All details here… be in to win! To enter watch here.
The 2024 Wellington Veterans Open took place on 16 March and was enhanced by the best turn out of players for many years. Joining the locals were seven players from other Associations and they added to the occasion with their presence and play.
In the morning, the Over 50 and Over 70 events were held and got things off well before the Over 40 and Over 60 events provided much of interest in the afternoon. Of particular note was the Over 40 Singles which saw chaos in the round robin phase with a number of matches going against the seedings making for a slightly unusual look to the post section phase. There were also some excellent doubles during the day which featured close finishes and made for good watching.
Generally, there were events which saw many competitive matches, demonstrating that we had a number of players of a similar good standard, ensuring an anything but boring day’s table tennis. Congratulations to the winners and also to all the others who participated in a good day. Thanks also to Maggie Dyer who put in her usual high quality day.
| Winner/s | Â Runner/s Up | |
| Over 40 Singles | Daniel Rosner | Darrell Brown |
| Over 50 Singles | Depak Patel | Harry Chen |
| Over 60 Singles | Zhidong Yu | Harry Chen |
| Over 70 Singles | Tony Rutledge  | David Scott |
| Over 40 Doubles | Daniel Rosner & Sabine Westenra | Ben Collins & Swapneel Dias |
| Over 50 Doubles | Ian Talbot & Lindsay Ward | Heath Murdoch & Depak Patel |
| Over 60 Doubles | Ian Talbot & Zhidong Yu | Tony Rutledge & Martin Young |
| Over 70 Doubles | Kerry McGeehan & David Scott | Averil Roberts & Tony Rutledge |
The first Summer Competition designed for individuals rather than teams has finished after an interesting five weeks. With the match format each week being based on accumulated points from previous weeks, it provided players with different challenges to move up the table from week to week.
The final week saw Manish Ahlawat extend his almost unassailable lead and finish comfortably ahead of his nearest challenger, Yang Low. There was an interesting tussle for the bronze medal with up to half a dozen possibilities, dependent on the various wins and margins on the night. Even after most had left, two or three were in with a chance. In the end, it was Jacob Hawker who with several very good wins, outshone the competition to finish ahead of Depak Patel and Darrell Brown.
Thanks to all those who participated, particularly those who lasted the distance. I hope you enjoyed the format.
-Kevin
We have some tournaments coming up too:
- TTNZ Regional Qualifier 2 on the weekend of 9 & 10 March (entry but see below).
- The 2024 Wellington Veterans tournament on Saturday 16 March (entry).
- The 2024 Wellington Autumn Open on the weekend of 4 & 5 May.
Also note the TTNZ Vets in Taupo (29/3-1/4), for entry in a team ping us directly (for individual events enter here). See here for all the details on the TTNZ vets event.
More generally, for events across NZ check out the TTNZ Calendar.
The TTNZ Qualifier event is part of a series of tournaments set up by TTNZ to provide high level competition for current and prospective New Zealand representative candidates. It is designed to assist with selections for New Zealand teams and training squads for players eligible to represent New Zealand.
As a result, there are criteria which apply to players entering this tournament. Please read through the Prospectus below which goes through the criteria and which also has the in depth details of the tournament itself. If you have any queries about the criteria, please contact TTNZ. I am happy to handle queries about the tournament structure.
Entries for these tournaments are via the Tournament Planner website only. The March tournaments are already available for entries. The details around timetables and other conditions can be found on the website.
This annual Veterans event hosted by the Manawatu Veterans Table Tennis Club will be held on Saturday September 30. It is open to anyone over the age of 40 (as of Dec 31, 2023). It will be held at Barber Hall Waldergrave Street, Palmerston North. Enter (by Sep 27) per the form below.
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).
**RESULTS**
* Men’s Singles Timothy Choi bt. Matthew Ball 11-4, 11-2, 7-11, 5-11, 12-10, 11-9
* Women’s Singles Lisa Gear bt. Sai Shruthi Murali 12-10, 4-11, 11-7, 11-6, 11-3
* Men’s Doubles Matthew Ball & Max Henderson bt. Kelsey Amor & Andrew Palmer 11-7, 11-2, 11-4
* Women’s Doubles (round-robin) Tracey Hsia & Sai Shruthi Murali, runner-up: Gemma Buzzard & Maia Cavanagh
* Under 19 Boys Singles Timothy Choi bt. Payas Jajal 11-7, 11-8, 11-8
* Under 19 Girls Singles (round-robin) Jocelyn Lam, runner-up: Mei Mun Teh
* Under 13 Boys Singles Oscar Du bt. Lucas Yang 11-6, 10-12, 12-10, 11-9
* Under 13 Girls Singles (round-robin) Tracey Hsia, runner-up: Grace Looi
* Under 15 Boys Singles Payas Jajal bt. Ethan Yin 11-8, 11-5, 11-9
* Under 15 Girls Singles Jocelyn Lam bt. Lisa Gear 8-11, 10-12, 11-9, 11-5, 11-6
* Over 40 Men’s Singles Depak Patel bt. Daniel Rosner 11-9, 11-3, 7-11, 11-9
Per-event result-summaries here
Below is all the info the upcoming Wellington Vets tournament!
ENTRY: TTNZ Tournament Planner
Venue: Empire Table Tennis Stadium, Marine Parade, Petone
Saturday March 18
8:45 AM Over 50 or Over 70 (enter one of, not both)
1:00 PM Over 40 or Over 60 (enter one of, not both)
Report at least 15 minutes before the above time.
Each age group has singles and doubles events. Doubles pairings can be MM, FF, or MF.
Singles events cost $15 each. Doubles $5 per player per event.
Entries close 11.59pm Tuesday March 14 via TTNZ Tournament Planner or direct as in the conditions document below.
Pay on the day or direct payment to “Table Tennis Wellington” at Westpac 03-0558-0038972-00 (if using direct payment, please reference “TTW Vets” and your name).
Congratulations to Yufeng Wang from all of us, he was selected by TTNZ to represent New Zealand (announcement) at the 2022 ITTF-Oceania Youth Championships! This event will be held in Melbourne Sep 5-10, be sure to give him a pat on the back next time you see him.
Recently, the first of the Junior Development Tournaments for 2022 was held at the Empire Stadium. Numbers were reasonable and the standard of all players who entered was good. There were some very interesting matches played and all players would have benefited from their matches and the experience of playing in a tournament.
The winners and runners up were as follows:
| Winner | Runner Up | |
| Under 13 Boys Singles | Savion Polyblank | Ben Kimber |
| Under 13 Girls Singles | Zoe Mildenhall | Brooke Martin |
| Under 13 Doubles | Ben Kimber & Savion Polyblank | Joel Bennett & Ashwyn Thakur |
| Under 15 Singles | Archit Nanda | Dallas Martin |
| Under 15 Doubles | Aadi Madhavan & Archit Nanda | Jacob Andrews & Alex Thorn |
| Under 17 Boys Singles | Archit Nanda | Ryley Chin |
| Under 17 Girls Singles | Holly Robins | Li-Yin Lin |
| Under 17 Boys Plate | Dallas Martin | Jacob Andrews |
| Under 17 Doubles | Aadi Madhavan & Archit Nanda | Ryley Chin & Kieran Robinson |
Thanks to all the participating players, their family supporters plus Rob Chung, Maggie Dyer and Paul Solt for their assistance. Special thanks go to Bruce Northover for the preparation of some high class certificates which were much appreciated by the recipients.
Matthew Ball (top seed) gold in the open men’s singles 
James Harter (second seed) silver in the open men’s singles 
Open women’s doubles winners Ye Zhai & Lisa Yue 
Open women’s doubles runners-up: Erin Huang & Mei Mun Teh 
Open women’s singles: Ye Zhai (gold) & Sunny Low (silver) 
Open women’s doubles: Erin Huang & Mei Mun Teh (silver); and Ye Zhai & Lisa Yue (gold) 
O30 combined doubles final (won by Matt Ball/Callum Rusbridge, foreground) 
Paul Solt presenting best junior umpire award to Archit Nanda 
Paul Solt with Zoe Mildenhall, U13 girl’s doubles (with Ruby Wei-Solt) 
U15 girl’s singles Shuhan Cao (Silver) & Heidi Liao (gold) 
U13 girl’s singles Shuhan Cao (gold) & Zoe Mildenhall (silver) 
U13 boy’s singles Jarom Erueti (silver) & Lucas Yang (gold) 
U13 boy’s doubles winners Savion Polyblank & Ben Kimber 
U13 boys group pic 
Lucas in full concentration 
Vets group play on Sunday 
A comedy troupe stopped by 
Matthew Ball gold in the over 30s (David Buckrell got silver)
Check out the TTNZ photo album
Thanks to all who attended and congratulations to all including all the new titleholders listed below (see here for full result details)
Continue reading “New World 2022 Wellington Open July 30-31”
Update: the list of all winners & placings are below or click here, congratulations!
For more detail, the individual matches
For full details head over to Tournament Planner.
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”
After an intriguing final night, Manish Ahlawat finished the four week competition on top, thus retaining the title he won last year. Sabine Westenra had a strong last night coming from five points behind to pip Ian Talbot for second place by one point.
Thanks are extended to all those who played in this competition, along with all the other tournaments and competitions that were held in 2021.
Continue reading “November Competition & Central Region Teams Tournament”
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.
The Autumn Open was held on 1&2 May with a very good turnout of local players, plus a good number of quality players from other Associations. Competition was keen across all events with a number of upset results. Mention should be made of many junior players new to tournaments, all of whom performed to a good standard.
Singles results were as follows:
| Winner | Runner Up | |
| Men’s Open Singles | Matthew Ball | Alex Zhou |
| Women’s Open Singles | Sunny Low | Sabine Westenra |
| Men’s B Grade | Jack Webb | Yang Low |
| Men’s C Grade | Ian Talbot | Scott Higham |
| Men’s D Grade | Michael Stechman | James Catto |
| Over 25 | Matthew Ball | David Buckrell |
| Over 35 | Callum Rusbridge | Darrell Brown |
| Over 45 | David Buckrell | Depak Patel |
| Over 55 | Sabine Westenra | Martin Young |
| Under 21 | Alex Zhou | Max Henderson |
| Under 18 Boys | Zachary Wang | Hugo Yick |
| Under 21 Girls | Mei Mun Teh | Yashka Rabichand |
| Under 16 | Yufeng Wang | Akshay Aneesh |
| Under 14 | Akshay Aneesh | Yufeng Wang |
| Under 12 | Lucas Yang | Adam Andrew |
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 |
2020 Nelson Open (19-20 September)
There were 46 entries at the tournament, with players travelling from Canterbury, Marlborough, Otago and Wellington. Only 7 juniors played on the Sunday with no outside players.
Simon Fenwick (C) won the Men’s Singles against Tavish Voight (O) 4-0 (6 1 4 4) and Kris Alisch (C) won the Women Singles against Jackie Wood (ML) 4-3 (-9 -12 7 9 -9 2 7). The Men’s Doubles was won by Craig Dye/Simon Fenwick (C) against Nathan Watson (MN)/Tavish Voight (O) 3-1 (3 -9 4 4).
Sabine Westenra won 5 events. The Open Women Doubles with Kris Alisch (RR3), Over 40 Women’s Singles (RR3), Over 40 Mixed Doubles with Malcolm Wong (RR3), Over 50 Women’s Singles against Marion Wood (ML) 3-0 (2 2 2) and Over 50 Women’s Doubles with Marion Wood against Chris Cole/Patricia Martin (N) 3-0 (5 5 2). She was runner up with Jessie Wilson (C) to Simon Fenwick/Kris Alisch in Open Mixed Doubles 1-3 (-12 7 -7 -7) and lost in semi finals of Open Women’s Singles 1-4 (-8 -9 -11 10 -14) to Kris Alisch. Unfortunately there is no photo of Sabine from the tournament.
Malcolm Wong’s win in the Over 40 Mixed Doubles was his 10th Nelson Mixed Doubles Title (He last won the O40 XD with Glenda Ferguson in 2001). He also won the Over 50 Men’s Doubles with Mark Nalder (N) against Gregg Davey/Alan Moore (C) 3-1 (3 -7 4 11) which was their 10th Nelson Over 50 Men’s Doubles Title together. They were runner up in the Over 60 Men’s Doubles to Gregg Davey/Alan Moore 2-3 (-8 -6 8 4 -5). Malcolm’s best singles result was beating the second seed David Watson (N) 3-1 (9 -9 4 7) in winning his group in the Over 60 Men’s Singles. Malcolm has now won 32 Nelson Open Titles.
Thanks to Paul Op den Buysch, Robin Knight and the other Nelson people who assisted in running the tournament and the cafeteria.
Continue reading “Nelson Open (Travel Report)”Recently a teams tournament, open to teams from Associations in the lower North Island, was held on a November Saturday at Empire. Sixteen teams, each made up of two or three players, took part, five from Manawatu and eleven from Wellington.
The teams were placed in two grades and each grade into two pools of four. A round robin was played within pools and a final round against the team that finished in the same position in the other pool within the grade. Four rounds in a day was a challenge for some, but one that all players appeared to enjoy. Many played eight singles and four doubles in an eight hour stretch and all players kept to a timetable that allowed few rests, but just enough time to enjoy Maggie’s much appreciated catering.
The competition was good with some top rated players on display. Hopefully, this can become an annual fixture on the calendar and one shared around the Central Associations. Thanks to all who participated.
Results – Division One
Winner: The Legends (James Harter, Callum Rusbridge, Hayden Tapp)
Runner Up: Manawatu Green (Matthew Ball, Nathan Watson, Jack Webb)
Third: Egg (Sean Hanson, Hugo Yick)
Results – Division Two
Winner: WFSA (Isag Alamani, Michael Buhia, Michael Onganon)
Runner Up: High Gear (Craig Gear, Scott Higham)
Third: Team Stech (Liam Johnston, Michael Stechman)
Table Tennis Wellington 