WEEK 25 REPORT
Premier Division
Hullbridge A recorded an 8-1 win over Rayleigh Mill this week and that impressive scoreline was helped by two games that went right down to the wire in the 5th end. First Stuart Gibbs came out on top in a great battle with County 060s team mate Peter Radford and then Steve Maltby nearly caused an upset by taking Gibbs all the way to deuce in the 5th and even having one match point. Richard Brown won 2, just losing to Radford while Reece Seddon was in good form winning all his games.
Brand Identity A also put in a solid display as they defeated Warehouse A 7-2 with Richard Jackman and Simon Jacob going undefeated.
Another 7-2 result saw Thorpe Bay B overcome Hullbridge C. Kieran Skeggs and Liam Squirrell with three wins apiece with the reply coming in the shape of two 5 leg wins for William Skelt and Daniel Young over Richard Stubbington, the later by an amazing 18-16 in the deciding end.
The closest that Hadleigh Forum A came to taking a game against Rawreth A was the opening game of the evening when Dave Bassett pushed Steve Tilson to 5 games. Once Tilson took that decider 11-3, Rawreth A never looked back as they recorded a 9-0 win with Kevin Read and Zayd Mauthaur the other Rawreth players.
There was a much closer game as Hockley A beat Hullbridge B 5-4. Chris Ballard was the hero for Hockley as he won his three games and the man of the match award while the other two wins for Hockley came from Matt Stringer.
Finally, this week newly crowned Southend Men’s Singles Champion Matt Spero picked up another man of the match award as he helped his Rawreth A club mates by winning his three games for Rawreth B against title chasing Thorpe Bay A. Spero’s three games were all his side had to show for the evening and he did it the hard way with two of his wins, against Paul Sayer and Alex Abbott, going the distance.
Duncan Taylor DRS Premier Division
1st Division
Lentern A moved a step closer to Divisional champions with a crushing 7-2 win over Canvey A. Peter Cranmer was unbeaten on the night for Lentern with John Lott and Rasmus Stokholm adding two each. The thorn in the side and playing very well for Canvey was Andrew Murray earning them two points but just unable to get the better of Peter. This leaves Lentern 20 points clear at the top with Canvey slotting into 6th place.
Hockley B surprisingly fell further behind this week following a 6-3 defeat to Hullbridge D. Dawn Baldry and young Will Skelt, playing up, played very well to win 3 apiece for the Hullbridge team with Andy Seaman unable to add to the score. For Hockley there was one win each for Alex Barnetson, Stuart Adshead and Dave Chenery. Hockley stay in second with a couple of teams within striking distance and Hullbridge move up to 4th.
Invicta A returned to winning ways and third position with a comfortable 8-1 win over bottom club, Rawreth D. Tony Ayliffe and Steve Marr scored three each with Mike Piper adding two. Caroline Cole scored the consolation point for Rawreth leaving them firmly anchored to the bottom.
Customs A had a good 7-2 win over Hockley C to leave them in trouble at the bottom. Roy Thomas and POTM, Brian Rackham, scored three each with Dale Gutteridge adding the final point. Callum Turner and Dan Patynski scored one each for the Hockley team with Paul Strutt blanking.
Rawreth C edged a close game 5-4 against Hullbridge E. Garry Hartgrove was the main player adding three to the Rawreth score with Gary McCarthy and Colin Clements adding one each. Ben Matthews and Harrison Sadler added two each for the Hullbridge team with James Goddard unable to score. Both teams are now sitting in the lower mid-table.
The final result saw a convincing 6-3 win for Lentern B over RESSC. Pat White was POTM with an unbeaten 3 points assisted by Gus Heath with two and Sue Body with the final point. Kevin Smart with two points was the pick of the RESSC players with Bob Skews adding the final point. Both teams are in the last four and need all points to steer clear from the relegation places.
Barry Delf DRS Division 1
2nd Division
This week third-placed Wakering played hosts to second-in-the-table Stanford le Hope B and the result went with form. The visitors came out 6 – 3 winners, thanks to a Russell Bright hat trick, two wins from Chris Crooks and one from Brian Spencer. Keith Fordham won two for Wakering and Zac England one.
A Tony Westwell hat trick gave Canvey C a convincing 6 – 3 win away at Brand Identity C. Lee McGonagle added two more and Jo Hills (playing up) got the other one. John Beddow was the hosts’ best player taking two wins, whilst Richard Riebold added a singleton.
Runnymede’s Dimitry Kisil dominated the match between Hockley D and Runnymede with a hat trick. However, the result turned on two five-set games between Dimitry and Paul Strutt; and Neal Klyman and Tina Hutchinson, both of which went to the visitors. Paul fought back from 1 - 0 down to lead 2 – 1 and lead again in the fourth set but failed to close it out. With the match extending to 40 minutes, Paul finally ran out of steam in the fifth. Neal came back from 2 - 0 down against Tina and, having won the fourth, 11 - 3 would have been confident going into the fifth. It was not to be, however, as Tina showed great resilience to win 11 - 5.
Player of the Match Neil Daines was very unfortunate to have won all his games for Invicta B at home to leaders Hadleigh Forum C, and to still end up on the losing side. Tony Mace, Graham Farmer and Mark Everard were all too strong for Neil’s team mates, so Forum ended up comfortable 6 – 3 winners.
In a very close encounter, Canvey C just managed to overcome the visiting youngsters of Hullbridge F 5 – 4. Joe Buscombe was PoM with two wins. However, Toby Zeffie also managed two. Canvey clinched it, thanks to a pair of wins each for Steve Robinson and Jo Hills, with Tony Molisso adding a single.
Warehouse C have moved up the table of late, thanks to the introduction of Saurabh Mohal to their starting line ups. However, this week it was his team mate Jonathan Allen who took all the plaudit, remaining unbeaten in their visit to Rawreth F. Saurabh had to settle for two wins, succumbing to Rawreth’s Botond Mezo. Botond added another win to his tally and Jack Himpfen-Jones got one for the home side, whilst a single victory for Simon Lisner completed the visitors’ scoring.
David Barnes DRS Division 2
3rd Division
As is usually the case in Division 3 this season a new week sees a new leader and this time it is Hockley E who find themselves back at the top of the table after a 9-0 crushing of Hullbridge H. Ben Cook, Jason Stringer and Ron Rogerson were always in charge against the Hullbridge youngsters although three games did go to five sets with Joey Page twice missing out to Jason and Ben by the narrowest of margins in the final set. Ron only lost one set all night. This gives Hockley a massive boost ahead of their clash with promotion rivals Invicta C next week. They now have a six point advantage over Customs in second place albeit the Taxmen have a game in hand.
Customs B themselves were taking on Hockley’s G team and whilst coming away with a 6-3 win any points lost at this stage of the season are vital. Mark Rose was the man in form for the Taxmen winning all three of his games but he was taken all the way to five sets by Roger Sherman before winning 11/7 in the final set. Richard Kidd added two more but Alex Clark missed out. Roger got two and Oliver George the third point for Hockley.
Hullbridge G have been struggling for consistency all season but an 8-1 win at Warehouse D gave them two successive wins for the first time since September. Andy Roff and Lyndsey Johnson-Farge both scored maximums whilst Bob Shingleton-Smith won two. Graham Back got the consolation point for Warehouse. Despite their eight defeats this season this win leaves them in fourth place and still very much in contention for promotion.
The fourth and final game this week featured Invicta C versus Hockley F and whilst a win for Invicta would have been predicted Hockley did well to pick up two points thanks to a brace from Graham Gregory both matches going to five sets. Keith Baxter was the man in form for Invicta taking the man of the match honours whilst John Golding and Chris Gregory weighed in with two apiece. Invicta are now in sixth place 15 points behind the leaders but with a game in hand on most of the clubs above them.
Player of the Week – Ron Rogerson
Team of the Week – Hockley E
Paul Strutt DRS Division 3
