Volunteer Call-Out – 2025 North Island Open Championships 🏓
📅 11–13 July 2025 | 📍 Te Rauparaha Arena, Porirua
Saturday March 25 9am @ Jubliee Extension, Springvale Stadium, Whanganui. For players 40 years and over (As at 31st Dec 2025), for all details and entry:
At the recent TTNZ AGM dinner TTNZ presented the National Umpire of the Year 2024 award to Averil Roberts for her exceptional service and contributions to national events throughout the year. Be sure to congratulate Averil next time you see her!
A great time in Nelson for the 2024 TTNZ Nationals Teams tournament with Wellington bronze in the Senior Teams Open Men B (Mohsen Kafi, Yau Yang Low, Yufeng Wang) – fending off Otago 4-1 to claim that placing. Plus the Wellington U15 Girls finished third as well (Jayathi Jaiganesh, Ruby Wei-Solt, Zoe Mildenhall) for the bronze! Thanks to TTNZ and also Nelson for hosting this event.
Yufeng had especially notable success also in the individuals with Silver in the B Grade Mens Singles. Yufeng partnered with Ashkay Aneesh (Manawatu) to win another silver in the B Grade Mens Doubles and (joint) bronze in the U19 Boys Doubles.
Thanks also to Saxton Lodge in Stoke where the teams and managers stayed for the duration of the event – it sounds like this was a great setup for us – thumbs up from us.
Congratulations to these local juniors selected for the 2024 TTNZ Central Region squad. This means training camps run by TTNZ in the region (including here). For many of these players it is their first step onto the national stage!
U19/U17 Boys: Yufeng Wang, Tomos Christie, Archit Nanda, Jacob Andrews
U15 Boys: Lucas Yang, Max Davis, Miro Van Dam, Jagger Wilson, Akira Chiba-Gleeson
U13 Girls: Zoe Mildenhall, Ruby Wei-Solt, Samantha Xu, Gracie Te Hiwi, Liana Te Hiwi, Amy Su, Bella Chen
U13 Boys: Andy Li, Sean Chiba-Gleeson, Sam Carmichael, Neil Chen
In the school holidays Zoe Mildenhall was privileged to be selected to attend the Oceania Hopes Training Camp in Auckland.
It was a four day training camp with high level New Zealand coaches and an international coach. She soaked up all the information and her game improved daily.
She won the award from the head coach for best attitude and commitment!
Following the camp she travelled to the Bay of Plenty Open with her Dad and her coach Paul Solt. Her results were very impressive:
- Runner up under 13 girls singles.
- Winner under 13 girls doubles with Karen Looi from Auckland.
- Runner Up under 15 girls singles.
But the best result of the tournament for her was to upset the top seeds and win the
under 19 girls doubles with Karen!
Paul Solt managed to find time to pick up a win for himself in the Men’s B Grade
singles!
Over the weekend the Wellington Team of Manish Ahlawat, Mohsen Kafi, Daniel Rosner, & Depak Patel completed in Auckland at the 2023 North Island Teams event in the B Grade, finishing 6th!
Two of our junior Wellington girls travelled to Christchurch on King’s Birthday Weekend to play in the 2023 Canterbury Open Table Tennis Tournament.
Ruby Wei-Solt got a bronze in the under 13 Girls Singles and Ruby and Samantha Xu also got bronze in the under 13 Girls Doubles! Congratulations also to Paul Solt for third-equal in the O50 Mens Doubles (with Abhay Joshi).
Entries for remaining events:
Qualifier 2 – Wellington – 29th and 30th April – closing date 24th April
Qualifier 3 – Blenheim – 13th and 14th May – closing date 5th May
All information can be found on the TTNZ website events page.
Info: https://www.sporty.co.nz/2023nzvets
Some of the Test Teams vs Australia include some Wellington players:
| AGE CATEGORY | NEW ZEALAND | AUSTRALIA |
| Over 50 Men | Craig Dye (C), Heath Murdoch  | Walter Ly (NSW), Michael Bowrey (ACT) |
| Over 50 Women | Kris Alisch (C), Sabine Westenra | Anne-Louse Stewart (QLD), Rosalie Brooks (QLD) |
| Over 65 Men | Lindsay Ward , Gregg Davey (C) | Jing Peng (NSW), George Abdilla (SA) |
| Over 75 Men | Willie Weinstock (A), Bryan McConnochie | Thomas Samuelsson (QLD), Mick Wright (VIC) |
On Saturday 24th September, the 2nd one day camp for players in the Central Region was held with 30 players attending. An awesome coaching team had a program built on extending the players from the first camp back in July and a productive day was had by all. The camp was organised by Matt Ball with coaches Tim Seaholme, Natalie Paterson, James Wang and Tim Wilson involved.
Summer Interclub
Summer Interclub is now complete! Final results below. Also for the Vets on Saturday April 2 click below for the detail.
Continue reading “2022 Summer Interclub & Wellington Vets”
Enter or come along to watch the upcoming North Island Championships from Friday to Sunday, 16-18 July at the Empire Stadium (Marine Parade, Petone).
For photos and other updates visit TTW Facebook.
RESULTS
The Wellington Veterans Tournament was held with a good attendance of regulars, enhanced by new faces from Upper Hutt and even Dunedin. Over half of the players competed in two age groups, making it a busy day on the tables. Thanks to all who participated and best wishes to those travelling to Christchurch for the NZ Veterans Championships.
| Winner/s | Runner/s Up | |
| Over 40 Singles | Depak Patel | John Gan |
| Over 40 Consolation | Darrell Brown | Zhidong Yu |
| Over 40Doubles | Depak Patel & Zhidong Yu | Darrell Brown & Heath Murdoch |
| Over 50 Singles | Lindsay Ward | Ian Talbot |
| Over 50 Consolation | Bryan McConnochie | Zhidong Yu |
| Over 50 Doubles | Darrell Brown & Heath Murdoch | Depak Patel & Zhidong Yu |
| Over 60 Singles | Lindsay Ward | Ian Talbot |
| Over 60 Consolation | Peter Bloor | Leigh Grinlinton |
| Over 60 Doubles | Peter Bloor & Martin Young | Bryan McConnochie & Ian Talbot |
| Over 70 Singles | David Morris | Averil Roberts |
| Over 70 Doubles | Geoff Brown & David Morris | Averil Roberts & Rod Weston |
Hutt Valley win 1975 NZ Men’s Table Tennis Teams A Grade (24-26 August)
| Place | Team | Wins | Lost | Matches won |
| 1 | Hutt Valley | 4 | 1 | 29 |
| 2 | Franklin | 4 | 1 | 27 |
| 3 | Auckland | 3 | 2 | 28 |
| 4 | Northland | 2 | 3 | 28 |
| 5 | Wellington | 1 | 4 | 19 |
| 6 | Catnterbury | 1 | 4 | 18 |
Hutt Valley
v Auckland lost 3-8
v Northland won 6-5
v Canterbury won 8-3
v Franklin won 6-2
v Wellington won 6-5
| Singles | Played | Wins | Losses |
| Gary Murphy | 13 | 12 | 1 |
| Terry Murphy | 13 | 5 | 8 |
| Murray Borlase | 12 | 3 | 9 |
| Hone Ridley | 3 | 2 | 1 |
| Pat Low | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Doubles | Played | Wins | Losses |
| G Murphy / T Murphy | 5 | 3 | 2 |
| G Murphy / M Borlase | 4 | 3 | 1 |
| G Murphy / H Ridley | 1 | 1 | 0 |
The 1975 Hutt Valley Men’s Team won the NZ Men’s A Grade (Kean Shield) in Christchurch (24-26 August). They were tied with Franklin (4 wins) but as Hutt Valley had beaten Franklin they won the title.
Continue reading “Blast from the Past – Hutt Valley win 1975 NZ Men’s Table Tennis Teams A Grade!”
Table Tennis New Zealand have confirmed the 2020 tournament calendar going forward and one of the first tournaments to take place will be the North Island Championships from Friday to Sunday, 10-12 July at the Empire Stadium.
This will be the biggest tournament locally for some years and it will be quite concentrated over three full days. If you think you may be able to donate some hours or days to help the tournament run smoothly, we would love to hear from you. We need people to help with entering results into the tournament software (easy job, 10 minutes training), monitoring play so we can keep tables occupied and keep on time, helping with the shop, umpiring, coordinating medals for presenting and other miscellaneous tasks that crop up. No skills needed other than being able to get along with people and a desire to want to help.
Announcing the inaugural…
Also here are some upcoming events:
Jun 29-30 North Shore Open Jun 29 Hawkes Bay Open (Napier) Jul 7-8 Central Region Junior, Cadet and Hopes Training Camp (Palmerston North) Jul 7-13 Australian Junior Championships (TTNZ Selected Teams) Wollongong - starring Anna Wilson Jul 12-14 North Island Individual Championships (Wanganui) Jul 20-21 Otago Open (Dunedin) Jul 27-28 Wellington Open Aug 2 CollegeSport Wellington Table Tennis Regionals Individuals (enter by July 25) Aug 3-4 Waikato Open (Hamilton) Aug 7-10 ITTF-Oceania Junior Championships (Tonga) Aug 9 CollegeSport Wellington Table Tennis Regionals Teams (enter by Aug 1) Sep 2-4 NZ Secondary School Championships Sep 7-8 Manawatu Open Sep 28-Oct 6 NZ Junior & Senior Championships (Christchurch)
TTNZ Veterans
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.
Table Tennis Wellington 