At the weekend the river was awash with boats racing in all classes. Perfect conditions of sunshine and breeze kept the many different fleets busy and happy over the three day.
The fortunes of the Maldon & District Cycling Club's racing members have closely followed the weather so far this year: lots of promise, but only a few bright spells. However, when the sun came out at the weekend, a whole range of riders made their presence felt across a series of races. Up until this point, chief bragging rights had been held by Neil Chapman who had quietly racked up a series of minor placings in local road races. Little did he realise when he rolled over the line in fourth place in the recent VC Revolution road race at Abberton, his accumulated points scored to date this season put him at the top of the Eastern region rankings, leading Finchley's Vince Devine by one point. Chapman defends his lead in the next counting event, the Lea Valley road race on the Little Baddow circuit on May 11.
SOUTHMINSTER TENNIS CLUB
It was a relatively quiet week for Southminster Tennis Club in the Chelmsford and District League, with only one fixture to contest after rain forced the cancellation of the Mens 2nds fixture against Grove. And it was the Mixed I that were looking to continue their successful start to the season, with an away fixture against Basildon I. Building on their 7-1 defeat of Stock, the team once again got off to a formidable start, as Philip Anderson and Michelle Sutcliffe swept through their first match 6-1, 6-2, a promising opener by any standard. Jeff Burditt and Sheila Clarke once again proved a reliable pairing as they, despite fierce, hard-hitting opposition, fought hard to take their first set on a tie-break, which seemed to be enough to break their opponents, as they then cruised through the second set 6-1. With a 4 set lead, the pairs then swapped opponents, hoping to finish Basildon off and seal the match. But Basildon were far from finished, as despite the troublesome start, they fought back, and overcame Anderson and Sutcliffe 1-6, 2-6, though this was not enough to save them, as Burditt and Clarke proved to be in a different class to their opponents as they stormed through winning 6-0, 6-0, to claim the night for Southminster by 6 sets to 2.
The T Rippon Mid-Essex League season got under way with both of Tillingham's Saturday teams in action. The first team travelled to newly promoted Chignal and came away with a victory in a low scoring game. The home side batted first and were spared the prospect of facing a lengthy spell from Tillingham's opening bowler when Tom Ford broke down with only four balls bowled. Despite this setback, the rest of the bowlers responded and two wickets for Andy Mee soon had Chignal in trouble. They never recovered and wickets continued to tumble at regular intervals, Mee finished with figures of 2 for 8 from his 12 overs while Chris Rowland returned 3 for 14 from 10 and George Parlour 3 for 21 from 4. Chignal did have the satisfaction of batting through their 45 overs, losing their final wicket in the last over, but could only muster a score of 110. Rob Ashworth showed good form with the bat in Tillingham's reply and he scored 36 but early wickets also fell with Tom Ford (16) the only other batsman in the top six to make double figures. Tillingham's new recruit, Alex Warren, looked good at number four without going on to make a big score. This meant that it was left to skipper Jim Chapman to steady the nerves when he appeared at number seven to see the score through to the winning total in the 42nd over.
On Saturday at Draper's Farm, Maldon 1st XI began the season with a terrific victory against Ipswich and East Suffolk in a game that seemed to be going against them for so long.
Blackwater & Dengie League
Under 9s
Danbury Juniors 2-1 Tiptree Minors Dodgers
THIS is it: the final game of the season and with both teams sitting at the bottom of the table the pressure was always going to be on. There was no denying that Tiptree started well with good controlled passing and strong defending and they kept possession well. A corner well taken by Joe Hart found Connor Murphy who neatly placed the ball in the back of the net to give Tiptree a well deserved lead. Despite some excellent football and chance after chance to increase their score Tiptree were still only 1-0 up at half time. The second half saw a determined Danbury who seemed to be much more into the game than a rather tired looking Tiptree, Jamie Sleet made an excellent early save after not having had too much to do during the first half but Danbury's persistence paid off and they found the equaliser and more importantly for them a second shortly after to snatch the lead. Alfie Alexander was unlucky not to score for the Minors after hitting the bar but Tiptree just couldn't find the equaliser they really needed.
MALDON Town girls' under-16 manager Jon Southgate hailed the performance of his young side at the Southern England Regional Final of the Tesco Cup last Saturday.
The week got off to an encouraging start for Southminster as the Mens II played hosts to Great Baddow IV, who are never an easy opposition. Nonetheless Southminster dominated from the outset, with Steve Foster and Martin Elmslie winning 8-2 in their first tie, and Philip Anderson and Aidan Monk wining 8-3. With John Sutcliffe and Tom Webb also winning 8-5 Southminster were off to a flying start, 3-0 up at the turn. Foster and Elmslie continued to triumph in the second round of matches, defeating their opponents 8-4, while Sutcliffe and Webb pushed Southminster further ahead with an impressive 8-2 victory. Anderson and Monk clearly had the tightest match of the evening as they were just overcome in a tiebreak, making the score 5-1 to Southminster with three matches remaining. The match was now sealed in Southminster's favour, but this didn't mean Foster and Elmslie were going to let up, as they completed a hat trick of wins, this time 8-1 the victors. Anderson and Monk fought back hard and also defeated their opposition 8-1, and with Sutcliffe and Webb just losing out 7-9, Southminster finished the evening the victors by 7 sets to 2, owing to a convincing performance by all involved.
THE 2008 East Anglian Offshore Racing Association season had a somewhat eventful start due to a sunken vessel some 500 metres from the published start line. Following plenty of warnings from the organising authorities and the race office however, all yachts passed the danger unscathed.
Following a rain filled and windy day, Wednesday evening defied the odds and sailors enjoyed a light but constant breeze and sunshine as they raced in the third of the Ferryman Insurance evening series from the Burnham Sailing Club. No RS Elites came to the line this week but the other classes all started. Boats were sent up to Cliff with a circuit around Land's End and then back to fairway 7 & 9 and the finish line. In the 707s Baby Beluga aiming to catch Racehorse by the ultimate mark by working a different shore and the freer breeze had her hopes dashed as the course was shortened for all classes. Zipper had to put in an extra tack for the line which cost her a bit of time and she was around 25 seconds behind Cheetah of Burnham on corrected time. Chorus Line ran hard aground just at the finish line which ended her chances of a win and she eventually got of around 20 minutes later.
STAR potter Ali Carter topped off achieving his first 147 in his competitive career by securing a place in the semi-finals of the 888.com World Snooker Championships.
TILLINGHAM CRICKET CLUB
Tillingham's preparation for the start of the league season this coming Saturday were disrupted when Burnham Sports called off the first team's warm up match. It did mean that the second team were able to fill the spare places in their team for the trip to Rayleigh with first team players looking for a game. The home side chose to bat first and never recovered from losing early wickets, being bowled out in the 35th over for just 87. Tom Ford, George Parlour and Phil Hurst all took two wickets and some sharp fielding led to a couple of run outs. The conditions were not easy for the batsmen and Tillingham did not have it all their own way when it was their turn. Jon Butterwick scored 20 with some well struck shots before a partnership between Andy Mee (22 not out) and Phil Hurst (23) took Tillingham to the brink of victory. The winning run came in the 33rd over with Tillingham 5 wickets down.
Burnham On Crouch Rugby Club took mini and midi squads to Chelmsford festival on Sunday. Whilst the weather was not brilliant attendance was high, as was the standard of rugby played. John Newcombe, Under 7s coach took a squad of 10 who all performed well against tough opposition. They were grouped with teams from High Wycombe, Upminster and Luton. They lost 2 games by 1 try each time and drew the third against Upminster. No trophies this time but everyone enjoyed the day. The squad consisted of Emily Indigo- Carter, Kerensa Newcombe, Dylan Collingbourne, Rory Lee, Toby Warren, Oliver Wylie, Oscar Cowell, Newman Peel, Jayden Pitt, Reece Walters. Kerensa Newcombe also played for Thames Under 8s in the semi final as they were short of players and went on to score a try for them.
Maldon Cricket Club
INDOORS and out, Maldon had a successful end to April. Maldon field an XI on Sundays made up of 1st XI players and promising cricketers from the club's other XIs. On Sunday 27th they beat Clacton in a PDQ Cars N.Essex Premier Division match.
