Southend & DTTL - 2016-7 Weekly Reports
- Week 3
Premier Division.
After their impressive showing in week one, it was a depleted Lentern A that took on Hockley A this week. Despite fielding only two players, Debbie Auvache and Paul Brown picked up two wins each, resulting in a narrow 5-4 defeat. Tim Pang was in fine form recording a hat-trick for Hockley.
It was the Rawreth derby this week as the A and B sides went head to head. As you would expect the A team of Kevin Read, George Reeves and Charles Sweeney came out on top, but the victory margin of 6-3 was solely down to the three wins recorded by Matt Spero for the B team. He won convincingly against Sweeney and Reeves and, in the game of the night, overcame the resilient Kevin Read 14-12 in the 5th game.
Paul Sayer, Mark Stones and John Poysden were in no mood to hang around as they defeated new boys Stanford le Hope 9-0. Some of the matches were closer than the scoreline suggests with the final two games of the evening, Poysden v Rahul Sharma and Sayer v the unpredictable and hard-hitting Chris Hancox, going to 5 sets.
There was a short evening for all when Thorpe Bay B met Customs A as both teams could only field two players. This certainly suited Gurj Bhambra as he was also due to play in the Basildon league later that evening. Steve Dare, in his first ever Southend league game, started well, taking the first leg against Gurj, but found the rest of the evening somewhat harder. Bhambra then impressively overturned a 9-1 second leg deficit to defeat Dave Morgan in straight games. Kieran Skeggs grabbed the other two wins for the visitors although he did drop a leg to Morgan. With forfeits on both sides the match score ended at 6-2.
Finally this week, Hamish Innes’s win over Richard Brown was all Hadleigh Forum A had to show from the visit of Hullbridge A. Kevin Caldon and Stuart Gibbs were again unbeaten for the visitors.
Duncan Taylor Premier DRS
Division 1
A couple of late results from Week 2 were received.
Hockley B found it hard going against a rampant Canvey A team going down 8-1. Terry Giddens and Ray Wilson were unbeaten and looked very comfortable. In the first game of the night, Dennis Squirrell won convincingly over Peter Cray to earn the Hockley club’s consolation point.
The other late result was a good 7-2 win for relegated Lentern B against newly promoted Hullbridge D. John Lott was the hero winning all three for Lentern, including a tough 5 setter against Ben Matthews. Steve Appleby and Malcolm Henstock added 2 each to the winning total, but neither were able to overcome Ben who added the two points for Hullbridge.
In this week’s results,
Hadleigh Forum B continued with their winning ways taking a 6-3 win over Lentern C to lead the table by one point. This was very much a team game where no-one in the match was unbeaten, but Mick Tappenden, Dave Woolmer and Anthon Ranjit-Singh were able to all add 2 points to the winner’s total in some very close fought games. Martin Archie added two for the Lentern team and was unlucky not to be unbeaten losing 12-10 in his fifth set against Mick Tappenden.
Canvey A are pushing Hadleigh all the way in second spot after a good 6-3 win over Hullbridge D. Peter Cray this time showing his strength and winning all three supported by Ray Wilson with two and Gavin Warner with the additional point. Dan Payne played well for the Hullbridge side only losing to Peter to gain two
Lentern B slip into third place despite losing 5-4 to Hadleigh Forum C. John Lott kept up his recent good form after returning from injury and was unbeaten with an additional point from the returning Paul Sims. Charles Yeung and Graham Farmer scored two each for the Forum team, with Mark Everard adding the extra point against a pointless Malcom Henstock for the Lentern team which proved decisive.
Lentern D turned in a polished performance to move into 4th position when they beat newcomers Castle Point B 7-2 who are finding it tough in the higher division. Peter Pond and Peter Lucraft were both unbeaten for Lentern, with Tony Ayliffe and Keith Neville both picking up good wins for the Castle Point team against an out-of-form Dave Kirston.
Hullbridge C with a strong squad could still have some say over the League winners and won this week 5-4 against Invicta A. Andy Seaman scored a hattrick for the Hullbridge side and was ably supported by Peter Saunders with two, returning from ill-health. Michael Piper was the pick of the Invicta team, only losing to Andy.
Barrie Delf Div 1 DRS
Division 2.
Early leaders Hullbridge E continued their good form with a comfortable 7 – 2 win away at Canvey C. James Goddard was again unbeaten, whilst Harry Keys got both the home team’s points.
Closest challengers Hockey C had a much tougher encounter when they visited Rawreth E. However, thanks to a Martin Scarfe hat trick, they eventually prevailed 5 – 4. A special mention for the home team’s Robbie Appleton who, against Neal Klyman, was losing 10 – 3, only to pull things back to 10 – all. Despite this heroic effort, Neal came out on top 10 – 12.
The Castle Point ‘derby’ saw the ‘visiting’ C team overcome their D team 6 – 3. Three wins apiece from Chris and David Jacob did all the damage.
There was a similar score line in Wakering’s home match against Warehouse C. Wakering’s six points came courtesy of maximums from both Stewart Mills and Nigel Cook.
Invicta B were denied their first win of the season, losing 5 – 4, thanks to an unbeaten evening from visitors’ Basildon Hospital’s Kevin Smart. Mike Smith deserves a special commendation for his sporting attitude to some pretty frustrating nets and edges.
Runnymede pulled out their big gun for the visit of Canvey B. Evergreen Tony Coeshall duly won all his three and was ably supported by Dmitry Kisil with two. Tony Westwell got two points for Canvey.
David Barnes Div 2 DRS
Division 3.
Hockley D continued their winning start to the season with an 8-1 thrashing of their own E team. David Chenery and Dan Patynski lead the way with maximums and Jim Nariel picked up a brace. Laurie Witte picked up the consolation point. Three wins from three games is the perfect start but, in fairness, they have yet to play any of the stronger teams in the Division so they have yet to prove their credentials.
Two of the stronger teams met at Hullbridge where the G team, without one of their best players in Tony Molisso, succumbed to promotion rivals Canvey D 6-3. It was an all-round team performance from Canvey Geoff Banthorpe, Steve Robinson and Steve Parker all winning two games, but none could better Dave Booroff who claimed all three points for the G team. Match of the night was a 5 set battle between him and Geoff with Dave coming back from two sets down to storm to victory 11-4 in the final set. Canvey go second in the table after this, Hullbridge G 4th.
Filling 3rd spot is Hullbridge F, who came so close to promotion last season, and they enjoyed an 8-1 victory against Hockley F. Susan Reece and Bob Singleton-Smith both won their three with Janet Finch claiming two wins. Bob had to work hard for his wins going to 5 sets against Harry Sawford and Claire Stringer and it was Harry who picked up the consolation point against Janet.
Newcomers Stanford Le Hope made it two wins from two games beating Warehouse E 8-1. Peter Hanscombe (3), Mark Farley (3) and young Nathan Jones, playing his first ever competitive match, claimed two wins. Graham Back replied for Warehouse. Early results indicate that Stanford will be a force to be reckoned with this season.
Finally there were more good performances from our youngsters even though Hullbridge H went down 6-3 to Invicta C. A really competitive game for the Juniors played at a lightening pace. The evening started with two 5 setters that left the teams 1-1 but a maximum from Keith Baxter saw Invicta through with two wins for Rob West and one for Jon Gould. Abiaz Afzal picked up a well earned brace and Harrison Sadler one. Invicta go 5th with this win.
Team of the Week Canvey D – an impressive win
Player of the Week Nathan Jones – a great start to his career
Paul Strutt Div 3 DRS
