Only three matches to report on this week but all important to both the top and bottom of the Southend Summer League. At the top current leaders Hockley A took on second placed title favourites Basildon A. Hockley led by four points before this clash but, significantly, Basildon had a game in hand and were still unbeaten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
This was a big chance for Hockley to consolidate their position at the top and they received an unexpected boost when Basildon\u2019s third player was unable to get to the match. Four points down already then but in Ian Wall and Les Hoey Basildon had two top players ready to rise to the challenge.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The opening match saw Hockley\u2019s Sanjay Saptarshi and Elliot Brackenbury take on Wall and Hoey in the doubles and whilst the first two sets finished level Hockley edged the third 15\/13 to lead 2-1. This seemed to inspire Wall and Hoey however who nicked the third 13\/11 before running away with the decider 11\/3. Next up saw Saptarshi and Hoey take to the table and in another five set match which could have gone either way Hoey won the decider 13\/11 to give Basildon a significant win. Those two games turned out to be Hockley\u2019s best chances of picking up points as Wall easily beat Brackenbury and Saptarshi and Hoey disposed of Joseph Odegbami to complete a 5-4 victory. The lead has only been reduced by one point but Hockley have just one game left to play and Basildon are now clear favourites for the title.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At the other end of the table bottom club Basildon B took on Invicta knowing a first win of the season would lift them above Hockley B who were without a game. With this in mind they started brilliantly winning the first two games, albeit both in five sets, but were pegged back in the third, another five setter, to leave the match score at 2-1. Dawn Baldry and Jenne Seibolt won the first doubles with Dave Reynolds then beating Malcolm Henstock before Paul Sims picked up Invicta\u2019s first point beating Seibolt. This only proved to be a temporary setback for Basildon who then rattled off the next three games to give them a winning 5-1 lead. Two wins for Baldry beating Henstock and Tony Ayliffe with Reynolds and Seibolt winning their doubles. A complete reversal of fortunes then took place as Invicta rallied in fine style winning the last three games all in straight sets. Ayliffe beat Seibolt, Sims beat Reynolds and Henstock and Ayliffe took the final doubles to make the score a lot closer than it looked earlier. Basildon move one point clear of Hockley B.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Wakering and Matchpoint A sat just above the bottom two before their clash this week and, after the closest of matches, that is how they remained. Martin O\u2019 Shaughnessey took the honours in this match winning all his games and he and Michael Grout had the honour of winning the final match of the evening beating Hannah Harbour and Richard Sloman in the doubles to clinch a 5-4 win. Grout got the other point for Wakering whilst Stephen Heard got a double for Matchpoint, Sloman also picked up a point, and Harbour and Heard won a close five set doubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Team of the Week \u2013 Basildon B<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Player of the Week \u2013 Martin O\u2019Shaughnessey<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Report by Paul Strutt<\/p>\n\n\n\n
<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Division 2 <\/p>\n\n\n\n
After the latest round of matches, Canvey \u2018A\u2019 are still unbeaten and head the table by 10 points from their closest rivals, Stanford \u2018B\u2019, who were without a match this week. But with matches running out, it will take a special effort by Stanford to overhaul the league leaders.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Basildon \u2018C\u2019 were the latest visitors to Canvey\u2019s new venue, but went away on the wrong end of a 7\/2 scoreline. All they had to show for their efforts was a singles win for Kieran Wood and a doubles win for Kieran and Richard Riebold. But this doesn\u2019t tell the whole story. In the other two doubles, Basildon took a two set lead in both, only to be reeled in by Canvey in the final set. The dynamic duo of Trevor Hayes and Terry Giddens both won their two singles and Des Duffield chipped in with another point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The match between Invicta \u2018B\u2019 and Hockley \u2018C\u2019 was a close affair, with the final outcome not decided until the final game of the evening when David Barlow and Andrew St John came together in a straight sets doubles win to clinch the match 5\/4 for Invicta. Richard Kidd was the player of the match here for Hockley, winning both his singles and combining with Gary Beck to take the opening doubles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The doubles matches proved to be the difference when Hockley \u2018G\u2019 entertained Matchpoint \u2018C\u2019. All three were won by the home side and so, with Ivan Arabadzhiev winning two singles and Amelia Taylor winning her first game of the Summer, a 6\/3 win for Hockley was the outcome. For Matchpoint, Cooper Hill did well to win his two singles and Tina Cook added the other point with a hard fought, 11\/9 in the 5th<\/sup> win over Benedict Brown.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Evolve enjoyed a big win against their visitors Canvey \u2018C\u2019. Chong Shing Lam enjoyed a 3 set win over Zac Eighteen, but that was as good as it got for Canvey. Sasha Syderenko and player of the match, Teddy Kent, were both unbeaten in singles and doubles, and Zac added the other point with a win over David Coverley.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Hadleigh \u2018B\u2019 went to the Salvation Army Centre for a match against Runnymede, serenaded all the while by the choir practicing next door (If you\u2019ve been there you\u2019ll know!).\u00a0 The match resulted in a 7\/2 win for Hadleigh, but it was hard luck on Runnymede who had to concede 3 games due to an injury to Steve McQuillan, midway through game 5.\u00a0 It was especially unfortunate as he and his partner were two sets to the good at that stage.\u00a0 In the games that were played, Hadleigh\u2019s Jim Stait won his two singles, although he was pushed all the way by Barry Edgar before getting over the line 11\/9 in the decider. The game between Andy Humphris and Dave Woolmer was an equally close affair with Dave edging it 11\/8 in the 5th<\/sup>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n\n\n\n Report by Dave Woolmer<\/p>\n\n\n\n Only three matches to report on this week but all important to both the top and bottom of the Southend Summer League. At the top current leaders Hockley A took on second placed title favourites Basildon A. Hockley led by four points before this clash but, significantly, Basildon had a game in hand and were […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":11,"featured_media":3186,"comment_status":"closed","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\/4646"}],"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=4646"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4650,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4646\/revisions\/4650"}],"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=4646"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4646"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.essextabletennis.org.uk\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4646"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/ul><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"