Quality Fixture Season Prepares Young Trio for Queensland's Best

The interest in both divisions of fixtures in open grade did not wane during the concluding round of the competition at the city’s headquarters for table tennis on Leichhardt Park leading into the school-holiday break. The results in both sections did not turn out the way most involved would have anticipated and now the players have the two-week spell prior to the start of season-two for the year.

In the top division teams lead by Joel Coughlan and Matthew Pettett were tied in the first place going into the final round of matches and with the premiership being decided on the first past the post basis the side that won the most matches on the night would win the flag as the remaining teams were too far off the pace to qualify.

Incredibly, absences due to work commitments and illness cruelled this last outing and some matches had to include substitute players from other teams. Coughlan’s absence was felt and Pettett teamed with Erica Clarke to win their match and the gold medal while Coughlan and Ann-Louise Stewart had to be content with the runner-up trophy.

There were some great matches in this final round and Pettett’s narrow win over Rayden Smith 12-10 in the deciding fifth set was a classic example of some incredible rallies and the victor got out of fair bit of strife after trailing zero-two. Stewart also produced some good plays when she narrowly defeated Glen McDonald over five long sets and went down to Nick Green 13-11 in the decider.

A most unusual situation emerged in the second section with the two sides favoured to contest premiership honours down to play each other. The combinations of Chris Leitner and Hilton Kane and Pam Clarke and Jeffrey Jordan were tied in the top spot leading into the last outing while only one point in arrears the pairings of Warun Wilkinson and Oliver Wright and Julien Wright and Patricia Green still had a chance to win the flag if they gained enough points in their respective matches.  

Leitner and Kane produced a good three-two win over Clarke and Jordan with Leitner being undefeated in his two singles matches and playing strongly in the doubles tie and at that stage could be forgiven for thinking they had done enough to cross the line in first place. However, on another court a separate battle produced a somewhat unexpected outcome which ultimately pushed Leitner and Kane into second spot.

After an excellent undefeated effort by Oliver Wright, he and Warun Wilkinson conjured enough points over Allan Clarke and Joe Clifton to put them on equal points to Leitner and Kane and force a countback where Wilkinson and Wright were declared the winners. 

The massive Queensland Senior and Junior Closed Championships are currently underway at Moreton Bay and Cooper Bulow and Tom Tonkin finished their assignment on Sunday in representing Rocky in the under-19 team competition and individual events.

Whilst they won’t be returning home with any medals they took to the courts against very strong opposition and will benefit greatly from the experience of being pitted against the best players from other clubs from throughout the state.