TABLE TENNIS
By KATRINA BRANDON
PROGRESSING from a friendly in-house competition to an inter-association tournament, South Gippsland table tennis teams made their way to Traralgon Table Tennis Association on October 18.
Wonthaggi and Leongatha table tennis associations joined to challenge Traralgon in a friendly competition, with six tables in action: four from Leongatha, two from Wonthaggi, and six from Traralgon.
After practice around 9.30am, the teams gathered at 10am for the official start.
Traralgon Table Tennis Association Club President Mark Strini welcomed everyone to the premises and said it was great to host the newly set tournament.
Overall, despite the heat, the tournament was a success, with all players giving it their all and giving spectators incredible matches to watch.
With the home-team advantage, Traralgon Table Tennis Association won the overall title, 36 games to South Gippsland’s 30. Both sides finished the day with three rubbers each.
On the first table, Traralgon’s Heath Sposato, Saxon Long and Mark Strini faced Wonthaggi’s David Kimmins, Warren Wilson and Luke Hiddle.
The results don’t tell the whole story. Table One featured most games going to three sets. Despite this, the three-set matches were close, including Long’s game against Kimmins.
The first two sets were identical, with Long and Kimmins neck and neck, and Kimmins tipping the scales in his favour both times, winning 12-10 against Saxon. Set three came a bit “easier” for Kimmins, with Saxon unable to compete against Kimmins’ game, losing 11-6.
Later, Long was taken to five by both Wilson and Hiddle, who unfortunately knocked over the games in his favour.
Strini and Wilson also saw a close game, with Strini a step ahead.
Strini started strongly against Wilson, taking an 11-1 first-set lead. In the second set, Strini wasn’t so lucky.
Coming back with a new approach to Strini’s game, Wilson changed tactics, which threw Strini off. During the second set, Strini was unable to match the changes that Wilson had thrown at him, leaving Wilson to win the set 11-3.
In set three, Strini fought back against Wilson, with both swapping up their games. Unfortunately for Strini, Wilson still came out in front with an 11-8 win.
With the end in sight, Strini gave it his all against Wilson, knowing it could be the last set. Fortunately, Strini’s efforts pushed him in front with an 11-5 win.
Down to the final set, both teams kept looking for each other’s weaknesses, with Strini pulling ahead to win 11-8.
Traralgon ended up winning Table One, 7-4 rubbers.
Table Two saw Traralgon’s Brent Causon, Tynen Long, and Charlie Boyd face Michael Steenbergen, Charley Donohue, and Nick Bartone.
Taking the opposite approach to Table One, the second table saw all games up top go to four or five sets, with three-set matches down the bottom.
The strongest games were between Causon and Steenbergen in the first-round singles and the first doubles, Causon and Long against Steenbergen and Donohue. Both matches went to five sets.
Both players started the day strong, with Steenbergen and Causon neck and neck in each set. In the first set, Steenbergen got ahead, winning 11-9.
Both players played it close to the vest, and Causon knocked off the second set, 12-10. It was almost like they were giving each other a go at winning a set.
Now over to Steenbergen to win another set, the two almost repeated the first set, with scores mirroring each other, but the rallies were drawn out. Steenbergen won the third set 11-9.
In the fourth set, Causon flipped the game, with Steenbergen feeling the punch of Causon’s game. Causon won the fourth set 11-8.
Entering the fifth set, the two continued to fight for every point, swapping and changing their games, but Causon won 12-10.
Over to doubles, the game wasn’t quite as close as Causon and Steenbergen’s, but it was still just as thrilling.
Long and Causon started strong against the Wonthaggi duo, Donohue and Steenbergen, who won the first set 11-7 and the second 11-5.
Moving into the third set, this is where everything changed. Donohue and Steenbergen built pressure in the third set, and the Traralgon duo were thrown by the change of pace, losing to the Blues 7-11.
Still not out of danger, the Wonthaggi duo applied more pressure with a new line of defence, kicking Traralgon back 6-11.
Unfortunately for Wonthaggi, the efforts to come back from a two-down loss were a wasted effort as Traralgon won the final set with a smashing 11-6 win.
Fortunately for Wonthaggi, the team won nine rubbers to two.
Table Three featured Traralgon’s Steven Warr, Mick Warr, and Peter Gomez against Leongatha’s Michael Chang, Allan Robic, and Trent Beggs.
For this table, two games presented the exact same scores just re-arranged. Both the doubles between the Warr brothers against Chang and Robic presented almost the same as the singles between Steven and Robic.
Putting in everything he had, Steven left no wriggle room in the first two sets against Robic, winning the first set 11-6 and then 11-9.
Gradually building up his game, Robic had worked his way into the third set, pushing Steven to work harder. Robic took the third set 11-8. After changing up his game to challenge Steven’s weaker spots, Robic came back from a two down loss to win two sets each, with an 11-7 win.
The impressive revival saw the final set between Robic and Steven being only a few points apart from each other. With the additional pressure of the fifth set, Steven tipped the scales in his favor, winning 12-10 against Robic.
Traralgon won Table Three, nine rubbers to two.
Table Four featured Traralgon’s Jeff Pollard, Guri Soni, and Alan Griffin against Leongatha’s Sven Gebele, Neil Chilver, and Tobias Mager.
Table Four saw a close match-up, with Leongatha taking the lead six rubbers to five.
Only one match on this table made it to five sets, but still provided tough, close three and four set matches that would have spectators off the edge of their seats.
The one and only match that went to five was between Chilver and Soni, which saw a similar fight between Robic and Steven. Soni started off really strong with an 11-6 win and then 11-2.
Going into the third set, Chilver swapped up his game, putting more defensive pressure on Soni, which threw him in the game.
Winning the third set 11-8, Chilver pushed harder in the fourth set, ensuring Soni had to play his game instead of his own. Chilver won the fourth set 11-4.
Unfortunately for Chilver, Soni had worked his way around Chilver’s game in the fifth set, beating him 11-6. Fortunately, this was not enough to give Traralgon a leg up against Leongatha.
Table Five featured Traralgon’s Nic Evans, Sharon Collins, and Geoff Thomas against Leongatha’s VB, Vince Brennan, and Katrina Brandon.
Unlike other tables, Table Five saw all but three matches go to four or five sets.
The most impressive game was seen between Collins and Brennan, who saw back-to-back numbers in each set. Right out of the gate, both players gave it their all despite the heat of the day.
Collins took the first set against Brennan, 11-7, playing a tough attack game between the two.
Jumping into the second set, Brennan pushed harder against Collins, keeping that game constantly on the edge.
Despite efforts to push past Collins, Brennan lost the second set 10-12, taking in everything from the first two sets into the next game.
Finally making his way past Collins, Brennan broke in front, winning the third set 14-12. All out of steam, both players went into the fourth set, with eyes on the end of the game. Brennan took his final chance to continue the match, taking the fourth set 11-9 against Collins.
As the end came to a close in the fifth set, Collins gave one last push against Brennan’s defence, taking the win 11-6.
The one win for this table came from VB against Thomas, who won 12-10, 11-9 and 16-14. While matches for Table Five were incredibly
close, Traralgon won 10 rubbers to one overall.
Finally, Table Six featured Traralgon’s Noel Burns, Tung Phen and Henry Frannsen against Sarun Dowling (Bomb), Ghun Phokaphol and George Dragecevic.
Only one game on this table went to five sets: Dragecevic vs Frannsen.
Traralgon’s Frannsen started the game strong, taking the first set 11-5 against Dragecevic.
After swapping sides, Dragecevic returned to the table with a new strategy, which helped him take the second set 11-9 and the third 11-5.
Feeling the game slip away, Frannsen decided to switch up his game in the fourth set to buy time to beat Dragecevic. The change in style benefited Frannsen, as Dragecevic was thrown off by the sudden shift in direction.
Frannsen won the fourth set 11-8, leaving it all to the final set.
The two kept the final set really close, with Dragecevic and Frannsen pulling out everything they had. Fortunately for Dragecevic, Frannsen couldn’t quite get past the final challenge Dragecevic set for him. Dragecevic won the fifth set 11-9.
Leongatha claimed Table Six, with an eight-to-three rubber win.
