January 2019

2018 Oceania Tour Tournament – Christchurch (10-11 Nov)

Mixed Doubles presentation. Gary Williams (TTNZ Chairman), Lisa Yue (WGN), Rohan Dhooria, Parleen Kaur, and Yi-Sien Lin (Tournament Director)

21 Men and 9 Women entered this tournament. There were singles, doubles and mixed doubles events. From overseas were Rohan Dhooria (AUS), Vicki Wu (FIJ), Wang Qi (FIJ) and Gary Nuopula (SOL) in the men’s competition. Also Jian Fang Lay (AUS), Parleen Kaur (AUS), Grace Yee (FIJ) and Loata Neli Duncan (FIJ) in the Women’s competition. This is one of a series of 6 Tournaments in Oceania.

The others are in Tonga (Nuku’alofa) 29-30 June, Australia (Gold Coast) 25-26 August, Fiji (Suva) 8-9 September, Tahiti (Papeete) 3-4 November and Vanuatu (Port Vila) 9-10 February 2019. The players, in the singles, earn points towards qualification to the 2019 Oceania Cup Tournament.

Joachim Kusche and Alan Moore were the Referees. There were 12 umpires, with only Ron Garrett (Southland) and Malcolm Wong (Wellington) not from Canterbury. They were International Umpires Alan Moore, Ron Garrett, Hamish Rennie and Malcolm Wong. National Umpires were Mimi Walle , Akiko Goto and Gregg Davey. The other umpires were Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg, Suniko Yoshioka, Ruhi Advilker, Ulrike Kusche and Steve Moore.

The schedule was light for the umpires. On the Saturday I umpired a mixed doubles match between Nathan Xu/Jiayi Zhou and Wang Qi/Loata Neli Duncan won by Xu/Zhou 3-0 (6, 7, 3,). Also the Women Singles Group A which was won by Jian Fang Lay, with Jiayi Zhou 2nd and Lisa Yue 3rd. Play finished at 4pm on Saturday.

On the Sunday I umpired the last 16 Men’s Singles match between Teng Teng Liu and Simon Fenwick won by Liu 4-0 (3, 6, 1, 2 ). Then the Women Singles Semi Finals between Jenny Hung and Jiayi Zhou won by Hung 4-1 (3, 7, 8, -9, 3 ). My last match was the Women Doubles (Last match in a round robin of 3 pairs) between Parleen Kaur/Jiayi Zhou and Zhiying Cheng/Lisa Yue won by Kaur/Zhou 3-1 (3, -3, 5, 13 ). Play finished at 4.45pm on Sunday.

Lisa Yue was the only player from Wellington. She was 3rd in her Women Singles group. She had another chance of qualifying as the 3 third place players in the groups were put into the Women Singles Stage 2 Qualification Group. Lisa won the group to qualify for the Quarter Finals where she lost to Jenny Hung 4-0 (3. 3, 3, 2 ). Lisa, with Zhiying Cheng, lost both her Women’s Doubles matches (Round Robin of 3 Teams). In the Mixed Doubles, Lisa with Kelsey Amor, reached the finals where they lost to Rohan Dhooria/Parleen Kaur 3-0 (6, 4, 8).
Other final results (below).

Men’s Singles
    Teng Teng Liu (NZL) beat Rohan Dhooria (AUS)
    4-1 (6, 5, -9, 5, 2)
Women Singles
    Jian Fang Lay (AUS) beat Jenny Hung (NZL)
    4-0 (2, 3, 8, 7 )
Men’s Doubles
  Dean Shu/Nathan Xu (NZL) beat Rohan Dhooria (AUS)/ Paul Innnes (NZL)
  3-2 (-4, 8, 8, -7, 10)
Women Doubles (Round Robin)
  1st Paurleen Kaur (AUS)/Jiayi Zhou (NZL)
  2nd Loata Neil Duncan/Sally Yee (FIJ)

-Malcolm Wong

Mixed Doubles presentation. Gary Williams (TTNZ Chairman), Lisa Yue (WGN), Rohan Dhooria, Parleen Kaur, and Yi-Sien Lin (Tournament Director)

Standing: Gary William (TTNZ Chair), Malcolm Wong (Ump), Grant Wilson (Media and Broadcast Liason). Seated – Yi-Sien Lin (Tourn Dir) and Joachim Kusche (Tourn Ref).

January 18, 2019

The tournament was held for the first time in Australia in Bendigo, Victoria. It is a city of 95,587 population (June 2016). Bendigo was a former gold rush boom town (1850s). The tourist attractions include the Central Deborah Gold Mine and the Golden Dragon Museum which is dedicated to the history and culture of the Chinese people who immigrated to the region.

Bendigo is 91 minutes (135.3 km) away from Melbourne Airport. The venue was Bendigo Stadium and held on 8 tables with live streaming on Tables 1 and 2. There were 4 Referees and 35 Umpires (19 from Australia). Malcolm Wong was the sole New Zealand Umpire at the tournament. The umpires were provided with 4 short sleeve shirts and 2 long sleeve shirts, sponsored by Li-Ning (China).The umpires were accommodated in apartments at Quest Bendigo, as was the New Zealand Boys and Girls Teams. Unfortunately Quest Bendigo was miles away from anywhere. Malcolm was in an apartment with Jonathan Whitaker (Scotland) and Bruce Doughty (Australia). He had previously umpired with Jonathan at the 2009 Commonwealth Championships (Glasgow). Malcolm umpired mainly with Jonathan Whitaker (3 days) and Ben Cao (China) for 2 days. He also umpired with Rahul Jaiswal (India) and Mark Patane (Australia). There was air conditioning in the Stadium. Temperature outside reached 39 degrees Centigrade.

In team matches Malcolm umpired Australia v Singapore (Boys) won by Singapore 3-0 (Table 1) on 2 Dec. Also Belarus v Brazil (Girls) won by Brazil 3-2 (Table 6) on 3 Dec. And Poland v Singapore (Boys) won by Singapore 3-2 (Table 4) on 4 Dec. China won the Boys Team Final v Japan 3-0 and the Girls Final v Japan 3-1. See here for all results.

Malcolm umpired players from 20 countries. In the Boys Singles Quarter Finals he umpired Xu Haidong (China), the Boys Singles and Doubles winner. Also the Mixed Doubles Quarter Finals he umpired Xu Yingbin/Shi Xunyao (China) who would win the event. Shi was also the Girls Singles runner up and Girls Doubles winner. China won all 5 individual titles.

The umpiring schedule meant the lunch and tea breaks were often late. Malcolm had lunch once at 3.15pm and tea once at 9.10 pm. 8 days is a long time to be umpiring. Malcolm was also on racket control duty twice. Averil Roberts, formerly from Wellington, and now living in Melbourne (Australia), umpired the Junior Girls Doubles Final.

The NZ Girls Team finished 3rd out of 3 teams in Group 1. NZ lost to the Russian Federation 3-0 and to Belarus 3-1. Hui Ling Vong beat Marharyta Baltushite (BLR) 3-1 (11-9 13-11 7-11 11-6). For team positions 9 to 16 NZ lost to France 0-3. They then beat Australia 3-0 (team position 13 to 16) with Hui Ling Vong beating Parleen Kaur 3-1 (11-8 3-11 11-5 11-8). NZ finished 14th when they lost to Belarus 3-0 in the playoff for team position 13 to 14.

In the individual events Hui Ling Vong lost all 3 singles matches to finish 4th in Girls Singles Group 16. Her best match was against Anastasi Bondareva (Germany) who won 4-2 (11-8 8-11 11-9 12-10 6-11 11-9). In the Girls Doubles she and Jianyi Zhou lost 0-3 (9-11 5-11 4-11) to Jokic Tijana /Sabina Surjan (Serbia). In the Mixed Doubles with Nathan Xu, they beat Nikhill Kumar/Rachel Yang (USA) 3-2 (9-11 14-12 11-3 10-12 11-2) in the Round of 64 before losing to Guilherme Teodora/Bruna Takahashi (Brazil) 0-3 (7-11 7-11 5-11).

An after tournament function was held at the All Seasons Hotel (Bendigo) on the evening of Sunday Dec 9, which was attended by many officials, coaches and players.

Thanks to the Oceania Table Tennis Federation who organised the tournament. Also to the volunteers. I was meet at Melbourne Airport and directed to the mini bus that took me to Bendigo. There was a continental/cooked breakfast at the hotel. Lunch and tea was provide at Bendigo Stadium. There was a bus from the hotel to Bendigo Stadium every half hour from 7.40 am to 7.40 pm and from the Stadium to the hotel from 8.30 am to 8 pm.

It was a great experience to be at the World Junior Championships. Meeting new people and umpiring many exciting matches.

-Malcolm Wong

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Officials Photo – 2018 World Junior Table Tennis Championships (Bendigo, Australia) 2-9 December.

Standing (Back Row) Samuel Miller, Shaun Koh (SGP), Pak Hong Lee (HKG), Evgenii Klykovski (RUS), Klara Vaculovicova (CZE), Jan Vrabec (CZE), Bruce Doughty, Mark Patane, Kirsty Whitaker (SCO -Volunteer), Kameron Chan, Stephen Gillespie, William Almasi, Joseph Fung, John McMullan, Ahmad Almasri (JOR).
Standing (Row 2) Tatiana Kamenskaya (RUS), Hau Yi Lau, Rahul Jaiswal (IND), Cyril Sen (MAS -Evaluator).
Seated (Row 2) Ben Cao (CHN), Paul Schiltz (LUX – Evaluator) Neil Montfort, Malcolm Wong (NZL), Glenn Errington, Marie Pinkewich, David Villalta (ESA), Boggdan Barrientos (GUA), Insook Park (KOR), Mijung Bong (KOR), Wing Au.
Seated (Front Row) James Lew, Jonathan Whitaker, Averil Roberts, David Delpratt (Deputy Referee), Steen Anderson (DEN – Referee), Niwat Semangern – (THA – Deputy Referee), Yini Yang (CHN – Deputy Referee), Yuka Braun, Arnold Puts, Jock McNeil, Satheese Attoor (IND).
NB: Umpires (light blue Shirts), Referees (Dark Blue Shirts). Only country abbreviations for non Australians officials.

Club Champs – roundup + Onslow report

We hope you are enjoying your summer, it’s been a good one so far while most of us have the table tennis bats in storage and summer interclub is perhaps a month away from starting to get teams together (watch this space). Last year clubs were having end of season championships and results for your interest are below (will add to this as we gather more):

Titan

* Champ: Lindsay Ward
* Doubles: Lindsay Ward & Bryan McConnochie

Empire

* Champ: Depak Patel, also Depak & Paul Brown are the doubles champions

Karori

* Champ: Mr Wong (not Malcolm) with runner-up D Robinson, in the doubles: champions Reg Feuz and Karn Tabernacle with runner-ups: Dave Robinson and Danny Yee.

Onslow

* Champ: M Hobbs with runner-up M Wong (see below) & doubles: M Hobbs & M Wong.

Waterloo & others (TBD!)

Also Malcolm Wong had submitted this report after the Onslow club champs:

2018 Onslow Club Championships

The Onslow Club Championships were held at the Ngaio Town Hall on Thursday nights (20 & 27 September and 4 October).

The Over 40 Singles (20 September) had 2 round robin groups of 4 won by Matthew Hobbs and Malcolm Wong. The group winners and runner ups qualified for the semi finals. In the Final Matthew Hobbs beat Malcolm Wong 3-0. Matthew had previously won 2010-2012.

The Men’s Doubles (4 October) was won by Matthew Hobbs/Malcolm Wong against Isagani (Inag) Alamani/ John Haswell 3-0. It was Malcolm’s 9^th Men’s Doubles Title (2007-10 with John Gan and 2011-2013, 2015, 2018 with Matthew Hobbs) which equaled the record of John Warrington (1987-95). John had won with Robert Chung (1987-88) and Keith Aldersley (1989-95).

The Men’s Singles had 2 round robin groups of 4 (27 September) won by Matthew Hobbs and Malcolm Wong. The group winners and runner ups qualified for the semi finals (4 Oct). In the Final Matthew Hobbs beat Malcolm Wong 4-2. Matthew had previously won the Singles in 2012.

Dianne Taylor beat Pauline Northrup to win the Women Singles (4 Oct) 4-0 for the 29^th time. She has also won the Women Doubles (15) and the Mixed Doubles (18). Unfortunately the Women Doubles were not held this year.

The Mixed Doubles (Oct 4) was won by Isagani (Inag) Alamani/ Dianne Taylor against John Haswell/ Pauline Northrup 3-2.

The club’s breakup was held on October 10. Thanks to Virgil Kan and his daughters, Michelle and Kimberly, who have been running the Junior Club and Club on Thursday night.

– Malcolm Wong