O'Sullivan named in State Side as Mackay Clash Draws Near

James O’Sullivan will be the city’s only representative at the Australian Veteran Table Tennis Championships at Albury during October after he was selected in the Queensland over-60 men’s team following the recent state titles at the South Pine Sports Centre at Brendale which is Queensland’s playing base for major carnivals. 

O’Sullivan, who was the only local available for state selection, was quite happy to hear that he has made his first state-rep outfit after playing the sport since being a teenager, and the fact that he made an A-team for Queensland was even more special.

Final arrangements are being made for this Saturday’s team match competition between the Rockhampton and Mackay table tennis associations and O’Sullivan will be using this competition to assist with his preparations for his assignment at these nationals as will two players from the visiting club in Mick Ruhl and Andrea Nicholson who also earned state caps at these nationals. This inter-city competition is a new addition to competition between these two associations and the first instalment will take place at Rocky’s Leichhardt Park playing centre on Saturday. A trophy has been introduced, which has been named the Reef and Beef Shield to commemorate the victor of each year’s fixture.

If O’Sullivan can reproduce the form that was on-hand at the recent state veteran titles as well as fixtures last week when he outed Joel Coughlan, he will impress against his Mackay counterparts on the weekend. Whilst his win against Coughlan was impressive his opponent is trying out a new combination of rubber coverings on his bat this season and his overall average may take a dip.

In other notable performances in top grade comp Rayden Smith put a good straight sets win on both his opposite number in Dane Coughlan as well as Jakob Baker to demonstrate that his form is developing towards the annual closed championships that will hit-off on Tuesday 18 August.

Glen McDonald survived a solid challenge from Baker to win in four close sets while Nick Green recovered in his clash against Joel Gifford to win 9-11, 12-10, 9-11, 11-7, 11-7 in an entertaining match. Young Cooper Bulow, who recently represented Queensland in the state under-21 team at the national titles, stole a set from Joel Coughlan and then outlasted the consistent plays provided by Monica Deeth 11-9, 13-11, 9-11 12-14, 11-6. 

Jeff Jordan continues to build a solid average to back up some sound performances last season and on the last outing he fell over the line when pitted against Chris Leitner 12-10 in the deciding fifth set after Leitner won the opening two sets. On the same table the consistency of Patricia Green narrowly won through when pitted against Hilton Kane in a very long five sets clash that went game for game before the decider. All normal sessions at the local club are underway as per the cub’s website.

There is always room for more youngsters in the beginner junior coaching session from 4.30pm on Thursdays and the Top Table session that follows is proving popular with the city’s players. This concept offers a good opportunity for participants to improve their games.     ockin