1st Report - Summer League
DIVISION 1 REPORTS from Paul Strutt
Week 2
Rawreth have set out their stall early in Division 1 following up last week’s 8-1 win against Wakering with a 9-0 demolition of Hadleigh Forum A. A completely different line up to the previous week saw Deborah Auvache, Peter Barrett and Kevin Read pick up the mantle and they had little difficulty overcoming their opponents only one game going the distance. Forum’s Tony Jacks actually held a 2-1 advantage over Barrett in this one but succumbed 11/7, 11/7 in the final sets. Not surprisingly Rawreth are the early leaders after their two wins.
Invicta A and Basildon A both kicked off their season this week and both recorded 6-3 wins against Basildon B and Stanford A respectively.
Basildon A, led by an in form Les Hoey, started well against Stanford leading 3-1 only to find themselves level at 3-3 after wins for Peter Weatherall against Charles Yeung and a doubles win for Pat White and Ian Sangster against Yeung and Tony Ayliffe. After Hoey dismissed Sangster in three sets to take the lead back they then found themselves involved in two hard five set matches which determined the victory. Closest of these was Ayliffe’s come back win against White, finding himself two sets down he took the last three sets 12/10, 11/9, 11/9. It couldn’t have been any closer! Yeung and Hoey then took on White and Weatherall and eventually edged to victory winning 11/7 in the fifth. Hoey took the Player of the Match award.
Invicta’s win against Basildon B came after a disastrous start to the match losing the first three games. Ashokkumar Sivanandam and Dawn Baldry started the evening with a comeback win against Lee Marson and Anton Ranjit-Singh. They managed to reverse a 2-1 scoreline winning the last two sets 11/4, 11/9. Jenne Seibolt then pulled off something of a shock win beating Steve Marr in straight sets before Dawn Baldry made it 3-0 on the night defeating Ranjit-Singh in four. Invicta then started a remarkable comeback Marson winning both his singles against Sivanandam and Seibolt, and Marr and Ranjit-Singh beating Seibolt and Baldry to level the score at 3-3.
The next two singles were crucial and, as may have been expected from two players bearing the longest names, possibly, in the league, Ranjit-Singh and Sivanandam fought out a long five set match 10/12, 11/5, 11/13, 11/9. 11/2 in favour of the Invicta man. Marr then found his form to overcome Baldry in another five set match before he combined with Marson to win the final doubles and clinch a 6-3 victory. Two games and two defeats then for Basildon B.
Week 1
The first week of the Summer League kicked off in Division 1 with two big wins and two very close wins and, not surprisingly, it’s the higher ranked players who made the biggest impact.
In the opening match Brand Identity took on Hockley A and, with both teams boasting Winter League premier and Division 1 players, it proved to be a close encounter despite Hockley threatening to run away with the game at one point.
The opening doubles went easily to the Hockley pairing of Sanjay Saptarshi and Dan Patynski but David Jacob quickly levelled the score disposing of Joseph Odegbami in straight sets. Three quick wins then followed for Hockley, Patynski and Saptarshi beating Dale Gutteridge and Steve Muth respectively before Patynski and Odegbami beat Jacob and Gutteridge in the second doubles. Steve Muth cut the deficit temporarily beating Odegbami in four sets but Saptarshi gave Hockley a match winning lead beating Gutteridge in straight sets. Credit to Brand Identity who then managed to win the last two matches to leave the score at 5-4 to Hockley. Jacob beat Patynski and then combined with Muth to beat Saptarshi and Odegbami.
The Wakering side who finished third in Division 2 in the Winter league found themselves up against a revamped Rawreth side of Russell Mills, James Elliot and Andrew Halling and, not surprisingly, finished up on the wrong end of an 8-1 defeat. Halling finished player of the match winning all his games, as did Elliot, with Callum Turner getting the consolation point for Wakering beating Mills in five close sets. 2-1 down at one stage he took the last two 12/10, 13/11. Turner also took Elliot to five sets as did Paul England and Stewart Mills against Halling and Russell Mills in the doubles, but otherwise it was plain sailing for the Rawreth boys.
Another 5-4 result, but a real cliff hanger, saw Stanford A edge out Basildon A in the final match of the evening. Stanford led 2-1, 3-2 and 4-3 before the doubles between Arun Joy and Chudi Ukpaka of Basildon and Pat White and Peter Weatherall of Stanford fittingly went to five sets finishing on an 11/5 win for Stanford. Joy got two good singles wins against White and Weatherall and Ukpaka beat Ian Sangster in the only other five set match, coming from 2-1 down and winning the last three sets 12/10, 11/9, 11/8. Weatherall, White and Sangster all got one singles win plus two wins in the doubles.
Hockley B, consisting of Division 2/3 players John George, Tony Molisso and Ron Rogerson, found the experienced Hadleigh A side of Berti Makolli, Tony Jacks and Colin Barham just too strong and succumbed to an 8-1 defeat. George picked up their consolation point in a very good five set win against Barham who Rogerson also took to five sets, but they were the only rays of light in a convincing win for the Forum. Makolli just took the player of the match award from Jacks losing just one set all night.
