Rob's TT BBQ

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Last Sunday was the 2nd annual TT BBQ at Rob's place. Once again Rob and Andrea put on their place along with keeping guests well refreshed in a gesture of great hospitality. The day was great fun just like last year. Pretty much the same faces were present, but with one rather obvious addition of the huge 6'4 frame of Ed Cotter aka PocketRocket.

Rob decided we should have a "mini-tourney" this year using 2 hardbats he had made up with sandpaper covering. This presented rather a challenge in getting to know the "feel" and strokes for the unfamiliar bats. Seedings were allocated for the 8 players involved and play got underway with yours truly playing supachop to begin with. I fell foul of the dreaded "white-bat" supachop was using, without realising it until it was too late. It was clearly the superior of the 2 bats Rob had made up, the other being the brown bat. I put up a good fight with supachop to about 6 all as we played each "match" as a single set to 15 with no advantage. I think I managed to get up to 9 against him, of course a chopping style was rather useful with these bats. Blue got done by Andrew, Jeff Tran went down to Rob and Rob's "son-in-law" Josh went down to Ed. Supachop narrowly took out Andrew and Ed took down Rob in another close one in the semi's. This left Ed and Supachop to play the final with Ed coming out the victor. His prize was the "Winner's Shirt" as shown below. Supachop got the same shirt with "Runner-Up" on the back for his effort.





Here is the only video I took on the day, which is Blue v Supachop. There were some good matches (with normal bats) played during the day though. I got my revenge on Blue from Mornington Div 3 title taking him down 3-0 in two separate matches in the day. I also managed to beat Rob 2-0 in a best of 3....unfortunately it went on to a best of 5 and he beat me in the 5th set 11-9! I also took 2 sets off Ed in a 5 setter beating him 11-5 in one set. I lead Ed 10-4 in 2 sets as he went for his "glory shots" and missed, but he did make a comeback to win 13-11 in one of those sets. Now if I'd managed to beat Ed in 4 sets or 5 I'd be stoked lol. Rob was feeling the pressure when I was 2-0 and deuce with him in the 3rd set that he might lose 3-0 to me. I will allow his excuse that he was a bit crook, but that didn't stop him from beating supachop directly before my match (although I did "jump" him before he could recover from that match ) Still, I think I surprised Rob a bit at how I'd improved since last year.

RebTTE - V111211_1814.mp4

RebTTE - V111211_1810.mp4

[blue_smartie68]

Great report Reb and I too must thank Rob & Andrea for their hospitality! I had a great day and it was good to catch up with mates :)
Thanks for posting the clips... It's the first time I've ever seen myself play and although it looks pretty tragic, it is interesting to see!!
Long have I read discussions on how hard it is to judge player's abilities from videos.. and I've certainly found many players much harder to tackle than clips of them suggest! And now I see myself looking like a C grader!! 
I guess that's why televised TT isn't perhaps as entertaining to the average spectator as it is in real life.. unless it's the world champs or something...

Well done on your revenge also! You have a very tough game and I didn't have many answers... but everytime I face pips i learn something, and that's good for my game  Supa gave me some ideas for next time also.. which I'm keen to try out 
You played well against everyone actually Reb... and importantly so (with your personal cheer squad present  ).
Friendly matches are still a bit different from serious ones tho... so don't get too smug 

Great to meet Ed.. and catch up with others including Jeff, Jeff & Jeff/Geoff   

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Blue I haven't seen myself on vid for a long time and I have improved since then, but even so I think its always quite ugly to see yourself play, especially when you haven't seen it before. Still you managed to take a set off supachop. He didn't let me do that this year.   I still enjoyed it all though. If I do meet you at a tourney next year, I won't take you lightly mate. Looking like I won't be able to play at Dandy tourney due to another comittment already, (unless I can swing it somehow).

[pingpongrob]

Great Posts Reb & Blue. Thanks to all for attending, I hope that you were all fed well, and that you enjoyed it as much as I did. It was great that Pocket Rocket aka Ed came, as it showed how good he really is - I already knew this.

Reb - you stated that I was a little sick, try a lot. Just started those blasted horse pill anti biotics, hopefully they start to work.  I'll make an effort to post the Final Match between Supachop & Pocket Rocket very soon.

And Reb, I do think you have improved since last year - Well Done.
Blue - Your Game never ceases to amaze me, some of those shots are really awkward, and your getting more and more consistant everytime I watch you play. Hope your Hip doesnt take a turn for the worse.

My Biggest dissapointment was that JT didnt turn up, I know its a 4 hour drive, but he did say that he would come - he's stayed pretty low lately. I know he's been practicing hard, and has me in his sights - I might just get a bit of a shock when we meet next time.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Obviously you weren't sick enough Rob....otherwise I'd have beat you

But if you can beat supachop when you are very sick, you should be in for another very good year next year (if you get healthy  )!

I am certain everyone was well fed mate. You and your lovely Andrea and her parents did a wonderful job of that. Its always a pleasure to visit you guys as you are so very welcoming. My "cheer squad" as Blue put it had nothing but praise for how nice Andrea was (and the dogs of course). 2 fans won there!

It was great that Ed came. I also already knew how good he is, but he never ceases to amaze me on some of the shots he pulls off. A bit like supachop's loops on steroids!

And yes JT has kept his head low of late. Shame he couldn't make it. I was looking forward to finally getting a hit against him. I also found out that Jack from OOAK had his car breakdown that morning which is why he didn't come from Daylesford.

Hopefully we can do it all again next year and have just as much fun once again!

[Der Echte]

Wow, I have a lot of fun here in Korea banging it around various clubs, but you guys did something special and historical. Too bad I couldn't crash Ur party!

[pingpongrob]

Wow, I have a lot of fun here in Korea banging it around various clubs, but you guys did something special and historical. Too bad I couldn't crash Ur party!

Der, when you finally make a trip down under, we will put on a very special party for you. Have no Fear.

[JT]

It was going to go but in the end going all that way on the train, 6 hours each way by the time I got to Robs, it just seemed a big trouble. So I took option B and had a little mess around hit closer to home in the afternoon. I hope to have a full day (at least) hitting with Rob and anyone else that happens to be there on the day sometime over the Summer, pretty hard to find someone to play with at this time of year so I might be having a few weeks off playing until after Xmas. Hitting with Rob for a full day will guarantee I wont beat him on any surprise factor if he's forgotten how I play the following season but I'd learn so much it would be worth it :).

I don't know if I've improved much or not? I have better serves a proper backhand and developing a fairly strong return of serve now the only question is will the Div 1 players let me use them. I'm fairly sure I'll have success against most of the division 2 players come next season, at least the inverted players so that's a start.

[PocketRocket]

Rob threw an awesome BBQ,

I maintain that I only won the tournament due to choosing the white sandpaper bat, as the brown bat was apparently cursed.

It was great fun playing everyone and I'm definitely down for next years BBQ.

Thanks to Rob's family for a great day.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

I maintain that I only won the tournament due to choosing the white sandpaper bat, as the brown bat was apparently cursed.

Yep, I agree. Its the only reason supachop knocked me out of the first round....cos I got the brown bat 

[blue_smartie68]

... curse that brown bat!! 

[RebornTTEvnglist]

... curse that brown bat!! 

Someone suggested to me next time we should swap bats half way through the match Blue. But I think next time, we are due to have the white bat the entire time!

What do you reckon?

[blue_smartie68]

Reb, I reckon we should wrap both of them up and give them to Ed for Christmas!!

[big ears]

Hey guys, a little off topic, but I was having a conversation on face book the other day with this guy who is from Vic, I asked him about BB, and here is his reply, a straight cut n paste.

Andrew Dosher
''How do you know him? he was my nemasis in australia, at his best a top 40 layer here, they used to say if you could smash his choppes into the middle of the net you were doing well, I watched him beat a number of top players compared to the English list comparable to 15-20 I had a number of good games with him only beat him once and lost the other three, all were all respectable including losing from 17-20 down in the third but even though he was considerably beeter than me I was at my peak then and my style was suited to playing him, he must be 55-57 now so I would excpect you to win, however you would have had a good chance even at his best because of your game and you have been top 50 there there isn't much in it either way''

 Any of you know this guy?

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Don't know him, but I found him on FB and funnily enough he has a mutual friend to me.

[big ears]

I think he left Vic about 15 yrs ago, he contacted me recently to invite me to a tournament.

[supachop]

Name rings a bell.

[big ears]

Name rings a bell.

 no, thats Quasimodo