In a re-arranged game last week, Lentern D got the better of Hockley a by 5-4. Peter Lucraft had an unbeaten night, supported by Peter Pond with 2, Liam Squirrell scoring 2 for the visitors.
Hadleigh Forum B got back to winning ways with a 7-2 victory over Lentern D. Dave Woolmer proving to be unplayable on the night with 3 wins with Mick Tappenden and Anthon adding two more each.
Dave Kirston had a good 5 set win over Mick and Sue Body beat Anthon in 3. Customs A kept up the pressure with a convincing 8-1 win over bottom-placed Canvey B, Roy Thomas and Dale Gutteridge scoring 3 each with the consolation point for Canvey coming from Tony Westwell over Brian Rackham.
The other side who can catch the Forum team is Rawreth E, who made it 7 wins in a row with a convincing 7-2 scoreline over the Hadleigh Forum C team. Steve Buer adding a maximum to the 2 points each from John Blackman and Colin Clements, Mark Everard scoring the two wins for the losing team. Hockley A won the last result of the week with a resounding 7-2 win over Lentern C. Tim Pang and Tony Vassallo scored 3 each for the Hockley team to do the most damage, with no-one from the Lentern team able to make much impact. Due to the refurbishment work at the Invicta club, there will be a number of re-arranged games for Invicta A and Hadleigh Forum teams.
Barrie Delf
A Matthew Stringer hat trick gave leaders Hockley B a comfortable 7 – 2 win over visitors Canvey C. Geoff Banthorpe and Steve Parker shared Canvey’s points.
Meanwhile, title chasing Runnymede suffered a setback when they visited Wakering, going down 5 – 4. Despite a maximum from Runnymede’s Phil Digby, two wins each for Stewart Mills and Nigel Cook, plus one from Paul England, gave the home team a narrow win.
Another team with promotion aspirations, Castle Point B, took full advantage, handing RESSC a 9 – 0 beating. Martin Roberts, Tony Ayliffe and Colin Smith were all too strong for the visitors.
Basildon Hospital also did their promotion hopes no harm by defeating Rawreth G 9 – 0. Kevin Smart, Errol Anderson and Sid Hills all recorded maximums. In the Hullbridge derby, the ‘visiting’ F team overcame their E team colleagues 6 – 3. Despite two wins for the home side’s Sue Reece and one from Ann Lane; two wins each from the F team’s super-sub Dan Zeffie, Jo-Anne Hills and Keith Fullick saw the visitors overturn the form book
David Barnes
Two important results at the top of the table have seen the top spot change again as second placed Hockley C stormed to the top with a 9-0 thrashing of Rawreth I, whilst previous leaders Invicta B slipped to a surprise 5-4 defeat by Canvey B. The Hockley team of Paul Henlen, Matthew Nariel and Stuart Adshead were far too strong for the young Rawreth team of Robert Appleton, Botond Mezo and Samuel Nunn and 7 games were decided in straight sets. This victory brought up their century of wins for the season and leaves them 4 points clear and still, with 2 games in hand.
In a tense game at Canvey, Invicta fell 5-4 in the final game of the night with Stuart Curham defeating Keith Baxter in straight sets. John Golding had kept the Invicta flag flying all night winning his three but two wins each from Stuart and Ross Warner and one from Ray Baker saw Canvey home.
In a result from week 20 it was a case of ‘spot the player’ as a two man Hockley E team took on a one man Rawreth I team. Botond Mezo was the solo player for Rawreth and he did them proud winning both his matches against Barbara Boshell and Claire Stringer, but that still left Hockley the winners with an unlikely 4-3 scoreline.
One game to report on from week 21 where Hockley D succumbed 6-3 to Rawreth H who fielded the dynamic duo of Dave Barnes and Jan Thorpe. Not surprisingly they both won their games but the Hockley team of Ron Rogerson, Jim Nariel and Kevin Blyth were just too strong for young Sam Nunn.
Paul Trutt
