuillan, led the way for Runnymede in their 8/1 win away at bottom of the table, Canvey ‘B’. Both were unbeaten in singles and doubles, with captain Anne Adlington adding a singles and doubles win, although she lost out to Canvey’s Chong Shim Lam, giving the home team their only success on the night.
Stanford ‘C’ also recorded a big away win when they took on Matchpoint ‘C’ and emerged with a 7/2 victory. Dave Hancox won both his singles for the visitors as did Debbie O’Neill for Matchpoint. Vaughan Chambers and Randy Santiago each picked up a win for Stanford who also took all 3 doubles.
Evolve were unable to field a team against Basildon ‘C’ and forfeited the points.
