Sdttl 2016/7 Season Week 14 Reports
Premier Division The tightest game of the week came when Hadleigh Forum A narrowly pipped Castle Point A 5-4. It was a real team effort with Dave Bassett, Neil Barker and Hamish Innes all contributing to the win. Barrie Delf and Dave Page picked up the four wins for the losing side
Not so tight were the wins this week for high-flying Rawreth A and Hullbridge A. Both recorded emphatic 9-0 victories over Warehouse and Stanford-le-Hope respectively. The scorecard comments section from the Hullbridge/Stanford game, sent in by the defeated side, told the story, simply saying “Ouch!!”
In the other game this week a two man Thorpe Bay B side were strong enough to take a 6-3 victory over Hockley A, Gurj Bhambra and Keiran Skeggs with the wins for the Bay.
Duncan Taylor, Premier Div. DRS
Division 1 With a couple of postponements, there are only three results to report on this week.
Hadleigh Forum B did not feel in a very festive mood when they took on Warehouse B and came away with an 8-1 victory to maintain their lead at the top at the halfway stage. Gus ‘The Grinch’ Heath and Mike ‘Scrooge’ Tappenden gave nothing away in their wins and with Anthon ‘Rudolph’ Ranjit-Singh adding two the Warehouse team were looking at having nothing on the table for Xmas. Berti ‘Cratchet’ Makoli managed to feed off the scraps to pull one back against Anthon so that the Warehouse team did not go without for Xmas.
Meanwhile, second placed Canvey A were unable to keep up with the pace and must have been put on the naughty list, losing to bottom club Lentern D, 5-4, providing some very welcome points for the Lentern team to lift them off the bottom at the halfway stage. Peter Pond produced an unbeaten performance and was backed up with Sue Body and Chris Crooks adding one each. Peter Cray was the leading man for Canvey winning two games with Ray Wilson and Terry Giddens adding one each.
Finally 3rd place Invicta A turned in a good team performance winning 5-4 against Lentern B in a match where no-one scored a maximum. Steve Marr and Mike Piper for Invicta and John Lott and Steve Appleby for Lentern all scored two points, with Neil Daines scoring the additional point for Invicta overcoming the pointless Malcolm Henstock to gain the victory. It was locked at 4-4 coming to the ninth game and a great win by Steve Marr over John Lott to give them the final victory.
Barrie Delf, Div 1 DRS
Division 2 After recording their first two wins of the season in their last two consecutive matches, Castle Point D were brought back down to earth with a bang when they played hosts to Canvey B. Canvey hardly broke into a sweat, recording a 9 – 0 away win. Stalwarts Tony Westwell, Talbot Wiseman and Des Duffield were all unbeaten.
Meanwhile, Canvey C entertained Rawreth D. Only Colin Barham offered any resistance, winning both Rawreth’s two points in a 7 – 2 defeat. Young star Harry Keys was again man of the match with a hat trick, whilst Ross Warner and Ray Baker contributed two victories each.
Rawreth E were at home to Warehouse C. In a close fought match, the home team won 5 – 4. Andy Deadman’s maximum rightly got him the man of the match award whilst Jack Himpfen-Jones and Botond Mezo managed one each. Jonathan Allen and Andy Humphris each got two for Warehouse.
Hockey C visited Invicta B and easily overcame them 8 – 1. Stuart Adshead and Josh Copeland both won all three, whilst David Barnes scraped the home side’s only point.
David Barnes, Div 2 DRS
Division 3 With Christmas looming we were expecting a cracker of a match between table toppers Hockley D and promotion rivals Warehouse D and it came close to being just that despite the one sided 9-0 scoreline!
The Hockley boys became the first team in all four divisions to pass the 100 points barrier but they had to fight their way past three tight five set matches and two four set matches to see off the Warehousemen.
Dan Patynski was taken to five sets by Tamas Mezo and Dave Walton whilst Simon Lisner took Alex Barnetson to five despite losing one set 11-0!No one could get near David Chenery however, who finished with the perfect hat trick, not dropping a set.
Special mention to David and Alex both of whom have 100% records at the end of the first half of the season.
Second placed Stanford le Hope B are now 16 points behind Hockley after dropping three points against Hullbridge G. Hullbridge seem to be having a few team selection problems as they had to call up Graham Hoy for his first game of the season and bring in young William Skelt from their H team to play alongside Tony Molisso. Tony did well to pick up a brace and William one point to frustrate Stanford. Dan Harris was the star man picking up a perfect hat trick with support from Mark Farley (two) and Vaughan Chambers (one).
In a mid-table clash between Customs B and Hullbridge F it was Customs who turned the form book upside down winning 9-0 but there were three five set matches and three four set matches so the score could have been a lot closer. Amar Al Soufi had to come back from 2-1 down to win against Janet Finch and Janet lost again, this time 11-9 in the fifth, to Dean Johnson. Dean had another good five set win against Bob Singleton-Smith, coming back from 2-1 down. Mark Rose made up the winning team whilst Ann Lane was the third player for Hullbridge.
Another 9-0 defeat for Rochford LTC, this time against Canvey D. It was very much one way traffic with the Islanders only dropping one set all night. Geoff Banthorpe, Rob Mcdonald and Gordon Johnstone made up the team. It has been a difficult first half of the Seaso0n for Rochford, but the feedback is that they are all enjoying the experience and we are sure that they will start to see improvement in the “2nd half of the Season; a positive note for them is that their Team won the Sdttl Quiz held in November, where their support was much appreciated
No joy either for the other team at the bottom of the table, Warehouse E, who went down 7-2 to Hockley E. Graham Back did well for the Warehousemen winning both their points but the star of the night was young Harry Sawford. He stepped up from the F team to win all his games whilst the more experienced Phil Pond and Laurie Witte took the supporting roles both picking up braces.
This Division is in danger of becoming a two horse race and all eyes will be turning in the New Year to the 8th February when Hockley and Stanford play their return fixture. Hockley’s only defeat this season was against Stanford and they will be determined to win this time and spoil their rival’s 100% record.
Team of the Week – Customs B for their surprising whitewash of Hullbridge F
Player of the Week – David Chenery for his perfect hat trick against third in the table Warehouse D
Paul Strutt, Div 3 DRS
