Recently we had Wellington vets at the TTNZ Veterans tournament and also representing New Zealand in test teams vs. Australia at the TTNZ vets in Taupo (full results). Many Wellington players attended & placings achieved by Wellington players are listed below:
Over 40 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) 3rd-equal
Over 40 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Christine Young, WAIT) 2nd Over 50 women’s singles won by Sabine Westenra
Over 50 men’s singles Lindsay Ward came 3rd Over 50 mixed doubles Sabine Westenra (with Lyndon White, CAN) won
Over 50 women’s doubles Sabine Westenra (with Haiyan Zhang, QLD) 2nd
Over 60 mixed doubles Lindsay Ward & Leigh Grinlinton 2nd
Over 60 men’s doubles Chris Talbot & Lindsay Ward 3rd-equal
In the selected NZ Test Teams vs. Australia we had:
Over 50s women: Sabine Westenra (5-0 to NZ)
Over 60s men: Lindsay Ward (2-3 to Aust)
Over 65s men: Ian Talbot (1-4 to Aust)
Well done to the above and to all the Wellington players who attended!
Anna Wilson vs. Australia
Table Tennis New Zealand is excited to be sending a team of 15 players to the Australian Junior Championships in Wollongong in July after a collaborative agreement was signed between TTNZ and TTA aimed at fostering development. The last Junior Team to participate in Australian Junior Championships was in Queensland in 2010.
From Wellington we have Anna Wilson selected by TTNZ – congratulations from all of us to Anna!
Yufeng Wang in the ITTF Hopes week
The 2019 ITTF-Oceania Hopes (Under 12) Week was held in April in Waikato with local boy Yufeng Wang selected to attend after qualifying in the New Zealand Hopes Open held in Christchurch in January. The young players attend a week long camp headed by Eva Jeler, one of the most decorated coaches in the world.
Division 2: Mo Whare (Belmont)
Runner Up: Terry Hooper (Empire)
also a Doubles was held for Divison 2 won by Maggie Dyer & Peter Lowe (Empire).
Division 3: Ian Thomas (Waterloo)
Runner Up: Cayden Larson (Empire)
Thanks to everyone who played – regroup and prepare for Series II – tap the shoulders of those you know who missed out on Series I – Series II will be starting July 29/30 (entries due July 22) and is a great time to get more teams in or adjust teams from Series 1 as required. See you then!
As a reminder for the Premier folks, 2 September will still be off due to the National Secondary School’s Champs.
The Mike Flynn Memorial Award is awarded to the most improved junior in Table Tennis Wellington for the previous year also including attitude, cooperation and respect for others. We would like to congratulate Ellen Xiong as the winner of the award for 2013! As well as her excellent play and friendly attitude, her work on the Waterloo club committee has been greatly appreciated by Waterloo and beyond. Ellen Xiong, 2013 Mike Flynn Memorial award winner (presented by Bruce Northover)
Let me leave you with some recent pictures from the Summer interclub currently in progress…
After a number of years of discussion for a stronger interclub competition, The Wellington and Hutt Valley Associations reached agreement to have a combined Premier Grade. The top 4 teams from each association were placed in the Premier 1 Grade and the next 4 teams into the Premier 2 Grade. Matches were played at the Newtown Stadium (Wellington) and the Empire Club (Petone).
The Premier 1 Grade was won by Empire, undefeated with 13 wins and one draw, who were 6 points clear off runner up Onslow. This was despite Onslow having the top 2 players in the singles averages, Peter Miller and Lloyd Richards. Lindsay Ward is the only player from Premier 1 still playing interclub today. Current Table Tennis Wellington Life Member and committee member Bruce Northover played for Waterloo B.
Premier 2 was won by Empire A. After the final Round Titan had 22 points and 110 Matches. Empire A had 20 points and 111 matches. Under the then rules, as Empire A had won the most matches, a playoff was necessary against Titan. Unfortunately for Titan their top player Murray Coppen was unavailable and Empire won easily. Tony Rutledge is the only player from Premier 2 still playing interclub today. Tony Radford (Johnsonville) was a future NZ Men’s Representative.
The result summary and singles averages are here: Premier 1 and Premier 2.
-Malcolm Wong
Thanks to the Empire club for these photos: 1981 Premier 1 winners Empire (Hone Ridley, Pat Low, Anthony Arraj) 1981 Premier 2 Winners Empire A (John Lelliott, Chris Clegg, Tony Rutledge)
Let me know of any name spelling corrections at interclub. The first night is this Wednesday, see you there!
Team Listings
Division 1
Belmont A: Callum Rusbridge & Martin Murdoch Empire A: Depak Patel and Paul Brown Empire B: Chris Talbot and Ian Talbot Belmont B: Cath Zhou & Larn Sweeney Empire C: Raewyn Young and Sabine Westenra Empire D: John Gan and Jason Giles
Division 2
Empire E: Bryan McConnochie and Tony Rutledge Belmont C: Frank Fu & Chun-Kiet Vong Empire F: Martin Young, Paul Solt and Harry Chen Waterloo A: Gareth Telfer & Sean Hanson Waterloo B: Scott Higham & Adam Xiong Empire G: Matthew Hobbs & Russell Buchanan
Division 3
Empire H: Isaac Noanoa and Graham Sole Waterloo C: Martin Xiong & Ellen Xiong Empire I: Vladmir Vysotskiy, Mo Whare and James Stewart Empire J: Merv Allardyce, Arindom Choudhury and Darren O’Brien Belmont D: Abram Goh & Hui-Ling Vong Waterloo D: Jacob Gates & Reuben Reid
Division 4
Belmont E: Jason Zhao & Allan Carson Belmont F: Charlie Waddy & Shikhar Parijat Empire K: Reg Feuz & Ian Grace Waterloo E: Chris Sutton & Ian Thomas Belmont G: Jeremy Traub & Nicholas Baucke
Division 5
Waterloo\Empire: Marius Lukkonnen & Jimi Nelson Belmont H: Angus Horan & Regan Craig Belmont I: Alex Tam & William Tam Empire L: Tyler Guthardt & Mason Tangatatai Empire M: Chris Beeston & Jacob Rattray Empire N: Adam Archibald-Mason & Hugh Pawson
May 15 Premier 1 & 3 grades commence (Tuesdays)
May 16 Premier 2 & 4 grades commence (Wednesdays)
May 30/5 Junior Grade Commences
June 28 – July 16 School holidays (no interclub play, Junior Nationals)
July 17 Premier 1 & 3 grades continue
July 18 Premier 2 & 4 and Junior grades continue
Sept 4 Grade champs for Premier grades (1st vs. 2nd teams in each grade)
Every year a winner is selected for the Mike Flynn Memorial Award. This is awarded to the most improved junior in Table Tennis Wellington for the previous year also including attitude, cooperation and respect for others. (According to the rules of this award, an individual can only win this award once.)
Here is the previous winner for 2010 Delano Lam (Waterloo Club) presented by TTW President Paul Solt: Delano Lam, 2010 Mike Flynn Memorial Award winner (right)
And the 2011 winner Gareth Telfer (Waterloo Club) with TTW President Paul Solt: Gareth Telfer, 2011 Mike Flynn Memorial Award winner (right)
Congratulations to our recent and all winners of this award and also Waterloo Club!
Hi folks, after the usual late rush of entries and fiddling to get seedings near-enough, here are the actual draws for Summer Interclub from Wednesday February 29 through April 4. Thanks to Bruce for getting it all together.
Grades A and B are split into two sections with a playoff between them on the last night. Grade C has a 1v2, 3v4, 5v6 playoff on that last night.
As an overview on what table tennis is on and when during the summer period here is some information. (If you have any info to add please comment or let me know.)
Summer Interclub
Summer interclub (team competition, a bit more casual than the main winter interclub season) is broken into two distinct (unrelated) phases, first the Composite Interclub (see here and here). Second the ‘pre-season’ (late summer) summer interclub round with a format to be determined. For more details watch this blog or keep in contact through your club.
Your club
Some clubs remain open with a small break, others close for a summer break. Consider visiting a different club every now and again – chances are you’ll play people you’ve never played before.
Waterloo: starts again early March (probably the first week).
Onslow: starts again late March.
Tawa: Porirua East School, 8 Martin Street, Porirua East (turn right to hall prior to parking area). Operates from 7pm each Wednesday night April to October.
Titan: open through the summer except for 4 weeks off from mid December. Key hire for the Newtown stadium is available too, contact Table Tennis Wellington.
Belmont: running until the 25th of November and is starting up again in the middle of March.
Karori: finishes November 21, starting again late February or early March, to be determined.
Empire: The the last Monday night is Dec 12, the last midweek – Tuesday Dec 20 then opening casually from Jan 17 (officially Feb 2), and the last Junior club is Friday Nov 11. Opening dates for Mondays & Fridays to be determined.
Moonshine & Victoria University: – refer to club contact information here.
For more details or for other clubs refer to the club contact information here.
Exercise
Summer is a good time to start and get into a regular fitness pattern, if you find one that fits your schedule and you can enjoy it, then you’ll be more likely to keep it up through the whole year (um, this is do as I say, not as I do). I remember talking to a veteran player who noted that he would tend to win more often as the winter wore on, as other people got less fit! A fair-weather runner like myself will be one of his easy victims come Composite Interclub…
Elite squad coach Stephen Hirst recommends: “… it is always good in the off season to build your base fitness, i.e. lots and lots of cardio, skipping, running running and more running. As you get about 2 months out before the season starts I liked to taper off the running and start to replace that with more speed work like shuttle runs between two cones 20 metres apart. Start introducing more strength stuff with weights like squats for your quads. My favourite was jumping over a wooden bench traditionally found in schools 3 x 1 minute, it really kills you but gets you very explosive for the start of the season. Also continue this exercise throughout the season… This is all I used to do and can highly recommend it.”
My tip: paint the fence – if it worked for The Karate Kid it will work for you.
At least get out there and mow the lawn…
Helping
There are probably a hundred unpaid volunteers of some kind that help run and facilitate table tennis in the Wellington region. If you’re not already one of this bunch, think of something you enjoy doing that could contribute in any way. Put your name forward!
There is probably a table tennis table at one of your friend’s houses – go there and play and give them a lesson. Nothing will give you more pleasure. Just don’t forget to bring your own bat otherwise you’ll be battling to a 15-all deuce in the 3rd set against their 11 year old son because trying to topspin using their pimple-out no-sponge half-torn up left-in-the-sun fly-swatter only leaves you looping directly into the carpet at your feet.
The ulterior motive is that you could have some more people to bring along to your club. Lend them your real bat or a spare and open their eyes to what it is all about.
Summer project?
You might not have space for a table-tennis table in your own house but…
make a mini table tennis table… then become the best in the world.
Congratulations to the winning teams, some close results on the Finals night:
Senior grades:
Premier 1: Belmont Bananas (Callum Rusbridge, Thom Nguyen, Hayden Tapp) 6-3 winners over Titan
Premier 2: Empire Dangerous (Chris Williams, Bruce Connolly, Uy Tang) – a nail-biting 6-5 win over the Waterloo Wizards
Premier 3: Karori Kometz (Darrin Carmichael, Ben Westenra, Reg Fuez) 6-4 over Empire Xiong, reversing an in-season loss to Empire Xiong.
As a wrap-up, all results and the team finals results are at “2010 Winter Interclub Results” (in a nutshell, congratulations Waterloo Wasps/Prem 1, Waterloo Wizards/Prem 2, and Karori Kometz/Prem 3!). We also had the Prem 2 and Prem grade champs (singles and doubles) with these results:
Prem 3 Singles Elias Villanueva bt Luke Falvey
Prem 3 Doubles Elias Villanueva/Vladimir Vysotskiy 1st, Jack Ho/Luke Falvey 2nd , Maggie Dyer/Margaret Cloughley 3rd in a round-robin where there had to be a count back on points, to separate the three combinations, after they all won one contest in five sets!
Prem 2 Singles Tai Zhu bt Matthew Hobbs
Prem 2 Doubles Tai Zhu/Graham Sole bt Tristian Alay-ay/Hayden Kirkbeck.
Here are some pictures from the Prem 2 night after I brought my camera down (must do more often…):
Congratulations to all interclub players, a great season all-round with some close results in the end leaving some results in the balance until the last night! Thanks to Stephen, Diane, Bruce, & Paul for their hard work in keeping the wheels rolling and the results posted.
Tuesday Sep 14: Premier 1, 2 and 3 Team Finals:
Prem 3 Final: Karori Kometz (winners of Series 2 round robin) v Empire Tsunami (on equal points with Empire Tornado but make the final on a count back by one game!).
Prem 2 Final: Waterloo Wizards (winners of Series 1 & Series 2 round robin) v Karori/Titan
Prem 1 Final: Waterloo Wasps (winners of Series 1 & Series 2 round robin) v Titan/Kapiti
Premier 2 & 3 Grade Championships:
Tuesday Sep 21, Premier 3 grade champs – open to all Premier 3 players (except the three main players in Empire Advancers promoted from Premier 3 to Premier 2 for Series 2).
Wednesday Sep 22 Premier 2 grade champs – open to all Premier 2 & 3 players (except the two players promoted from Premier 2 to Premier 1 for Series 2).
The Empire Table Tennis Stadium opens at 6:30pm in each case, matches start 7pm.
National news… Thom Nguyen from the Waterloo club has been selected to represent New Zealand in the Boys’ team at the world junior championships, congratulations! This will be in Bratislava, Slovakia from 4-11 December 2010.
The Waterloo Junior Club is based out of the Waterloo School Hall in Waterloo. The junior club night is every friday from 7.00-9.30pm. On Friday May 7 TTW coach Andrew Hubbard made a visit to the club. Waterloo club coach Alan Costley commented that the club has been running well with full attendances. He is being assisted in the running of the club by Brian Pearson and Premier player Steve Chapmen. Andrew commented on the improvement seen in many promising young players including Sean Hanson, Rueben Reid and Jessica Pearson. Andrew also took note of the talented ‘Chapmen’ sisters Samantha and Angela.
Table Tennis Wellington 
