SDTTL – 2017/8 Reports – Week 21

• Rob Macdonald ‘Mac’

It is with sadness that we have heard from Geoff Banthorpe, Canvey TTC that Robert McDonald passed away on Sunday morning, following a short illness. He had been in hospital for 3 weeks and had only recently returned home. Geoff, Team mate a good Friend of Rob, went to see him last week and he was looking forward to coming to the Canvey Club to umpire some games in the near future. Rob was always known as 'Mac' and had played Table Tennis in the Southend and Basildon Leagues for many years and was one of our longest serving members. Rob had no children and had been married to Sue for a good many years and used to work in the Post Office the same as Geoff, so they had many a good chat about their good times in the job. A sad lose to our League and we send our Consonances to his family and friends.

• Premier Division

The battle between the Premier Division's basement clubs ended in a narrow victory for Hadleigh Forum 'B' over Stanford 'A', in a match where nobody was unbeaten and all players made a contribution. The match was also notable for the fact that two of the participants recorded their first wins of the season. Firstly, Dave Woolmer overcame Chris Hancox and then, not to be outdone, Chris got the better of Anthon Ranjit Singh in a seesaw game, winning 14/12 in the final end. At the other end of the table Thorpe Bay B and Hullbridge A continued their relentless destruction of all who stand in their way. Thorpe Bay beat Hadleigh Forum A 9-0 without dropping a set, while Hullbridge A only dropped two sets in their victory over Warehouse by the same scoreline.

There was, however, a much tighter tussle in mid-table where Brand Identity A got the better of Rayleigh Mill 5-4, despite a man of the match performance by the Millers’ Colin Chatfield, who won all his games on the night against Richard Jackman, Barrie Delf and Simon Jacob. Rob Harris recorded the other Miller win over Delf, while Steve Sawyer was unlucky not to add to the tally, as he went down in five close ends to both Jacob and Delf.

Duncan Taylor DRS

• Division 1

The curse of 2018 seems to be continuing for leaders, Hullbridge E as they were beaten 6-3 in their latest match with Canvey A for their third defeat in a row. Canvey’s own young protégé, Harry Keys, won all of his matches and the other three points were added by Terry Giddens using his pimpled bat to good effect, although taken to 5 sets in two of the games and winning by 13-11 in both.

The usually reliable Ray Wilson came away pointless for Canvey although did take Dan Zeffie to a fifth set after leading 2-1. Adam Jackman and Reece Harris-Griffiths also picked up a point each against Ray. This leaves the Hullbridge team 1 point clear at the top despite these three defeats and moves Canvey up to 5th.

Lentern B failed to take advantage of the Hullbridge slip, losing a close match 5-4 to Hockley C. Martin Archie continued his good form taking 3 points for Lentern but ended up on the losing side with only John Lott able to add one further point. For Hockley, it was a good all round team performance with David Chenery and Alex Barnetson adding two each, supported by Stuart Adshead with a point. This leaves Lentern in 2nd with Hockley C comfortably in mid-table but with a couple of games in hand.

Customs A continue with their rich vein of form taking their 4th victory in a row, this time over Hadleigh Forum C by 6-3, and moving into third place, 4 points off the lead. Roy Thomas was untroubled earning 3 points for the Customs team and was backed up with 2 from Brian Rackham and one from Dave Morgan. Mark Everard with two wins put up most resistance, with Graham Farmer adding another point. This leaves Hadleigh at the other end of the table, third from bottom, but having played one game more and in some danger.

Hullbridge C are another team who have turned their fortunes round, and this week came up with a 5-4 win over struggling Invicta A to take 4th spot and keep up with the leading group. Tricky penholder, Mike Johnston was too hot to handle winning all three for Hullbridge, despite being 2-1 down in two of the games. Andy Seaman and Matt Rolfe added a point each to take the victory. Tony Ayliffe top-scored with two for Invicta with one each from Neil Daines and Mike Piper for the Invicta side. Leaving them 5th from bottom but only 9 points adrift of the bottom club.

Experienced Rawreth C took full advantage of struggling Brand Identity B, to take a 5-4 win and maintain their mid-table position. John Blackman and Garry Hartgrove scored two each, with Trevor Ward adding the final point for the Rawreth victory. Mike Grout and Sean McNabb scored two each for Brand, with David Jacob, trying out a new bat combination for the match, unable to take any points but taking Garry Hartgrove to 5 sets. Will this be the start of another member of the Jacob family to be converted to the ‘dark side’ of pimple bats?

Barrie Delf

• Division 2

No one is more surprised than your DRS to be reporting that Invicta B’s David Barnes recorded a POM hat trick performance away to second-placed Stanford Le Hope B this week. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough to sway the outcome, though. Two wins each for Martin Winter, Adrian Armstrong and John Handscombe ensured a 6 – 3 home win to keep Stanford’s promotion hopes on track. 

Elsewhere, Des Duffield’s POM hat trick did ensure his side’s success, as Canvey B overcame the visiting youngsters of Hullbridge F 5 – 4. Tony Westwell and Lee McGonagle each won one to add to the home side’s tally, whilst Harrison Sadler and Will Skelt both bagged two wins for the visitors.

There was a topsy turvy night at Hockley, where the home team managed to throw away a 4 - 1 lead to lose 5 - 4 at the death. Harry Sawford boosted Hockley with a straight sets defeat of the highly ranked Adam Deadman and won again against Stewart Mills. As the lead gradually evaporated however, he surprisingly lost to Paul England and then Adam snatched victory for Wakering defeating James Spencer in five hard hitting sets. 

A mixture of youth and experience saw Canvey C edge a close away contest at Basildon Hospital 5 - 4. In a very closely fought match, the home side’s Kevin Smart lost in the fifth set 13 – 15 to Andrew Murray, with Basildon’s Errol Anderson also losing in the fifth set to the same player. The Medic’s Albert Harrison then put up a great effort to beat veteran Geoff Banthorpe but, uncharacteristically though, Kevin then lost his last encounter of the night to Geoff quite tamely in three easy sets.

David Barnes DRS

• Division 3

This week marked the end of the first half of the season in Division 3 before it splits into two with the top eight clubs becoming Division 3A and the bottom nine Division 3B.

Hadleigh Forum D, in their first season, have dominated the division since it started spending every week at number one apart from one week at number two! They ended this part of the season in fine style demolishing an experienced Invicta C team 9-0 with regulars Tony Mace, Satwant Gill and David Thomas doing the honours. Apart from the first game of the evening when Tony edged Keith Baxter out in five sets and a four set win for Satwant against John Golding the Forum boys cruised through the rest of the evening without dropping another set which confirmed their top of the table position nine points clear of second placed Canvey B.

The Islanders confirmed their position in equally emphatic style as they chalked up their tenth successive victory conceding only one set against lowly Hockley F. Talbot Wiseman, Gordon Johnstone and Steve Parker were all unbeaten as they finished five points clear of Warehouse C in third place.

Stanford Le Hope never quite got close enough to have hopes of finishing eighth and joining the top half teams and they only held on to ninth spot after a 5-4 home defeat against Hockley E. It was an exciting match with every player winning at least one game and the match swung from an early 2-0 lead to Hockley to a 4-2 lead for Stanford before the visitors came again winning the last three games. The opening match of the evening set the tone with the ever improving Gary Linzell coming back from 2-1 down to win 12/10 in the fifth against Zach Bates and Gary featured again in another five setter against Max Russell this time losing 11/9 in the fifth after leading 2-1. The final match ended the evening in style with Zach easing into a 2-0 lead against Andrew Strutt only for the Hockley captain to change his tactics, winning the next three sets 11/9, 11/7, 11/8. Stanford will take some comfort that, having finished ninth, they will be favourites to win the new Division 3B.

If you’re looking for consistency in the league then look no further than Rawreth F who have finished the first half in eighth place having maintained that position for ten consecutive weeks! A 7-2 win at Hullbridge G wasn’t quite enough to move them up the table despite two hat trick performances from Jan Thorpe and Bradley Nunn and one win from our esteemed chairman Ken Field. There were three close five set matches on the night with Ken edging out Bob Shingleton-Smith 13/11 in the fifth, Ann Lane coming back from 2-1 down to beat Ken 16/14 in the fifth and Jan coming back from 2-0 down against Bob winning 12/10, 11/5, 11/9 in the last three sets. Hullbridge G finish one point behind Stanford in tenth place.

Customs B finished in some form winning their fifth match out of the last six defeating Warehouse D 7-2. Mark Rose and Dean Johnson were the hat trick heroes with one win for Alex Clark whilst Joe Bennet and debut boy Simon Clapham got a point each for the Warehousemen. Joe had to work hard against Alex for his point conceding a two set lead before winning 11/6 in the fifth.
Unfortunately there were two results still outstanding at the time of going to press with the Hullbridge H result having the most bearing. A win of six or more points will take them above Hockley E into fifth place. They faced Rawreth G.

Team of the Week – and team of the season so far – Hadleigh Forum D

Player of the Week – Bradley Nunn

Paul Strutt DRS