Douglas Bawuah and Kelvin Edeh both hit trebles for the second successive week as ARU moved up to fifth position in division five having sat bottom in week three after three losses to start the season. Please see the division five section for more details.

Division 1

Gary Young scored his third hat-trick of the season as Chelmsford A returned to the top of the table with a 6-4 victory at home to Danbury B. Young beat both Daniel Piggott and Dan Anderson but had earlier managed to resist a Sam Lowman comeback in the fourth game of their encounter to win the decider 13-11.

Josh Bickles won 3-0 against Piggott and Anderson but saw Lowman recover from 1-0 down to win their encounter in four games. Young and Bickles saw a 2-0 lead disappear in the doubles encounter with Anderson and Lowman but were able to win game five 11-7.

James Donald won three matches as Danbury C drew 5-5 on the road against Galleywood A. Donald beat Gary Brignall 3-1 in his opening match of the evening and went on to beat both James Hicks and Peter Barnett in three. Despite losing his opener against Hicks. Daniel Patynski went on to beat Brignall and Barrett by the same 3-1 scoreline. Hicks recovered from 2-1 down to beat David Gatheral in the final contest of the evening.  

Standings div 1: 1: Chelmsford A 64 points (9 matches), 2: OCA A 59 points (from 8 matches), 3: Danbury C 55 points (10 matches).

Division 2

Hatfield Peverel A sit top of division 2 by five points having played a game more than their closest contenders Chelmsford C. Alastair Piper hit his third treble of the season as the leaders beat Maldon A by a 6-4 scoreline on Tuesday night.

After beating Hamish Innes 3-0, Piper was made to work hard for his treble by Colin Napper and Chris Hancox who both took the Hatfield ace to five games. Innes earned two wins on the night for Maldon and ended Martin Archie’s run of 10 successive victories with a 3-0 win.

Team captain Waseem Qureshi led the way with his first hat-trick of the season as Chelmsford C closed the gap on the leaders with an 8-2 victory over Danbury F. Qureshi beat Gus Heath and Steve Buer 3-0 before edging past John Tendler 13-11 in the deciding game of their contest. Teammate Harrison Hill also scored a treble which included 3-2 wins over both Tendler and Heath.

OCA B earned a fine 7-3 home victory over third placed Writtle C with Mick Richardson winning three matches and Rob Burton two. Richardson came from a game down to beat John Parodi 3-1 but was then well tested by John Webber who he edged 11-9 in the fifth. Webber handed Burton his only loss of the evening with a 3-1 victory and went on to beat Michael Hayes 3-0.

Danbury E moved into fifth place with an 8-2 win over bottom of the table Chelmsford D. Tim Cramphorn secured his second treble of the season but teammates Dick Wyman and Tony Forster were both prevented from joining him in the ‘hat-trick club’ by two 3-2 losses to Chelmsford’s Dusan Doszkoty.

If you are scheduled to play in a match against Doskoty you may want to put your late-night plans on hold – 11 of his 24 individual matches (46%) have gone to five games so far this season which is a high for division 2 players (but not the league – see division 3!). Doszkoty came from 2-0 down to beat Forster and 2-1 down to get the better of Wyman, while player of the match Cramphorn also had to overturn a 2-1 deficit in his match with Mike Johnston.

David Gatheral scored three wins as Danbury D beat clubmates Danbury G 7-3 in a fixture which appeared to start fast and end slow. Four of the first five games were settled by a 3-0 scoreline as the D-team took a 3-2 lead at the halfway stage before all five of the remaining matches went the five-game distance.

Eamonn Hall started the string of five-game matches by fighting back from 2-0 down to beat Merv Perriman, with Hall and Gatheral then bouncing back from a 2-1 deficit to take the doubles encounter against Denis Crapnell and Robin Armstrong. Gatheral and Armstrong then continued to dance into the night with yet another five-game match, before Crapnell did unto Hall what Hall had done unto Perriman. To cap a fiercely competitive second half of the evening, Dave Meah decided he wanted some of the five-game action and turned a 1-2 scoreline against Perriman into a 3-2 victory.

Standings div 2: 1: Hatfield Peverel A 63 points (from 10 matches), 2: Chelmsford C 58 points (9 matches). 3: Writtle C 53 points (10 matches),

Division 3

After tasting defeat for the first time last week, league leaders Galleywood B were held to a 5-5 draw by Buttsbury A who moved into third position. Buttsbury’s Jamie Elliott extended his season record to 18 wins with victories over Gary Brignall, John Holland and Mark Glenister – however Elliott was taken to multiple five-game matches for the first time this season.

Elliot beat Brignall 3-1 in his opening contest before squeezing past Holland 11-9 in the decider of his second. Glenister went toe-to-toe with Elliott in their contest with Elliot putting a 14-12 fourth game loss behind him to win the decider by a comfortable 11-5 scoreline. Evie Knaapen earned two 3-0 wins for Buttsbury after she had dropped her first match of the night to Holland who rallied from 2-1 down to win 11-9 in the fifth.

OCA C remain second in the table despite a 5-5 home draw against Writtle D in a match which saw Richard Baxter earn his second successive hat-trick and fourth of the season. Baxter’s three wins look like a tough evening’s work – he beat each of Bob Garson, Malcolm Henstock and Trevor Collin 3-2.

Collin secured a 3-2 victory of his own during the evening having found himself 2-0 down to Richard Upson. Upson has a remarkable record of 13 five-game matches out of his 21 matches played this season, accounting for an eye-watering 62% of his matches!

Danbury K leapfrogged opponents Chelmsford E with a 7-3 home victory which saw Dave Hancox’s first treble of the season. Hancox beat each of Andy Swales, Alesha Ellis-Austin and James Grimston over four games while teammate Dave Oxley-Goody earned a brace.

Both of Chelmsford’s Ellis-Austin’s wins were over five games which extends her record to winning each of her last five matches which have gone to a decider.

Three wins for Ian Whiteside and a double for Alan Scammell weren’t quite enough to earn Danbury H the honours as they were held to a 5-5 draw by Danbury J. Whiteside’s opening contest of the night with Peter Hance looked to be his most taxing of the fixture as Hance fought back from 2-0 down before Whiteside was able to secure the decider.

Scammell’s two wins were both over five-games – despite a 2-0 lead against Terry Hyand the victory was only secured by a 12-10 scoreline in the fifth, and John Robinson had held a 2-1 lead until Scammell turned on the afterburner. Scammell’s afterburner may have malfunctioned in his final match of the night against Hance as he saw a 2-1 lead disappear into the smoke.

Standings div 3: 1: Galleywood B 65 points (from 9 matches), 2: OCA C 53 points (9 matches), 3: Buttsbury A 49 points (8 matches).

Division 4

With the top two teams in division 4 not in action this week, Maldon B moved into third place with a fine 8-2 victory at home to Buttsbury B. Brian Riedling and Chris Ravenhill scored three wins apiece for the hosts though the result could have been very different had the two Maldon players not won the deciding game in the three matches which went the distance during the evening.

With the fixture finely poised at a scoreline of 2-2, Riedling and Ravenhill may have knocked the stuffing out of the visitors with back-to-back 3-2 wins as the home team went on to take the remaining six matches.

Highwood A also made their move and now sit in fourth position following an 8-2 win over Hatfield Peverel D. Melanie Bonnett and Roger Patient both scored trebles while Keith Fitz-John would have joined them had it not been for a Bob Hillis comeback from 2-1 down. Bonnet was well tested by David Benstead in a match which went to five games while Hillis teamed with Samuel White in the doubles to take Peverel’s only other point during the evening.

James Brooks secured his first treble of the season but saw his Hatfield Peverel E team fall to a 6-4 loss on the road to OCA D. Brooks won in four games against each of David Newman, David Bishop and Farooq Ahmed and teamed with Philip West to win the doubles encounter – also in four.

Standings div 4: 1: Galleywood C 54 points (from 7 matches), 2: Chelmsford G 50 points (8 matches), 3: Maldon B 46 points (from 7 matches).

Division 5

Division 5 leaders Danbury M extended their record to nine wins from nine fixtures this season with an 8-2 home win over Maldon C. Graham Naggs was the sole treble scorer with victories over Shirley Carroll in three games, Ross Wheeler in four and James Raymond in five (having trailed 2-1).

Steve and Oliver Martin backed Naggs up with two wins apiece – both had their opportunities of a treble of wins while competing in fifth game deciders. Raymond beat Steve Martin 11-8 in the deciding game before Shirley Carroll ousted Oliver Martin 14-12 in the fifth of their contest. Maldon’s Raymond played in three five-gamers on the night.

Mark Nolan took his individual record to 13 wins in 14 contests this season with another hat-trick in Chelmsford J’s 5-5 draw at Highwood B. Nolan’s biggest test of the evening came in his opening contest with Martin Goddard which he won 11-7 in the deciding game. Chelmsford’s Elliot Hawthorne chipped in with a win but would perhaps have hoped for more having fallen at the last hurdle in five-game losses to both Keith Pallett and Martin Goddard.

Third-placed Galleywood D fell to a 6-4 loss at fourth placed Chelmsford H despite a hat-trick of victories for Ron Salton. Salton beat James Grindlay and Shenbing Zhu in four games, Jacqui Smith in three and teamed with Wayne Smithies for a 3-2 win over Grindlay and Smith in the doubles. Smith had earlier fought back from 2-1 down to beat Smithies in the doubles.

Anglia Ruskin University continued their recent upturn in form with an 8-2 victory over Hatfield Peverel F. Kelvin Edeh and Douglas Bawuah won all three of their matches for the second successive week with teammate Connor Case securing his first CDTTL win in his debut season.

Case’s 3-1 victory over Martin Kilbey was even more impressive as it came after the disappointment of being beaten 14-12 in the deciding game with Alastair Brown. Bawuah and Edeh teamed up to beat Brown and Peter Hughes 3-2 in the doubles having been 2-1 down.

Writtle F beat the two players of OCA E 7-3 with two wins apiece for Michael Anthony and Paul Aarons. Aarons beat Stuart Wintle 3-2 having trailed 2-1 and went one better against Matthew Porter having been 2-0 down. Wintle and Porter combined to beat Aarons and Anthony 3-0 in the doubles before Wintle earned his sole win of the night – a 3-1 victory over Colin Griffiths.

Standings div 5: 1: Danbury M 68 points (from 9 matches), 2: Chelmsford J 51 points (9 matches), 3: Galleywood D 49 points (10 matches).

Chelmsford Junior League division 1A

The Chelmsford Eagles moved into second position in the CJL1A with a 5-0 victory at the Buttbury Bears on Friday night. Kuzey Musabek and Adhuna Das both won each of their matches 3-0 against opponents Thomas Lewis and Callum Walker.

Standings CJL 1A: CHAMPIONS: CTTC Cougars 29 points (from 7 matches), 2: CTTC Eagles 17 points (from 7 matches).

Chelmsford Junior League division 1C

CJL1C Champions the Hutton Harriers cruised to a 5-0 win over bottom of the table Buttsbury Bats. Jonny Pocock earned his first double of the season while Archie Giles’ two wins moved him to six wins out of eight for the season.

Standings CJL 1C: CHAMPIONS: Hutton Harriers 30 points (from 7 matches), 2: CTTC Rhinos 19 points (7 matches).

Handicap Cup first round

Chelmsford E beat Buttsbury C 5-3 to set up a second-round home tie against OCA C. Alesha Ellis-Austin (41) and James Grimston (50) won two matches apiece with the closest match of the night being Ellis-Austin’s opening victory over Joseph Hutt 26-24, 21-23, 22-20.

Second round fixtures (W/C 11/12/2023)

Chelmsford B v OCA B
Writtle D v Highwood B
Chelmsford E v OCA C
Buttsbury F v Chelmsford H
Chelmsford J v Danbury B
Chelmsford G v Writtle B
Writtle C v Chelmsford F
Buttsbury D / Buttsbury B v BYE

StaTTo’s corner

A new (possibly occasional) section which I hope is of interest to you. I’m the type of person who hears about a statistic and cannot help but to investigate further – in the Chelmsford members chat group we’ve been very aware of our D team’s Dusan Doszkoty’s involvement in five-game matches this season.

In fact, Dusan didn’t have a great record to start with – seven of his first nine individual matches went to five games at the start of the season and he didn’t win any of them! I’m pleased to report that Dusan won his eighth encounter which went to five games bucking that trend and this week won an additional two five-gamers in the fixture with Danbury E.

Seeing this statistic made me curious – which players across the CDTTL have the highest percentage of five-gamers? So here is the list of players who, if you see in the opposition line-up, you might want to consider messaging home “could be a late one tonight”!

Division 1
Lee McHugh, Writtle A – 10/24 (42%)
Bruce Kettle, Danbury A – 6/15 (40%)
Dan Anderson, Danbury B – 6/15 (40%)
Division 2
Dusan Doszkoty, Chelmsford D – 11/24 (46%)
Trevor Carter, Writtle B – 8/18 (44%)
Tony Forster, Danbury E – 9/21 (43%)
Denis Balic, Danbury G – 8/20 (40%)
Division 3
Richard Upson, OCA C – 13/21 (62%)
Alesha Ellis-Austin, Chelmsford E – 8/18 (44%)
Alan Scammell, Danbury H – 9/21 (43%)
Neil Thompson, Writtle E – 9/21 (43%)
Division 4
Alex Wilson, Danbury L – 8/15 (53%)
Division 5
Graham Naggs, Danbury M – 7/15 (47%)
Martin Goddard, Highwood B – 8/18 (44%)
James Raymond, Maldon C – 6/15 (40%)
Alastair Brown, Hatfield Peverel F – 6/15 (40%)