Table Tennis Wellington

On Saturday (26 April) I unexpectedly had what turned out to be the privilege of taking five of our Junior players to Wanganui to play in the Wanganui Open.

An unfortunate illness for coach Paul Solt who had organised to take these young men meant an early morning SOS call to see if I could please drive them up and back (in his van) to compete as entered!

So I took Adam Xiong, Frank Fu, Gareth Telfer, Marcel Kurz and Sean Hanson on a road trip to Wanganui and back in a day.

I am delighted to say, that as I told them in the van coming back, I was very proud of the way they all behaved, played and competed and even though it was a competition for individuals they all did Wellington proud. It was a constant question throughout the day as to where these young fellows came from and the older players they competed against in the Open events were very impressed with their skills, attitudes and general demeanour. They were polite to their elders and (mostly – eh Frank) listened when I talked to them about the importance of staying fed and hydrated!

As an added bonus our players came back with a number of placings – and some  prize money jingling in their pockets – though I don’t think any of it will ever be returned to the person who paid their entry fees.

Our results from the tournament were:

Men’s Open runner up:                      Frank Fu

Men’s Open doubles runners up:       Frank Fu and Sean Hanson

Men’s Open Plate winner:                  Gareth Telfer

Under 18 winner:                                Sean Hanson

Under 18 runner up:                           Frank Fu

Under 18 Doubles winners:                Gareth Telfer and Sean Hanson

Under 18 Doubles runners up:            Adam Xiong and Frank Fu

Under 15 winner:                                Frank Fu

Under 15 runner up:                           Adam Xiong

Congratulations to you all and thanks for a great day out.

Gabrielle

(Chairperson, TTW)