In Division 2 of the Southend League Hockley D\u2019s Hannah Harbour hit successive hat tricks, both against the two Stanford sides, to give her an outstanding Player of the Week award. Firstly she moved up to Hockley\u2019s C team to help them overwhelm Stanford C 9-0, and then she led her own D team to a surprise 5-4 victory against runaway leaders Stanford B inflicting on them their first defeat of the season.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Paul Strutt and Brian Bissenden were Hannah\u2019s team mates in the match against Stanford C and it was pretty straight forward as they dropped only three sets all night. Needless to say Hannah didn\u2019t drop any. Vaughan Chambers, Chris Crooks and Peter Moxon made up the Stanford team. The win moves Hockley up to second place behind Stanford B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hannah\u2019s second appearance of the week was a lot more eventful. Hockley had to make a last minute change to their team having to call up Keith Denyer from their E team due to a late withdrawal. Stanford B, unbeaten at the start of the evening, arrived without their top performers this season Rob Salvage and Adrian Armstrong but with the unbeaten Russell Bright. The Stanford team of Bright, Mark Downey and John Handscombe proved too strong for Denyer which meant it was down to Hannah and young William Evesham to fly the Hockley flag and they flew it almost perfectly. Harbour\u2019s first and toughest match of the evening came against Downey and after winning the first two sets Harbour found herself pulled back to 2-2 before she clinched the final set 11\/8. She followed this by defeating Bright in four sets and then Handscombe in three, and wins for Evesham against Handscombe and Downey, another five set match, meant Hockley had a winning 5-2 lead. Stanford took the final two matches Bright beating Evesham in four sets and Downey beating Denyer in three. Stanford stay top and have a healthy 17 point lead although Hockley C have a game in hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Second placed Matchpoint B took on fourth placed Canvey B and a closely fought match went down to the final match of the evening after the Islanders fought back from 4-1 down to level the scores at 4-4. The deciding match saw John Lott of Matchpoint taking on Trevor Hayes, both unbeaten on the night, but it turned out pretty one sided as Lott won in straight sets to clinch the match for the home team. Max Mayo and Oliver Milchard added a point each for Matchpoint, Milchard coming from two sets down to beat Des Duffield and Mayo beating Tony Westwell in straight sets. Canvey\u2019s points came from Hayes two wins and one each from Duffield and Westwell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the bottom half of the table Rawreth Megazone kept themselves clear of any relegation issues by beating Invicta B 6-3 who now sit one but bottom of the table. Gus Heath was in form, as usual, claiming a maximum and he was supported by Richard Kidd with two wins and Amar Al-Soufi with one. Match of the night was Steve Lennox\u2019s marathon defeat of Kidd with the closest of scorelines 9\/11 10\/12 12\/10 12\/10 12\/14. Lennox also beat Al-Soufi as did Mike Keeble who came back from two sets down to claim his win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The team who sit bottom of the table, Matchpoint C, went down 7-2 to Runnymede but it was closer than the score might suggest. Take away Tony Millward\u2019s perfect hat trick and every other game went to four sets and beyond. Ollie Milchard picked up both his sides points beating Steve Wisbey in four and Andy Humphries in a long five set match 7\/11 15\/13 11\/9 15\/17 7\/11. Humphries and Steve Wisbey both got two wins for Runnymede but spare a thought for Zach Samuels of Matchpoint who took them both to five sets with no reward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Player of the Week \u2013 Hannah Harbour<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team of the Week \u2013 Hockley D<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report by Paul Strutt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The position at the top of the Division 1 table is hotting up, with four teams separated by just two points.\u00a0
Matchpoint A joined Basildon A at the top of the table, tied on 48 points, thanks to a close 5 – 4 away win at Canvey A. Stephen Heard was their match winner, taking a maximum, although it was single wins from Debbie O\u2019Neil and Dan Stewart that settled things. Peter Cray got two wins for Canvey, and Joanna Hills and Lee McGonagle one each. Canvey are two points off top spot with 46 points.
Mapledene had arguably their best result of the season, overcoming visitors Basildon A 6 – 3 to put a brake on the away team\u2019s progress. It was an all round effort, with Andy Seaman, Mike Johnston and Bill Smith each winning two. Self-styled \u2018old codger\u2019 Bill produced the performance of his season, getting the better of Basildon\u2019s Arun Joy in four sets, to inflict only Arun\u2019s second defeat of the season. Arun was the visitor\u2019s best player, taking two victories, while Rob Burton got one.
Rawreth Megazone C are the other team currently on 46 points. This week saw them complete a comfortable 6 – 3 home win over Wakering. Callum Turner scored a hat trick for the visitors to take the POM prize and to extend his unbeaten run. However, two wins each for the home side\u2019s Garry Hartgrove, Trevor Ward and Gary McCarthy saw them claim victory with ease.
Brand Identity B are not far behind the leading bunch. Their 5 – 4 win at Hadleigh Forum C sees them move on to 43 points. Forum\u2019s Mark Everard will consider himself unlucky to finish on the losing side, despite his maximum POM performance. However, two wins each for Spud Saunders and Mick Grout, together with a single from Dale Gutteridge saw the visitors to victory. David Thomas got Forum\u2019s other win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report by David Barnes<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Division 2 of the Southend League Hockley D\u2019s Hannah Harbour hit successive hat tricks, both against the two Stanford sides, to give her an outstanding Player of the Week award. Firstly she moved up to Hockley\u2019s C team to help them overwhelm Stanford C 9-0, and then she led her own D team to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3186,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"gallery","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[10],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/11"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3370"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3377,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3370\/revisions\/3377"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3186"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3370"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3370"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3370"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"