Reb's Pennant Results

[speedplay]

Mind you, I'm not keen putting up vid for certain people to make attacks on anyway. >:(

Well, if you are afraid I'm going to share my thoughts about your game, don't be. I have already told you what I think about your level and unless it changes, I wont comment about it. How ever, I might be able to find some falws that you can correct, but perhaps you aren't interested in correcting them? I know some people put up videos rather to get compliments then to get advice, which I really don't understand.

I would love to be able to post a video of my game, not to hear about how great I am (which I doubt I would hear ;)) but rather for people to look at and perhaps provide some valuable advice on how to improve further.

Now Reb, since I've seen you play, it is only fair that you get to see me play, since I found the old videos of me playing again, feel free to swing away at them as I won't get offended by any comments. Quite frankly, I my self think they look embarrassing, but they are old videos from the days where I used Super Block.

Speedplay

Speedplay 2

Speedplay 3

Speedplay 4

Unfortunately, it isn't mcuh, but it is all I've got at the moment.

[Vinnie]

You're quite the chopoligist by the looks of it Speedplay.

[pingpongrob]

Now Now Reb - Stop being so negative. Let them all post strange remarks about your game - as long as your happy with it, thats all that matters. I know I'm happy with my level and the rate of improvement lately.

Speedplay, not sure how old your clips are, and how much you have improved lately. I can see that you have a brace around your knee, so it must give you lots of trouble. If you played at our local club, you would be in our A reserve. There is a big gap between our A grade and A reserve. In the Main City Pennant played on Wednesday night, you would be in our Section 4.

Reb how would Speedplay rate in the Dandenong Comp.

Lastley, I'm not sure that these posts belong in this Thread. Its really for Rebs Pennant Results, but if he's happy then I'm Happy.

Speedplay - post your Video's in the Video section and well have a go at helping you improve.  8)

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Rob, I have seen Speedplay's vids before because I think they are roughly 18 months to 2 years old. I really wouldn't like to say where he would stand in Dandy or anyone's standards mainly because I really think its very difficult to judge level off video. If forced to judge I would say B5 or maybe B4 at Dandy. I'm sure he has probably improved a bit since these vids though. It would be a mighty step to get to B2 or B1 level though. I took some vid on my phone the other night of one of my teammates and some other B2 players, but I haven't their permission to put it on here. Can't take it of myself like that though lol. I have even been having some technical troubles getting my phone to upload to my PC, which hasn't previously been an issue. I might see if I can edit a small portion that leaves blurry faces or something to show, if I can ever get it off my phone.

I see you at least recognised that a weakness in the knees (and other parts of the body don't help either) makes playing TT harder Rob. You've gotten something positive (empathy) out of your own injury, which is good. My movement in my game has been denegrated previously (by Speedplay, no not whinging just stating fact) and has been mistaken for poor playing techniques. When you have been dealing with restrictive injuries for a long time, while they don't help, you do learn to do other things to compensate for the restriction. And the untrained eye will miss this. No I am not under any misconception of my TT skill. I know EXACTLY my skill level because I play against a LOT of different players in a graded competition (and also play and beat many higher graded player in practice matches). I know who I can usually beat and who usually beats me. I have the respect of nearly everyone I play against because they all fall prey to my shots (pimples and inverted) at times. How a guy in another country across the world judges from a video really doesn't matter, and in fact it is impossible for such a person to even cast an decent opinion not having been at the other end of the table. I am smart enough to know that my judgment of anyone off video cannot come close to the judgment I can have of a player that I have played. Judging a player you have even played can be wrong because they could be having an off night.

Eventually there will be some vid I am sure. ;)

[speedplay]

Regarding my level in these clips, compared to how I play now, I would certainly hope that the player I am today would white wash the player in these clips. To give you the back ground, I've been playing on a serious level for about 3 years now and these clips are about 2½ years old. If my memory isn't mistaken, this was the first match ever with the Super Block, after having used them for 2-3 practice sessions before. Previous to that, I was a double inverted player.

Not sure how this would rate me in the different Australian leagues, but if you all remember the young kid I've been mentioning in the club, I' fairly even with him all though I would say he wins more then me at the moment, 8 out of 10 or something like that, he is now picked to play for the Swedish national team for boys up to 12. So I guess I would be able to play at a decent level in your leagues, cause from what I've seen, your top leagues holds a pretty good standard, but from there, the level of skill decreases fast.

[big ears]

I think looking at those clips that you are actually quite an accomplished player Speedy, nice playing conditions. You might be because of YR stlye be somewhat underrated on these forums, just my OPPO of course. I did make some comments about this clip along time ago, but everything is of course relative to your standard. I think that you are competent.

[speedplay]

Thanks for the nice words Biggy, but I have very little in common with the game shown here, I still wanted to put it out here as Reb feels I have attacked him, then it is only fair for me to put something out here as well. Guess we could call it even now as he guesses I'm level B5 or B4 in Dandy ;)

[Der Echte]

You perform better as the "underdog" anyway. Don't worry, when I visit sweden and link up with you, I will put a laxitive in your water before we have our hit. The vids will show you underperforming and we will all get a laugh out of it.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Well tonight ended up pretty much as expected in general terms, although the way the result was arrived at wasn't quite as expected. My teammate was a no show tonight. Still don't know why. I thought..great, we are playing the toughest team in the division and we're going to forfeit 3 out of 5! That didn't end up happening either though as I did get a last minute fill-in. I had no odea who he was or how good or bad he was, but he was a body at least. I was already underway in the first game when he was sent to our table. I was playing the opponent I was told was the better of the 2 A-graders we were confronted by tonight. Thank goodness for that, because if he was the worse one I was in big trouble LOL. Actually I was pretty happy with how I fared against him overall. The first game I kept fairly even with him, but he pipped me 11-9 at the end. The thing that worried me was that I hit one of my full-on smashes at what is usually an out-of-reach FH side and it came back at me. I can't remember the last time one this good had come back. I did manage to eventually hit a couple of smashes by him, but I was having to really nail them in unexpected places for that to happen. His own smash was pretty damn untouchable. He missed a few from my awkward pips spin and he relented on those a little. In the second game the scenario played out very similarly to the first with him pipping me at 11-9 once again. In the third, he powered down and started hitting his smashes in, and I started missing mine. Not a good situation and it resulted in me going down 11-5. I know I was getting pretty spent with the amount of effort I was having to put in to try and keep up with him. In the 4th set I pulled something from somewhere because although he had me 10-7 I managed to drag it back to deuce, much to his surprise which was clear on his face. I even think I worried him a touch as I went point up on him a few times. In the end though, I was too exhausted and he was too good and the game ended up 15-13. Considering it was a 4-0 victory to him, I think I had put up a decent fight, against the grain of that scoreline.

My teammate for the night was a 19 year old who hadn't played TT for a year. He started to play and it was pretty evident he had played some decent TT before, but his shots were rusty. He lost to the weaker opponent 4-0 as well. After about 3 games I asked him what level he had last played at. He said it was A2 senior pennant. Well that explained it. Turns out he is the step-brother of a guy who I've had a hit with before who has moved into A2 this season. He said he hadn't played without speedglue before and was trying to deal with that as well as his rusty skills. He then had to play the guy I had lost to and his skills were slowly improving with each game he played and he managed to take a game off the stronger opponent. Both opponents play in A5, so at full strength I think this guy would have taken them both out. But not tonight.

I played my second singles next and having seen the opponent tear this other guy apart I was a little uncertain about how things would go. I decided the only way to go was not to hold anything back unless nothing was working. The guy has a very spinny arrangement of serves and they kept me on my toes. However, I managed to get a break on him though as he was struggling with my serves almost as much as I was with his and I got him to pop a few up which I put away with solid smashes. I also had smashed away a few of his very fast loops that was one of his game strengths and forced him to reconsider using them. So I had shut down a part of his game he relied upon. I grabbed game 1 at 11-8. In game 2 he changed around his tactics and kept on giving me serves which I was struggling to keep down. He got braver and started smashing my returns from these serves and he got on top of me this way. He took game 2,3 and 4 this way. I averaged around 7 points a game and thought I was gone. I decided to fight with all I had left in the 5th and I think he had spent so much energy getting on top in the previous games he was struggling to keep going. I put down some more serves that came back in the net, got some 3rd ball put aways and got him sending a few long after returning off pip spin. I took out game 5, and then did it again in game 6 to even the score at 3 games a piece. Trouble was now I was exhausted. The 7th set started poorly for me, and I found myself changing ends 5-1 down. I didn't want to be overrun so easily in what had been a pretty monumental battle. I played tight and struck out when it was there. Next thing I knew our ball had gone over into the next court and the kid (from our division) returning it gasped at our scoreboard which said 3 sets all and 6-5 his way! Suddenly though the next 2 points went back to him and it was 8-5. I know the scoreline then moved to 9-6, I just can't recall which order it went to it. I got it to 9-7, but then it went to 10-7 and I felt that little twinge of defeat creep in knowing I had zero backup now. I think he also got a surge from it. He hadn't put on a whole lot of good BH's during the match, but after a few shots rallying he sent down a fast BH loop wide. I managed to get my pips on it and sent it back, but it was high and prime for him. I was hoping he'd get a rush of blood to the head and send his next smash long, but no, he was too good and landed it without me being able to touch it again. Game over! What a match though. I didn't feel the least bit disappointed as I really pushed him and he said to me after the match I'd caused him to play really tight and I'd taken it right up to him. I couldn't complain with how I played at all, a few things having gone my way, and the result could easily have gone my way. After that we had to play doubles and I was completely whacked. It was a bit of a nonevent as we went down averaging 4 points per game, with a notable 6 in the last. Considering I'd never played with the guy I was partnering before and he had this style of taking the entire table area to receive serve and then darting out of the way for me to take the next shot (which was a bit unnerving), we did OK. And I kind of couldn't have cared less as the round was already well lost, and I was zapped. So we now relinquished our top spot on the ladder to the team we played tonight, and we have to settle with being second at best for the rest of the season I think. So long as we win all the other rounds besides when we next play these guys again, we should finish 2nd and get a finals berth. I don't fancy our chances of winning it though after tonight lol.  ;)

 

[RebornTTEvnglist]

You perform better as the "underdog" anyway. Don't worry, when I visit sweden and link up with you, I will put a laxitive in your water before we have our hit. The vids will show you underperforming and we will all get a laugh out of it.

Now Der, that could be worth the laugh!

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Narrow wins in both comps this week. On Tuesday we won 6/5 against the team that was one above us on the ladder. Our win replaces us in their spot and vice-versa. So we're now 4th, but I doubt we will advance beyond that position. We play the top team again next week. Would be nice if we could improve our result against them in the first round. I wasn't terribly happy with my performance on Tuesday, only winning 1 singles and the doubles I played in. I lost to 2 guys I beat previously when we played them. One of them is leading player this season, but I still don't feel I should have lost to him. I went down 3-1, but was up 10-6 in the 4th. Losing that set wasn't a good feeling. The other guy I lost to played the best I've seen him play and he just didn't miss his drives.

Tonight we played the team one below us in third position. We are in second having lost last week. What I hadn't realised was how close 3rd actually was to us. They were on the same points, but they were 4 games behind us. We beat them 3-2 tonight and so now we are 4 points ahead and 5 games. So we have a bit of a buffer on them. We are on the same points as they guys that are on top, but they are 4 games ahead of us, having made another 5-0 victory tonight. They went home when we still had a singles and the doubles to go. Winning runner-up this season will be the ultimate goal. Winning the premiership is unthinkable at this point.

[Der Echte]

You perform better as the "underdog" anyway. Don't worry, when I visit sweden and link up with you, I will put a laxitive in your water before we have our hit. The vids will show you underperforming and we will all get a laugh out of it.

Now Der, that could be worth the laugh!

It is fun to joke about and certainly some stuff like this goes on in the real world, but somehow I really doubt Speedplay will be easily taken by this kind of trick. He might have created a few of them.

[Der Echte]

Narrow wins in both comps this week. On Tuesday we won 6/5 against the team that was one above us on the ladder. Our win replaces us in their spot and vice-versa. So we're now 4th, but I doubt we will advance beyond that position. We play the top team again next week. Would be nice if we could improve our result against them in the first round. I wasn't terribly happy with my performance on Tuesday, only winning 1 singles and the doubles I played in. I lost to 2 guys I beat previously when we played them. One of them is leading player this season, but I still don't feel I should have lost to him. I went down 3-1, but was up 10-6 in the 4th. Losing that set wasn't a good feeling. The other guy I lost to played the best I've seen him play and he just didn't miss his drives.

Tonight we played the team one below us in third position. We are in second having lost last week. What I hadn't realised was how close 3rd actually was to us. They were on the same points, but they were 4 games behind us. We beat them 3-2 tonight and so now we are 4 points ahead and 5 games. So we have a bit of a buffer on them. We are on the same points as they guys that are on top, but they are 4 games ahead of us, having made another 5-0 victory tonight. They went home when we still had a singles and the doubles to go. Winning runner-up this season will be the ultimate goal. Winning the premiership is unthinkable at this point.

Yolu never know when their water supply gets an extra "kick", especially if someone left some free drinks on a table marked "Take One". Do what you can. At least you have a competitive league near you, plus a chance to train and/or play.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Having been absent from here for some time I thought I would make a short little report on my two seasons as they finished up tonight with the final in the A4 Masters. The guys we had to play tonight were "fitted in" to the grade as there as nowhere else for them to go as higher grades were full. One of them was clearly 2 grades higher, and the other should be in the next grade up. So we went into the final with a fighting attitude and nothing to lose really. Well nothing except the final to lose lol, and that we did. My teammate played the stronger opponent first and made the worst effort I'd seen him make all season losing in 4 straight sets. He rallied to an 11-8 in the first set and the next 3 were 3,2 and 1. I then played the guy that both of us needed to beat to have any chance of winning. The guy plays a fairly attacking game with both big FH loops and smashes and very spinny serves that are hard to read for top or under and can easily be sent into the net or long if played without due consideration. I won the first set 11-8 after some pretty long rallies, some of which were all out smashing and blocking affairs. He took the second 11-8 with fairly similar play to the first game with the addition of a couple of serves that went so far wide to my FH that I couldn't return them with the pips and found myself going all out attack on them with the Roxon, but they were way too spinny even for smashing and dragged themselves off my rubber and across the table going wide. The third I took 11-5 from him, an a game that was still intense but I maintained the upper hand. He then took the next set 11-5 as if to say "anything you can do, I can too" and also took the 5th set with a much tighter 11-9. The 6th set went down to the wire and after deuce I emerged the victor at 12-10 and set the match back to even 3-3. Twice I played this guy this season I lost 4-3 to him and was so exhausted by the last set he just walked over me. I was determined not to let this happen this time and I made a much better fist of it, but in the end his experience playing 2 grades above me for as long as I have been at the club told on me. I had taken the set to 6 all but then he got a jump to 8, then to 10-6. I won it back to 10-7 and was fighting to take the 8th point when my smash missed the table edge by the barest of margins and he had the match with 4-3 yet again. My partner then played this guy in the next match and lost it 4-2 and the final was over with them winning 3 of the possible 5.

In the Tuesday night comp my team came good about half way through the season and we ended up winning 6 out of the 10 rounds, including beating the eventual premiers on our second time around with them. However, it was only good enough to see us left in fourth spot, just 2 games and the same points behind 3rd. Not bad seeings as we lost the first 3 rounds though. Anyway, just thought I would put in an update, so anyone interested could see my TT is still going strong, even if my forumming isn't LOL.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Haven't posted to here for a while but had to post this:

OK drum roll!!

In my roughly 2 year history of posting on this forum, this would have to be my most pleasurable post to report.If you haven't guess already.., WE WON THE B2 PREMIERSHIP TONIGHT!!!!! Yahooooooooooooooo!!

Ok now I have that out in the open, I'll tell you a little bit about it. I opened the batting tonight as per normal. I once before changed it in a final for another player to open because he said he felt he was confident...and we subsequently lost that final. So tonight was business as usual in the order, but things were not well inside my head lol (ok, worse than usual lol). I have been on a certain medication for 2 and a half years and my doctor decided to switch me to a new one starting this week with a "cold turkey" period over the weekend. I went through a weekend of severe withdrawal and thought I was fine. Thing is I hadn't played TT or done any exertion in this time. Oh boy did my head start spinning once I started to get moving!! My reaction time was slow and I felt like crap. Fortunately the guy I played first has no idea of how to play me. Well he did get a little closer tonight than usual, but I still beat him in 3. The first 2 went easy with about 11-5's. In the third he cottoned on to how slow my reactions were and that he wasn't getting bombarded with my usual smashes (cos that really spun me out when I did and so I was missing them). He got out to a 10-7 lead in this game and I wasn't too keen on the first game he ever won against me being in the final in case he got a liking for it! I played carefully to win 10-8 and get to be my serve. Then I had him net one with my underspin serve. Was being very careful not to throw away a serve here and fortunately didn't, although had earlier in the game. Rallied with him a little on the next point and had him send it long. 10 all. Not over yet I thought, but a chance to go 3-0. On the next point I threw him a teaser off the pips and he went for it, missing the table by 6 feet! Then we had one of those rallies I love where he hit quite a few solid drives at me and I just sent each back with a slight angle, and then made the angle huge and fast off the pips to his BH side and buried him. 12-10! First Blood!

The next 2 singles by my partner...oh oh! I thought I was playing poorly! My young teammate went down to their strongest player 3-0 and then my other partner lost the unloseable match. He was 2 sets up and 6-0 up in the third, only to lose it and the following 2 where he had leads as well. He was nervous, being his first final at the club and it told on him! Suddenly we were 2-1 down and could have gotten into serious trouble if we lost the doubles! I played both doubles tonight even though I wasn't sure I was really in the best form to do so. But I had almost no nerves about tonight being a final having been in quite a few now. I was just eager to win matches, whatever it took! So I just played it as cool as I could and tried to give my partner comments to calm his nerves. He played some pretty woeful shots and it made the game harder than it needed to be. He sent a lot of serve returns long, missed his smashes, and hit a lot in the net. I did a few of these too, which I was peeved at myself for, but somehow we managed to win it 3-1. Not a bad effort given the kid on the other side who won leading player this season was thumping smash winners all over us. I hit a smash down his throat (one of the few smashes I did hit tonight and he got it back. My partner did the same and his counter back was unreachable. He did miss a few and kept throwing his bat on the table, and his BH is a lot weaker, so we played on this to pull off the win and get us to 2 all. My young teammate then played and narrowly won in 5 sets against their weakest player. Then it was my turn again, and I was even more in la-la land than I'd been earlier. I was playing the guy who had made the 5 set comeback against my teammate earlier and while he didn't beat me this season, he came awful close on a night where I had all my faculties working lol. I felt he might whitewash me. His biggest advantage is he has a serve that he disguises length and direction and combines it with spin and speed. It requires very quick reflex to get a bat on. And he is uncanny how well he places these to the edge. And of course when you do get a bat on them he has a FH and BH smash ready to belt anything remotely high away. My reflexes were just not up to his serve as normal and I struggled with it a lot. Getting a bat to his serve is not enough because the spin will see the ball off the table if you don't get the angle right. I played him in a daze. Missed a lot of his serves, some of them going by acing me. Somehow I won the first set about 11-9 I think. The second set he took and I thought...here we go, I'm done for. And yep the third set he had it all over me. Well I don't know how, but from 10-5 down I got it back to deuce with him. Perhaps he got nervous that he was going to go ahead against me, perhaps I just felt too crap to get nervous, I don't know. I won it 14-12. I think I broke his spirit cos in the next game I was 7-1 up very quickly. He got it back to 10-4 I think and then I took it off him. I was pretty relieved, but uncertain about our chances still given how my teammates were going.

My older teammate tried really hard against the kid in his next singles and did get 2 sets, but the kid was just too good taking the last set 11-5. I was not looking forward to my match with this kid, which if we got to it would be the decider of the night! He beat me twice in the season in the 5th set. 11-9 the first time and 12-10 the second. I wanted some revenge, but I wouldn't get it tonight in my condition!So we went into the 2nd doubles leading 4-3. Losing this doubles would closely equate to losing the final. I played with my young teammate and I just tried to coach him along to put serve returns back on the table and not go for smashes that were a 50/50. I'm really very proud of him actually, because while he didn't do this stuff perfectly, he really stood up well, and better than he normally does. Not that he and I don't have a pretty good doubles record, we do. We've had 3 seasons together and know each others reactions pretty well. That really gave us support under pressure and while they were close we won 3 straight and gave us a 5-3 lead. Then my young teammate played the guy I played second and has a fair record against. This is where I got really proud of him because he won 3 straight sets in his match with him having to crawl back to deuce and a 13-11 win for us to snare victory with 6-3. No need to worry whether my other nervous partner would take out their weakest player, no need for the pressure of playing their best player in a decider for me. Relief and the ecstacy of winning the final were upon us and we had our 11th victory from 11 meetings! And I have my first Premiership medallion at this club, after 4 runner-up ones! Funny thing is, the runner-ups always have had a red lanyard attached, where the premiers had blue. The medal supplier changed it this season!! Runners-up are now Green! And if you havent guess what colour the Premiers one is now...well its RED!!       


The only sad thing about tonight is my young teammate is doing year 12 next year and his parents are not letting him play TT for the year. So he is leaving us!  

[blue_smartie68]

A great report Reb and congrats on your win 
 
What are they doing changing the colours around!!! 
Blue has always meant first, red second and green third...even over 30 years ago, when I was competing in school athetics and swimming carnivals, they had blue, red and green ribbons for 1st, 2nd and 3rd respectively.
 
That's a bugger losing your younger member next year.... but it's a problem we have in country clubs all the time, and not just with table tennis. Many good sporting kids are lost once they hit 17/18 as the demands of schooling take their time....and then, they head off to the city for University or a career.... and we never see them again!! 
Just one of the problems of living in small country towns, along way from major centres.
 
Cheers,
Chris

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Cheers Chris. I know what you mean. I ended up being one of those small country town kids that had to give up TT for schooling and work. Came back to it 20 years later. Thing is I live and play in the area the kids move to now lol, and still we lose him!! Personally, having done a degree or 5 and knowing what my year 12 was like, I think its good for kids to keep up the sporting interest through it. Makes them more relaxed and study better, then makes them more enticing to employers having kept a broad focus. But some people don't understand this approach. Comes down to all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy!

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Fanfare and Drum Roll!!!!We Won the A4 Masters Premiership!!!!!!!!Well actually, the club president and Thursday night organiser said it was a killing actually LOL. We won 3-0 and didn't drop a set doing it.I started off playing the guy who beat me last week. I have the feeling he thought he stood a chance lol. Cos when we finished he got quite viciously nasty about it and called me an Ass several times, and he wasn't referring to any particular luck I'd had. This is a bloke I am supposed to be friends with, but he is a very sore loser. Ok so I buried him -7,-5,-6,-3. I was focussed and deliberate in my game tonight. I forced him to errors, I blocked a smash from him that I actually heard a gasp from several people around the place that must have been watching, and I hit a few of my own smashes. But most of all, I just played him consistently and with huge determination. I knew winning this match might mean it would be the only game I had to play and take pressure on, and I knew losing it would put a lot of pressure on my partner and heaps on myself later on too. So I wasn't mucking around, and I wasn't playing Mr. Nice Guy with any shots. To give this guy an inch and let him get any momentum is the surest way to lose to him. Game by game I could see the frustration building on his face, and showing in his shots. His best smash that I blocked back past him, which he had a comment come from the next court about, he had said "gees, I never saw that coming" and had a slight laugh about. But it was the point where I rattled him and he slowly went downhill from there. He stopped going for the smashes like he got last week and when he went for them, they stopped going on. I only recall him getting one on and past me after that block! He didn't throw in the towel quite as he usually has once he's a couple down, and even the last game where he only got 3 points, he wasn't as wreckless as he has been in the past at that point. I was on guard the entire time, although I suspected I had him more and more. But never assumed it totally until that lady was singing.Next 2 matches my partner played. The first was against the A5 player from their team who I had a 4-3 win over last week. Their game was the night's tightest by far. -9,-11,-9, -8 was the result. My heart was in my mouth scoring it and there was some truly great rallies in it. Was only when my partner was 3-0 up that I was figuring he should definitely win. But seen matches lost from there even. Then his match against my "friend", who also told me I wasn't his friend after our match tonight just before he went away down the other end of the stadium to sulk while his and my partner played. Similar results in that match to the one he played with me, although I think my partner was slightly kinder to him. Result was like -9, -7, -8, -5. So from having no premierships and 4 runner-ups at my club in 2 years, I now have 2 Premiership medallions and a Leading Player trophy to boot! We didn't lose a single round the entire season in both comps. I think I would count it as a success...in fact my best ever by a long long way! So its promotions next year in both comps and my Partner and I are continuing together next season. The next grades up are tougher, especially on the Thursday night though in A3. The guys that beat us in the A4 final last season won the A3 final tonight after losing the first 3 rounds due to one of them holidaying in China. I really don't think we ever stood a chance against those guys...so glad they're going to A2 LOL.Oh just a note on finals preparation I have learned this season. Seems bad preparation is the key! I had a stressful day today as I had a specialist appointment in the city. I had to do some train changing and kept on just making it on the trains as the doors were closing on me after going from platform to platform. Then on the train on the way home I missed the one I needed by a minute and had to wait 30 minutes for another. The train was packed and I had to stand for half the 70 minute journey. And I was tired before I got on the train! I went and got a takeaway meal on my way home from the train station because I was running late. It was raining heavily and there were no parks close to the store, but one buzz-box car was parked right across the line of 2 carparks. So as I ran (as best I can run with an arthritic knee) I said "good on ya" to the woman who was in the car just sitting there. She knew what I was talking about cos she got out of her car and came to the door of the store and started yelling obscenities at me. I just waved her off and placed my order. Next thing I had her Boyfriend in the store wanting to "take it outside" and bash me. Apparently I had given her the "finger" (which I had not, but through foggy windows I reckon she assumed I did, and he wasn't in the car I don't think). He was about my size or so but younger by 15-20 years I'd say. I wanted dinner and to be in good shape for TT, I wasn't interested in fisticuffs and possibly not being able to play my final LOL. So I just told him if he didn't go away I'd be forced to call the cops. He eventually walked out of the place yelling abuse at me as he went. This, all in frnt of customers and staff of the store who were all pretty shocked as far as I could tell. So I ate my meal and left, not sighting the pair or their car again. Kind of put me on edge though (which you will realise isn't that hard to do LOL). Anyway, just thought I would convey this preparation for anyone going into finals in the future. Forget the good night's sleep. Don't eat healthy food. Try to find ways to get stressed...and you might win the final too!!   

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Well I have been lax and haven't posted in results here for a while, so I'll do a quick catch up. Last season I played B1 Seniors and A3 Masters and to cut a long story short both my teams ended up winning the premierships. A repeat effort of what we did just 2 seasons prior, but one grade up in each league. So this season we again advance. So I am now playing A grade seniors in the A5 division and A2 Masters. I ended up also winning the championship medals in both respective leagues last week for singles and doubles, although the A3 asters Doubles was a runner-up medal.  So tonight was our first night in A grade and the following describes what transpired.....

Well we couldn't have had much softer landing into A grade tonight than we did. The team we were playing didn't show, but 2 fill-ins were appointed to play against us. Now I'm not a great fill-in lover, especially when they are better than the usual players. I knew these 2 fill-ins though, and I don't know any of the players in the proper team. I assume the regular players are better than the fill-ins we had to play, plus we were given 4 sets by them missing one player anyway. Our only trouble for the night is we were allocated a player to our team who we didn't know. He was a young 17 year old and we started out assuming he would be an asset until we saw him play   . He was way, way below A grade standard and would struggle in any grade up to about B3 or B4. He had come from another club (actually my old club) where he had played B grade and was relegated to C grade there if he'd played this season. The best B graders at that club would struggle above B3 at our club.
So anyway he was smashed off in his games 3-0 in both with scorelines of -1,-2, -7 and -1, -4, and -8 because the fill-ins started mucking around against him in the third set and missing their shots, not cos he got better. We had a 4th player allocated to our team as there was no other spots, so I had to get management to look for a B grade spot for our young friend as there is no way he would cope with the real A5 players and it wouldn't help his development at all (not to mention our chances to stay in A5 lol). The guy who is coming into our team next week was the guy I beat in 5 sets in the championship semi-finals last week on Thursday. He has a reasonable game and will make a fist of the season. Probably not going to fill our missing players shoes still. The player I was hoping to get ended up staying in B1 with the team he played last season.

So as for the rest of our night, I won my 2 singles 3-0 and 3-1 and my teammate managed to win the 5th set against them both. They managed to sneak away with the only doubles we played in the 5th set. So we ended up winning the night 8-3, which ironically will probably see us start our A grade debut season at the top of the ladder   If we are still there after week 2, I will be amazed!!!

The best match of the night I was given was by a 17 year old looper who I have played quite a bit in the past, when I played in the A4 Masters. He still plays in that grade on Thursdays. When I last played him he was getting very tough to beat, really making me work for it. Tonight looked like it was going to be the same situation. I've also seen him play some great matches against others on Thursday nights and been very impressed. But that wasn't against pip players!!   

Anyway he came out strongly and was not only putting in some strong loops but was getting awfully lucky with several edges as well. I wasn't adjusted to his loops and was countering them long. He put a few of my pip serves to his BH into the net, but he managed to squeeze out the first set 11-8 still. Now I didn't panic, but I did stop to think that I normally play him in best of 7 sets and tonight was only 5. So I upped my focus in the second set and changed the game up on him. Stopped giving him loop opportunities by playing shorter and put several smashes away down his BH side where he was expecting my preference of smashing to the FH. I beat him 11-3 in the second set and felt more comfortable. He came out harder in the 3rd set and served well. I sent one or two long, gave him an easy smash and generally showed him a way back a little too much. I still beat him 11-7   In the 4th set I put up the blockades on him and made him feel totally shut down. I had adjusted my FH angles to his to his loops and one he went for a smashed so hard, short and wide to his FH that it blurred as it flew, landed and skipped away without his bat finishing his loop follow-thru. By the time I was at 9-5, I didn't have much doubt I close the match out in this set, and two points later that's what happened. Not really an indication of the level of player we will meet this season, but he's an aspiring young player who obviously feels he wants to start Seniors at A grade level, but I think B grade could still teach him a thing or 2.

The other young player didn't have near the game of the one I beat 3-1. The game is not even worth describing really. Scoreline was 11-4, 11-1, 11-2. I gave him the 1 in the middle set when I was at 10-0. He stated he hated playing pimples at the start and I made him eat mine LOL. He wasn't half the player of the other one and has no business trying A grade yet, even if he did smash our third for tonight. I'm hoping these guys do go down and play in B grade soon as they need to develop there for at least a few seasons now they are getting too old for juniors. Maybe in 3 or 4 seasons they will hand me my behind, and I hope they do as every club needs good juniors that turn into great seniors. But its not good to try and shortcut the process IMO.

Anyway, next week we play a team that has been seasoned in A5 for about a year to 18 months now. Its a 4 man team, but one of the guys who played tonight I hope plays next week as well as he is one I know is troubled by pips and I have beaten 3 times for no losses to him in previous masters competition. SO right now I'm equal leading player at 100%   and so is my teammate. If I'm 66% after next week, I'd be happy!

Please feel free to post here and ask questions, make comments, etc.

[Der Echte]

Mucho fun dude. I sometimes get put on our club team in some of the huge tourneys, but there is entirely too much waiting around and only so many matches.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Mucho fun dude. I sometimes get put on our club team in some of the huge tourneys, but there is entirely too much waiting around and only so many matches.

Indeed TT fun Der, but wait time is no good. I don't mind rest time for TT, but wait-time is a killer. Tourney's will do that when they are large I suppose.

[Der Echte]

The Seung Nam tourney had aroud 2000 players and 36 tables. It was a Woodstock.

[blue_smartie68]

Hey guys,
Talking about wait-time, I played in the Vic vets tourny at MSAC last sunday and I didn't get my first round match in div 3 until 5:30 pm !
As I was knocked out of the other rounds early, I had a rather long wait time 
I managed to play through to the final but got beaten in 3 by an unranked guy from China who couldn't speak a word of English! He was clearly too good for div 3 as he took out the number 2 seed -2, -1, -2. Finally got away about 8:30 pm and home about 10 ish. A long day indeed!
Cheers,
Chris

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Don't tell me you travelled all the way down from home just to wait to be thrashed Chris!! That's on the nose!! Hope they whack a stack of ranking points on the Chinese guy now!! Come down and give me a hit mate, I won't thrash you 

[blue_smartie68]

I travel all over the place to get thrashed reb  hahaha
I'd love to have a hit down there.... just hasn't been the opportunity yet, most trips involve multiple business dealings and visits... and I usually run out of time!!
I still have your number in my phone and will call if there's a chance. It would probably be a Sunday evening... would that suit? Do you have a table set up at your place?

[Silver]

Does this mean soon you'll be up in Rob's div kicking his ass? 

[Der Echte]

Hey guys,
Talking about wait-time, I played in the Vic vets tourny at MSAC last sunday and I didn't get my first round match in div 3 until 5:30 pm !
As I was knocked out of the other rounds early, I had a rather long wait time 
I managed to play through to the final but got beaten in 3 by an unranked guy from China who couldn't speak a word of English! He was clearly too good for div 3 as he took out the number 2 seed -2, -1, -2. Finally got away about 8:30 pm and home about 10 ish. A long day indeed!
Cheers,
Chris

Chris, I showed up at the Seong nam Tourney at 0900 and did not start my first match until 2000. That was my first singles match. my first team match started at 2130.

[RebornTTEvnglist]

It would probably be a Sunday evening... would that suit? Do you have a table set up at your place?

Usually and Yes, as long as you can play close LOL!

[RebornTTEvnglist]

Does this mean soon you'll be up in Rob's div kicking his ass? 

Don't play at Rob's club Silver. From what I understand Sunbury A Grade covers a broad number of levels. Where Rob plays at MSAC, I'd say I'd be still a couple of divisions lower than Rob I think. Not quite sure how they equate between MSAC and Dandy. I think MSAC has 3 A divisions, where we have 5, is that right Rob?

[blue_smartie68]

Chris, I showed up at the Seong nam Tourney at 0900 and did not start my first match until 2000. That was my first singles match. my first team match started at 2130.

Der, that would be sooo annoying! What a waste of a day... that's like turning up for normal evening pennant at 9 in the morning.
The worst thing about long wait-time between matches for me is the "getting cold" bit and muscles start seizing up after a particularly tough match, then take so long to free up for the next match! A two minute warm up barely helps at all  I guess that problem is also related to being a 45 yo fossil with a dodgy hip 

Reb, how close is close?! I run into barriers on most courts! lol. Sometimes I still think I'm playing tennis