Premiership Contenders Emerge as Season Hits Midway Point

As the first open-grade premiership season reaches the halfway mark, clear frontrunners are emerging in both divisions. With titles decided on a first-past-the-post basis, every match is proving to be crucial as teams position themselves for a shot at the championship.

In Division 1, Joel Coughlan and Leo Lai currently lead the field by a comfortable three points. However, their position at the top will be tested over the coming weeks as Lai is set to miss the next three rounds due to an overseas holiday. His absence means the team will rely on substitute players to maintain their lead. Lai has been in superb form throughout the competition, consistently delivering strong performances that have helped the team secure its current advantage.

Hot on their heels, the pairings of Matthew Pettett & Glen McDonald and Dane Coughlan & Jakob Baker are tied in second place. With both teams showing strong form, they remain genuine threats to finish the season at the top of the leaderboard.

Geoff Geddes and Cooper Bulow are both in good nick and it is showing in the second division and they are out in front by a massive five points which may prove to be quite telling with five rounds to go before the conclusion of the season.

Linda O’Sullivan and Chris Leitner currently occupy second spot, however Leitner is now out for the remainder of the comp due to an arm-injury that is non table tennis related and that issue has cruelled a planned overseas holiday for him.

In the last round some good matches unfolded in both sections. The city’s two leading players in Matthew Pettett and Joel Coughlan took to the court and Pettett won the opening set 16-14 before going on to win a very entertaining match over four sets.

In one of the clashes of the round Ann-Louise Stewart put a rare win on James O’Sullivan 4-11, 11-6, 12-10, 8-11, 18-16 to put O’Sullivan on notice for future encounters. O’Sullivan had earlier outed improving youngster Judd Carr 11-8, 11-6, 8-11, 12-10 but experience would have made quite a difference in this result.

Nick Green had a blinder when pitted against Stewart to register a tight come from behind victory 10-12, 11-8, 16-14, 11-9 but went down to Carr over four good quality sets. In another classic result Jakob Baker outlasted Erica Nolan 17-15 in the decider after the victor won the opening two games before going down in the next two in a match that featured plenty of long rallies and some unexpected returns. In this team-match Rayden Smith created straight set victories over both Baker and Dane Coughlan.

The club’s keener players who follow the state tournament circuit will have the popular Bundaberg Open Championships to attend over the weekend of 22 & 23 March and entry details are available now. Other than that, there are carnivals on at clubs almost every weekend prior to the Rocky Open that is being staged over the long weekend associated with Anzac Day.