The re-launch of the Belmont TT Club was a great success on the 29th of April getting 10 junior players along including 2 girls that had never played before. The club has high hopes in boosting the grass roots participation numbers within TTW and therefore increasing the chance of a future champion or two.
To get the Club up and running again meant a lot of discussions with the council over storage of tables and venue availability, we luckily got around these obstacles unscathed. An issue we were faced with was finding all the tables that had belonged to the Club all those years ago, but to no avail. We have literally begged, borrowed and stolen equipment to re-launch the Club which we are sincerely grateful to the table tennis community in helping us. Nets came from Waterloo and Tables are on loan from both the Association and the Empire Club. I have been very impressed with the clubs attitudes and willingness to help the Belmont Club out.
Now we are up and running we have the challenge of being able to put together interclub teams in as many grades as possible. Any willing players out there?
The Belmont Club is on every Friday night @ 6-8pm for all junior players and 8-10pm for senior players. We play out of the Belmont Memorial Hall, Belmont Domain, 5011 (juniors $3, seniors $5).
—Stephen Hirst
The Belmont Memorial HallDirections: Belmont Memorial Hall is on the eastern side of the Western Hutt Road (SH2) by Belmont School. Exit to Fairway Drive (Kennedy-Good Bridge) but take the first right (don’t go over the bridge).
The 2011 Silver Trainng squad has been underway for a few weeks now. Credit must be given to last years coach Andrew Hubbard for the high standard of play and of attitude of the players in the sqaud. Training is on Thursdays 5 to 7pm and Sundays 2 to 4pm.
We have been working towards the North Island Table Tennis Tournament which will be held on Saturday the 30th of April
Players traveling to the tournament are: Ian Wang, Gareth Telfer, Henry Stoupe, Sean Hanson, Liam Cambell and Angela Chapman.
These Championship are being held in Palmerston North from 29 April to 1 May 2011.
Entries Close 8 April 2011.Entry fees payable with entry – details at above and on the forms.
The Manawautu Association advise that the published timetable is a proposed one. They may be adjusted when the number of entries is ascertained.
They will email entrants when finalised, so do not forget to include your email address on the entry form. The start times will also be published on the web site.” – TTNZ
Remember that this Summer Interclub is a trial of the 2-person format. There will be advantages and disadvantages… keep this in mind as you go because at the end we’ll round-up everyone’s thoughts and see where to go from there.
This Saturday: an emergency relief international track meet at Newtown Park, 5-6:30pm. Although entry to the event is absolutely free, The Salvation Army will be collecting donations for the earthquake relief appeal. The meet will feature perhaps the best line up of international milers seen in New Zealand for decades and will also play host to the presentation of Nick Willis’ Olympic silver medal.
The New Zealand Masters Games (4-13 February, 2011), a multi sports event, started in Wanganui (1989) and alternates between Wanganui and Dunedin. Dave Welch has organised the table tennis from the beginning, which is held at Jubilee Stadium. Dennis Galvin (Waitemata) and Robert Dunn (North Harbour) have been to the table tennis at all the Games in Wanganui.
Six gold medals to Raewyn Young and Ian Talbot
Raewyn Young made a clean sweep of the Over 35 and Over 45 individual events, winning the Women Singles, Women Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Ian Talbot was a member of the winning Over 35, Over 45 and Over 55 teams. He also won the Men’s Doubles in the same age groups. Other Wellington players to win gold medals were Bryan McConnochie (4), Chris Talbot (3), Depak Patel (2) and Graeme Sole (1).
Teams events (Wednesday- Friday, 9-11 February)
Over 35 Teams finalists: Gold – Bryan McConnochie, Chris Talbot, Ian Talbot; Silver – Paul Solt, Depak Patel, Raewyn Young
In the Over 55 teams, Bryan McConnochie and Ian Talbot retained their title winning all their matches. In the Over 45 teams Chris and Ian Talbot won their fourth consecutive title in a close final 3-2 against Depak Patel/Raewyn Young. In the Over 35 teams, the Talbot brothers and Bryan McConnochie won the final 4-1 against Depak Patel, Raewyn Young and Paul Solt. This was also the Talbot brothers fourth consecutive title.
A player collapsed from heat exhaustion in the late afternoon, during the teams event. He went to hospital and was later discharged. This happened despite him drinking plenty of water during the day. It was a reminder that players must listen to what their bodies are telling them.
Saturday was the longest day with play finishing at 10.30pm. This was due to allowing people to enter both the Over 35 and Over 55 events. In the Over 35 Men’s Singles final Shane Wilson (Wanganui) beat Ian Talbot 3-0 which was a repeat of the 2005 final. A great 43rd birthday present for Shane, who was the 1993 Wellington Open Men’s Singles winner. Charly Talumepa (Manawatu) won the Over 45 Men’s Singles beating Chris Talbot 3-2. Gerard Lucas (Sri Lanka) retained the Over 55 Men’s Singles 3-2 against Ian Talbot. Gerard also won the Over 65 and Over 70 Men’s Singles and won the most gold medals for table tennis (7).
Doctor Gerard Lucas, a retired paediatrician, was the former Sri Lanka number 1 (1965) and national team member. He had wins against the visiting Pakistan national champion, the Russian ranked number 2 player and Chinese players. In 1967 he won the All India Men’s Doubles, with P V Gopalakrishnan. At the World Masters Games in Edmonton, Canada (2005) he won the Silver medal in the Over 55 Men’s Doubles.
The Women Singles was won by Raewyn Young (Over 35 and Over 45), Val Scarr (Over 55 and Over 65) and Annice Robottom (Over 70). A certain international umpire was 65 on Sunday. She will be umpiring at the World Championships held in May, in the Dutch city of Rotterdam.
Can’t remember what a table tennis ball looks like? You need to get back into interclub! Summer interclub is starting at the start of March. We had the composite teams in spring, and again something different for summer: 2-player teams (with best-of-7 matches). This format is used elsewhere (e.g. Auckland use it for all their regular season divisions) and has some advantages over 3-player format.
Start: March 2 (Wednesdays)
End: April 6 (may vary according to entries) Entries close: Feb 23 (to Bruce: chairperson [at] ttwellington.org.nz)
Entry form and full details: 2011 TTW Summer Interclub Entry Form
The format is 2 singles each (best-of-7) and one doubles (which is best of 7 too unless both captains agree on best of 5). For singles (2-player best-of-7 matches) you get about the same number of sets (8-14) as 3-player best-of-5 (9-15). For doubles, the player who would have played 2 matches plays less while the other two play a little more.
Fees are a flat $7 each ($14/team).
Players must be affiliated to a clubs but can find their own team, cross-club teams are fine. You can enter as a reserve-only if you like.
Stag 3-star balls will be provided.
Points are 2 for a team win, 1 for a 2-3 loss (‘bonus-point’ style), and 0 for any other loss.
Summer competition is a great way to get back into form and this new format should be interesting to try out. The main change being longer matches which I think means:
Fewer upsets. In theory a longer match means less chance of an upset. All the more satisfying when you beat that higher ranked player!
More drama. Coming back from 0-3 to win 4-3 on the cards?
More experimentation. With more games there is more opportunity to change tactics to experiment for yourself or to test an opponent.
Strategy. You are more likely to have to change your tactics during a longer match if your opponent adjusts.
With the collapse of the roof over Stadium Southland due to excessive snow we have been able to secure the ILT Velodrome (part of Stadium Southland) for the 2011 New Zealand Veteran Championships together with the Paul Skelt Hall at Badminton Southland (across carpark from Stadium Southland).
The Velodrome will have a mobile wooden floor installed for Netball and Basketball which we are able to use during Easter. This floor will hold 14 tables. A further 4 tables will be used in the Badminton Stadium (Paul Skelt Hall). Also a wooden floor.
INVERCARGILLis the gateway to the south. Planes fly into Christchurch, Dunedin and Queenstown. Air New Zealand is the only one to fly into Invercargill.
Take an extra one or two weeks to travel south via the South Otago road through the Catlins to Invercargill. Visit Stewart Island by boat, approx 1 hr or fly about 15 min. Visit beautiful Fiordland via coast road through Riverton to Manapouri, Doubtful Sound, Te Anau, Milford Sound, then to Queenstown.
It takes approx 2 ½ hrs to travel to Manapouri, Te Anau or Queenstown, but there are lots to see on the way so allow for more time. Wanaka, West Coast, Mount Cook are all worthwhile taking time to visit.
The final results are posted here (the file is here).
Congratulations to:
Section 1 winners: Pumas (Depak Patel, Jason Giles, Diana Levinson, Scott Higham) Section 2 winners: Bobcats (Graham Sole, Reg Fuez, Adam Xiong)
The composite mix certainly led to a lot of close team results each week, I certainly enjoyed it and I hope you all did! Thanks to Bruce for all the legwork on each night, and Chris Williams for collating the results each week. We’re already thinking up ideas for the next summer competition (later in Feb) so something else interesting is on the cards to trial, let us know if you have any thoughts, things like a 2-player section which has been talked about for a while are on the table, and other possibilities too.
This venue was situated in a south Melbourne suburb next to a lake in Albert Park, where the Formula 1 Australian Grand Prix is held every year.
Over 300 participants from around Australia and New Zealand took part, covering ages 40 to over 80. New Zealand had its biggest team ever with 30 players making the trip over the Tasman.
Four players from Table Tennis Wellington took part in the championships. The Over 50 Mens A team consisted of Depak Patel (captain) and Ian Talbot (both Empire) and Bryan McConnochie from Titan/Kapiti. Raewyn Young (Empire) was the captain of the Over 40 Womens team. The other team members were Joanna Ma (Otago) and Akiko Goto (Canterbury).
Over 40 Womens Teams results:
vs Victoria B
won 11-0
vs Queensland B
won 10-1
vs Northern Territory
won 10-1
vs Western Australia
won 10-1
vs Queensland
won 6-5
vs New South Wales B
won 10-1
vs Presidents
won 8-3
vs New South Wales
won 6-5
vs Victoria
won 6-5
In the final against Victoria, Akiko played the final match against Vicki Carruthers (a very experienced player), who had already lost to Raewyn and Joanna. Akiko was not expected to win but showed great determination to fight back from 2 sets down to win 11-13, 4-11, 11-7, 12-10, 11-8. The NZ team erupted with delight when the last point was won – a truly memorable experience. This team was the first from NZ to win a gold medal in a team event since this tournament commenced 27 years ago.
Raewyn won 70% of her matches and was placed 9th and Joanna was placed 2nd on the Merit List.
Over 50 Mens Teams results:
vs Queensland B
won 8-3
vs ACT B
won 10-1
vs Northern Territory
won 6-5 Bryan won the last match 3-0
vs Victoria
lost 2-9
vs New South Wales
lost 0-11 Was a tough day at the office! Bryan got a set of Paul Pinkevic
vs Tasmania
won 7-4
vs New South Wales B
won 11-0
vs Queensland
lost 3-8 Ian defaulted 2 matches due to injury
Depak won 58% of his matches with Bryan winning 50% and Ian 46%. The team finished a creditable 6th out of 14 teams. (click for the TTNZ article with all the names)
Did you attend a National event: Norths or Souths (team or individual), Nationals Junior or Senior, NZ Vets)? Please return the survey per the email copied below from Tim Seaholme (ttnzar [AT] xtra [dot] co [dot] nz).
Dear Association/Player,
As you know 2010 had in place a trail tournament structure, and the review process for this is underway. TTNZ would love to include your experiences and views on how this has gone and invite you to complete an online survey by following this link:
Your views will help to shape the tournament structure in 2011 so please take the time to complete the short survey. Please complete your responses by Sunday 7th November.
TTNZ hope that you have had an enjoyable year of table tennis, and I look forward to more excitement next year.
2011 Marlborough Open Table Tennis Championships
North Harbour Table Tennis
Table Tennis Wellington 