Premier Division
There were maximums from Neal Barker and Richard Jackman in Northlands Park 'B's 8/2 win over Hockley 'B' in the first Premier Division match of the New Year. Steve Sawyer added another point with a win over Keith Abbott, but he lost out to Dennis Squirrell and Stuart Adshead.
Basildon 'A' were also 8/2 winners when they hosted Selbourne. Babul McLeod and Eric Green put in unbeaten performances, supported by Garry Hartgrove, playing up from Division 1, with a win over Berti Makolli. For Selbourne, there was a win apiece for Charles Sweeny and Kim Shead.
Daniel Piggott marked his first appearance for Maylands Green with a hat-trick in a 6/4 win away at Hockley 'A'. This was a good team effort by Maylands with Bradley Ireland, with two wins, and Tony Bonnici with a single win making good contributions. Matt Stringer was the best player on the night for Hockley with a brace. Dan Patynski added another point and these two combined to win the final doubles. No luck on the night for Joerg Poeschus.
Division 1
Stanford 'A' were 7/3 winners over Basildon 'C' who, unfortunately, were only able to field 2 players. Ian Sangster was unbeaten for Stansted and he was supported by Dave Hancox and Pat White who both overcame Trevor Ward in 5 sets, but neither could get the better of Colin Clements, although Pat came the closest, only going down 9/11 in the final set. The Basildon duo added the extra point with a win in the doubles.
Szymon Jarka turned in a player of the match performance for Basildon 'D' in their 8/2 victory against Stanford 'B', dropping only one set in an unbeaten evening. Basildon skipper, Bob Skews was also unbeaten but he was pushed all the way by the wily Chris Crooks, before he eventually got over the line 11-9, 5-11, 10-12, 11-6, 11-8. Stanford's points came from Chris and Mark Downey who recorded wins over Ash Sivanandam.
The clash between the top two in this division was not the close affair that may have been expected, with Basildon 'B' beating COYS 8/2. Garry Hartgrove and Les Hoey were unbeaten for Basildon and Lin Roff chipped in with a straight sets win over John Tendler, but lost out to both Ian Cranstone and Paul Sims.
Division 2
Skipper Andrew Murray led the way for league leaders Canvey, with a hat-trick in a 7/3 win away at Basildon 'E'. Dan Kellard added another two points, and came close a maximum of his own, but was denied by Bill Smith who edged a 5-setter 11-9 in the final end. Bill added another point with a win over Lee McGonagle, as did Andy Roff, but it was a blank evening for Errol Anderson.
Both Wickford Community teams were involved in really tight matches this week. Firstly, the Wickford 'A' team were 6/4 winners over Basildon 'G', but the win was only secured in the final set of the doubles at the end of the evening, when Stephen Chooi and Rasheed Olaniyan overcame Jeremy Giffin and Lee Marson by the score of 9-11, 11-9, 13-11, 7-11, 11-9. In the singles, Lee Marson claimed a hat-trick for Basildon with Jeremy Giffin adding another point. For Wickford there were two wins each for Rasheed and Kevin Wollen and one for Stephen.
Wickford 'B' and Basildon 'F' fought out a 5-5 draw. Trisha Winter was unbeaten for Basildon but was taken the full distance by both Keith Bushell and Steve Goldstone. Keith can consider himself rather unfortunate as his other two matches also went to the fifth set before he was beaten 11-9 and 12-10 by Michael Keeble and Sarah Ball respectively. Wickford's points came from Steve and Mike Smith who both won two, and a doubles win for Mike and Keith. For Basildon, Sarah and Michael backed up Trisha's hat-trick with a win apiece.
