UPDATE: MANAWATU OPEN POSTPONED – NEW DATE TBD
The 2013 Manawatu Open is on July 6, 2013 in Palmerston North. Their entry form is [REMOVED AS POSTPONED].
The 2013 Hawke’s Bay Open is on Saturday June 22 (entries close June 18) in Napier. Their entry form is here.
Also, pencil in your diary the 2013 Wellington Open on July 13-14 held at Empire in Petone.
July 17-21 is the TTNZ New Zealand Junior Open Championships in Auckland.
In July are the 2013 Table Tennis New Zealand Junior Championships. This will be help in Auckland from the 17th to the 21st of July. Entries are due June 12. The TTNZ entry form is here.
PS: ** A wrap-up the 2013 19th Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships results from the TTNZ website: here and from ITTF here.
There is also a prospectus for an ITTF Hotspot Training Camp to be held also in Auckland just prior to the Junior Championships (July 15/16) – all junior players are invited.
Also upcoming are two TTNZ basic umpire courses.
The 2013 Counties Manukau Table Tennis Open (8th & 9th June 2013) entry form is here.
The 2013 Canterbury Open Table Tennis Championships (June 2 & 3) entry form is here and also a conditions document.
You may have heard the news at summer interclub but for the record Hui-Ling Vong had great success at the recent ITTF Oceania Hopes Challenge event in Melbourne.
From TTNZ:
The Oceania Hopes Challenge concluded [April 6] in Melbourne with Yang Lun Zhao (Waikato) and Hui-Ling Vong (Wellington) winning both the boys and girls event for New Zealand. Yang Lun and Hui-Ling comfortably won all their matches
3-0.
As winners of the Oceania Hopes Challenge Hui-Ling and Yang Lun will be invited to participate in the ITTF Hopes Week and Challenge at the Werner Schlager in Vienna, Austria from the 9th to 16th June 2013.
Well done Hui-Ling and Yang Lun too!
Full results are here.
From the ITTF Oceania Hopes site:
The ITTF-Oceania Hopes Challenge is a talent identification tournament targeted for athletes aged 11 and 12 Years Old (Born in 2001/02). 2013 is the first year in which the event will be held.
The ITTF story is here – check this out.
No doubt Hui-Ling has some stories to tell you from her exciting trip so feel free to ask lots of questions on Wednesday nights for the next 4 weeks until the end of summer interclub!
May 4/5 is the 2013 Marlborough Open (supported by The Redword Trust) to be held at the SIMCOX STADIUM, Batty’s Road, Springlands, Blenheim. Supported by The Redwood Trust.
ENTRY FORM is here and INFORMATION here.
Entries close on MONDAY 29 April 2013 with Chris Hood, 7 Brian Bary Street, Blenheim 7201. Entry fees with entry please. Maximum family fee of $70.00. Enquiries: hoodfamily [at] ihug.co.nz Phone (03) 578 8330 after 6.30pm or 027 782 6098 (anytime).
Gold Larn Sweeney with Shane Wilson & David Rowan (Wanganui)
Silver Paul Brown, Depak Patel and Raewyn Young
Bronze Chris & Ian Talbot and Bryan McConnochie
Gold Chris & Ian Talbot
Silver Bryan McConnochie with Gerard Lucas (Sri Lanka)
Bronze Depak Patel and Raewyn Young
Gold Ian Talbot and Bryan McConnochie
Mens Singles Bronze Paul Brown
Womens Singles Gold Raewyn Young
Mens Doubles Silver Ian Talbot and Bryan McConnochie
Mens Doubles Bronze Paul Brown and Depak Patel
Womens Doubles Bronze Raewyn Young and Kaye Power (Australia)
Mixed Doubles Gold Depak Patel and Raewyn Young
Mens Plate Silver Tony Rutledge
Mens Plate Bronze Raewyn Young
Womens Social Doubles Silver Nola Burrell and Joy Mozer (now Wanganui but formerly Wellington)
Womens Social Plate Bronze Joy Mozer
Mens Singles Gold Depak Patel
Mens Singles Bronze Ian Talbot
Womens Singles Gold Raewyn Young
Mens Doubles Gold Chris & Ian Talbot
Mens Doubles Silver Bryan McConnochie and Depak Patel
Mens Doubles Bronze Tony Rutledge and David Scott (North Harbour)
Womens Doubles Gold Raewyn Young and Gladys Halford (Manawatu)
Mixed Doubles Gold Depak Patel and Raewyn Young
Mens Plate Bronze Tony Rutledge
Mens Singles Gold Ian Talbot
Mens Doubles Silver Ian Talbot and Bryan McConnochie
Mens Doubles Bronze Tony Rutledge and Jim Jarmin (Manawatu)
Mens Doubles Silver Tony Rutledge and Jim Jarmin (Manawatu)
Overall a big medal haul from the Wellington contingent! And a good time was had by all!
-Raewyn Young
Photos from the Wanganui Chronicle.
PS: The complete set of all results are here.
Congratulations to three local Wellington players who were selected by Table Tennis New Zealand for the 2013 national squads. Be sure to pass on your congratulations next time you see them!
This will be a great opportunity for these players to train at the top next year and reach new levels of play. No doubt some of this will rub off on the rest of us!
Full listings are here.
While on the subject of the top players in New Zealand check out Matt Heatherington’s blog post on Feedback From NZ’s Top Ranked.
Catherine Zhou wins the Over 30 Women’s Singles
Image courtesy of Murray Finch
Successes from Wellington include:
Catherine Zhou winning the Women’s Over 30s Singles.
Catherine Zhou winning the Women’s Doubles with Sarah Hee-Lee (AKL).
Catherine Zhou & Stephen Hirst were runners-up in the Over 30s Mixed Doubles
Also see Matt Hetherington’s blog entries: here and here.
On behalf of all Wellington players congratulations to Catherine and Stephen on their success!
Congratulations to the other Wellington players competing too, I see Frank Fu did especially well to get past the pool stage in the Men’s C-grade.
After some tough battles the Wellington players at the Senior Nationals have completed the team events. The individual events are up next.
A write up of the Men’s title is on Matt Hetherington’s Blog and he also has a write up on the Women’s team title too. Be sure to check those articles out.
Catherine Zhou was drafted into a team with Waikato – see here for match details (the last 2 pages).
For the Wellington Men’s team (Callum Rusbridge, Andrew Rieper, Frank Fu, Stephen Hirst, Paul Solt) they made it into the A grade after winning a tough grading match 4-3 over North Harbour 2. Callum won 12-10 in the fifth set of a tense deciding match! In the A grade they finished 7th of the 8 teams in this (the top) grade which is a great effort. The A Grade match details are here (further down) – but are not complete yet as of the time I write this.
Watch TTNZ for official updates and details of the teams and individual events. It is interesting to also see John Cordue in action – those of us who were playing in the mid 90’s will remember John from his much younger days in Wellington!
Below are some pictures from the Nationals thanks to Gina Connell & Murray Finch.
The annual Wellington vs. Manawatu team challenge took place on September 15th. This year Wellington travelled up to Palmerston North (we alternate) and congratulations to all players who took part. Wellington won overall 5-2 with the overall team result summary below:
The #1 Team won 10-4 (Hayden Tapp, Callum Rusbridge, Catherine Zhou)
Under 18s lost 4-7 (Frank Fu, Gareth Telfer, Ellen Xiong)
Under 15s won 13-1 (Ben Westenra, Charlie Waddy, Sean Hanson)
under 13s won 10-4 (Adam Xiong, Chris Linton, Abram Goh)
Vets #1 won 9-5 (Bryan McConnochie, Ian Talbot, Depak Patel)
Vets #2 won 11-0 (Sabine Westenra, Raewyn Young, Paul Solt)
Vets #3 lost 3-8 (Malcolm Wong, Kevin Haines, Roger Watkin)
Manawatu have posted detailed results for each match-up on their website.
There were 72 competitors at the Saxton Stadium (Stoke) in Nelson for the South Island Open earlier in August. There were 12 tables (where normally there were 8) to meet TTNZ requirements. This meant that the playing area (per table) was smaller than usual, which made defensive play difficult. Later in the day the playing area was widened for finals. Results are on the TTNZ website (with photos here) or from Table Tennis Nelson with the results document posted here.
Much thanks to Donny Harris and Paul Op Den Buysch for all their long hours of work in collating the entries and entering them on the computer. Also to the volunteers (Alan Cuthbert, Graeme Mathieson, David Watson and Malcolm Wong) who set up the playing area on the Friday before the tournament. Considerable time was required as the Table Tennis Nelson Butterfly Tables were taken down, the playing area cleaned and the Stag Tables set up. There is a significant cost to Table Tennis Nelson in using the Stag Tables as they had to pay the freight cost for transporting them to the venue and then returning them to Table Tennis NZ.
Thanks to the tournament organisers for all their hard work in making this a well run tournament. Joachim Kusche (Referee), Henry Redmond (Tournament Manager), Donny Harris and Paul Op den Boysch (Tournament Controllers), and Kay Hazeldine (TTN Secretary). Great scheduling meant play finished at 6.00 pm (Sat) and 5.00pm (Sun). The cafeteria was well run by Karen Holmes and her team ( Nolene Wells and her daughter Katherine, Don and Audrey Harris, and Dianne Watson).
-Malcolm Wong
The results are in from the TTNZ NZ Junior Open (Canterbury) so I am pasting some here (full results will be available on the TTNZ website). Full team results are here.
Great news!
Team results:
And I’ll share the word to the players from TTW Exec Chair, Gabrielle Telfer, after returning with the team:
Well what a great few days we all had – and a medal (or medals) for 13 of our 16 players.
Congratulations to you all. I am very proud of the way you all played and behaved throughout the tournament. You all represented Wellington in a positive and enthusiastic way, and all contributed to a superb team spirit.
Also congratulations from the rest of us to all who made the trip to Christchurch, we’re sure you learned a lot and are looking forward to interclub resuming after the break so show off your new skills!
There were 34 players on the Saturday and 19 juniors on Sunday at Saxton Stadium in Stoke. The oldest competitor was Lionel Wells (91) who had won the NZ Over 45 Men’s Doubles twice (1967-68) with fellow Nelson player, Jack Hall. There was a story on Lionel in the newspaper last year.
Thanks to the tournament organisers, Donny Harris and Paul Op den Buysch. Also to Karen Holmes and her team (Jackie Blanchet, Lisa Op den Buysch and Noelene Wells), who ran the cafeteria.
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Full results are here: 2012 Nelson Open Results.
Men’s Singles, Women’s Singles and Mixed Doubles events were held as best of 5 sets, with Auckland winning all events. I hear that the Auckland contingent consisted of someone who had played table tennis at a club!
Thanks to Malcolm Wong for organising umpires at very short notice for the event. Well done to Chris Williams, Rob Chung, Roger Watkin and Paul Solt for assisting!
Malcolm Wong flew up to Auckland for the recent KVB Kunlun TTNZ 2012 New Zealand Junior & Cadet Open held April 19-22. He was there as one of the official umpires and I hear it was non-stop at the umpire stand for all umpires involved so thanks to all of them! Following is Malcolm’s report along with photos borrowed from various sources. Local Wellington and Belmont player Thom Nguyen represented New Zealand at this event.
Results and details are on this page on the TTNZ website and on the ITTF website.
This tournament was held at the Auckland Table Tennis Stadium at Newmarket, Auckland. There were 82 participants (46 boys and 36 girls). Most were from New Zealand (37) and Australia (23).Other countries were The Cook Islands (8), Kirabati (3), Hong Kong (2), Malaysia (2), New Caledonia (2) Singapore (2) Norway, Solomon Islands and Thailand.
Only 6 umpires were available for all 4 days, with a few more on Saturday only. This meant the umpires were required for all rounds from 9am and finishing 9pm for the first 3 days. Play on the last day finished at 7pm. So it was a very tiring experience for the umpires. On the first day I umpired 8 team matches. I umpired the finals of the Cadet Boys Teams, Junior Girls Oceania World Championship Qualification, Cadet Girls Doubles, Junior Boys Doubles and the Junior Girls Singles.
Thom Nguyen was Wellington’s sole player at this tournament. He won a Bronze Medal in the Junior Boys Team as a member of New Zealand B (with Daniel Lowe). These two also won the Silver Medal in the Junior Boys Doubles.
-Malcolm Wong
PS: A great news story on Manawatu umpire Val Scarr is here.
April 28 is the 2012 Wanganui Open, the entry form with details is here.
VENUE: Jubilee Table Tennis Stadium: London Street, Wanganui
Entries close P.M., MONDAY 23rd April 2012 with the Tournament Secretary, Table Tennis Wanganui, PO BOX 29. WAITOTARA 4549. (Phone 06 343 8497 or 06 346 5906) ( e-mail ttw [at] wnet.co.nz)
May 12/13 is the 2012 Marlborough Open, the entry form with details is here.
To be held at the SIMCOX STADIUM, Batty’s Road, Springlands, Blenheim on Saturday 12th May and Sunday 13th May. Supported by The Redwood Trust.
Entries close on MONDAY 7 May 2012 with Chris Hood, 7 Brian Bary Street, Blenheim 7201. Entry fees with entry please. Maximum family fee of $70.00. Enquiries: hoodfamily [at] ihug.co.nz Phone (03) 578 8330 after 6.30pm or 027 782 6098 (anytime).
There were a bunch of players from Wellington competing in the NZ Veterans Tournament – the largest contingent in a long time and it sounds like a good time was held by all!
Wellington Team placings (full results are on the TTNZ site here):
Over 40 Women:
2nd to Wellington (Sabine Westenra, Raewyn Young)
Over 40 Men’s A Grade:
4th to Wellington 1 (Depak Patel, Lindsay Ward, Ian Talbot)
5th to Wellington 2 (Rob Chung, Keith Aldersley, Bryan McConnochie, Paul Solt)
Over 40 Men’s B Grade:
2nd to Wellington 3 (Martin Young, Harry Chen, John Gan)
Over 50 Men’s A Grade:
3rd to Wellington 1 (Lindsay Ward, Depak Patel)
4th to Wellington 3 (Ian Talbot, Chris Talbot)
Over 50 Men’s B Grade:
1st to Wellington 2 (Bryan McConnochie, John Gan)
3rd to Wellington 4 (Martin Young, Paul Solt)
Over 65 Men’s A Grade:
3rd to Wellington (Chris Williams, Bruce Connolly)
Over 70 Men’s B Grade:
3rd to Wellington (Eddie Moore, Merv Allardyce)
Over 75 Men:
4th to Wellington (Eddie Moore, Merv Allardyce)
Individual results are available through here, I’ve copied down the Wellington results here:
Over 40 Men’s Singles plate Winner: John Gan
Over 40 Women’s Singles Runner Up: Raewyn Young – lost 12-10 in 5th set after being 2-0 sets down
Over 40 Women’s Doubles Winner: Raewyn Young and Sabine Westenra (beat top seeds 3-0 in final)
Over 40 Mixed Doubles Winner: Sabine Westenra and Heath Murdoch
Over 50 Men’s Singles plate Winner: John Gan
Over 50 Men’s Singles plate Runner Up: Paul Solt
Over 60 Men’s Singles 3rd place: Bryan McConnochie
Over 65 Men’s singles plate winner: Bruce Connolly
Over 75 Men’s Singles plate Runner-up: Mervyn Allardyce
Congratulations to all players attending the National Vets tournament this year.
Here are some photos from Malcolm Wong:
Note that entries (and payment) for the North Island Individuals to be held at North Harbour 4-6 May close at 6pm on Wednesday 11 April.
The form is on the TTNZ site: here.
There are a couple of great new articles in the press this week on Hui-Ling Vong and also Abram Goh following their results recent ITTF Hopes event in Auckland.
First is one on Hui-Ling in The Wellingtonian: Hui-ling targets table tennis titles which has a nice photo. One of her goals is to be the best player at her club (Belmont) so watch out Belmont – oh wait, that means becoming the best player in Wellington so watch out everyone!
The other one is in the Hutt News: Belmont youngsters rise to top and talked about Hui-Ling and Abram. The classic quote from Stephen Hirst was: “She looked very annoyed with a bronze,” Hirst says !
Stephen Hirst organised and managed a group of juniors that went to the recent Inaugural TTNZ Hopes and Cadets Trials in Auckland on March 25. Results and pictures (click on the “Images” tab) are here.
This is the report from Malcolm Wong on his recent trip to the NZ Masters Games. Malcolm won 6 medals on his trip this year.
This multi sports event was held in Dunedin (4-12 February 2012). The table tennis (4-7 February) was held at the Edgar Sports Centre in South Dunedin. The Netball was also held there at the same time which made for a very noisy environment.
Malcolm Wong won 3 silver and 3 bronze medals. Silver medals in the Over 45 and Over 55 Men’s Doubles with Stephen Craw (Christchurch), and in the Over 55 Mixed Doubles with Patricia Swale (Invercargill). Bronze medals were in the Over 45 and Over 55 Men’s Singles, and the Over 55 Teams with Stephen Craw.
The results are published here.
Malcolm beat NZ Veteran representative Stephen Craw in both the Over 45 and Over 55 Men’s Singles. He lead Wang Qi 2-1 in the Over 45 Men’s Singles before losing 2-3.
The medals were presented by a different person each day. Leigh Gibbs (Games Ambasssador and former Silver fern player & coach), Audrey Fogarty (widow of Bill Fogarty – 1948 NZ Men’s Singles Champion) and Barrie Kendall (Long time organiser of the masters table tennis in Dunedin).
Ngaire Garrett caused the biggest upset when she beat the former NZ Women’s Singles Champion Yvonne Fogarty in the semi finals of the Over 55 Women Singles.
Thanks to the organisers, Stephen Burgess, Graeme Clent and Barrie Kendall for their work in running the tournament.
PS: In 2013 the NZ Masters Games will be in Wanganui Feb 1-10, 2013.
On the TTNZ site the 2011 Rankings are available, click here. The (W)’s in there are:
OPEN MEN
8. Thom Nguyen 
OPEN WOMEN
7. Sabine Westenra
U18
3. Thom Nguyen
U15 Girls
9. Angela Chapman
Congratulations to Thom, Sabine, & Angela!
Summer Composite Round 1 had a few upsets on the night which augers well for an interesting series! The pdf with the team & individual stats is here: 2011 Composite Interclub 1109-Rd 1
Here is a results highlight from team managers Steve Hirst & Gabrielle Telfer.
On that men’s doubles win (Thom Nguyen & Hayden Tapp) you should check out this article by Thom on the Belmont Table Tennis Club site.
Sabine Westenra won the Over 30’s Women’s Singles!
Lindsay Ward was runner-up in the Over 30 Mens Singles (Depak Patel won bronze as losing semi-finalist).
Sabine Westenra and Heath Murdoch won the Over 30’s Mixed Doubles.
Runners up were Stephen Hirst and Heath Murdoch in the Over 30’s Men’s Doubles.
Under 21 Men’s Singles Thom Nguyen was runner up to Phillip Xiao.
C Grade Men’s Doubles runners up, Jeffrey Chin and Delano Lam.
Under 21 Mixed Doubles, Thom Nguyen and Jennifer Tseng (Auckland) were runners up.
B Grade women’s Doubles runners up, Lisa Yue and Natalie Paterson (Manawatu).
Teams Events
Wellington Women Catherine Zhou, Sabina Westenra and Lisa Yue came 2nd.
Wellington Men’s Team 2 of Bryan and Phillip McConnochie, Depak Patel and Paul Solt came 2nd in
the Men’s B Grade.
Sabine Westenra was awarded the Veteran of the Year by TTNZ
There is also some great pics of Wellington players on Matt Hetherington’s Blog which can be found
here.
The Barna Cup for Sportsmanship, etiquette and general behaviour was awarded to Team 3 Robbie
Chung, Kai Xu, Jeffrey Chin and Delano Lam which was judged by an independent panel of students.
The Womens Team narrowly missed out by half a point in the women’s equivalent.
More general results are found on the TTNZ site (click under Events).
Table Tennis Wellington 