Second-placed Chelmsford A’s 7-3 loss at Danbury B would have given much pleasure to division one leaders Danbury C who look to be odds-on to lift the 2024/2025 title.

Danbury’s Sam Lowman was in great form as his three victories along with Dan Anderson’s brace helped the fourth-placed B team close the gap to their opponents to just six points.

Chelmsford’s Simon Jarvis earned fine wins over Anderson and Chandler but narrowly lost out to Lowman in the opening contest of the evening by a 3-2 scoreline.

Chris Penrose and Dave Richardson won three matches apiece as third-placed Danbury A beat sixth-placed Galleywood A 8-2. Galleywood’s James Hicks and Gary Brignall fought back from 2-1 down to beat Penrose and Richardson in the doubles.

In division two, Hatfield Peverel A continued their late-season revival with a third straight win having tasted defeat in their previous seven matches.

There was a treble from Martin Archie backed up by two wins apiece for Alastair Piper and Julie Johnson as Peverel moved up to fourth position with a 7-3 home victory over the winless Old Chelmsfordians B. Both Piper and Johnson were denied a third win by OC’s Mick Richardson who recovered from 2-1 down to beat Johnson in the last match of the evening. Richardson had earlier raced to a 2-0 lead over Archie only for his opponent to strike back to earn the first of his three wins.

Derek Balding made his first league appearance of 2025 and took his record to 18 wins from 18 singles matches this season in an 8-2 Maldon A victory over Writtle C. Balding’s teammates Colin Napper and Chris Hancox won two matches apiece – the latter seeing his 2-1 lead end in a loss against Writtle’s Gary Ward.

There were trebles for both Mark Glenister and Gary Brignall as Galleywood B consolidated eighth position with an 8-2 victory over ninth-placed Writtle B. Teammate Will Goodchild would have joined them on three victories but for Trevor Collin taking the deciding game of their matchup. Rob Burton dropped just one game from his three victories as leaders Buttsbury A won 8-2 on the road at Danbury D. Burton was joined on three wins by Evie Knaapen who got the better of Daniel Patynski in a very exciting match which ended 3-1 (14-12, 8-11, 12-10, 22-20) in Knaapen’s favour.

Chelmsford D moved 10 points clear at the top of division three with an 8-2 home win over fourth-placed Danbury G. Christopher Denyer and Alex Tkachuk did the business for the hosts with Tkachuk’s 3-2 victory over Mervyn Perriman the sole five-gamer over the course of the contest.

Galleywood C moved withing four points of second-placed Buttsbury B with a 7-3 away win at the two-person team of Hatfield Peverel B – Peverel’s Neil Freeman was the star of the show with three victories. Freeman beat Bryn Thomas in three, Colin Blore in four and managed to overcome a rallying Robin Armstrong in five.

Dave Moles was on fire as his bottom of the table Writtle E side beat 10th-placed Danbury H 7-3 to move within two points of OCA C in 11th. Moles dropped just one game in his three victories – one of which was a 3-1 victory over Danbury’s Gordon Gatheral who saw success in his two other matches.

Peter Harverson won all three as eighth-placed Danbury J drew 5-5 with ninth-placed Chelmsford F. division four. Harverson won his first two matches of the evening with 3-0 scorelines but was well tested by Chelmsford’s Salih Salim who finally went down 13-11 in the fifth.

There was a Tom Barker treble in eleventh-placed Old Chelmsfordians C’s 6-4 away win at fifth-placed Writtle D. Barker had to recover from 2-1 down against Malcolm Henstock in order to register his second win of the evening while Barker’s teammate Luke Richardson also caused Henstock angst when recovering from 2-0 down for the victory in their encounter.

Division four leaders Hutton A and second-placed Maldon B were not in action in week 22 so the focus was on whether third-placed Buttsbury C could close the gap when hosting fifth-placed Danbury K in one of their two games in hand.

Buttsbury were boosted by news that Danbury were only able to field two players for the fixture as Joshua Freeman’s two 3-0 victories fired the hosts to a 8-2 win.

Buttsbury D moved above Danbury K into fourth place with a 9-1 away win at Danbury M thanks to trebles from Keith Abbott and Kevin Willis. Danbury’s David Smith scuppered Buttsbury’s Lyndon Bubb’s hopes of a treble when ekeing out a 3-2 win (3-11, 11-6, 15-13, 9-11, 12-10).

There were two wins apiece for Chelmsford G’s Mark Nolan, David Parker and Atharv Gupta in their 7-3 away win at Danbury L John Manning put the hosts 1-0 up with a five-game win over Nolan before teammates Roy Gandy and Ken Wilding made the score 3-0. Those three matches were the highlights of the evening for Danbury as Chelmsford then took the next seven matches, Nolan and Atharv Gupta recovered from 2-0 down to win the doubles contest and David Parker weathered a Gandy fight back from the same position in a 3-2 win.

In two mid-table encounters, Nathan Blore was undefeated for Galleywood D as they ran out 8-2 winners against Hatfield Peverel C, while Farooq Ahmed won all three for OCA D despite a 6-4 away loss at the hands of Highwood A.

There were two wins for Buttsbury E in week 22 who sit 10 points clear at the top of division five though second-placed Hutton B have the advantage of three games in hand. There were three wins for both James Hughes and Chris Hughes in a 9-1 victory over Hatfield Peverel F, while OCA E’s Matthew Porter’s treble couldn’t prevent Buttbury running out 6-4 winners.

Michael Anthony hit a hat-trick as third-placed Writtle F won 7-3 at Highwood B while Tim Huxtable won all three as fourth-placed Maldon C won 7-3 at Hatfield Peverel C.

The basement battle between Anglia Ruskin and Hatfield Peverel F ended in a 5-5 stalemate as Peter Hughes took the player of the match honours with two wins from three while James Grindlay and Shengbing Zhu won three apiece as Chelmsford H posted an 8-2 home win over Hatfield Peverel D.