Rocky Open Recap 2026 - Part 2

At the recent Rockhampton Open Table Tennis Championships Cooper Bulow put the finishing touches to his preparation for representative duties in the state under-21 team at the National Youth Titles which is part of the Australian Senior, Youth and Para Championships at Goulburn, NSW hitting-off next Monday. He played very well in both the Chauvel Industrial Services open and ratings events and the Bolsover Radiology age-events.

Bulow won the under-19 singles event at the city’s annual open carnival that received great entries from clubs situated at Townsville, Mackay, Bundaberg, Sunshine Coast, Moreton Bay, Brisbane, Wynnum and Gold Coast in addition to a good supply of locals who suited up for the very busy program. He narrowly failed to repeat the result in the under-21 singles when he came home in third spot behind the victor Tenyu Xu of Brisbane and Mackay’s Trent Day who he beat in the lower age-section.

Whilst it turned out that the weekend did not suit a few local youngsters due to other commitments the players who were able to take part in the lower age events will benefit greatly from the experience. Mackay’s Yi Lin Jiang and Trent Day did well in the under-17 boys’ singles to come home one-two. Brisbane’s Fernanda Yu had a very good tournament in winning the under-15 singles with club-mate Avinash Sivabalan runner-up. Locals Rishi Roopireddy, Peter Kininmonth and Ben Gifford did not figure in the closing stages of the under-13 singles that was won by Tenyu Xu (Brisbane) and it was all capital-city in the under-11 singles that was won by a definite player of the future in young Harold Yu.   

The veteran’s events were very well supported and some excellent matches were turned on by the masters of the sport who represented every club in attendance. Starting at the over-30 level former local Jerrod Thomson, who now plays out of the Moreton Bay club, repeated some of his heroics in the open events. Thomson put in a massive defensive effort to upstage the attack of local hero in Matthew Pettett who was on his initial outing as a veteran in the deciding fifth set.  

On his way to an amazing treble Thomson emerged as the victor in the over-40 men’s singles when he downed the talented Jie Xu of Brisbane by three sets to one and he also won the over-50 men’s event over his very competitive club-mate in Peter Easling.  Locals who did well in these three events, other than Pettett, included James O’Sullivan and Joel Gifford who went deep in some draws. Thomson partnered Easling to take out the doubles in the over-50 division over local Pam Clarke and Irina Sakova who was visiting from Tasmania after the challengers came from the clouds to put an excellent victory on the very reliable pairing of John and Lorraine Fourro (Bundaberg).

James O’Sullivan of Rocky put on the best come-from-behind effort of the tournament in the over-60 men’s singles when he outed Bundy’s John Fourro 14-12 in the decider after being down by a mile and recovering at least six match-points. He had earlier partnered wife Linda to a great win over the Fourro combination 11-9 in the decider of the doubles in this age-group. In this section’s women’s singles event local Ann-Louise Stewart capped off a strong carnival when she prevailed over club-mate Monica Deeth in the play-off. In solid results for the locals, Stewart beat Lorraine Fourro in her semi and Deeth’s four-sets win over Tassy’s Sakova, who had earlier overcome the strong play of Mackay’s Anne Sheridan, was impressive.     

Another incredible treble was recorded by Townsville’s regular state rep John Sherriff who took out the singles in the over-65, over-70 and over-75. In the lower age-group he downed former local Gerard Watts who now plays out of the Gold Coast club due to retirement to that part of the state. In good semis Watts had too many aces for Bundy’s war-horse Peter Spratley and Sherriff downed Rocky’s Dave Hockings who had earlier put a good win on Dave Delpratt (Bundy). In the over-70 men’s singles final Sherriff beat Spratley over four entertaining sets after downing Delpratt in the semis while Spratley turned the tables on Watts.

Another local who did well in the vets was Pam Clarke who took out the over-70 women’s singles with yet another former local in Desley Payne, who took up playing the sport at the Sunshine Coast after many years doing other things, being runner-up. In other notable results Sakova (Tasmania) beat local Ann-Louise Stewart in the final of the over 40 women’s singles 3/1, Lorraine Fourro (Bundy) edged out Sakova 3/2 in the final of the over-50 women’s draw, Deleece McDonald (Bundy) enjoyed a great meet when she ousted local Linda O’Sullivan 3/2 in the final of the over-65 women’s singles and this was after O’Sullivan crept home over Sakova 6-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9 in her semi. In the action-packed over-40 doubles Mackay’s Mick Ruhl partnered local Ann-Louise Stewart to win over Rocky’s Joel Gifford and Sakova.