Vivaan Babbar and Joshua Freeman acquired the two points required by the Buttsbury Bees to lift Chelmsford Junior League (CJL) division 1A despite a 3-2 loss against the Chelmsford Lions.

With just one loss from 10 fixtures, the Bees (pictured above) have been the outstanding team in the division though they were pushed hard by the second placed Hutton Hawks who had occupied top spot for seven of the 10 weeks of the season.

In CJL division 1B, the Chelmsford Leopards earned the three points needed to snatch the title from the second-placed Buttsbury Bears. Despite Archie Spurrier’s opening game loss, the Leopards cruised through the remaining four matches of the fixture to finish the 10-game season on 34 points – two ahead of the Bears.

Chelmsford A moved to the top of Division One with a comprehensive 10-0 home victory over the two-man team of Galleywood A thanks to unblemished evenings from Josh Bickles, Saul Chivers and Felix Reeve. Chelmsford will be feeling the heat from the two Danbury teams hot on their heels who both have the benefit of a game in hand over the leaders.

Second-placed Danbury C could only manage a 5-5 draw with fourth-placed clubmates Danbury B, B’s Sam Lowman earned player of the match honours with wins over Gary Young and Keith Adams though let slip a 2-1 lead against Trevor Lloyd for his only defeat. B’s Matthew Stringer enjoyed three five-gamers, claiming wins over Adams and Lloyd – despite trailing 2-1 in both – but losing out to Young 12-10 in the pivotal fifth game of their encounter.

Bruce Kettle and Eric Green won three apiece in third-placed Danbury A’s 8-2 home victory over Chelmsford B. Saul Chivers put up the most resistance for the visitors when narrowly losing out to Green 3-2 prior to a 3-1 success over Dave Richardson.

Buttsbury A made it eight consecutive weeks at the top of Division Two with a 9-1 away win at seventh-placed Writtle B, Jamie Elliott and Evie Knaapen won three matches each while David Gatheral won two. Gatheral’s treble was denied by a come-from-behind victory for Writtle’s Trevor Carter who had trailed Gatheral 2-1.

Maldon A remain seven points back in second position having also posted a 9-1 victory, this time at home to Danbury F. Chris Hancox and Colin Napper won three singles matches each though Danbury’s Alan Scammell took a wild opener against Lloyd Bennett-Smith 3-2 (7-11, 14-12, 1-11, 15-13, 11-9) to deny the Maldon man a treble also. Scammell also pushed Napper close, only going down in a fifth-game decider while Bennett-Smith managed to find a way past Ken Sheard having been 2-0 down.

There was a third appearance of the week for Saul Chivers as he joined Chelmsford C for their 8-2 home win over Danbury D. Chivers and Simon Jarvis both went undefeated and earned good wins over Sanjay Saptarshi and Dan Patynski – though the latter took both players to a fifth-game decider.

Gary Ward fired a fifth hat-trick of the season as his Writtle C side moved up one place to seventh position with a 6-4 away victory over fifth-placed Hatfield Peverel A. Ward’s teammate John Webber would have won three had it not been for Alastair Piper’s recovery from 2-1 down.

Having sat in 10th place as recently as week 10, Danbury E continue their upward trajectory as three wins for Tim Cramphorn and two each for Dick Wyman and Neil Want saw them to a 7-3 win at Galleywood B. Galleywood’s John Holland won once but lost out in deciding games against both Wyman and Cramphorn.

Chelmsford D are three points clear at the top of Division Three following a 9-1 home win over Hatfield Peverel B with closest rivals Buttsbury B earning a ‘lesser’ 8-2 victory over Writtle E.

Adi Kamma and Christopher Denyer hit trebles for Chelmsford while Paul Sturton won all three for Buttsbury, Writtle D moved up one place to fourth following a 6-4 away win over 10th placed Danbury J thanks to another treble for Matthew Brown, while Cleon Fernandes made it back-to-back hat-tricks for Chelmsford F in their 6-4 win at Danbury G.

Scott Perry was in action for the first time since week eight and he showed no signs of rust though his three victories were in vain as Danbury H lost 6-4 at Old Chelmsfordians C.

There were further victories for the two outstanding Division Four teams – Hutton A and Maldon B, just eight points separate the two with the two Buttsbury teams trying to keep within touching distance. Maldon B blitzed Danbury M 10-0 with Chris Ravenhill, Marty Englander and Brian Riedling filling their Christmas stockings with full compliments of wins – the deadly trio have now fired trebles in each of the last three Maldon B fixtures which is an identical statistic to that of Hutton A’s Alex Ware and Oladapo Owolabi who both unbeaten in the 7-3 away win at OCA D.

There were wins for both Buttsbury teams who sit in third and fourth – third-placed Buttsbury D earned an 8-2 home win over Danbury K, in his first appearance of the season Gary Carr won all three of his singles matches while Alex Wilson earned two wins for the visitors.

Frances Hutt dropped just one game as she fired a treble as fourth-placed Buttsbury C won 6-4 on the road at Galleywood D. Galleywood’s Nick Rounce won the only five-gamer of the evening though the fixture was delicately poised at 4-4 before Oscar Hutt then Frances Hutt won the last two matches of the night.

Following four defeats in their last five matches, Hatfield Peverel C were back to winning ways with a 6-4 home win over Chelmsford G in a match which featured a first treble of the season for Samuel White. White’s first hat-trick was certainly no ‘gimme’ as he had to come through fifth-game deciders against both Mark Nolan and David Parker.

Something had to give in the fixture between Danbury L and Highwood A with both teams going into the clash on the back of four consecutive defeats. Unfortunately, Highwood went into the fixture a player down, though ace Melanie Bonnett won all three of her matches and was the sole point scorer for the visitors as Danbury ran out 7-3 victors.

There is no change for the top three teams in Division Five as leaders Hutton B, second-placed Buttsbury E and third placed Maldon C all earned home wins. There were three wins apiece for Vicente Beco and Gheorghe Nita as well as two for Jago Ware as Hutton B cruised to a 9-1 victory over Highwood B while Shirley Carroll and James Raymond were unbeaten in Maldon C’s 9-1 home success over the two-person Hatfield Peverel F team.

Lyndon Bubb fired a fourth hat-trick of the season as Buttsbury E were given a tough time by Galleywood E before securing a 6-4 home win. Bubb had to recover from 2-0 down against Wayne Smithies and also saw a 2-0 lead against Darren Wright disappear before securing fifth-game deciders.

Hatfield Peverel D remain fourth and Writtle F fifth following a 5-5 draw between the two sides which saw two wins apiece for Writtle’s Michael Anthony and Ron Tam as well as Peverel’s Andy Simmonds and Bruce Wickham. Match of the night was Simmonds beating Tam by an epic-looking 3-2 (11-9, 15-17, 14-16, 11-6, 18-16).

Following five straight defeats, OCA E are now unbeaten in their last three fixtures following a 7-3 victory over Anglia Ruskin. ARU’s Douglas Bawuah was again the shining star as he beat Stuart Wintle in three, Suzanne Shaw in four and edged Matthew Potter in five (9-11, 11-2, 9-11, 15-13, 12-10).

There was a first treble of the season for Jacqui Smith in Chelmsford H’s 9-1 away win at Hatfield Peverel E. Smith had to recover from 2-1 down against Alastair Brown while teammate James Grindlay dropped just one game for his three wins in what was his first treble since week one against the same opposition.