The Onslow Table tennis Club’s 2011 Championships concluded recently. The finals night saw some new names on the Club’s honour list following some upsets.
The evening started with the semi finals of the men’s singles. In the first, Jim Pandelidis, playing as though the net was 2 cm above the table, smashed top seed Malcolm Wong out of the game winning 4 sets to 2. Try as he might Malcolm simply had no answer to Jim’s attack. In the other semi, second seed Mat Hobbs and Bob Bell arm wrestled for 7 sets before Bob won the decider.
In the final, Bob Bell having learned from the semi, managed to keep Jim from attacking with well placed and aggressive pushes and took out the title 4 sets to 2.
Diane Taylor beat Michelle Kan 4-0 in the women’s final. Diane now has a history of 56 Onslow open titles, including an amazing 25 singles titles.
In the men’s doubles, Malcom and Mat got some consolation beating Bob Bell and Paul Escott, while Jim Pandelidis and Diane Taylor beat Virgil and Michelle Kan in the mixed doubles final.
In the Over 40s final played the previous week, Mat retained his title from last year to beat Malcolm 3-1.
Adam Slocombe beat Mats Olsthoorn 3-0 in the junior boys singles. In the doubles Adam & Jacob beat Mats & Axel 3-2 in a close 5-setter.
In the Junior Club, Rhune Pettitt and Kimberley Kan won singles events and Adam Slocome
and Daniel Phillips the doubles title.
-Kevin Haines
Also on Onslow, Malcolm Wong wrote up some of the history of the Onslow club after the slideshow below.
End of an Era at Onslow Table Tennis Club [almost!]
Paul Escott and Kevin Haines have a combined Onslow membership of 100 years. These two very long serving committee members, with over 90 years committee service between them, have retired from the nightly running of the senior and junior nights at the end of the 2010 season. They are still on the Onslow Committee.
The Onslow Club was formed in 1934 and meets at the Ngaio Town Hall (since 1936) on Thursday nights and junior night on Friday. Gerald Bell won the club’s first NZ Title when he won the Men’s Doubles (1935) with Hec Pyle. Marie Tracey won the NZ Women Singles (1945) and her brother, Peter Tracey won the NZ U16 Boy’s Singles (1946). Audrey Hughes was the star, winning the NZ Women Singles (1947), Doubles (1948) with A Knight and Mixed Doubles (1948) with Russ Algie. She also won 3 NZ U18 Girls Singles (1945-47) and 2 NZ U16 Girls Singles (1945-46). Val White won the NZ Women Doubles (1959) with Mary Anderson.
Paul Escott is a well known and respected table tennis coach. He coached Wellington Teams at the NZ Championships (1975-2005) He also coached squads in Manawatu, Wanganui, Wairarapa and Buller (where he discovered Maxine Goldie). His Wellington Junior Boys Team (David Williment, Lloyd Richards, Richard Williment, Grant Taylor) won the NZ Boys Teams Title in 1977. There were 3 Onslow boys in the NZ U18 Boy’s Rankings twice and David Williment was the Number 1 ranked NZ U18 Junior Boy 3 years in a row (1976-78). Paul coached the Raroa Intermediate School Team (Andrew Budden, Mark Freeman, Edward Szeto) to win the NZ Primary and Intermediate Schools Tournament in Timaru (1993).
Paul attended the First Asian Table Tennis Union Coaches Assembly (1975) at Lake City, Otsu (Japan) together with James Morris (Northland), which had a major positive influence on his future coaching. He was selected as the coach for the first NZ Junior Team to the Australia Junior Championships in 1978 and was the NZ Junior Coach to Australia for 5 of the six years (1978-83). Paul developed, through one to one coaching, NZ Junior Representatives David Williment, Richard Williment, Robert Kerr, Tony Radford, Robert Chung, Andrew Hubbard, Chris Hickling, Jeremy Hickling, Michael Blackmore, Shane Laugesen, John Cordue and Evan Kramer. Of these players Tony Radford, Andrew Hubbard, Shane Laugesen and John Cordue were selected to represent NZ at the World Championships. Hubbard and Laugesen have won the NZ Men’s Singles Title and have been ranked Number 1 on the NZ Men’s Ranking. John Cordue was the Number 1 ranked NZ Man in 2009.
Paul served on the Wellington Committee for many years and was President of the Wellington Table Tennis Association (1997-2001). Paul was also the first President (2002-2003) of Table Tennis Wellington, when the Wellington and Hutt Valley Table Tennis Associations merged. He was the Wellington Organising Committee Chairman for the NZ Championships and World Junior Circuit Tournament (2003). Paul is a National Umpire and Referee. He has been the Referee for many Wellington Opens, the NZ Veterans Championships (2008) and the NZ Championships (2008). Paul is a Life Member of the Onslow Table Tennis Club, Wellington Table Tennis Association and the Ngaio Tennis Club where he coached juniors for 20 years.
Kevin Haines came from a table tennis family. His father, Jack Haines joined the Onslow Club in 1944 when he moved to Ngaio. Jack won the Onslow Club Singles twice and the Doubles on 5 occasions. He served on the Onslow Club ( Life Member) and Wellington Association Committees. Kevin started playing in primary school and was a Wellington Junior Representative. He is a Life Member of the Onslow Table Tennis Club and is the current Table Tennis Wellington Treasurer.
Kevin was also heavily involved in the Onslow Cricket Club (Life Member) and had the 9th best run aggregate (6015) when he retired. He served as Onslow Cricket Club President, Chairman, Captain, Secretary and Treasurer. He was awarded a North Wellington Volunteer Service Award (2009).
-Malcolm Wong
Next week is the last regular-round play. Tuesday October 4th will be the 1st team vs. 2nd team finals night for all senior grades. Feel free to come even if you are not playing!
