Sdttl 2016/7 Weekly Reports - Week 7
Premier Division:- There was a noteworthy performance from Customs A’s Roy Thomas this week. Roy was on the losing side as his team went down 7-2 to Hullbridge A, but he scored impressive victories over Dave Bowles and Glenn Johnson. While Customs are struggling to secure wins in their first season back in the top flight, Thomas has managed to record a number of fine wins and currently has a respectable average of 50%.
There was another excellent win, also 7-2, for Rawreth B this week, although on this occasion the Millers of Rayleigh were missing some of their 'big guns' (The Rawreth captain’s comment, not mine – Ed), and were only able to turn out two players. Having said that Peter Radford still managed very close wins over Eric Green and Babul Mcleod. However MoM again was Matt Spero, whose dynamic style is dominating opponents.
Thorpe Bay A were in no mood to mess around as they put in a dominant performance to see off Premier Division new boys Hockley A 9-0. Jon Poysden, Mark Stones and John Monk were all unbeaten.
It was good to see a first outing of the season for Rawreth A’s Lee Prentice and it was a winning start to his campaign. Lee registered three wins as did Rawreth captain Charles Sweeney. A splendid Dave Bassett win over George ‘Ace’ Reeves was all Hadleigh Forum A had to show for their night’s work against the league leaders, as they went down 8-1.
Finally this week there was a 5-4 win for Castel Point A over Warehouse A thanks to solid performance from Man of the Match Andrew Halling.
Duncan Taylor, DRS Premier Division
1st Division:- Hadleigh Forum B march on at the top of the table but were given a fright this week by Hockley B but managed to get the 5-4 victory to keep their unbeaten start to the season. 2 each from Gus Heath and Dave Woolmer and the extra point from Anthon Ranjit-Singh were enough to see them home, but Dave Colwill was unlucky to end up on the losing side having won all three of his games. With Alan Tideswill adding a point, the match was in the balance at 4-4 until the final game with Gus managing to beat the luckless Dennis Squirrell for the team victory.
Canvey A kept up the challenge in second place with a close 5-4 win over Lentern B, thanks to an unbeaten hattrick from Ray Wilson. John Lott was the pick of the bunch for the visitors in a match where everyone contributed at least a point to the overall result.
Lentern C are in third spot despite losing 5-4 to a rejuvenated Hullbridge D team. Matt Rolfe with his second unbeaten match and Ben Matthews with 2 made up the Hullbridge points. Wayne Farmer put up a spirited effort with two points, the second in a keenly contested 5 setter against Ben after being 2-1 down, came back to win the final 2 sets and the match 17-15 and 12-10.
Invicta A are having a better season this year and moved into fourth place with a comfortable 7-2 win over Lentern D who now find themselves at the bottom of the table. Faultless performances form Neil Daines and Michael Piper contributing 3 points each, and unusually Steve Marr dropping two points to the experienced heads and hands of Sue Body and Chris Crooks made up all the points.
Hadleigh Forum C and Rawreth C both played twice in the week with all the games going to 5-4 and mixed fortunes due to a rearranged fixture.
Hadleigh Forum C first had a good 5-4 win over Rawreth C, with Mark Everard and Tony Mace leading the way with two points each, despite a battling 3 point win from evergreen Mike Worship for the Rawreth team, Charles Yeung getting the better of John Blackman to add the extra point and the victory for Hadleigh.
However, in their second match Hadleigh Forum C ended up on the wrong end of a 5-4 scoreline against Castle Point B, who are desperate for the points, and moved them off the bottom of the table. Barrie Delf with three and one each from Mike Grout and Tony Ayliffe were enough to see them home, despite two each from Mark Everard and Graham Farmer. Tony again particularly unlucky with all his games going to five sets.
In the other game for Rawreth C, they ended up 5-4 winners against Warehouse B. A strong performance from Colin Clements on the night with 3 wins, including a second loss for Martin West for the year. The main resistance for Warehouse was Martin, who gained two points for the losers. Everyone else in the game scored a point showing how close these two teams are.
Barry Delf, DRS Division 1
2nd Division:- A captain’s performance from Stuart Adshead led to a 7 – 2 win for Hockey C at Warehouse C. Neil Klyman and Josh Copeland added two wins each, whilst Andy Humphries got both Warehouse’s points.
In this week’s closest contest, there were four players all recording two wins each. A single win for Invicta B’sBarrie Murphy was crucial in giving them a 5 – 4 away win over Rawreth E.
Despite a maximum from Ron Coutts for RESSC, visitors Castle Point C ran out 5 – 4 winners, thanks to two wins each from Mark Sayce and David Jacob, and one from Sean McNabb.
Canvey C overcame Castle Point D 6 – 3 thanks to a hat trick from Gordon Johnstone. Richard Riebold won two of Castle’s points.
On their visit to Rawreth D, Canvey B were too strong for their hosts. Maximums from Talbot Wiseman, Des Duffield and Tony Westwell gave them a comfortable 9 – 0 win.
Tony Coeshall was again the hero for Runnymede, recording an unbeaten evening in a 6 – 3 win against two-man Basildon Hospital. Kevin Smart won two for Basildon.
David Barnes, DRS Div 2
3rd Division:- Hockley D, who suffered a surprise 5-4 home defeat to Stanford Le Hope B last week, bounced back with a bang against Warehouse E winning 9-0, and at the same time extended their lead at the top as rivals Warehouse D, Stanford and Canvey D all dropped points. They currently sit 12 points clear of Canvey but both Stanford and Warehouse have games in hand. David Chenery, Jason Stringer and Dan Patynski took the honours against Warehouse. Canvey D picked up a 6-3 away win against the youngsters of Hullbridge H but none of them could overcome young William Skelt who won all his games including a terrific five set win against Geoff Banthorpe. Geoff just took the first two sets 13-11 17-15 but William then completely turned things round winning the next three 11-5 11-5 11-4. A great win against a very experienced player.
Stanford remain the only unbeaten side in the Division after beating Hullbridge F 6-3 with ‘Big John’Handscombe leading the way with a hat trick supported by two wins for Mark Farley and one for Nathan Jones.
Hullbridge were 5-1 down at one stage but a late rally gave the score respectability and there were two wins for Bob Singleton-Smith and one for Janet Finch.
Warehouse D are fourth in the table but have two games in hand over the leaders after a 6-3 win away at Hockley E. Dave Walton was the difference between the two sides picking up the perfect hat trick by not dropping a set and Tamas Mezo, with two wins, and Phil Mardle, with one, made up the rest. There were two good wins for Kevin Blythe for Hockley and one for the shy and retiring Laurie Witte. Phil Pond was the unlucky one for Hockley.
When you are bottom of the table and without a win it doesn’t help if you can’t field a full team and unfortunately that’s what happened to Rochford LTC when they took on Hockley F. A 9-0 defeat was the result as Graham Gregory, Keith Denyer and Claire Stringer proved just too strong for Travis Armstrong and young Ben Jackson. The win puts Hockley eleven points clear of Warehouse E who occupy the other bottom of the Table spot with Rochford, but Warehouse have a game in hand.
Player of the Week William Skelt
Team of the Week Rochford LTC – for turning up and playing despite their problems
Paul Strutt, DRS Division 3
