TABLE TENNIS
By KATRINA BRANDON
BOOMING streets, squeaky courts and roars of strength bellowed throughout the Gippsland Regional Indoor Sports Stadium (GRISS) over the King’s Birthday long weekend, as hundreds of table tennis country players from all over the state took part in the 73rd Table Tennis Victoria Country Week Championships.
Players raced to the courts bright and early on the Saturday morning to be greeted by Table Tennis Victoria (TTV) chief executive, Gen Dohrmann, and Latrobe City Council Mayor, Dale Harriman, who wished all players the best of luck.
“We are thrilled to be back in the front stadium here at the GRISS,” Dohrmann said.
“It is our centenary, Table Tennis Victoria this year. We are excited to be undertaking significant work around the 100-year mark. This (Country Championships) is part of our eight-year partnership with the City of Latrobe and Destination Gippsland, with this year being the third year.”
Each year, during the tournament introductions, TTV awards the Andrew Wilson Memorial Award to outstanding people in the table tennis community.
The award, named in honour of the late Andrew Wilson, who was a country player who exemplified team spirit and gentlemanly conduct, is awarded to someone who displays those same characteristics.
This year’s winner was Leongatha Table Tennis Club President, Dirk Holwerda.
“I first aimed at Country Week in 1970 when I had been playing table tennis for about two months,” Holwerda said.
“I fell in love with table tennis at that time, and Country Week has always been the thing that I look forward to most. I actually had some role in coaching young Andrew Wilson as he was coming up, and a greater person you could not have met.”
STARTING with A1, Traralgon’s Heath Sposato, Mick Warr, and Stephen Warr were unfortunately unable to bring home a win in each of their rounds due to intense competition.
Winning top spots was Albury Table Tennis Association with four wins and no losses, followed by Bairnsdale with three wins and one loss.
There was no Traralgon teams in B1 and B2.
B3
BETTER luck came to those in the lower sections, with Traralgon’s B3 team of Peter Gomez, Jeff Pollard and Ian Strong coming third.
Round 1 was a steady win for Traralgon as they beat Echuca six matches to five.
From the start, it was a Traralgon win, followed by Echuca, until the last two games. The last games were left to Gomez and Pollard to win, as they were neck-and-neck against Echuca.
Vicious Sunbury Settlers came out in Round 2, cleaning out the Traralgon team 11-0. The Subury team sailed through the tournament, only to be beaten in their last round by Wonthaggi.
A win against Bairnsdale was successive for the Traralgon team in Round 3, as they came out on top seven matches to four. As tough as it gets, the seven wins didn’t come easily, as the team had to fight through four to five sets. If the sets were in three, players pushed through to double digits to try to secure the set.
Winning over the Sunbury Settlers, Wonthaggi was next to play Traralgon in Round 4. Winning nine-two against Traralgon, Pollard and Strong managed to take a win against Wonthaggi’s Nick Bartone, both in three sets. The two Donohues, Mark and Andrew, overpowered the Traralgon trio, with Mark, who also plays for Leongatha, winning top player in the grade.
Finishing the way they started, the Traralgon duo played Geelong in Round 5, winning six matches to five. As the matches progressed, the two teams took turns winning matches, with Traralgon stepping forward immediately after the second doubles, doubling down on the pressure. Powerhouses Gomez and Strong won a majority of their games, excluding the first doubles, which helped break through past Geelong.
C1
THREE for C, as Traralgon’s Jason Comrie, Geoff W Lawn, and Guri Soni placed third in C1.
Round 1 was a blast for Traralgon as they pulled nine matches off from Ballarat Gold, leaving them with two games on the table. Comrie started off the round with a warm-up, dropping off the first game. It wasn’t until the first lot of doubles that the Ballarat team won their second and final game, where Traralgon continuously pulled through.
Yarrawonga was the one to worry about in C1, and Traralgon played them in Round 2, beaten as the matches got tighter. Unfortunately for Traralgon, Yarrawonga won six games to five. This helped Yarrawonga take the win for the whole section.
Traralgon played Sunbury in Round 3, with the results mirroring those of the previous round. Taking their final loss for the weekend, Traralgon took five matches from Sunbury, giving it their all with a lot of back and forth.
Coming back into the game, Traralgon played Bairnsdale in Round 4. Traralgon took the other team six matches to five, with not much room allowed for errors. Coming down to the decider match, the last game of the round, Comrie came through, beating Bairnsdale’s Alan Griffin (who also plays for Traralgon) in four tough sets.
It really wasn’t the weekend for Melton, as in Round 5, Traralgon came through seven matches to four. While the first match appeared optimistic for the Melton side, Traralgon pulled through with the next three singles and took the second doubles, bringing them to the win.
C3
UNFORTUNATELY for Traralgon’s Leonie Degnan, Mark Strini and Riley Winkelman, the team was unable to break through the line-up for C3.
During Round 1, Traralgon had a bye, leaving their first game to the afternoon, which was against Melton. Melton came out victorious in this section, winning eight matches to three. While each point was fought hard, Traralgon couldn’t quite keep up against the other team.
The same fate was met in rounds 3 and 4, with Bairnsdale and Shepparton winning eight matches to three.
Finally, a breakthrough was achieved in Round 5 against Sunbury, which saw Traralgon turn the tables, winning eight matches to three. The win against Sunbury landed the local team in fourth place.
D1
THIS wasn’t the weekend for Traralgon’s Paul Ryan, Norman Cottrell and Leng Xi Wu, as the team landed in fifth place over the long weekend.
Saving the trio from the bottom, Traralgon played a Table Tennis Victoria composite team in the first round, winning nine matches to two.
Round 2 against Yarrawonga and Round 5 against Melton followed similar fates for Traralgon, as both teams ended up losing eight matches to three. Throughout the weekend, both teams fought hard for second place.
Round 3 was a “moo-ving” (TTV’s chosen name for the Leongatha team was Moo Crew) round as Leongatha topped Traralgon in seven matches. From the start, Leongatha’s Aiden Holwerda and Sarun Dowling cracked into action, taking all singles and doubles.
Fortunately for Traralgon, Leongatha’s Domenico (Dom) Murdica wasn’t quite playing his best, sparing the team four matches. At the top of the board, Albury Paddle Rats played Traralgon in Round 4, beating the local trio seven matches to four.
D3
A RELAXING end came to Traralgon’s Saxon Long, Tynen Long and Patrik Wu’s weekend as the trio came second overall, with a bye taking place in the final round and one loss to their platter.
Traralgon played Melton in Round 1, winning 10 matches to one. The surprising loss came from Melton’s Ross Lappin against Traralgon’s Saxon Long in three sets. With a little bit more of a warmup, Long pulled through the rest of the rounds, with the team winning almost with ease.
A tough round comes around once in a while for this duo. In Round 2, the Traralgon team faced Yarrawonga, losing six games to five. Tossing and turning over who would win the section, the number one team in the section scraped through, taking the deciding game against Long in four back-and-forth sets, ending 18-16 to Yarrawonga’s James Loughnan.
Eight matches to three was the final results for both Round 3 against Bairnsdale and Round 4 against Albury for Traralgon, with the team flying through the second half of the long weekend.
E1
DOUBLE-UPS started to occur in the E grades as Traralgon submitted two teams – E1 and E2.
For E1, Gavin Carrigg, Brian J Considine and Sheila Whitehead formed the Ohms, and Noel Burns, Henry Franssen and Ron Winkelman formed the Wattz.
Ohms had a bye in Round 1, whereas the Wattz played Sunbury.
Unfortunately for Wattz, Sunbury won six matches over five. Coming down to the last game, the Traralgon team sadly couldn’t quite match the strength Sunbury had.
It was Traralgon against Traralgon in Round 2, with results mirroring the first round for the Wattz. Ohms came out on top with six matches. It was a steady start for the Wattz before Ohms’ Carrigg swooped in against Wattz’ Franssen in four rough sets, with one set even topping 19-17, which went to Franssen.
While Burns came through winning all of his singles against Ohms, it wasn’t quite enough to take the win for the team.
Wattz had a break in Round 3, where the Ohms played against Yarrawonga, winning 10 matches to one. Yarrawonga’s Sienna Bajada came through three sets to one against Carrigg, but fortunately for Traralgon, it was the only win for the other team in the round.
In Round 4, Ohms played against Melton, winning seven matches to four. Coming through with two wins against Traralgon, Melton’s Oscar F Farmer came through, beating both Carrigg and Considine, and Keedan Evans beating Carrigg. At the same time, Frank Minutoli took a win from Whitehead.
Unfortunately for the Wattz, Yarrawonga proved too strong in Round 4, winning six sets to five. The round wasn’t looking great from the start as Yarrawonga took the first two matches, only for Burns to come through with the first Traralgon win. Towards the end of the round, Franssen was left with the deciding game against Yarrawonga’s Wil Anderson, who was too strong for Franssen.
Easy peasy for Ohms in the final round as they won 10 matches to one against Sunbury. While Sunbury’s Jenna Manning beat Whitehead in four sets, the rest of the team was no match for the Ohms.
Even the Wattz had a round of good fortune in the final round as they played against Melton, winning eight matches to three.
E2
TRARALGON’S juniors are all top-notch, with Maya Gomez, Dhiira Slade and Manan Slade forming the Amps, and Zachariah Dennison, Francis Kariuki and Dylan Wu forming the Chargers, placing in the top two spots for E2.
Traralgon’s Chargers had the bye in Round 1, leaving the Amps to play Melton. The Amps beat Melton 10 matches to one, with Traralgon’s Manan losing a five-set match to Melton’s Seven R Batten.
Ease came to the Amps in Round 2 against Yarrawonga and in Round 4 against Bairnsdale, as they were in full swing, winning 11 matches to zero.
Rounds two and four didn’t come as easily to the Chargers as they did for the Amps, as they scraped through six games to five against Bairnsdale and Melton. While the Chargers had already claimed the win by match nine, the fight for the win was tough.
It was Traralgon versus Traralgon in Round 3, with the victors being the slightly more experienced Amps. The Amps were all charged up and ready to go against their charging namesakes, with Manan only dropping a game to the opposing Traralgon team. A clear 10 matches to one had the Chargers startled from the start, with most games decided either in three or four sets.
For a much-deserved break, in Round 5 the Amps had a bye, while the Chargers faced Yarrawonga, which saw another 10 matches to one for Traralgon as they took on their final challenger for the weekend. The one match was taken by Yarrawonga’s/ Albury’s Michelle Bowd in four sets against Wu.
Both Dhiira Slade and Maya Gomez won the top player award in E2 for winning 100 per cent of their matches.
E3
LEONGATHA felt the ultimate betrayal in Round 1 as their former player, Katrina Brandon, who had been with them for 10 years, played for the competing Traralgon team.
First up was Brandon and Leongatha’s Sam Holt. This year, a change of bats and rubbers has changed Brandon’s game, which confused both Holt and his following team member, Ghun Phokaphel. Holt took a game from Brandon, but couldn’t quite change the direction of the match, which Brandon later took in four sets. Brandon later took Phokaphel in three sets.
The round also marked a reunion between Brandon and Leongatha’s third Trevor Wilson, the pair having played together for many years.
Brandon showed no mercy, beating Wilson in three, which was then followed by beatings from the other Traralgon players. While crying out for a petition to get Brandon moved out of the section (sorry Trevor), uproar could be heard from across the courts.
On the other hand, Traralgon’s Stan Lazaris threw a spanner in the works for the other team, being a left-hander, which has confused many players on their best days. While challenging, Holt took the match off Lazaris in four sets, and Phokaphel challenged Lazaris to a five-set match but couldn’t quite bring home the win.
With neither pimpled bat nor left-handed, Nicki Marchesi pulled through against Leongatha’s team, only losing one match, which was to Phokaphel.
Round 2 proved that one, Traralgon was in the wrong section, and two, they were a powerhouse team, as they swept up Melton’s trio, leaving them with 11 matches to none.
With a bit of luck, Bairnsdale’s Susan Fratczak, Leigh Thompson and Felix Virtue managed to take two matches from Traralgon. Fratczak and Thompson managed to take a win off of Lazaris and Marchesi, but unfortunately for them, it didn’t make a difference against the power duo.
In Round 4, Yarrawonga’s Cameron Brew, Niklas Meredith and Tristan Meredith tried their best against Traralgon, but were once again overpowered, losing 10 matches to one. Despite the defeat, Brew showed some promise against the team, beating Marchesi in four sets and losing to Lazaris in five.
Brandon found life more difficult against Table Tennis Victoria’s composite player Kam Wong, who defeated her in three sets in the final round. It wasn’t an easy battle, but Kam overcame Brandon’s short pimples with longer pimples.
Fortunately for Brandon, Lazaris and Marchesi came out stronger against the composite team’s Jed Anderson and Alessio Rigoli, which secured their final win, bringing the match score to seven matches to four.
Kam Wong and Brandon tied for best player in the section.
This year, 74 teams (about 240 players) competed in the Country Championships.
Gippsland saw 25 of those teams (a third of the field) enter, with 11 from Traralgon, seven from Bairnsdale, four from Leongatha and three from Wonthaggi.
