Sdttl 2016/7 Weekly Reports - Week 13
• Premier Division There were fantastic flashing forehands and backhands coming from the bat of Simon Neale this week as Rawreth B came up against title-challenging Hullbridge A. Alas for Neale the bat wasn’t actually in his hand at the time! It was Matt Spero, who not only sacrificed seeing his beloved Spurs win at Wembley to play in this game, but had his bat broken in his first match of the night. He went on to lose his first game of the season to Kevin Caldon, who recorded three for the home side, but beat Stuart Gibbs and Dave Bowles with the help of his teammate’s bat. Eric Green won Rawreth’s third game in a 6-3 win for Hullbridge with a fine win over Dave Bowles.
Those dropped points gave Thorpe Bay A a chance to take top spot and take it they did. John Poysden, Paul Sayer and Paul Whatton all won three games to consign Warehouse A to a 9-0 defeat.
A strong Rawreth A side including Southend Men’s singles champion Tony Halling, moved into second spot with an 8-1 win over Castle Point A. The one game that Castle Point won is certainly worth a mention though – an excellent win for Simon Jacob over Kevin Read.
Another fairly one sided game went the way of Lentern A, 8-1 against Stanford A. Wale Bada and Django Fung were unbeaten with the consolation Stanford win coming for Rahul Sharma over Paul Brown 11/9in the fifth end.
As usual it was a strong team performance from Thorpe Bay B as they overcame Hadleigh Forum A 6-3. All team members contributed but it was Kieran Skeggs who scooped the man of the match award with three wins.
At the bottom end of the table there was a much needed 8-1 win for Hockley A against Customs A. Liam Squirrel and Matt Stringer were unbeaten and Tim Pang weighed in with two, only losing to Roy Thomas in three close games, two of which were won by Roy 14-12 and 19-17!
In the final game of the week there was a masterclass from Peter Radford (pictured) for Rayleigh Mill against Hullbridge B. Recently back from injury, Peter was timing the ball beautifully on backhand and much-admired, punishing forehand, as he overcame Ben Warner, Reece Seddon and Glenn Johnson. Alas for the Millers Radford’s trio was all they had to show for the evening as they went down 6-3. Mention should go to league debutant for Rayleigh, Sam Lowman, who put up a good fight, only losing to Seddon in the 5thend.
Peter Radford, Rayleigh Mill - 3 great wins
Duncan Taylor, Prem. Div. DRS
Maximums for Gus Heath and Mick Tappenden and two for Anthon Ranjit-Singh saw the Hadleigh team through to victory with the consolation point for Gavin Warner.
Lentern C retain 3rd place despite going down 5-4 to Warehouse B, thanks to an unbeaten night from Martin West. Micky Baker and Tony Wright added one each as did Brian Spencer and Wayne Farmer for Lentern. Mark Jupe won two games for his side but was unable to beat Martin, losing 11-8 in the fifth set.
Invicta A stay in 4th with a good 7-2 win over Rawreth C. Steve Marr was in unstoppable form winning all three games for Invicta and was ably backed up by Mike Piper and Neil Daines with two each. Colin Clements put up most resistance for Rawreth taking two games before losing to Steve Marr, but unusually, John Balckman and reliable anti-looper Mike Worship were unable to take any games for Rawreth which would have dented any title aspirations
Hadleigh Forum C came up against the invigorated Hullbridge D side and went down 6-3 to continue the good form shown by Hullbridge this year and in particular, Matt Rolfe who was again unbeaten. With Jo Hills adding two and Dan Payne an extra point, Charles Yeung was able to put up some resistance taking two games for Forum.
Hullbridge C returned to winning ways, 7-2 against bottom club Castle Point B. Lin Roff with an excellent three wins was ably supported by Ben Matthews, playing up from the D team, with two wins and a major victory for Richard Gill, conjuring up two wins to double his tally for the year since his comeback. Reliable Mike Grout scored the two for Castle Point but was unable to do anything against Lin to help the Castle Point cause.
Finally, two struggling teams at the bottom of the table met in an important fixture and it was Lentern D who ran out 6-3 winners over Lentern B, who now find themselves in trouble near the bottom of the league for a second year running but are surely too good a team to go down. In a match where no-one was unbeaten and all scored at least a point, Peter Pond, Peter Lucraft and Chris Crooks all scored two each for the D side, whilst John Lott, Steve Appleby and Malcolm Henstockall scored 1 each for the C side.
Barry Delf, Div 1 DRS
Castle Point’s other team in Division 2 were not so fortunate. Castle Point C were trounced 9 – 0 by Hullbridge E’s youngsters. Again, Adam Jackman, Daniel Zeffie and Reece Harris-Griffiths showed the form that has taken them to the top of the division.
Canvey B look likely to book the other promotion place. Even the loss of Tony Westwell to a back injury this week hardly phased them when they entertained Invicta B. Lee McGonagle took Tony’s place and turned in a man of the match performance with a maximum. Reliable Talbot Wiseman also won all his games; whilst David Barnes saved Invicta’s blushes, squeezing a narrow 13 – 15 win in the fifth set against Des Duffield.
An Andy Deadman unbeaten evening inspired Rawreth E to an away victory at Wakering. He was supported by Botond Mezo with two wins and Matt Barber with one. Cliff Noakes was the pick of Wakering’s side, recording a creditable two wins.
Canvey C lost a bit of leeway this week, going down 7 – 2 at Warehouse C. Andy Humphris maintained his good average for the season with a triple for the home side and there were two wins each for Jonathan Allen and James Spencer. Geoff Banthorpe used all his experience to claim both the visitors’ points.
Thanks to maximums from both Sarah Mapes and Stan Dyson, RESSC recorded their biggest win of the season, overcoming visitors Runnymede 8 – 1. Tony Coeshall won the only point for Runnymede.
Another 6-3 result this time for Invicta C over a two man Hullbridge G side where traffic problems took out their third player. Chris Gregory was in good form winning both his matches and John Golding added a point. There was a good brace too for young Lewis Ritchie who beat John in three sets and was 2-1 down to Rob West but came back to win 12-10 in the fifth. He also went 2-1 up against Chris but lost the last two sets 11-3 11-7.
No surprises at Hullbridge where the young H team duly overcame Rochford 8-1 with John George getting the consolation point. He fought back from 2-1 down in the last match of the evening to win 14-12 against Thomas Francis. Abiaz Afzal and William Skelt made up the winning Hullbridge team.
Hockley F kept themselves clear of the bottom two in the Division by beating Warehouse E 7-2. Captain and coach Claire Stringer led by example getting her first maximum of the season and she was supported by two each for Keith Denyer and Dragan Benak. Les Carroll top and tailed the evening for Warehouse winning in the opening and closing matches of the evening.
Finally, after two successive 5-4 wins, a strong Stanford B side put Hockley E to the sword winning 9-0. John Handscombe, Mark Farley and the returning Dan Harris proved too strong for Hockley only conceding two sets all evening. ‘Big John’ recorded a perfect hat trick, not dropping a set, including a magnificent comeback from 10-4 down to win 13-11 against Roger Sherman.
Team of the Week – Canvey D for their win over Warehouse.
Player of the Week – Dave Walton for his hat trick against Canvey
