Southend & DTTL Week 23 Report
• Premier Division. The Battle of the B teams (Thorpe Bay & Rawreth) led to an evening of high quality Table Tennis which ended up with a 6-3 win for Thorpe Bay B over their Rawreth counterparts. However it was Rawreth B's star player this year, Matt Spero, who ended up with another hattrick against a very strong team of Gurj Bhambra, Kieran Skeggs and Richard Stubbington. Richard should also receive special praise as he manged to pull both his games against Bruce Kettle and Mike Hayes from 1-2 sets down to win both 3-2 - beating Bruce 14-12, 13-11 in the last 2 sets of this match.
Stanford le hope won the game at the foot of the Premier division beating Customs A 5-4. Rahul Sharma being the main difference between the two teams winning all 3 matches but also good to see both Dave Morgan and Dale Gutteridge finally winning their first premier division games of the season for the Customs team.
The games affecting the top of the division saw some good matches, none more so than the 6-3 win for Rayleigh Mill over a strong Thorpe Bay A side of Paul Whatton, Paul Sayer and Mark Stones . Duncan Taylor with a hatrick in this one ably supported with wins from both Minda Sinkus and Peter Radford. Some fine table tennis for the capacity crowd (John Poysden) to enjoy with some extraordinary long rallies. (You have to feel for the poor soul that had to umpire Stones v Taylor – Ed).
Rawreth A recorded a fine 9-0 win over Hullbridge B which was closer than the scoreline suggests. Hullbridge welcomed back Linda Hales who was playing her first Southend league match for many years and she along with teammates Glenn Johnson and John Holland pushed the Rawreth players to a number of 4th ends and one 5 setter in the case of Glenn Johnson v Charles Sweeney.
Elsewhere there was a man of the match display from Terry Guymer as he led a Lentern A side to a 7-2 win over Warehouse A. Kim Shead with the two wins for Warehouse against the two Pauls, Churn and Brown. WhileHockley A had Dave Colwill, who was playing up from Division 1, to thank for their only win in an 8-1 defeat to Hadleigh Forum A. Dave recorded a good win against John Tendler but, as was the case with his teammates, couldn’t get the better of Dave Bassett or Neil Barker.
The final game of the week saw many people’s favourites for the title this year, Hullbridge A record a 7-2 win over Castle Point A. Stuart Gibbs and Richard went unbeaten while there were good wins for Chris Jacob and Richard Jackman over Dave Bowles.
Duncan Taylor DRS
• Division 1
There was a derby match between Hadleigh Forum B and C teams this week, but there was no upset as the B team ran out 7-2 winners in a match unusually where all the games were settled within 4 sets. Mick Tappenden was the pick of the players for the B team winning all three, ably supported by Tony Jacks and Anthon Ranjit-Singh with two each, neither of whom could make headway against Russell Bright who scored the two consolation points for the C team. This now leaves the B team 43 points clear at the top and within 3 points of clinching the title with 5 games to go.
Rawreth C have eased themselves into second spot, but this week suffered a rare loss to bottom club Castle Point B by 5-4 and have stuttered over recent weeks. Chris Aukett played well for Rawreth, winning all three of his games, but Colin Clements was the only other point scorer for Rawreth. Two good wins for reliable Mike Grout and two for inspired captain Tony Ayliffe, both in 5 hard sets, provided the spine for the win, with Keith Neville adding the ‘coup-de-grace’ with the final point against John Blackman.
Hullbridge C won 5-4 this week against Lentern B, strengthening their squad with the addition of Linda Hales. Indeed, it was Linda who scored three points supported by Lin Roff with two wins for the Hullbridgeteam. John Lott was the pick of the Lentern players with two wins.
Warehouse B won a tight match 6-3 against Canvey A, in a match where everyone contributed at least a point. Martin West scored a good three points for Warehouse along with two for Micky Baker. Everyone else in the match scored a point.
Invicta A won a close match 5-4 against Hockley B, despite Dave Colwill getting a hattrick for the Hockley team. Steve Marr and Neil Daines scored two each which were enough to give the platform for the win for Invicta, leaving Michael Piper to get the extra point for the win.
The Hullbridge D v Lentern D result has not yet been submitted.
Barrie Delf DRS
• Division 2 Week Rawreth D gave their hosts a real scare on their visit to leaders Hullbridge E. The outcome was in doubt right up to the last game of the evening. The final encounter was between James Goddard and David Barnes. It was two each going into the final set. James saved a match point and went on to win it for Hullbridge and preserve the youngsters' unbeaten record.James was their star, winning all his games, whilst Sam Thompson got two for Rawreth.
For their match at home to Canvey B, Hockley C unearthed a new star in Alex Barnetson. He won all his three games playing up from Division 3. Joe Lock chipped in with two wins to give Hockley a 5 – 4 win. Archie Blackburn was responsible for half Canvey’s points.
Harry Keys was again Canvey C’s star, winning all his games. Ross Warner added two more as Canvey won 5 – 4 at home to Rawreth E. Andy Deadman got two for the visitors.
In the clash between Castle Point C and Warehouse C, a hat trick from David Jacob swung the result in favour of the home side. Sean McNabb added two and one from Mark Saycecontributed to a 6 – 3 win. James Spencer was again the pick of Warehouse’s players, scoring two victories.
Invicta B were unable to mount much resistance to visitors RESSC. Only their David Barnes’ one victory kept them from a whitewash. Ron Coutts and Rob Skews were both undefeated in a comfortable 8 – 1 win.
A close-fought match between Basildon Hospital and Wakering was settled with a well-deserved win by the home side’s Gill Smith in the fifth set of the penultimate pairing of the evening. Kevin Smart was unbeaten in a 5 – 4 home win, and Stewart Mills contributed two wins for Wakering.
Tony Millward starred again for Runnymede when they visited bottom side Castle Point D; his maximum leading to a 5 – 4 win. Barbara Sheadadded two and Colin Smith also got two for the home side.+
• Division 3 Two ‘derby matches’ take centre stage this week as Hullbridge H took on their F team and Hockley F took on their E team in a bid to get club bragging rights.
The Hullbridge clash turned out to be the match of the week as the youngsters of the H team edged out their more senior counterparts winning 5-4 with Toby Zeffiewinning the crucial ninth game of the evening with the scores locked at 4-4.
Harrison Sadler was the star of the evening winning all three matches which included a tremendous fight back against Bob Singleton-Smith. Harrison lost the opening two sets 13-11, 11-8 but one suspects some shrewd coaching advice was then given as he raced through the remaining sets 11-2, 11-3, 11-4 to win the match. Added to this a straight sets demolition of Sue Reece and it’s not hard to see his potential.
Toby Zeffie provided adequate back up by winning twobut Elena Hart missed out on the night. Sue won two for the F team and Bob and Paul Malone got the other points.
In the Hockley clash it was again pretty much a case of youth against experience but this time experience had the edge. Andrew Strutt, Phil Pond and Laurie Witte all won two games to give the E team a 6-3 win but it was the F team’s Harry Sawford who took the man of the match honours completing a fine hat trick. This means Hockley F hold on to 5th place at the time of going to press which is a season high for them.
Second placed Stanford Le Hope kept their position with a 7-2 win at Customs B. John Handscombe and Adrian Armstrong both picked up hat tricks with Mark Farley just picking up the one point. He was beaten in four sets by Mark Rose and then just missed out in a tight five setter with Richard Kidd, coming back from two sets down only to see Richard edge the fifth set 11-7.
Third placed Warehouse D managed to hold off InvictaC winning 6-3 but there were some very close games throughout the evening. Ro Brett, in particular, can count herself unlucky to finish with just one win. Two of her games went to five sets but she was pipped in both, firstly by Dave Youngman who came back from 2-1 down to win the fifth set 14-12, and then Chris Gregory repeated the comeback winning 11-7 in the fifth. Conrad Gomes took man of the match honours winning all three matches with a brace for Simon Lisnerand the one point for Ro.
Apologies for last week’s deliberate mistake – no awards!
This week they go to-
Team of the Week - Hullbridge H
Player of the Week – Harrison Sadler
