Early Wins Shake Up Fixtures Leaderboard

The third season for the year in top grade hit off two weeks ago at the Leichhardt Park Table Tennis Centre and the leaderboard had a few significant changes after the second round of matches.

After the two full played rounds in a fixture that will include the club’s annual closed championships the combination of Matthew Pettett, Joel Gifford, Linda O’Sullivan and Dave Milverton has laid down the gauntlet to the other teams after shooting out to a five-point lead ahead of the next side that consists of Dane Coughlan, Jakob Baker, Warun Wilkinson and Sajan Baral. One point further off the pace sees Rayden Smith, Glen McDonald and Julien and Oliver Wright still in with a great chance to impress while the other outfits are not far behind at this early stage and if any of the teams can mount a challenge to the frontrunners plenty of interest will remain in the competition.

There were some tight score-lines coupled with a few surprises in the latest outing with some players turning in performances not expected considering recent averages. Joel Gifford, who normally cannot play on a full-time basis due to work commitments, has been able to commit for at least most of the season and he put big wins on both James O’Sullivan and Cooper Bulow. Whilst he dispatched young Bulow in a competitive straight-sets tussle his clash with O’Sullivan provided plenty of interest as he wore down his opponent 12-10, 11-13, 6-11, 11-6, 11-8. O’Sullivan was coming off a fairly busy assignment at the state veteran’s championships that only concluded four days earlier at Moreton Bay so it will be interesting to see further clashes between this pair.

The club’s regular super-sub, Shaun Pettett, took Joel Coughlan’s spot and performed exceptionally well when he came back from two-nil in arrears versus Glen McDonald to win comfortably in the decider after collecting the fourth set to deuce. He then was pitted against Rayden Smith who is one of the city’s leading players as evidenced by his recent win in the men’s open singles at the annual Rocky open titles. While Smith was victorious 11-7 in the fifth and deciding set, he really had to play hard for every point. In other clashes between leading players Nick Green repelled the efforts of Jakob Baker over four close sets before Baker went on to put an excellent 3-0 win over Ann-Louise Stewart.

One of the surprise outcomes was when Sajan Baral overcame the solid game of Geoff Geddes 11-8, 5-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-9. Baral only joined the fixture as a full-timer last season after some subbing and his performances have demonstrated quite exceptional improvement in his overall game. Linda O’Sullivan also was not really expected to be too strong for Chris Leitner as she has had a few seasons lay-off, but she played very well to set up a three-nil win against one of the section’s front-runners. O’Sullivan’s team-mate Dave Milverton also conjured a solid win over Leitner by three games to one. Jeff Jordan put on an incredible performance to come from two games to one in arrears against both Julien and Oliver Wright to win 11-9 in the decider to both. 

Members of the Rocky club are reminded that a new annual team’s competition against the Mackay Association will take place on Saturday 08 August and all details are available at the club-house. Players available for this inter-city are asked to register as soon as possible. The City’s annual closed championships are being staged from Tuesday 18 August over a two-week period.