Division 1
Ian Wall fired a hat-trick as his Danbury B team recovered from a 4-1 deficit to earn a 5-5 draw against clubmates Danbury A. Two of Wall’s three victories were fifth-game deciders – he resisted a Bruce Kettle fightback from 2-0 down to win 11-9 in game five, and saw Dave Richardson respond twice before he was finally able to seal the victory.
Kettle was also involved in two further matches which went the distance – a 3-2 win over Sam Lowman and a 3-2 loss to Matthew Stringer. Richardson and Babul McLeod both won twice for the A team – McLeod beat Matthew Stringer 11-9 in the fifth and recovered from 1-0 down to beat Lowman in four.
OCA A retained top place in division one with a 7-3 win over Danbury C. Matthew Mulley returned to CDTTL action for the first time in over a month and beat Keith Adams in three games, Paul Davison in four and recovered from 2-0 down to edge James Donald. Mark Mulley was close to joining his brother on three wins but was beaten 18-16 by Adams in an epic deciding game.
Second placed Chelmsford A closed the gap on Old Chelmsfordians with a 9-1 win at Galleywood on Monday night. Harry Chivers and Gary Young both won three while Omar Wasi marked his division one debut with a brace of wins. James Hicks was the top performer for the hosts, beating Wasi 3-1 and taking Chivers the distance. Wasi’s maiden division one win was in a close four-game encounter with Alistair Hill (11-13, 11-5, 12-10, 12-10).
Kevin Read’s second treble of the season wasn’t enough to prevent Writtle A falling to a 6-4 defeat at the hands of Chelmsford B. Read beat Wiktor Delimat in three, Kim Shead in four and recovered from 2 games down to beat Andrew Dosher in five.
Dosher’s two victories on the night were both over five games – his win against Lee McHugh was after trailing 2-1. Both of Kim Shead’s victories for the hosts were five game thrillers, beating both McHugh and Matthew Brown by a 13-11 scoreline in the crucial game.
Standings div 1: 1. OCA A 53 points (from 7 matches), 2: Chelmsford A 52 points (7 matches), 3: Danbury C 46 points (8 matches)
Leading averages div 1 (played 17+ matches): 1: Gary Young (Chelmsford A, 16/18 wins, 89%), 2: Mark Mulley (OCA A 16/20 wins, 80%), 3: Paul Davison (Danbury C, 13/17 wins, 76%).
Division 2
Martin Archie scored his fourth hat-trick of the season – his second against a Chelmsford side – as division 2 leaders Hatfield Peverel A beat Chelmsford D 8-2. Archie beat both Stephen Heard and Omar Wasi in straight games but had to take games four and five to overcome Mike Johnston.
Julie Johnson was the closest to joining Archie on three wins as she beat Johnston in four and Heard in four, however Wasi earned an upset win on paper over five games. Alastair Piper also won twice for the hosts – his win over Johnston from 2-0 down, securing the win 11-9 in the decider.
Writtle C moved into second position with a comprehensive 9-1 win at Danbury D. Gary Ward and John Webber won three games apiece with John Parodi chipping in with two. Parodi’s match with Eamonn Hall was the tightest contest of the night and the only to reach five games – Hall led two games to one before Parodi took the final two games 11-7, 11-3.
Chris Buer scored his fourth treble of the season as Danbury F moved into fourth place with a 7-3 victory at clubmates Danbury G. Buer beat Mervyn Perriman in three games, Denis Crapnell in four and Denis Balic in five as well as teaming with Gus Heath to win 17-15 in the deciding game of the doubles contest. While Heath fell to Perriman in the first contest of the night he then came from 2-0 down to beat Crapnell before beating Balic 12-10 in the fifth game of their contest.
There were no individual trebles as OCA B and Maldon A played out a 5-5 draw. Maldon looked set for a fine evening on the road as they took an early 3-0 lead before OCA hit back by winning the next three contests. Maldon’s Lloyd Bennett-Smith and Chris Hancox beat Michael Hayes and Mick Richardson 3-0 in the doubles contest before OCA’s David Porter managed to see off a Hamish Innes fightback from 2-0 down to take the decider 11-8.
Hancox put Maldon 5-4 up on the night with a 3-0 win over Hayes before Richardson beat Bennett-Smith 11-8 in the fifth game to ensure the spoils were shared.
A Richard Storey hat-trick could not prevent his Writtle B side going down 7-3 at home to Danbury E. Storey beat each of Neil Want, Tony Forster and Tim Cramphorn in four games but his teammates Trevor Carter and Phil Smith were bested by the visitors. Smith saw a 2-1 lead against Tim Cramphorn slip before Carter lost in five see-saw games with Forster.
Standings div 2: 1: Hatfield Peverel A 52 points (from 8 matches), 2: Writtle C 46 points (8 matches), 3: Chelmsford C 44 points (7 matches).
Leading averages div 2 (played 18+ matches): 1: Martin Archie (Hatfield Peverel A, 18/21 wins, 86%), 2: Gary Ward (Writtle C, 17/20 wins, 85%), 3: Richard Storey (Writtle B, 15/18 wins, 83%).
Division 3
Galleywood B remain the unbeaten leaders of division 3 following an 8-2 victory at Writtle E. John Holland dropped just one game on the way to his fifth treble of the season while Mark Glenister had a less straightforward evening on the way to securing three wins. Glenister recovered from 2-1 down against Malcolm Storey to cruise through the last two games 11-4, 11-1 and later fought back from 2-1 down against Neil Thompson.
Writtle D stay at the head of the chasing pack following a 6-4 win at Danbury K. Danbury’s Eamonn Hall will feel unfortunate to end up on the losing side following a fine hat-trick which saw him beat Bob Garson in three games, Malcolm Henstock in four and overturn a 2-0 deficit against Trevor Collin to storm through the last three games 11-7, 11-7, 11-5.
Writtle’s Garson, Henstock and Collin all saw five game wins during the evening with Danbury’s Richard Allen the victim of two of those losses.
Hatfield Peverel B dropped behind Writtle D and into third place after a 5-5 draw at Chelmsford E on Friday night. Jarek Pietraszuk scored his first treble of the season with four game wins over both Gareth Davies and Neil Freeman before a recovery from 2-0 down to beat Paul Mulley in five.
Having taken a 5-3 lead, the visitors had looked set for their second away win of the season but Alesha Ellis-Austin won 12-10 in the fifth game of her encounter with Davies before Pietraszuk earned Chelmsford the draw against Mulley the hard way (9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 14-12, 11-9).
Jamie Elliott remains unbeaten this season following a fourth hat-trick as his Buttsbury A team drew 5-5 at Danbury H. Elliott disposed of both Ken Sheard and Gordon Gatheral in straight games but had a tougher time with Alan Scammell who frustrated Elliott until a fifth game decider. Scammell himself saw five-game action on two other occasions during the evening – an individual win against Kevin Willis and a doubles win with Sheard against Elliott and Charles Yeung. Sheard was the only other player on show to win more than one match – victories over Yeung and Kevin Willis.
After three losses against the league leaders last time out, Tom Barker returned to form with a hat-trick of victories in OCA C’s 7-3 home win against Danbury J. Barker beat Dave Marsh in three, John Robinson in four and Terry Hyland in five while teammates Luke Richardson and Richard Upson also won twice each.
Upson’s two wins were earned the hard way – he beat Terry Hyland having trailed 2-1 and went one better in beating Dave Marsh 3-2 from 2-0 down. Robinson got the better of Hyland over five, winning the final two games 12-10, 12-10.
Standings div 3: 1: Galleywood B 56 points (from 7 matches), 2: Writtle D 42 points (8 matches), 3: Hatfield Peverel B 41 points (8 matches).
Leading averages div 3 (played 15+ matches): 1: John Holland (Galleywood B, 17/18 wins, 94%), =3: Mark Glenister (Galleywood B) and Dave Powell (Danbury K) both 12/15 wins, 80%.
Division 4
Colin Blore scored a hat-trick in his first appearance of the season as division four leaders Galleywood C cruised to a 10-0 victory over Hatfield Peverel D. Blore may have taken some time in his first match back to find his range but he finally overcame Bob Hillis 3-2 having trailed 2-1, his next two victories were more one-sided affairs against Deb Ginn and Samuel White.
Nathan Blore and Will Goodchild both added to their tallies of trebles this season – Blore notching his second without dropping a game, and Goodchild scoring his third.
The youthful Chelmsford G trio of Cleon Fernandes, Dion Fernandes and Grace Liu proved too strong for opponents Danbury L as they cruised to an 8-2 home win. While the first three matches of the evening all went in favour of the hosts, all three players were well tested in their 3-1 victories.
Danbury’s first success of the evening came in match number six where John Manning dug deep to beat Dion Fernandes 3-2 with a 13-11 scoreline in the fifth game. A mini revival looked on the cards for the visitors as Manning and Alex Wilson beat the Fernandes brothers 3-2 in the doubles having been 2-1 down, however Liu beat Wilson 3-0 and her teammates produced the same scorelines to consolidate second place in the table for Chelmsford G.
Peter Mortensen’s three wins weren’t enough to prevent his Hatfield Peverel C team losing 7-3 at home to third placed Buttsbury B – the hosts’ sixth successive loss of the season. Mortensen beat Phil Shippen in three games, Richard Pond in four and Jenne Seibolt in five, while teammate Richard Drozd came the closest to earning another Hatfield win – narrowly losing 3-2 to Richard Pond.
A Brian Riedling treble backed up with two wins by Christopher Ravenhill earned Maldon B a 6-4 win at OCA D. Riedling’s treble wasn’t quite straightforward as he had to recover from 2-0 down to beat both Russell Hall and Farooq Ahmed, before beating David Bishop 3-1 having gone a game behind.
A third successive hat-trick for Roger Patient helped Highwood A to an 8-2 home victory over Hatfield Peverel E. Patient didn’t drop a game over the course of the evening with teammates Melanie Bonnett and Keith Fitz-John scoring two wins apiece. Fitz-John saw three five-game matches, an opening loss to James Brooks was followed by wins over Phil West and Davina Brazier. While the match with Brazier went one way and then the next throughout, his win over Phil West was from a position of 2-0 down.
Standings div 4: 1: Galleywood C 47 points (from 6 matches), 2: Chelmsford G 42 points (7 matches), 3: Highwood A 38 points (7 matches).
Leading averages div 4 (Played 17+ matches): 1: Will Goodchild (Galleywood C, 15/17 wins, 88%), 2: Cleon Fernandes (Chelmsford G, 15/18 wins 83%), 3: Roger Patient (17/21 wins, 81%).
Division 5
Danbury M sit 12 points clear at the top of division 5 thanks to a 6-4 victory at Anglia Ruskin University. While previous reports had featured the fine form of ARU’s Douglas Bawuah (78% win rate) it was teammate Kelvin Edeh who scored a super hat-trick against the league leaders. Edeh beat both Steve Martin and David Smith by a 3-1 scoreline as well as Ken Wilding by 3-0.
Wilding’s two victories on the night were both come from behind affairs – he recovered from 2-1 down against both Bawuah and Gerald Amuta with teammate Smith beating both players 3-0.
David Parker scored his third treble of the season as his Chelmsford J team won 6-4 at Maldon. Parker beat Kym Eames in three, James Raymond in four and withstood a Shirley Carroll fightback from 2-0 down to win in five games. Carroll and Raymond both won twice for the hosts with teammate Eames unfortunate to miss out in five game matches with Elliot Hawthorne and Jeremy Hill which she lost 12-10 on both occasions.
Richard Pond’s hat-trick led Buttsbury C to a 6-4 away win at Chelmsford H – a result which caused the hosts to lose ground on leaders Danbury M. Pond beat both Peter Davenport and Jason Clark 3-1, Jacqui Smith 3-0, and teamed with Francesca Hart to beat Davenport and Smith 3-2 in the doubles – winning the final two games 11-6, 11-9.
The doubles contest proved to be the turning point of the evening – the fixture was finally poised at 3-3 before Pond and Hart’s win spurred the visitors to then win two of the last three individual matches.
Galleywood D sit in fourth place as they consigned bottom of the table Hatfield Peverel F to their fifth defeat in seven with a 7-3 scoreline. Despite being on the losing side of the result, Hatfield’s Jackie Treacy was the star of the show with wins over Arran Goodridge, Wayne Smithies and Steve Peacock. Treacy’s win over Peacock was the most impressive of the three as she was 2-1 down before winning the next two games by a tight 11-9, 12-10.
Peacock and Smithies won their other two matches with a 3-0 scoreline while Arran Goodridge won his first match of the season 11-9 in the fifth game against Peter Hughes before beating Martin Kilbey 3-1 having been 1-0 down.
Standings div 5: 1: Danbury M 54 points (from 7 matches), 2: Chelmsford J 42 points (7 matches), 3: Chelmsford H 42 points (7 matches).
Leading averages div 5 (Played 12+ matches): 1: David Parker (Chelmsford J, 11/12 wins 92%), 2: David Smith (Danbury M, 14/18 wins, 78%), 3: James Grindlay (Chelmsford H, 9/12 wins, 75%).
Chelmsford Junior League division 1A
The Chelmsford Cougars extended their lead at the top of CJL 1A with a 5-0 home win against the Danbury Dragons. There were another two wins for Amir Chetitah (9/10 wins for the season) and a double for Luka Ha (4/4 wins) though Danbury’s Peter Harverson performed well in taking both Chelmsford players to a deciding game.
The Buttsbury Bears recovered from losing the first two matches of the night to beat the Chelmsford Tigers 3-2. Chelmsford’s Ben Robinson beat Callum Walker 3-1 in the opening encounter and teammate William Guilloux doubled the visitors lead with a 3-0 win over Thomas Lewis. Lewis recovered to beat Robinson over five games – a match which saw Robinson square the score from 2-0 down, and Walker beat Guilloux 3-1 to make the overall match score 2-2. Walker and Lewis then got the better of Guilloux and Robinson 3-1 having found themselves one game down.
Standings CJL 1A: 1: CTTC Cougars 26 points (from 6 matches), 2: Buttsbury Bears 16 points (from 5 matches).
Leading averages CJL 1A (Played 6+ matches): 1: Sami Osman (CTTC Cougars, 6/6 wins), 2: Amir Chetitah (CTTC Cougars 9/10 wins, 90%).
Chelmsford Junior League division 1B
Hutton Hawks continued their march towards winning CJL 1B with a 4-1 victory at the Chelmsford Panthers. The Hawks have won an astonishing 27 of their 30 individual/doubles matches so far this season and two wins apiece from Billy Andrews and Jago Ware kept up that momentum before a rare loss in the doubles encounter with Sky Reeve and Tim Kaziev. Reeve and Kaziev showed great spirit and nerve when overturning a 2-1 deficit to win the last two games 12-10, 17-15.
The Buttsbury Bulldogs retained second spot with a 5-0 victory over the Chelmsford Jaguars. Vivaan Babbar and Lewis Woods both won two matches each with Woods’ matches with Ethan Li and Sean Kwan both going the distance. Li held a 2-1 lead before Woods was able to take the next two games, while Kwan took an epic fourth game 16-14 to level the match before Woods was able to win the decider. Babbar and Woods teamed up to edge past Li and Kwan in the doubles encounter having been 2-1 down.
Standings CJL 1B: 1: Hutton Hawks 27 points (from 6 matches), 2: Buttsbury Bulldogs 18 points (from 6 matches).
Leading averages CJL 1B (Played 6+ matches): 1: Jago Ware (Hutton Hawks, 7/8 wins, 88%), =3: Charlie Gould (Hutton Hawks) and Ryan Peiris (CTTC Leopards) both 5/6 wins, 83%.
Chelmsford Junior League division 1C
The Hutton Harriers remain top of CJL 1C following a 5-0 victory at home to closest contenders the Chelmsford Rhinos. Thomas Hall won both of his matches 3-0 while Archie Giles battled to a 3-2 win over Archie Spurrier having been 2-1 down.
Spurrier was back in action for the Chelmsford Pumas a couple of days later and won both of his games in a 3-2 victory at the Buttsbury Bats. Spurrier won each of his matches by a 3-0 scoreline with Taylor Cumber also earning a win for the visitors. Spurrier and Cumber could not prevent a spirited fightback by Shay Coughlan and Rayhan Sudheer in the doubles who lost the first two games 11-4, 11-2 to go on to take the last three games 11-7, 11-8, 12-10.
Standings CJL 1C: 1: Hutton Harriers 21 points (from 5 matches), 2: CTTC Rhinos 16 points (6 matches).
Leading averages CJL 1C (Played 6+ matches): 1: Louis Marsan (CTTC Rhinos, 5/6 wins, 83%) =3 Archie Giles (Hutton Harriers) and Taylor Cumber (CTTC Pumas) both 4/6 wins, 67%.