Local QLD School's Qualifier Boasts Big Numbers and Bigger Matches

The stage is set for another interesting instalment in the inter-club rivalry between the Rockhampton and Bundaberg Table Tennis Associations.  Players from these two clubs have been travelling the Bruce Highway for in excess of fifty years for an annual clash and it is Bundy’s turn to do the driving for this year’s showdown in Rocky this Saturday evening. Both clubs are organising their teams for this fixture and the action for 2025 will hit-off around 6.30pm.   

Last Friday the regional play-offs for the Queensland School’s Table Tennis Championships were staged at the city’s headquarters for the sport on Leichhardt Park.

Five schools took part in an action-packed program where the courts were not idle between 8.30am and 2.30pm when the medal presentations took place. With fifty-odd primary and secondary students taking part in team competitions across five categories the few volunteer organisers from the city’s club were kept busy all day making sure the event ran smoothly and kept on schedule.

In the section for open males an excellent final was witnessed with Height’s College taking out the gold medal over the Rocky High outfit. The defining clash was between two youngsters who happen to play the sport to a very serious level as they have both represented the local club at state junior titles, in the same team, as well as at open tournaments regularly.

On this occasion Judd Carr was representing Heights and RHS had Cooper Bulow in the number-one spot. Whilst Carr started this clash as favourite he looked the goods when he won the opening set to 8 points. However, Bulow played really well in the second stanza to win a tight one 12-10. In the decider Bulow left the blocks early and held a very handy lead for well into the game before the more experienced Carr wore down his challenger and won the encounter 11-8 to confirm the gold medal. Carr was well supported by Levi Sarin who registered one win while Bulow’s partner was Tom Tonkin who did well for the short time he has been playing the sport at the local club.   

The bronze medal match in this section saw another win for Heights with the pairing of Jan Romualdo and Van Ly being too good for Gladstone’s Faith Baptist Christian School’s Edlin Chamberlain and Wyatt Wittingham.  

The open and junior girl’s divisions had their preliminary rounds as a single round-robin before the teams were separated into their age-groups. Gladstone’s Faith Baptist’s Emily Sauvageot and Felicia Salvador won the gold medal in the open section narrowly over school-mates Alice Falls and Lola Howells. In a similar scenario Heights College was crowned winner and runner-up in the junior division with Sophie Guy and Indianna Thomsen picking up the gold over Quynh Tran and Bheya Ramualdo who had to be content with silver on the day.

The junior male division saw a dominant performance by Height’s College as all medals were won by that school. Joel Gilbert-Thomas and Lachlan Wedel crossed the line first for the gold followed by Jackson Boon and Westyn Finch and then Benn Martin and Nathaniel Ytterland.

In the hopes division, that caters for children under 12 years of age, another impressive final displayed the promise of brothers Aken and Yalindu Wadanambilage Don from Gladstone Central State School with their win over the Rockhampton Grammar School’s Rishi Roopireddy and Peter Kininmonth who both have the ability to put some good plays together. All four of these boys take part in the local club’s junior coaching program with the young brothers from Gladstone joining quite recently. The newcomers upstaged their older rivals from The Grammar by three rubbers to one.

Aviv Bhat and Stanley Shaji of Heights College, who also both take part in Rocky’s junior program, picked up bronze medals with their side coming home in third spot after a very exciting play-off over Faith Baptist’s Micha Hope and Isiah Noonan. With the match levelled at two singles rubbers apiece a one-game doubles tie breaker was employed with Heights winning a very tight contest 11-9 to run third on the leaderboard.