Rocky Hold Out Challenge by Mackay to Claim Intercity Shield

Last Saturday the Rockhampton Table Tennis Association hosted their counterparts from Mackay in an inter-city challenge and the home side came away with some solid wins across the six teams matches contested to be awarded the newly-minted Reef versus Beef Shield in its inaugural year of existence.

The local players may have been honing their skills at tournament level for when they take to the courts to contest the various events of the city’s annual closed championships that will be hitting-off on Tuesday 18 August with the first stages of all open events, including bringing the women’s open singles to conclusion on the night. The veteran players will compete on Wednesday 19 August and the titles will wrap up on Tuesday 25 August with the final rounds of men’s open singles, the consolation singles and open doubles events. Members are reminded to observe the closing dates of entries.

In the inter-city against Mackay the visitors got off to a shaky start when a few of their key players were unavailable to make the trip, but in reality, it can be more difficult for clubs doing the travelling depending on the availability of players. A lot of Rocky’s better players were available for the contest and this situation certainly aided the result in favour of the home side. Next year the Rocky teams have to do the travelling to Mackay and that will probably be a different test. However good interest in these inner-club formats should ensure plenty of rivalry into the future and locals have demonstrated their interest and locals are expected to line up for next year’s edition of this competition.

In the top division showdown James O’Sullivan survived scares from all three singles opponents but went on to beat Trent Day, Yi Lin Jiang and Michael Ruhl over five long sets. While Matt Pettett was relatively untroubled against all three opposition Ann-Louise Stewart went down in four sets to Ruhl and failed to repel the improving game of Day across three close sets.

Whilst the division two encounter was relatively one-sided there were some great battles and had some of these gone the other way the locals may have been a tad worried at stages. Hard-luck stories for the visitors included Robbie Richards’ heartbreaking loss to Warun Wilkinson 14-12 in the deciding fifth set after a host of close games. Richards also fell at the final hurdle when pitted against Monica Deeth going down 11-9 in the decider of another epic encounter while later in the match Wilkinson just held out Donna Abbott in another close five-setter. Janice Kent managed to outlast Wilkinson 3-2 whilst in the closest doubles tie she partnered Richards and they bowed out 12-10 in the decider. Richards did well to oust the tricky game of Joel Gifford over four sets while his opponent beat his other two opponents.

In the third section the locals in Geoff Geddes, Chris Leitner and Jeffrey Jordan pretty much had it all their own way over the combination of Andrea Nicholson, Will Van De Kaa and Duncan Treloar whilst the local fourth division contingent of Linda O’Sullivan and Julien and Oliver Wright did well to hold off a bold challenge provided by Daniel Whitfield, Rachel Fiesta and Geoff Cowan with the later posting an undefeated performance in the singles rounds and combining with Fiesta to create a skinny victory in one doubles tie.

The division 5 showdown was won by the home town in a fairly close finish with Sajan Baral, Patricia Green, Helga Leitner and Andy Brecenridge, who played in the three doubles ties, all doing well. George Camilerri and Oliver Hamelink for the visitors tried to keep their club in the contest all match. Mackay had a good win in division 6 when Craig Van De Kaa, Darryl Ross and Simon Hogan combined well to oust Tom Tonkin, Michelle Ilott, Christine Pettett and Cheryl Fletcher with a handy score. Young Tonkin did well to return an undefeated scorecard for his three singles rounds.