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Ballarat Veterans
https://ooakforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=22&t=28061		 Page 1 of 1
Author:  Cobalt [ 14 Jun 2015, 21:37 ]
Post subject:  Ballarat Veterans
Today i played the Ballarat Veterans which i entered Division 4 (the lowest), 3, 2, 1 and over 40's. Part of my motivation for entering was that our club has started using Ratings Central as does Table tennis vic so was interested to see how our local ratings stack up. I suspected we were a bit high.

Given that div 4 is for 850 and below and i was 840, i thought i might be competitive in this but thought i was wasting my time in the other divs but since i was going to be there anyway, might as well be playing so entered them anyway.

Was a bit wary when looking at the draw as in the div 4 i was up against an unrated player and that usually means. ............Bushranger. And so it was, he was far too good and did it easy. Didn't see the final results but he looked headed for the GF.

In the O40's, i was in a group the current O50's Australian champ Craig Campbell. Wasn't expecting to get too many points but to my surprise i got out to a 5-2 lead. As expected it didn't last long though as he won 6,4,5. Was happy with that. This bloke has the most ferocious backhand I've ever seen, had me ducking! !

In my other games i managed to win my only match for the day, in Div 3, against a 1000 rating in 5 games but lost my next to another 1000 in 4, but had my chances. In Div 1 I took a 1300 to 5, not really sure how as the whole time i struggled with his serves, but he did with mine, along with making too many errors which kept me in it.

Saving the best to last, in Div 2, i came up against fellow forum member Arlene. This was my most enjoyable game in a while as i felt pretty evenly matched and quite comfortable in regards to styles yet always under pressure. Arlene attacked hard when the ball was there but my retrieving/lobbing was going well so we had some really good rallies. In the end the cream rose to the top as it often does and Arlene won 11-8 in the 5th.

Despite 1 win and 6 losses, i really enjoyed the day. One thing i learnt was that the ratings don't necessarily mean anything, don't take a lower player for granted but don't go in against a higher player expecting to lose, just go play, have fun, and let the result take care of the rest.

Thanks to Ballarat for a great tournament and nice to have met you Arlene :)

So I know the ratings system is quite new but it's left me even more confused as i was thinking after last tourney if our club has rankings too high but now after my decent matches I'm wondering whether we may in fact be too low. No idea.
Author:  tabesamis [ 15 Jun 2015, 00:20 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
In our tournaments unrated players cannot advance past the round robin. It takes that problem out. Once a rating is established they normally win one division or so cause the initial rating generally is too low. You guys shoud do this.
Author:  rodderz [ 15 Jun 2015, 11:09 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Craig is a nice person and could be playing 60's this year or at least next year anyway as he is 59 or just turning to that age
but he enjoys playing in 40's and 50's at the next WVC2016 he will enter over 60's so I will be watching to see how he proceeds.
We have always had a ratings system for such a long time here in NZ, It has changed to a newer system several years ago and all relevent for our local market, There was a Oceania rating system that stopped in 2013 that combined all players from Australia, NZ and the Pacific Islands, we use our sytem to give overseas players ratings which may not always be correct as we had at our National Veteran open where one Aussie player (he played in the test match as well) whereI though he was rated far too low (So everyone in the 50's B grade lost to him) and we had two fairly even players from both Counties playing one match where their ratings were 400 points difference so luckily the higher rated player won, (well I don't care really) but this will affect our local system when we play guestimate ratinged players from overseas

It is awkward and difficult to change or to be put into a existing World wide system because ratings central may have a average club player at 1200-1300 rating points and in Australia 1300 points could put that person in a higher level group
and the equivelent in Australia may be 900-1000 rating points, however you have a system that will work and the more results put in the better the information will be
Author:  RebornTTEvnglist [ 15 Jun 2015, 14:31 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Good to read you enjoyed it Cobalt. Wish I could have been there. You did well to take Arlene to 5. She's no slouch. She even beat me once :P :lol: Sounds like you are underrated at 840 but did you go up from the tourney? Sounds like the one win may raise you, as the 6 losses wouldn't count?
Author:  Cobalt [ 15 Jun 2015, 16:43 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Results aren't up yet Reb and apparently me checking every 5 mins doesn't speed up the process. :?:

In looking at results from previous tournaments, I'd expect not to lose any to people in the 1200-2000 range. Not sure how many from my win against the 1030, maybe 20-30 points but also lost to a 1030. Hopefully I gain at least 10 overall, not that it makes much difference in the whole scheme of things but gives me a small boost at club level. The un-rated loss worries me but I'll be dirty if I lose a heap to him when really he was not rated correctly in the first place.
Author:  arlene [ 15 Jun 2015, 18:01 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Nice to have met you too Cobalt.
I don't usually pay attention to the ratings when I go up against someone. A rating is just a guide, a lot of times if a player does not play many tournaments, the rating is way off it's mark.

But saying that, since you were definitely under rated at 840, I would have lost a lot of points if I had lost to you, so glad I had the win :whew:

Don't hold your breathe, Ballarat is notoriously Sloooow when it comes to posting any results. And like any local clubs, they have a lot of "bushrangers".... players who only play pennant and hence have no rating, so when they enter tournaments, they can enter the lowest division and end up winning it :(

It would have been good if you had met Reborn.... he is a nightmare to play against. The only win I had against him was when we had an official umpire and he got called for not tossing the ball high enough, that messed up his timing!

Table Tennis Australia is considering using Ratings Central. At the moment, Queensland, Tasmania and Victoria uses it. Hopefully every State will get on Board and thus we can have a uniform system in place for the country.

Enter as many tournaments as you can Cobalt. Try out for the South Australian Veterans Team, get as much experience as you can. It will only make you a stronger player.

PS: That tomahawk serve could be deadly, put more spin to it. My husband who is also a left hander, gets a lot of points using that serve :)
Author:  Cobalt [ 15 Jun 2015, 22:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Results are up, picked up 18pts. Happy with that. Didn't lose any to the Bushranger. He ended up at 1250.
Author:  pgpg [ 15 Jun 2015, 23:15 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
It does sound like you are underrated - 850 players do not usually take 1300 ones to 5 games ;) . Perhaps the fact that your club started everyone at 800 has something to do with it.

I suspect you would've got more points if you had a chance to play more opponents closer to your level - how come you only got one match in Div. 4 ( it was U850 you said), against the unrated 'Bushranger'? No RR group there, SE from the start? I hate this format - it means I can pay 15-25$ event fee and be out after one game. Also - really unusual that unrated player was allowed to advance - here it is unheard of, only happens in Unrated and Open events.
Author:  Cobalt [ 15 Jun 2015, 23:19 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Still not sure about underrated, last time i played, i got whipped by anyone 800 and above. This had me thinking i was more like 750. The divisions were knockout, $10 entry. Yes, a lot of our club got put on 800 however the best player has played various tournaments and he's 1200 and i don't get close.
Author:  RebornTTEvnglist [ 16 Jun 2015, 00:16 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
arlene wrote:
It would have been good if you had met Reborn.... he is a nightmare to play against. The only win I had against him was when we had an official umpire and he got called for not tossing the ball high enough, that messed up his timing!


No, no. He just didn't like the ball starting just off my palm (my toss is never too low). But that wasn't why you won. I ran out of energy half way through the match and gave you the motivation to play like a gun LOL.


I found Cobalt in the Ratings. The "bushranger" you played (MS) is known to me. He played at my club when I was a teen. He was a gun then. I suspect he plays at Wonthaggi club and they don't rate pennant. Your loss to CS in 5 is amazing. He is tough! ZG is tough and you got good points. MH not so tough. CM that you beat is not even that easy, I lost to him once (it was the match that dipped my rating to 650 when it was the only one in the system lol). If the system could give points from "close losses" to superior players you'd be 1100 :P :lol:
Author:  Cobalt [ 16 Jun 2015, 08:13 ]
Post subject:  Re: Ballarat Veterans
Couldn't believe i was 2-1 up against CS. His serve had me beat so i was struggling to win any points off his serve. Was just popping them up for him to attack was then just a matter of him hitting them in or out. He had some troubles with my serves too, nothing fancy, just variety causing errors.

I think the Bushranger was from Coburg now. By the way, it was his first tournament and someone else entered him on his behalf, I've no problem with his intentions, he knew no better.
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