Reb's Pennant Results

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Welcome to my thread.

Just by way of introduction, I am currently playing in B Grade Division 2 (B2) at the Greater Dandenong TTC. The club has 10 divisions in all ranging from A1 (the top division) down to B5, in the senior pennant, with B5 being relative beginner to early intermediate level. Each division has 6 teams with 3 players per team. Each player plays the 3 opponent players in a singles and there are 2 doubles played each night as well. The doubles utilises all 3 team players with one member playing in both doubles. So in all, 11 games are played each night to determine the winner and the ladder positioning.

The club has 4 seasons in a year which run for 10 weeks each plus an 11th week final. Between each season a championship round is played with each round being a different style of championship. One is a handicap round, while another is a division champs, and another is an overall grade championship. Some members don't compete in the championship round preferring to take it as a break between seasons.

The Dandenong Club has quite a friendly atmosphere, but I have to admit when I first joined there at the beginning of 2008 it took a few weeks to get to know people, as they generally have their focus into the TT. It doesn't take long though before the warmth and friendliness of the people and the place begin to shine through.

In this thread I will be discussing my weekly results and some detail about my teams and my personal matches. My team this season is not doing so well as our third player pulled out after week 2 and left us a player short. We have struggled on like this sometimes getting fill-ins or playing with just 2 players and forfeiting 3 singles and a doubles. Starting 4 games down out of 11 doesn't leave much room to secure a win. Until this week not one of our fill-ins had won a singles match either. So needless to say we've been behind the 8 ball and have been at the bottom of the ladder all season. This is a different experience for me at the club as every other season I have played (which is 3, as I had 2 off with injury), I have been in the final. Alas, I have yet to win one of those finals.

So, I hope you enjoy reading about my exploits and it gives you another reason to return to Rob's forum and look around. If you haven't signed up here, its well worth joining for the extra benefits gained, like eligibility for Rob's generous competitions and other info sections available.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

This is my report from week 7, 2 June 2009...

Just got home from TT and feel like I've fought a war. Knee is killing me and I'm feeling physically spent. Could have to do with just how much TT I played tonight lol. I started out meeting GP (GuitarPug - another OOAK member who will be joing us here on Rob's forum) at the club soon after the doors opened at 6pm. We played non-stop for about an hour and a quarter. After we'd hit up for about 10 minutes we played game after game after game. We didn't keep track of how many exactly, but I'd guess at around 15 maybe. It was great fun and GP played very well. He has quite a mean serve on him (when he doesn't miss it lol - he missed quite a few off the toss to begin with). He did struggle a little with the spin off the pips, lucky for him my smashes were a little off key tonight though. Anyway, my teams opposition came along and spoiled our fun as they wanted to start the matches!

The team we played tonight is usually a band of fill-ins, but one of the actual members turned up tonight which he hadn't done for several weeks. Unfortunately for us, one of the teams regular fill-ins just happens to be the best player in our division pretty much hands down. If he wasn't a fill-in he would win leading player if he played every week. Actually he really should play up a grade as he would win most his games there as well I think. I got to play him first and suffered my 2nd loss in the last 10 games. I lost the first game 11-6 and had actually kept pace with him to 5 all. He has a really odd way of spinning the ball on some of his shots and he gets heaps of spin with it. I cope with it better than many do because of my pips, but combined with his good power looping game he is very formidable. I made deuce with him in the 2nd game only to go down 12-10. In the third he took me down 11-5. This guy is one of the few people I hae real trouble smashing past. He moves around very quickly on his feet and he gets back really fast when a smash is coming his way. I had several smashing sessions at him including on the last point of the last game where I repeatedly smashed at him and he returned them until I missed. He's a good humoured guy and we had a lot of fun, so that was a bit of consolation lol.

My 16 year old teammate played the oppositions other fill-in next, who was the big guy who filled in for us several weeks ago and lost all his games. He played a heck of a lot better against my teammate tonight though...of course. Now my teammate can be a little eager to finish off points with smashes that aren't really ideal shots and so forth, but he also played the guy with quite a lot of good sensible play as well. The big guy moved better than I've seen him move before and he was moving my player around the table quite a lot. He hit a good number of put away smashes and some great angled block against him. He was 2 games up on my mate before he knew it. Our player managed to take the third set and I was thinking he might take the 4th as well, as it was close. I think he lost it 13-11 though, so we were 2-0 down on the night so far. Not a great start.

For the first time this season though, our fill-in wasn't a dud! Yay! He played their regular 3rd player, who is a 15 year old Asian kid, and beat him. I can't quite recall but it was either 3-1 or 3-0, but we had our first game. So then I went into the doubles with my young teammate playing against their No.1 and No.3. Somehow, despite my teammate going hell for leather at a lot of serves and shots where he sent the ball skyrocketing off his blade, between us we played enough good and sensible TT to take the first set. A fair bit of it had to do with the 15 year old at the other end being also pretty impetuous and placing pressure on his partner, who either missed the ball completely or missed the table on a lot of loops he went for. We managed 3 of these performances in a row and took the match to even up the night's score at 2 apiece.

I played the big guy next and I didn't quite know what to expect. He'd played his first game well and I'd lost mine. Last time we met I trounced him 3-0 with him getting very few points in each set. So we got the game underway and I just had him playing all over the place. I was 5-1 up on him before I knew it. I smashed on him a few times with clean winners, but a lot of it was just getting him to push long or wide. Actually the very first point where he'd served to my BH I sent gently down his FH aiming to keep close to the edge, but not quite as close as I did as the ball rolled along the edge for a micro-second and went to ground lol. Anyway, the game just breezed along giving me probably too much confidence and I won it 11-3. In the second game, he came out a totally different player and took me by surprise as he smashed with his FH down my FH and with his BH down my BH. It took me a while to come to grips and change my playing style which he had decided he would just attack at everything he could and it was paying dividends for him. I pulled myself together to some degree, but he had the game 11-6 before I got much composure. I got things going much better in the third set as I stopped playing the game where he got his smashing opportunities and I arrested some of them from him, making him pay for the previous game. One or two smashes he did try to put past me on my FH I blocked back past him and out of his reach and I took the game 11-7. In the 4th I focused to make sure it wasn't going to go to a 5th if I could help it. He made another charge at me after I'd got out to a 5-1 lead on him. Before I knew it we were 9 all. I went to 10 and was just hoping to pull the last point from somewhere. No such luck. Crapola, deuce. And what was worse he took the first point. I was staring down the barrel of a loaded gun! I put as spinny as bh side-spin serve over the net as I could hoping to spin him off the table. It didn't, instead he put it in the net lol. Then I took the next point to go 12-11. Great I thought, now I can finish this. Nope, he had other ideas and leveled it back to 12's. Once again I got the advantage on him on the next point as he tried to smash down my BH side and missed. This time I was determined to finish it and when I sent him a spinny loop that flew off his blade I secured my first match and a lead of 3-2 for the night. However, my teammate promptly handed that back to a level score when he lost to the 15 year old who I thought he should have beaten.

Our fill-in, who was the old guy who doesn't move much who played in the B2 premiership team last season then went on to lose to their No.1 which was to be expected. So we were 4-3 down and heading into the doubles. I played with the old guy in the doubles and knew that winning the doubles was our only chance of having a hope left to win the night. Their No.1 and No.2 played against us and we managed to scrape together the 1st set 11-9, despite the opponents tangling us up a few times where we were in each others way for the ball lol. In the second game things didn't work quite as well and we lost it 11-7. However, we turned the tables back on them in the third and won it 11-7. Hope was not lost! The 4th looked like it could have been anyone's as we tracked along on score until we opened up a lead narrowly at 9-7. On the next point I had a half decent smash opportunity but as my smashes hadn't been working well I looped it back and my partner was rewarded with a pop up from it which he duely put away. I remember thinking "great, we have 3 match points, but I really wish we could just get the next". My partner served, they returned it, I sent it back off my pips, they played it carefully back trying to out-position us. My partner sent it back to them and again it came back. I had thoughts of running around it and going for a FH winner, but instead I put it deep down the middle of the table. Not terribly high, but their No.1 had had enough of the rally and decided to put it away with a loop. Or at least I think that was on his mind as he went over the top of it and completely missed the ball!! Whew! The night was 4 all.

Our old guy played their big guy next and after surviving a close shave to win the first set 12-10, he went on to win the next 2 games to 3 and 4. So now we had the lead back. Wow a chance to take out the night and our first win! I was next up against the 15 year old and I was fairly confident of winning...at the start lol. And I did win the first game fairly convincingly with an 11-5. Now I wasn't over confident or anything, but I did feel my form was a bit average tonight. The kid hadn't really been terribly susceptible to my pip reversal either, which was annoying. Anyway, he had umpired my match against the big guy and took a leaf from his book on the 2nd game and came out guns blazing. And he was making lots of shots too. I found myself back-pedalling to try and hold ground. And I almost did, but the kid pipped me at 13-11. In the next game I was the one with guns blazing and steam-rolled him again with an 11-6. I knew I had to win this match for us to win the night as it was unlikely for my No.2 to beat their No.1. Unbeknowns to me at the time, but that match was occurring as my match was going on, and indeed my teammate went down. Although he did manage to take a set, which was impressive. So I went into the 4th set against this kid, not wanting to reach a 5th set. He had very different designs on it though. We had a very tough battle and the set came to the point of 9 all, my serve. I can't say I was feeling overly comfortable at the prospect of winning the 5th set if he got the momentum of winning this tight battle. I served off my BH with as much spin as I could muster and he put it back tightly. I used the pips to work it into his BH and he pushed back to my BH. The pushes went on and I was looking for an opportunity for a big FH, although I had missed a number of them already in the game and so I wasn't looking forward to missing another. My opportunity came but it was slim. The ball was deep and fairly low but it was in the right place for a smash. So I unloaded on it and it went like a bullet down and through him. I had 10-9. My next serve I dropped short off the pips hoping for a pop up as he reached to put it back. He didn't fall for it. So we went into BH to BH rally mode again, but it was short-lived as I moved around looking for another FH opportunity and I got it with a ball that he sent back just a little slow and slightly high. It wasn't in a terribly comfortable place for a FH smash and I can't say I had made the best position I could either. But I went for it and sent it reeling down his BH side far from his reach and I had my 2nd singles victory at 11-9. Phew relief, as we also had our first win for the season. Miracles do happen LOL.

Just goes to show what the season could have been like had we had a decent third player. My young teammate won no singles and helped me win a doubles, whilst our fill-in won 2 singles and a doubles with me and I lost one of my singles and we still won LOL. Not sure if the team we played tonight has beaten anyone else (besides us last time around when they had their proper team together still), but there is a slim chance this win could even lift us off the bottom of the ladder. So fingers crossed for that LOL.

My young teammate and I had a hit after the matches as we actually had finished quite early tonight (about 10pm) due to he and their player playing while my match was on. So I gave him a hit and he wanted some games. It was a rare opportunity as normally his Dad whisks him away after matches, but his Dad hadn't turned up yet. So we played 4 games and I won them all, but was trying to tell him what he was doing wrong as we went. One thing I realised he does is receives serve very wide to his BH (he's a lefty). I could slide serves down wide to his FH and he couldn't reach them. He was receiving like this so he was in a FH attack position all the time. I got him to move a little closer to centre, so I couldn't ace him on his FH, but it showed his eagerness to attack serves. Not necessarily a bad thing, but it seems these kids aren't being taught to pick their shots more carefully.

[Der Echte]

One of these days, I shall have to visit you guys and be a fill-in ringer. You don't expect much out of a fill-in.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Haha Der, I'd reckon you'd fit right in! I'm sure you'd enjoy yourself. And you' be more than welcome. So come on over!

GP and I have just been at the club for 2 hours having a bash. Such a bonus to get more TT than just Tuesday nights.

[Der Echte]

What would your league do to me if they suspected me of placing a few worms or small frogs on the woman's end of the table before the knock-up? Nothing like an excited female jumping around hysterically knocking down every barrier in sight exiting causing a panicked stampede.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Hmm, seeings as the barriers are fixed steel fences, which would maim them to knock them down, I'd say they'd send you to the cops LOL.

[guitarpug]

GP and I have just been at the club for 2 hours having a bash. Such a bonus to get more TT than just Tuesday nights.

Hear, hear! For a TT addict, being restricted to only 1 night of TT is like stopping at only one Tim Tam when a fresh pack's been opened!

Der, if you can, please come down! We'd love to have a few games with you! Well, more than a few actually! Reb and I managed 28 games on Saturday!  :o

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Well I hit the ground with a thud tonight. We played the second top team and last time we played them I only managed to win one match, even though the other 2 went to 5 sets. Wow, tonight's performance made that look very successful. I played dismally. Didn't win a single match. Not great for my stats. And besides the final last season, there hasn't been a night when I've come away without a match to my belt.

The first match I could accept losing as it was to the leading player who hasn't lost too many games to anyone. I did expect to put up a reasonable showing though, as I took him to 5 sets last time we met. Tonight started out looking like it would be a competitive match as we went point for point to 4 all in the first game. Then all of a sudden the score was 11-5 before I knew it. I came out ready to make good in the second game only to be sent packing with my tail between my legs and an 11-1 loss! And I had won the first point! In the third I was licking wounds and was looking like going down to about 2 when I mustered some strength and pulled it back to 11-6. So I was down in straight sets.

I played my looper friend in the next of my matches after my young teammate and I managed to narrowly lose the doubles together where my FH had been on fire smashing back serve after serve giving the opponents no chance of returning them. Unfortunately my teammate missed more than I got, so we stil lost. So in my second singles game I was out for my mates blood and took the first game 11-9. I felt a little more comfortable and thought I could go on with it. I was almost right. I lost the next two in fairly close struggles of 11-7 and 11-8. So I found myself down 2-1 in this match. I wasn't playing all that badly. My smashing had been a bit off tune in the first and second games, where my opponent had given me some lobs and I'd sent the smashes long. In the 3rd and 4th games I had atoned for it with a lot of clean winning smashes. It was the other points I lost that did the damage! So in the 4th I played well enough to make it to 10-8 my way, but his serve. Well he managed to win both points of his serve and so we were then deuce. I wanted it and he wanted it. He got it, but not until 16-14. And he told me after the game, he had nothing left to go to a 5th set and I would have won it. Who knows?

In my third singles, which was the last of the night, I played my El Salvadorian friend who I'd beaten 3-1 last time. He took out the first 2 games on me tonight as we both froze in the hall as the rain pelted down on the roof. I climbed back into the match after taking out the 3rd and hoped to make it to the 5th set. My game just wasn't on song tonight though. I don't know how much the bung eye I have contributed to tonight's poor performance, I didn't think too much, but perhaps more than I thought. Or it could have been the freezing conditions where it was hard to get warm playing. Or maybe I was just due for a clanger. And after all this was a team of very good players who are sitting second on the ladder and are streets ahead (with first) from everyone else. The good news was my teammate and our fill-in (the same as from last week) won a match each, so we didn't go down 11-0 at least. 9-2 instead. I'd love to have contributed to make it 8-3 at least, but it wasn't to be.

Always next week. And hopefully everything is back to normal.

[Der Echte]

Der, if you can, please come down! We'd love to have a few games with you! Well, more than a few actually! Reb and I managed 28 games on Saturday!  :o

When I was in Austin, Texas last week, (6 hour drive - I drove 5 hours to visit friends not far a way) I managed to visit their club 5 times and averaged 7 hours each visit. If airport security ever let me through, (if I ever get together a few thousand US Dollars and a few weeks off) do you think you guyz could handle all the TT matches. Characters from the energy drink commercials hear me coming and beat tracks outta there before I show up.

[guitarpug]

 :o but I WAS playing seriously!

Sorry to hear you had a bad night. Yes, it certainly was bitterly cold last night, and we could hear the hail on the roof of the TT centre too! I struggled to stay warm throughout (especially when umpiring), and I looked like a hamster on speed during my warmups before matches trying to get warm!

I saw your doubles match, and that guy you played from your first match looked like a nightmare to play against. Seems like spin doesn't work on him at all and he returns EVERYTHING. As I mentioned to you last night: "How do you beat a guy like that?"  ::) He was toying with your younger partner like a cat with a ball of yarn!

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Don't worry, I felt like he was toying with me the same way. I haven't worked out how to beat him exactly, even if I did manage to take 2 games off him last time I played him. Obviously last night showed I learned nothing from that lol. I took a look at his bat last night when he showed me it later on. I doubt that his rubbers are actually legal, but I haven't looked them up. They have the ITTF logo, but they're over 20 years old. On one side he had something called Barna Original and on the other side it was a Joola rubber which didn't ring bells as being on the list. Can't recall its name. They were both SP rubbers. The think NOT to do to this guy though is give him underspin. His rubbers love it and give him his best attacks. Trouble is, when its habit to serve underspin, its hard to get out of the habit lol.

Edit: Just checked the list. Barna does not even exist any more as a brand, and his Joola rubber is not one of the current legal Out rubbers. But how do you tell an old guy his bat is illegal? LOL.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Had a good night tonight, despite having another clanger in comp. So why was it a good night? Well to start with GP and I met a new OOAK forum member Niteowl (don't worry we'll be working on him to join in here too). And without any of our usual fill-ins turning up tonight I was able to invite Niteowl to play on my team for the fun of it. Nothing was riding on the match and I'm sure the opposition appreciated having all their games rather than forfeits and Niteowl got to see first hand how our comp works and even got to score. So I think he enjoyed the experience despite being thrown in the deep end. And he can say he did as well as I did, because I didn't win any matches either lol. Ok so my scorelines might have been a little better, but it counts the same on the scoreboard lol. And I certainly salute Niteowl for having a go and I'm pretty sure he's going to have a go at B5 next season which starts in 3 weeks.

So the team we played tonight I beat all 3 players last time we metter quite easily. It just goes to show how easily fortunes can swing on this game. I was beaten 3-0 tonight by their number 1, who I beat 3-0 last time. Their number 2 was away and they had a fill-in that was probably of a very similar standard. The first game against this guy tonight I came back from 7-0 down to win it 11-9. Trouble was I kept putting myself in behind the 8 ball against him in every game after still and while I made comebacks in every game, they were not as successful as the first. My FH wasn't on tonight, so I missed quite a few which made the difference between winning and losing. So in the next 3 games I ended up down 9, 7, 6. Similarly against their 3rd player I lost 3-1 to him as well. My young teammate played very, very well against this guy however and trashed him 3-0. This was the only win we managed for the night as we went down in both doubles too. So we recorded our 8th loss out of 9 for the season. Next week is the last round and then for the first time I will actually get a break for the finals week.

Now poor GP had some games with me after matches tonight and he copped my frustration at my poor form, so I didn't allow him to take a single game out of 16 we had. I was pretty ruthless on him and a lot of games he only managed 2 or 3 points. He did manage to get to deuce in one game which he did well to get to. I know GP would never like me to give him any game, however there are times when I would take more risks against him that may or may not pay off and give him a chance to pick off the game. But I played him pretty tight tonight just to see if I could stop him from winning any. GP had some stuff to think about when we'd finished at stumps. We were the last 2 players to leave the hall tonight lol.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Having been crook with a viral chest infection for almost a week I thought about not going to TT tonight.....for about 10 seconds. I wasn't able to take my A game along with me, and eve the B game that I've been using for the last couple of weeks wasn't looking too good. I knew playing tonight would be about conserving energy as much as I could so I didn't exhaust myself which is easy to do. I didn't really even expect to win any games tonight, and given we played the top team, that was a fair expectation to have it seemed. It was the last round of the season tonight as well, so not much riding on it for us on the ladder bottom.

I started out in the first game against the old frenchman who I've mentioned before. I've had his game covered the last 3 times we've met, but tonight I knew I didn't have the strength to put too much pressure on. Having just changed from Bomb Talent to Meteor on my BH I didn't quite know what to expect either. I didn't have a practice hit up before games tonight, as I knew this would wear me out. So I only had the 2 minute hit-up to get to know it. It really did feel like a "plug n play" rubber though. I liked the softer feel of it to the BT and I felt an increased level of control. I won the first 3 points with a drive off the Meteor as well as some tempters that the opponent missed BH drives on. I eventually put one in the net off the Meteor as I expected I would as I adjusted to its softness. I soon felt the benefit of it on several blocks that may or may not have gone on with the BT. I had told myself I wasn't going to exert myself with any smashes, but when the opportunities came I couldn't resist or ignore them. I think I may not have put quite 100% into them and as such may have made them more successful, but taking the first set 11-7 wasn't too hard. The second set went much the same way although my opponents BH drives weren't missing like some did in the first set. So it was played more closely. I was serving for the set at 10-9 and intended to serve a chop spin serve off the FH. As I served it however, it clipped the table edge and flew up in the air but still going long enough to clear the net and land a couple of feet over with a fairly high bounce. I braced for the chance to block the smash coming back, but the amount of underspin on the ball created by my spin as well as the table edges extra spin and it dived straight off his bat and into the net. He wasn't happy, but I had the 2nd set 11-9. The third set I was feeling the effects of playing and he started to take advantage. I ended up going down 11-6, knowing I was struggling now to find my oomph. In the 4th I tried to put up a fight again, but fell flat once more going down 11-5. In the last set I drew together everything I could find just to keep from going down cheaply. It didn't look good to start when I was 3-1 down. But I managed to get it back to 3 all. Then we went 4 all. We kept going point for point getting to 8 all. From somewhere I grabbed the next 2 points and felt I could win it. He snatched the next point with a BH pass. So now I needed to find the next point to avoid the deuce pressure. I served to him on his FH and he did his usual FH chop which I chopped back down the middle of the table off the pips. It wasn't a high return, but it wasn't as low as I'd have liked and he went for it with his BH. I prepared for the block, but was relieved to see the ball catch in the net. I was also relieved to have won a game for the night.

My teammates lost their first singles each. Our fill-in I wasn't expecting much from and he didn't over deliver. My young teammate I was really hoping he would have a good last night for the season and he did take their dual LP player to 5 sets only to lose the last 11-4. He and I then played the first doubles. We trailed the whole way along the first game until it was 10-7 their way. We'd had a few undisciplined efforts during the game, but I smashed truely on the 4th ball after their serve and we had 10-8. My partner served then and I got a popped return that I let leash on again and we had 10-9. On his next serve their return was much more careful and so I chopped it back into their BH and the return that came back this time let my partner confidently smash it away and we made it to deuce. Then I received serve and just made sure of a good safe return deep and low to the middle. Once again my partner got a return he could smash away and we had advantage. My next serve was BH off the inv with chop. I had been confusing the opponent with these varying between chop on one and side and top on the other. He had sent one wide and long and the next into the net a bit earlier. So he popped this one a bit high and my partner put it away. The next 2 sets we got our confidence and played more disciplined TT and won both of them 11-9 and then 11-7.

My young teammate played the next singles and went down 3-1. I played against the old arch nemesis dual LP player who I've had marathon matches with in the past. I knew I couldn't afford that tonight. He started out to play all over me though. Before I knew it he was 8-2 up. I mustered what I had in the tank and chipped away at him and made it back to deuce with him. I then clipped the top of the net returning his serve and it came back at me and he had 11-10. I thought about how I had managed to fight back from 8-2 down, surely I couldn't just lose it now. But surely enough I could LOL. He got out of the next point as well and too it 12-10. I managed to lose the second set properly though with no sense of a comeback going down 11-7. In the third I got things back together and took it off him 11-8 winning points with a lot of angles moving him from side to side and finally getting him on unreachable balls or balls he stretched for so much they went long or into the net. I just didn't have what it took tonight to keep the fight up to him though and went down in the next set 11-8. Another season gone by without being able to scrach up a win against him.

Our fill-in went down easily in the next match and then I sent him and my other teammate in to play the second doubles, which they lost fairly quickly. My young teammate played his last singles next and went down 3-1 to the frenchman, who I thought he should have been able to beat. The fill-ins last singles started and I was then asked to play my last singles on the table next door that was free. So I went in to play their "fill-in" who was their third team member from last season who had been a floating player for this season, having filled in for us a couple of times even. But with the second leading player from their team away for the last couple of weeks and to be away for the final next week I believe, they had qualified their old team mate. I accounted for him quite easily in the first set with 11-5, but I think I relaxed a bit after this and he came back at me with 11-6. I woke up a bit in the third and dug my heels in and took it 11-3. The 4th set was a fair bit tougher but I eventually broke free of him to get a 2 point breather at 9-7. We rallied on the next point and he eventually went for a smash that wasn't there and put it in the net. I made my last serve for the set with a wide Fh to FH serve that I'd made look like it would be down the line. It went so quick and so deep it aced him and I had 11-7 and a 3-1 win for my second singles win for the night. Not too bad for how I was feeling, although I think by the end of the night I was feeling better than I thought I would. So I think I had managed to conserve myself reasonably well so I didn't end up doing more damage by playing than if I hadn't. So we had an 8-3 loss for our last round of what really was a disastrous season. The good news of the night was I rang our prospective third player for next season to see if he was still happy to join us next season and he confirmed he was, so I was able to submit a team for next season that *crossed fingers* will bat through the whole season.

New season starts in 3 weeks. Look out for more reports then. There's a chance I will play 2 comps next season...so double the Reb Reports LOL.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

New season started tonight with some positives and some negatives. The positives first. We have a full team of 3 and we were all there (well physically anyway lol). The team was accepted into the B2 division we applied for as well, so that was good. Lots of change in the B2 division with some players pulling out, some going up to B1, some coming down from B1, and 2 teams coming up from B3, so many new faces to see, players to be played, and friends to be made.

Now the downside of tonight was we got to play the team that had just come down from B1 and these guys had consistency and awkwardness. I played a guy who used anti, which was a first for me and another guy who put a very deceptive spin on his shots that moved the ball a long way sideways after the bounce without much action on his bat. Trouble was he could move it both ways without giving away which way, and this is in general play, not o serve (although he had tough serves too). I sat and watched him play one of my teammates later and another B2 player (out injured) was watching and said he couldn't see how he was spinning the ball so much with his bat action. Anyway I took a set off both of them and my teammates got 1 set each in total from one of them. So we got 4 sets from all our played matches all night. Theri third player was missing in action for the night and we had thought we might pull off a win to start with being handed 4 matches. But no, these guys were good enough to pull of a 7-4 victory still.

Hopefully we pull our socks up next week, although the draw has us playing the 3 toughest sides first. So it could take a while to get a win on the board.

[big ears]

Why are the leagues in Aus called 'pennant' ?

[RebornTTEvnglist]

No idea! lol

[Der Echte]

Why are the leagues in Aus called 'pennant' ?

It's because Bubba called it that.

Next question, Who is Bubba and why do so many Texas people like him?

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Well my Thursday night 2 man comp started off tonight with a bang. After having a bit of a warm up against our OS visitor Rokphish, I went and met my new teammate. An Asian kid of about 14 or 15 I think. Nice quiet kid, but he could play TT it seemed. He played the first match, which are best of 7 sets. He won it quite easily 4-0 against a young guy who was my teammate when I had to quit TT after snapping my achilles. I then played his partner who was another young Aussie kid of about 14 or 15. He took the first game off me 11-9 as I was getting the feel of his game. After that I took the next 3 games allowing him less and less score each game. He was getting rather upset because he kept hitting loops at my FH, and while they were good strong loops, I was blocking them back past him. My teammate and he must have some history, cos my teammate was giggling a little each time it happened. Anyway, he surged back in the 5th set and was 6-3 up when after a rally I dropped the ball on top off the net and it dropped to where he couldn't reach. Just as he lunged for it though a ball flew over from another court way off behind me and although it had nothing to do with the play he called let. He then won the next point making it 7-3. I got back to 9-10 down, but he squeezed out another win at 11-9. In the last set I just shut him down. I think I was 7 when he was 1. I ended up taking it 11-3 or 4 I can't recall. I just know he went off looking pretty annoyed and sat talking to another guy about what he did wrong. He then had to play my teammate and got slaughtered 4-0. So he should have been happy he at least got a couple of games from me lol.

After that I had to play my old (young) teammate. I just felt so in control tonight and playing him I felt I couldn't lose. I hit the odd smash past him, but I wasn't too bothered about playing risky play as I let him do most of that. He's an aggressive attacker but only get 50% or less of his attacks on. So I just gave him half chances (and the occasional full chance which he dispensed me appropriately with lol) and let him foul them up mainly. I got the first 2 games fairly easily to about 6 or 7. In the 3rd I let loose my grip and he took advantage and won it 11-9. I took control once more in the 4th and won 11-8 and stormed him in the 5th getting to 10-3 I think. Then I mucked around a little and he got back to 7 and was getting up some steam. So I served him one off the pips to mix it up which did the trick as he sent it long and the match was done.

Then we played the doubles and we were really never troubled. The first game we won 11-3, the second I think was 11-5. My teammate went for a few smashes that he missed and I think we won the 3rd 11-8. And then in the 4th I think it was about an 11-6. I recall hitting one side loop in there somewhere that the younger opponent swung at and missed by a good 2 feet it turned so far so quick. So all up we had a 5-0 victory and couldn't have started the season any better. It felt a lot more relaxed than my Tuesday comp for some reason. Quite a nice feeling environment. Or maybe it was just that we won lol. Certainly felt better than the start of my Tuesday comp this season lol.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

We played the runner-up team from last season tonight with their strongest player back in the team (the only reason they lost the premiership was this player had to go away on holidays for the final and so the team only had 2 players in the final). Tonight was his first night back and without him they lost last week in round 1. No such luck for us. Being back at full strength we stood little chance tonight it seemed, but I thought we might do a little better than we did.

I played first and was up against my El Salvadorian friend who's spinny serves are very deceptive. I decided tonight to go back to my Donic Enforce setup with the Tenergy and Palio LP on it. The reason? They Palio pips are not as grippy as the Meteor and I could dictate my returns of his serve more. It paid dividends for sure even though I went down in the first game 11-6 to him. Part of that was re-familiarising with my bat. In the 2nd set I took it 15-13. Just a narrow win lol. In the third set I was getting quite comfortable with the Donic and took it out 11-7, putting away many smashes and fast loops. The 4th set I was all ready to take the match out and felt like I would. My friend had other ideas and kept the score balanced throughout the game, but got a jump at then end of the game to 9-7. I pulled back to 9-8 and was playing somewhat cautiously. However he grabbed the next point off my serve and then served himself to a 2 all match score. So we went into the 5th set and once again the game played evenly. He got a few loops in and missed a few. I smashed on him and also missed some. We got to 9 all and then I grabbed a 10-9 advantage. I tried to rally with him and just let him make the error, however after a few hits each I found myself hitting in into the top of the net and we went to deuce. He took the first point as he served me off. I bolstered myself for a comeback point, but ended up sending a push an inch long and he had the game. What a letdown I thought!

By the end of the first round of singles we were 3 matches down as my teammates went down to their opponents. I think my younger teammate went down 3-0 to their strongest player who plays with the dual (illegal) short pips bat. My older teammate grabbed a set off the oppositions big looper, so went down 3-1. I played the first doubles with the older teammate. It was the first time we teamed up in doubles besides once before in a championship round a few seasons ago. I was pleasantly surprised how well we teamed. We were playing against top opposition and we took out the first 2 games, although not easily. My partners big FH smash he got in a fair bit even if he did miss quite a few also. I got a number of smashes in too, although elected to play mainly in a set up role for my partner as I don't believe both doubles players should be constantly going for smashes, and he was more eager to smash than I was. So I let him. We lost the third set as my young teammate ran past yelling that he was going to substitute in a lower grade match. Now not only is the not allowed in the comp rules, but he was up to play the next singles. So my mind went to what he was doing, rather than on the game. It took me most of the third set to get my mind off him and back on the match properly. I got mysef fully re-focused on the 4th set and we took it out around 11-7 and had the first score for the team.

I had to go and pull my young teammate off the court in the lower grade being he was only half way through the first set there. It was so pointless that he had tried even to play. The opposition had murmured about taking his game if he was not ready, and while they were joking and I'm sure would not have really done so, it was kinda disrespectful to both their team and ours not to be available when he was due to start. And of course it wasn't real nice that he had to walk away from the match he had started in the lower grade either. It wasn't exactly my teammate's fault as he had been asked to do this by the guy running the centre for the night, who is not the normal manager and obviously doesn't know the rules or understand his request to our player was a very poor decision for everyone's part. I let him know I didn't appreciate what he had done. So anyway my young teammate lost his next match 3-0 and I'm sure his mind wasn't fully on the job after all this confusion.

I then played my Romanian friend who plays a looping from both wings game. He plays it pretty well too, and since moving into B2 last season I had lost both matches against him with a 3-2, 3-1 record. I kept on playing with the Donic against him, although I may have been better with my Gergely's softer LP as he could loop hard into the Palio pips and make it almost impossible to return. Anyway, I made the decision to stick with it and had to live with it. I won the first set 111-7 and wasn't unhappy with the decision. I thought I was going to be able to take the 2nd set as well, but my opponent hit a lot of strong BH loop smashes past me. While I was smashing and looping well, his confidence grew with his successful shots and took the game 11-9. I had hit quite a few BH smash attempts and not got the angle down enough with the pips and he was obviously confident in giving me some lobs to my BH. Finally I bagged a BH smash in the 3rd set and it threw his confidence a little. His confidence was thrown even more when he missed a BH loop smash. He plays with a style where he backs off the table and lobs, and in the first 2 games I hit almost all of his lobs to my FH (and even a couple where I worked around my BH to be on my FH) in as smashes over his head. I missed a couple in the 3rd set though and the next time he gave me one I chopped it back and we rallied some more until he succumbed to the spin of the Tenergy and returned it just wide. I took the third set out with 11-8 and knew I had the confidence edge on him again. In the 4th set I goaded him into quite a few of his BH loop smashes and his confidence was shot, yet he kept going for them. I must have won 4 or 5 points from this. A couple more smashes on him and pushing him off the table a bit and I finished him off 11-5. He was a little upset with himself and just said to me I was too good. I said well you've beaten me more than I have you. He thought we had 2 each, but worked out he was 2-1 up, made him a bit happier lol.

My older teammate went on to lose the next singles 3-1 against the dual pip player. He started by winning the first game and I thought perhaps he might cause an upset, but it wasn't to be. My young teammate and I went on to lose the doubles 3-0. We weren't all that far away from winning it seemed but they ran away with it near the end of each game. I think the scoreline was something like 11-7, 11-8, 11-6.

The last 3 singles were all losses to us. May have even all been 3-0's. I know mine was against the old dual pipper. The guy is just so dangerous with anything loose, and his definition of loose is a lot tighter than most of us would call it lol. The spin that comes from his pips and the force he hits it with, which is not blitzing, but just fast enough to make returns and blocks tricky to get up over the net. In the 3rd set though I should have won it being 8-3 up on him. The bloke just doesn't give you a break though and my score stalled at 8 until he was 9. I managed to make it to 10 just after he did. Unfortunately he took off again and won it 13-11. I still can't work out how I managed to take him to 5 sets the first time I played him. This bloke, btw, in his younger days made it to No. 7 ranking in Victoria. His TT skills may not be quite as strong 40 odd years later, but they still aren't bad!!

So we went down 9-2 tonight. Not going to do our ladder position much good. There was one consolation tonight at least though, I found that my Thursday night team is sitting on top of the ladder after our big win last Thursday. So that was pleasing at least.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

There is such a contrast between my Tuesday and my Thursday comps, result wise. Yet I worked out that the Thursday comp is about the same strength as the Tuesday comp as there is a mix of several B2 players from Tuesday night, some players who don't play Tuesdays at all, and one team who plays in A5 on Monday night. Anyway, we had another very successful night again tonight. Another 5-0 win in fact.

It really is odd how styles impact between different players. My teammate played a young guy of about 16 first tonight and he made the guy look like he shouldn't have been in the grade. He beat the kid pretty easily and although the scoreline had the opponent losing with 2,3, 7 and 5 point games, he never stood a chance in any game. Then I played his partner and pulverised him even worse winning to 2,2,3 and 3 to a guy who also plays B2 on Tuesday nights and his team has won twice now.

My partner then played the B2 guy who is 20 and the match was much closer than I expected with my teammate winning it 4-2. I played the 16 year old next and expected to cream him after seeing what my partner had done with him. I lost the first game 11-6.  :shock:  I tightened up in the next game and and won it 11-3. I took the next game 11-7 and started to feel in control more. That was shortlived as the kid took the next game once more with an 11-8. I whopped him again in the next game winning 11-4. I wasn't looking forward to going to 3 all and a 7th set against him. He was playing a lot better than he played my partner. Against him he had muffed so many serves. I had even joked with him, because the first 3 sets against my partner he had stuffed up the final serve of it to hand my partner his 11th point. He did about 3 or 4 muffed serves in total against me. Anyway, I stormed him in the 6th set and I was 6-1 up. He whittled away my lead though and I found us at 7 all. I won the next 2 to make 9-7, and again he surged back to win the point at 10-9 my way to go to deuce. He was visibly stoked. He went to 11-10 and I decided I needed to get serious lol. I smashed past him on the next 3 points to win it 13-11 and take the match 4-2.

So my partner and I had the same results tonight against the reverse opponents. We then went on to lose the first game in the doubles, and decided we better get more serious. After that we steam-rolled them and they got 3-5 points a game after that, so we won it 4-1.

So after two rounds we are on top of the ladder, whereas my B2 team must be somewhere near bottom. The interesting thing about tonight's other matches is that the team that was sitting second (having beaten the team we played tonight 3-2 last week) lost 5-0 tonight to a team that lost last week. The team that was sitting third lost 4-1 to the team we played last week. So we are the only undefeated team so far. I have a feeling that the guy's from A5 had a fill-in that won nothing last week though. So they will be the team that may bring us unstuck. Anyway, its nice to be doing well in one of the comp's at least.

[Vinnie]

I really like your detailed descriptions of your nights plays. You should put together a novel of them.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Thanks mate, but somehow I don't think there'd be more than a few takers, and I doubt one of them would be a publisher. A few forum readers is probably about as good as it gets lol. I always welcome comments and feedback on what I write though.

[Vinnie]

No worries. I really do enjoy reading them though, they are very descriptive, which sure is a good read.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

We came very close to a win tonight! I'm sure we had our opponents more than a little concerned, especially as they are on top of the ladder and we are 2nd bottom. Let me tell you how it unfolded. I put my young teammate in first tonight as we were the away team and he likes to finish as early as he can so he's ready for his Dad picking him up. Playing first meant he finished second. Our third only just walked in as his game got underway, so putting him first wasn't an option. I don't mind staying late, so I always put myself to finish last. Anyway, long story short, he lost the first match 3-0. I played second and was up against the lad who I played and thrashed last Thursday night. It was immediately obvious he had been thinking about how to play me, and his game was quite different to last week. Kudos to him for this, but I still won the first game 11-8. He pushed me even harder in the second game and nipped it from my grasp with 11-9. I had quite a tough battle with him because he was largely playing a chop/push game to avoid plowing shots into the net off my pips. He was putting the odd one up on my FH and I was smacking many of those away for winners, although because of the load of underspin they often had some went into the net as well. I managed to take the 3rd, although this time he had taken me to deuce and I'd won it 12-10. In the 4th set I thought he just might take me to a 5th set the way he was playing. I squeezed out a win at 11-8 though and secured the match and a 1 all team status. We promptly went back to one down after the next match, which our third lost 3-1. I was contemplating letting him play 2 doubles tonight, so I played the first doubles with him. I thought I'd see how we went and how he went in his next singles. Part one worked out very nicely as he and I obliterated the opponents in the doubles with a 3-0 win. They made a murmur on the last point of the 3rd set where I'd served to just inside the service line that it might have been out. It was clearly in and they knew it, as they didn't kick up too much fuss. They just didn't like losing so badly lol.

In the next round of singles, my younger partner played the guy I'd played first. I had high hopes that he would be able to beat this guy, but they were quickly dispelled as he lost 3 straight sets. Oops! So next our third played the younger (I think) of the 2 brothers on the other team. He lost the first set, but won the second and I thought he might mount a challenge. Nope, wasn't to be as he went down in the next 2 sets fairly easily. So now I was up against the older of the brothers. He had a pretty fast smash on his FH and a reasonable one off his BH as well. His serve wasn't too hard to handle, I just had to keep it out of his hitting zones. I managed to do this most of the time and took the first set 11-7. In the second set he planted a few more smashes on, and took it out 11-9. I didn't get a lot of smashing opportunity against this guy, but I wasn't too worried as I knew I could afford to put it up to him and let him make the mistakes, as he obviously wasn't used to playing pips. So I had him mis-timing smashes and dumping balls into the net or going long quite a lot. I took the next 2 sets 11-7 each.

I decided against playing our third in 2 doubles. His form was a bit off and he wasn't to be found when we were ready to play it anyway. So I played it with my young teammate and once again we obliterated the opponents with a 3-0 win. My young partner played terrible singles tonight, but his effort in the doubles was great. So despite the losses we'd taken we still managed to draw level at 4 all at this stage. The closest sniff of victory we've had so far this season. And the scent got even stronger as our third played the young guy I'd played first and got away to a 2-0 start on him and was playing in control. I was certain he would take us to 5-4 up, as he lead 9-6 in the third. He went to 10-6. 10-7. 10-8. 10-9. C'mon, 1 point! Deuce!! Ok, now win it! He went to 11-10. Great! Back to 11 all. Down 12-11. 13-11 and 2-1 up still. Still Ok! Next set and he was back in control. Good stuff. The young guy was playing better now though and the loops my teammate was putting past him were more often coming back. They went at it neck and neck with my teammate keeping the advantage. And then somehow they were at deuce once more. Ok, win this one! Once again he went 11-10 up. The opponent leveled. Then we went 12-11 up. Leveled again. Then the opponent got to 13-12. Oh, oh! Leveled, phew. The opponent kept getting the advantage until the score was 16 all, but my teammate kept on leveling it. What a heart-stopper! Once again, the young guy took the advantage 17-16. Once again they rallied push chopping at each other trying to gain an opportunity to smash. And smash they had so many times at each other and
blocked and countered back. But this time my teammate went a bit too loose wristed on his push and dropped it on the table before the net. 18-16 and 2 all. The 5th set was every bit as exciting as the rest of the game had been and some of the returns the young guy had hit back off smashes my teammate had made had to be seen to be believed. In the end I think my teammates just wore out as he went down 11-8 after so many points where I thought he would take the lead and the ball just came back to him. He played really well, just the opponent played better. So we were 5-4 down. My young teammates turn to play and I wasn't hopeful of him drawing it level again. What I didn't expect though was to sit down for a breather and a chat with someone and turn around to look and see he had lost in 3 as fast as he did. There went the hopes of a victory. We'd lost 6-4 and my game was now just a statistical event (and mainly for me personally at that). Well I played the guy with my Gergely, thinking I should be meeting his intense spin with my Enforce and Palio pips. To my joy I took out the first match with 11-7 though and felt I was in control. Hmmm. Second game told a different story as he wrestled back some control to win it 11-9. Third game I took it back once more and won it 11-6. My older teammate was scoring and mentioned something about a winning end. Well it seemed that way as I went down 11-7 in the next (having scrambled back from 10-3 down). Now I was hoping to go to the change with a lead in the last set and a 2-0 start augured well for it. Somehow it didn't happen though and I was 5-3 down at the change. He managed to keep that little lead going right through from then and was 9-7 up into the home straight. I was darned if I was giving in, but he took it to 10-7, gulp. Well I scratched it back to 10-9 and it was on his serve. His very spinny serve. He was getting some pop ups from me and third ball smashing. Some were going in and some were not. I put it up but deep to him off his serve and it came back fast down just left of the middle. It was just too good on this occasion and landed an inch inside the line. He had it 11-9 and he was the one to win 3 for the night, instead of me! Such is TT life LOL.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

My Thursday night team keeps going from strength to strength with our third 5-0 win in 3 rounds. The team we played tonight were 2 15 year olds. We came very close to a perfect win against them, but I dropped a game against one of them. So my partner had 2 4-0 wins and I had a 4-0 and a 4-1. I think the game I dropped I was 3-0 up and it was my second match and I perhaps took it a little easy. I lost it 11-9, when I had won the other games to around 5 or 6. Anyway, was no big deal. We went on and then slaughtered them in the doubles with most games them getting about 3 points. Most of these were given up when my partner went for smashes he missed, but considering the good ones he hit, he could be forgiven for them lol.

I didn't feel I played terribly well tonight, but good enough to win. I backed off my smashing after missing a few in the first few games. I hit a few in, but chose to work my young opponents around the table and let them make the errors. While these guys had reasonable hitting skills, they seemed thrown by the fact that so many of their drives came back at them off my pips often forcing them into mistakes, or losing their patience and going for smashes that I'd not given them the ball for. I do think they were the weakest players in our division though.

Our winning streak could come to an end next week. We play the team of guys that play in A grade on a Monday night. They would have the same record as us if they hadn't been a man down in the first round. They are second on the ladder and I'm fairly sure had a 5-0 win themselves tonight. They definitely won 5-0 last week. It will be good to test ourselves against such a strong team next week. There may be another 5-0 victory, but I doubt it will be ours lol. If we do win, it will be quite a coo for us, but more to the point it will show we might have a chance if we meet them in the final. I won't be holding my breath for it though.

[pingpongrob]

Reb, how about a small Video of the action.  8)

[RebornTTEvnglist]

The Dandy courts don't lend themselves well to setting up a video camera without endangering the player and camera (risk of running into the tripod). I usually have my mind on playing rather than videoing. I don't even do it to for my own purposes.  If I think of it I may be able to take some on a Thursday and take my tripod and put it up on the seating out of harms way, because less people use the seating on Thursday's, given there is 2 less people playing in the teams. Mind you, I'm not keen putting up vid for certain people to make attacks on anyway. >:(

[Vinnie]

It sounds like you're on a bit of a roll at the moment Reb!
I agree, you should try and make a video.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Well I had hoped and expected that we might sneak in our first win tonight as we played the bottom team. But we didn't sneak it in, we SHATTED it in! LOL. In fact we won 11-0 tonight, and my teammates now have some wins on the board. I've also taken myself up over the 50% win mark again, which is also much more satisfying. I played first tonight against the young guy who was once my teammate before I snapped my achilles about a year ago. I cleaned him up 3-0 (7,9,5). My older teammate then took out their second 3-0 as well I think. My younger teammate won a 5 setter after that with a guy who always used to beat me (except once I think) when I was in B3 with him last year. I then played the doubles with my younger teammate and we won it 3-1 after a shaky starting set where we had it in the bag and then lost it.

Second round of singles I was again first cab off the rank and I played their second who took me by surprise. I'd always beaten him when we played in B3 and yet he was cleaning me up in the first set. He had a very spinny serve which I was throwing up right in his perfect hitting zone and wham, the guy has a very hard smash given the right ball. He was up 9-3 very quickly and ended up winning it 11-6. In the second set I revised my strategy and got his serve under control and then I never looked back. Took out games 2,3 and 4 with him getting 6 or 7 in each. My partners were equally up to the challenges and accounted for their opponents, with my young teammate winning 3-0 against the guy I played first up also, which is a great turn around from how he's been playing. Hopefully tonight will be a great confidence booster for him.

My teammates then combined to play the doubles. We had already won the night at 7-0 so there was no harm in it, even if they failed. But they didn't and won it 3-1. In the last singles round I played the guy who always used to beat me. I won the first game fairly confidently 11-7. The second game I lost some confidence for some reason and he snatched it away 11-9. I was determined I wasn't going to go down to him, so in the 3rd I just bludgeoned him with smashes and as spinny serves as I could muster, which resulted in a lot of nets from him. In the 4th he had another red hot go at me, but I was able to meet him head on and took it out 11-7 again. My older partner won the last singles 3-1 to make the clean sweep.

All in all a pretty good night's TT and should keep us from being relegated backward next season. It was a bit of a strange night with some upsets though, so ladder positions won't change much. 4th beat 2nd, and 3rd beat 1st. If 4th had lost, we would have made it into 4th spot, instead now we stay 5th. Not sure, but 3rd may move up to either 2nd or first.

[Vinnie]

Make a video mate!