The final week of the Southend Summer League saw the top two teams in Division 1 battle it out for the title. Rawreth and Basildon A have fought it out all season with Basildon generally on top but losing points unexpectedly to their own B team (the A team won 5-4) saw Rawreth take over at the top in the last few weeks.
Going into the final week Rawreth actually had a 12 point lead but Basildon A had a game in hand against Hadleigh and a chance to redress the balance. They would have welcomed a 9-0 win but had to settle for a 7-2 victory which left them five points behind going into the final match.
It was a tall order then for Basildon who would have to inflict a first defeat of the season on Rawreth and at their home ground. To say the match was close is an understatement with no less than seven matches going the distance and Basildon got the start they wanted winning the opening doubles. Ian Wall and Les Hoey coming back from two sets down against Aaron Chandler and Kim Shead. The next two games however went to the home side with Jamie Elliot getting the better of Garry Hartgrove and Chandler beating Hoey both in five sets. Basildon kept their hopes alive however as Wall overcame Shead in four sets to make the match score 2-2.
The next two matches would prove decisive however. The second doubles of the evening saw Chandler and Elliot combine to beat Hoey and Hartgrove again in five sets. The Basildon pair twice fought back from 1-0 and 2-1 down but eventually conceded 11/3 in the fifth.
The next singles typified the evening as Shead and Hartgrove fought out another cliffhanger. Shead took the first set and Hartgrove then levelled but Shead then went full out for the win winning the third set 11/6 and then leading 7-2 in the fourth. Hartgrove wasn’t going to give up without a fight though and took the set 12/10 to take it to a decider. It was nip and tuck again in the fifth but Shead just managed to hold his nerve to win 12/10.
That left the score at 4-2 to Rawreth and the title decided but Basildon fought back again in the next singles Wall beating Chandler in the usual five sets and protecting his unbeaten singles record for the season. With the score at 4-3 Rawreth finally pulled away winning the last two games. Elliot beat Hoey in four sets and then combined with Shead to beat Wall and Hartgrove in the final five set match of the night.
Overall a tremendous evening of top class table tennis and with so many close games the match could easily have swung either way. In the end though congratulations to Rawreth who remained unbeaten all season and fully deserve the Division 1 title.
Report by Paul Strutt
Left to right – Aaron Chandler, Paul Brown (captain), Kim Shead, Jamie Elliot
