2010 Winter Interclub Completed & Grade Champs

As a wrap-up, all results and the team finals results are at “2010 Winter Interclub Results” (in a nutshell, congratulations Waterloo Wasps/Prem 1, Waterloo Wizards/Prem 2, and Karori Kometz/Prem 3!).  We also had the Prem 2 and Prem grade champs (singles and doubles) with these results:

Prem 3 Singles Elias Villanueva bt Luke Falvey
Prem 3 Doubles Elias Villanueva/Vladimir Vysotskiy 1st, Jack Ho/Luke Falvey 2nd , Maggie Dyer/Margaret Cloughley 3rd in a round-robin where there had to be a count back on points, to separate the three combinations, after they all won one contest in five sets!

Prem 2 Singles Tai Zhu bt Matthew Hobbs
Prem 2 Doubles Tai Zhu/Graham Sole bt Tristian Alay-ay/Hayden Kirkbeck.

Here are some pictures from the Prem 2 night after I brought my camera down (must do more often…):

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The Talbot Brothers

Chris & Ian Talbot

Ian and Chris Talbot, two well known Empire Premier 1 players, come from a table tennis family. The father, Des, and all the six sons played. The boys started playing in primary school. Ian, Ross, Geoff and Chris won the Wellington Primary Schools Boys Singles Titles. Ross won the Primary Schools Singles three times and was only 9 years of age when he won for the first time in 1965. Ross won the Wellington Senior and Junior Secondary Schools Boys Singles in 1970.

Des Talbot took over the running of the Porirua Table Tennis Club. The family dominated the Club Singles Title. Des, won the title when it was first held in 1969, and also 1975. Ian won in 1970 and 1972-73. Ross won seven times,1971,1974,1977-78 and 1982-84. Murray won 1980-81. Chris won eight time, 1985-92. Only non family members to win were Tony Rutledge (1976) and Steve Corbett (1979). Chris Talbot still has the cup as the Porirua Club folded up after 1992.

The Talbot brothers had their own basketball team in the Porirua league, with Ross and Bryan the stars. Bryan went on to represent Porirua . Ian, Chris and Bryan have run marathons. Ian has run 20 marathons with a best time of 2 hours 29 minutes 16 seconds (London 1981). Ian has also run triathons and been on the Round Taupo Cycle Challenge (160 km) 3 times. Chris played senior cricket for North City and caught NZ opening batsman Bruce Edgar out.

Murray, Ian, Ross and Chris all represented Kapiti at the NZ Championships. Murray, Ross and Chris have all been the top ranked man in Kapiti. After the Kapiti Association folded up Ian and Chris joined the Empire Club. Chris has played Premier 1 since 1994 and Ian from 2000.They were in the Empire team that finished runner up in Premier 1 (2009). They have both won the Empire Club Singles. Chris 5 times (1999-2001, 2003, 2006) and Ian (2005). And together they have won the club doubles 10 times (1999-2006, 2009-2010).

Ian and Chris Talbot have represented New Zealand in the veterans table tennis test against Australia at Easter. Ian has won the NZ Over 45 Men’s Doubles twice, with Lindsay Ward (2003) and with his brother, Chris (2008). They have had much success in the NZ Masters Games in Wanganui. Ian has won 12 Gold Medals and Chris 10 Gold medals.

-Malcolm Wong

Interclub Finals Night & Grade Champs

Congratulations to all interclub players, a great season all-round with some close results in the end leaving some results in the balance until the last night!  Thanks to Stephen, Diane, Bruce, & Paul for their hard work in keeping the wheels rolling and the results posted.

Tuesday Sep 14:  Premier 1, 2  and 3 Team Finals:

Prem 3 Final:  Karori Kometz (winners of Series 2 round robin) v Empire Tsunami (on equal points with Empire Tornado but make the final on a count back by one game!).

Prem 2 Final:  Waterloo Wizards (winners of Series 1 & Series 2 round robin) v Karori/Titan

Prem 1 Final:  Waterloo Wasps (winners of Series 1 & Series 2 round robin) v Titan/Kapiti

Premier 2 & 3 Grade Championships:

Tuesday Sep 21, Premier 3 grade champs – open to all Premier 3 players (except the three main players in Empire Advancers promoted from Premier 3 to Premier 2 for Series 2).

Wednesday Sep 22 Premier 2 grade champs – open to all Premier 2 & 3 players (except the two players promoted from Premier 2 to Premier 1 for Series 2).

The Empire Table Tennis Stadium opens at 6:30pm in each case, matches start 7pm.

International Umpire in our Midst

I talked to Malcolm Wong following the recent 2010 Junior Open:  ”I became a provincial umpire in 2000 as I felt I should know the rules of the sport I played.  Umpiring at the NZ World Junior Circuit Tournament in Wellington (2003) encouraged me to go further in umpiring.  I umpired the world men’s number 1, Ma Long, at this tournament.”

In 2004 Malcolm became a National Umpire, a National Referee in 2007, and then passed the International Umpires exam in 2008.  Last year he umpired at the French Junior Open and the Commonwealth Championships.  After attended and passing an exam at a Racket Control Seminar (5 April) in Auckland he can now  be appointed to be Chief Racket Controller at ITTF Tournaments.

On umpiring at the recent NZ Junior Open (6-9 April) in Auckland:  ”The first three days I was umpiring twelve hours each day, including 21 matches on day one.  A lack of umpires meant I was umpiring virtually every round!

“Umpiring requires a good knowledge of the rules, the ability to concentrate during matches and apply the rules in an impartial manner.” – If you are interested in learning more about Table Tennis umpiring, Malcolm would love to hear from you!

NZ Junior Open 2010 – Cadet Girls Singles Final (9April). Richard Ammundsen (Assistant Umpire) Wong Chung Wan (Hong Kong) Lily Phan (Australia) Malcolm Wong (Umpire).

Racket Control Seminar: Paul Jackson, Steve Reilly (Fiji) Malcolm Wong, Fanny Ho (Australia) Piet van Egmond (Course Instructor – Netherlands) Tomoko Fukudo (Japan) Bryan Yan Jennifer Tang, Daniel Fan

Attached: Malcolm’s Report on Racquet Control Seminar and New Zealand Junior Open 2010

2010 Marlborough Open

There were players from Canterbury (C), Marlborough (M), Nelson (N) and one from Wellington (W) at Simcox Stadium (Blenheim Indoor Centre).  Chris Hood and Debbie Stratford were the main tournament organisers.

Top Seed Yi-Sien Lin (C) dominated the Open events.  He won the Men’s Singles against Stuart Amstrong (C) in a high quality final 4-1 where Stuart let a big lead slip in the 4^th game which would have made the score 2-2.  Lin also won the Men’s Doubles with William Pringle (C) against Stuart Armstrong/Simon Fenwick (C) 3-1  and the Mixed Doubles with Kali Stratford (M) against Simon Fenwick/Mimi Walle (C) 3-1.

Mimi Walle (C) won the Women’s Singles (Round Robin) and prevented Akiko Goto (C) a third straight singles success.  These two combined to win the Women’s Doubles against Amanda Niblett (C)/ Kali Stratford 3-1.

In the O40 MS Stuart Armstrong found himself 0-2 down against Steve Craw (C) before taking control to win the last 3 games easily.  Mimi Walle continued her domination over Akiko Goto to win the O40 WS 3-0.  The O50 MS was won by Mark Nalder (N) and the O50 WS by Kath Gilchrist (M).  The O60 MS was won by Steve Craw.

Malcolm Wong (W) proved to be the doubles king.  He won the Second Grade MD with Sigmund Sue (M) and O40 & O50 MD with Mark Nalder.  Malcolm was also runner up in the O40 XD with Akiko Goto and the O50 MS.

pic 1: Mark Nalder and Malcolm Wong – O40/O50 MD Winners. pic 2: Malcolm Wong and Sigmund Sue – 2nd Grade MD Winners

Attached: Marlborough Open 2010 results

Empire Club – new Thursday Night

Empire Table Tennis Club is starting a Thursday Night casual play session called “Public Ping Pong”. This commences tomorrow (May 6).

Tables are available for casual use at $4 per person or $10 per family.

The session runs from 7pm to 9pm every Thursday night.

Please invite interested friends, relatives or workmates to come along.