Summer Table Tennis – where to get it?

As an overview on what table tennis is on and when during the summer period here is some information. (If you have any info to add please comment or let me know.)

Summer Interclub

Summer interclub (team competition, a bit more casual than the main winter interclub season) is broken into two distinct (unrelated) phases, first the Composite Interclub (see here and here). Second the ‘pre-season’ (late summer) summer interclub round with a format to be determined. For more details watch this blog or keep in contact through your club.

Your club

Some clubs remain open with a small break, others close for a summer break. Consider visiting a different club every now and again – chances are you’ll play people you’ve never played before.

• Waterloo: starts again early March (probably the first week).
• Onslow: starts again late March.
• Tawa: Porirua East School, 8 Martin Street, Porirua East (turn right to hall prior to parking area). Operates from 7pm each Wednesday night April to October.
• Titan: open through the summer except for 4 weeks off from mid December. Key hire for the Newtown stadium is available too, contact Table Tennis Wellington.
• Belmont: running until the 25th of November and is starting up again in the middle of March.
• Karori: finishes November 21, starting again late February or early March, to be determined.
• Empire: The the last Monday night is Dec 12, the last midweek – Tuesday Dec 20 then opening casually from Jan 17 (officially Feb 2), and the last Junior club is Friday Nov 11. Opening dates for Mondays & Fridays to be determined.
• Moonshine & Victoria University: – refer to club contact information here.

For more details or for other clubs refer to the club contact information here.

Exercise

Summer is a good time to start and get into a regular fitness pattern, if you find one that fits your schedule and you can enjoy it, then you’ll be more likely to keep it up through the whole year (um, this is do as I say, not as I do). I remember talking to a veteran player who noted that he would tend to win more often as the winter wore on, as other people got less fit! A fair-weather runner like myself will be one of his easy victims come Composite Interclub…

Elite squad coach Stephen Hirst recommends:
“… it is always good in the off season to build your base fitness, i.e. lots and lots of cardio, skipping, running running and more running. As you get about 2 months out before the season starts I liked to taper off the running and start to replace that with more speed work like shuttle runs between two cones 20 metres apart. Start introducing more strength stuff with weights like squats for your quads. My favourite was jumping over a wooden bench traditionally found in schools 3 x 1 minute, it really kills you but gets you very explosive for the start of the season. Also continue this exercise throughout the season… This is all I used to do and can highly recommend it.”

My tip: paint the fence – if it worked for The Karate Kid it will work for you.
At least get out there and mow the lawn…

Helping

There are probably a hundred unpaid volunteers of some kind that help run and facilitate table tennis in the Wellington region. If you’re not already one of this bunch, think of something you enjoy doing that could contribute in any way. Put your name forward!

Web watching

Need a quick table tennis fix? Trawl the web looking for table tennis news, blogs and videos, but start with Win Ngyuen’s youtube channel and Matt Heatherington’s TT blog.

Your mate’s house

There is probably a table tennis table at one of your friend’s houses – go there and play and give them a lesson. Nothing will give you more pleasure. Just don’t forget to bring your own bat otherwise you’ll be battling to a 15-all deuce in the 3rd set against their 11 year old son because trying to topspin using their pimple-out no-sponge half-torn up left-in-the-sun fly-swatter only leaves you looping directly into the carpet at your feet.

The ulterior motive is that you could have some more people to bring along to your club. Lend them your real bat or a spare and open their eyes to what it is all about.

Summer project?

You might not have space for a table-tennis table in your own house but…

make a mini table tennis table… then become the best in the world.

More?

Other ideas? Just comment below!

Winter Interclub Series 2 – Senior Final Result

Congratulations to the winning teams, some close results on the Finals night:

Senior grades:

Premier 1: Belmont Bananas (Callum Rusbridge, Thom Nguyen, Hayden Tapp) 6-3 winners over Titan
Premier 2: Empire Dangerous (Chris Williams, Bruce Connolly, Uy Tang) – a nail-biting 6-5 win over the Waterloo Wizards
Premier 3: Karori Kometz (Darrin Carmichael, Ben Westenra, Reg Fuez) 6-4 over Empire Xiong, reversing an in-season loss to Empire Xiong.

Results for Series 2: 2011 Winter Interclub Series 2 Final

(Juniors to be compiled)

NB: Series 1 Results here.

Thanks to Bruce for managing the interclub nights and to Chris for compiling the results. Thanks Reg for the pics:

Premier 1 winning team Belmont Bananas (Callum Rusbridge, Thom Nguyen, Hayden Tapp)

Premier 2 winning team: Empire Dangerous (Chris Williams, Bruce Connolly, Uy Tang)

Premier 3 winning team: Karori Kometz (Darrin Carmichael, Ben Westenra, Reg Fuez)

Winter Interclub Prem 2 & 3 Series 2 draws

… are here (the first week of Series 2 for Premier 2 and Premier 3 grades):

TTW Winter Interclub Premier 2 draw Series 2 (starting Wednesday)
TTW Winter Interclub Premier 3 draw Series 2 (starting Tuesday)

Winter Interclub Draws (Series 1 from May 24/25)

TTW Winter Interclub Premier 1 draw Series 1 (Tuesdays from May 24)
TTW Winter Interclub Premier 2 draw Series 1 (Wednesdays from May 25)
TTW Winter Interclub Premier 3 draw Series 1 (Tuesdays from May 24)

The new 2011 Code of Coduct document: 2011 Code of Conduct

Bryan McConnochie – The Big Looper

Malcolm writes in with another player profile, this time Bryan McConnochie…

Bryan is a left hand attacking player, still playing Premier 1 interclub table tennis at the age of 62. In his younger days he played representative rugby for 4 provinces over 21 years (1968-1989): South Canterbury, Canterbury, Wairarapa-Bush and Horowhenua. Bryan started off as an open side flanker and ending up as a tight head prop. One of his highlights was playing wing and marking the great All Black, Bryan Williams, when Wairarapa-Bush played the All Blacks during the 1972 internal tour.

Bryan and his son Phillip have always played interclub together and have won several Men’s Open Doubles titles. The Wairarapa, Manawatu and Hawke’s Bay Men’s Doubles, and the North Island Men’s B Grade (twice) and Over 30 title.

In 1998 Bryan partnered by Joan Munn (Victoria, Australia) upset the 3rd, 2nd and 1st seeds to win the New Zealand Veterans Over 40 Mixed Doubles. He has won 9 individual veterans titles at the New Zealand Open. This included the Over 55 Men’s Single (2006). Bryan has represented New Zealand in the veterans test against Australia.

Aussie Vets 2010 Gold – Report

The 27th Australian Veterans Table Tennis Championships were held recently (16-23 October 2010) at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre, Melbourne.

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)

Australian Vets Gold

NZ wins gold at the Australian Vets Over 40s women’s team event, beating Victoria 6-5 in the final!

This team includes Raewyn Young (captain) (Empire Club) with: Sarah Sandley, Joanna Ma, & Akiko Goto.

For detailed results click here.

Note also the over 50 Men No. 1 Team: Ian Talbot (Empire Club), Bryan McConnochie (Kapiti), Depak Patel (Captain) (Empire Club).

More details and pics coming soon…

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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Where is the Newtown Wellington Table Tennis Stadium?

It’s on Alexandra Rd, Newtown, Wellington and while there are no street numbers the building appears nestled in the bush – you won’t see much of the building driving by except for a street sign and a car park on each side of the road:

Newtown stadium street sign

How to get there?  If driving turn up Alexandra Rd from Constable St and the stadium will be on the left shortly after the tennis, running,and croquet clubs with a parking lot above it and also on the other side of the road.

If walking or biking from the city, Mein St is a more direct access and has a path at the end leading up to the southern (rear) of the stadium (the door is on the Northern side).

And inside…  (Titan club Sunday mornings 9:30am – 1pm, midweek clubs, )

Wellington Table Tennis Stadium Newtown

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