OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Last Saturday had an enjoyable meal with around 10 of the community centre players during which I was asked what was happening in the world of table tennis, and so thanks to the info here and at the other TT forums I read I was able to tell them at least some of it We then had our last session for the year. There were some overly addicted players who were looking for places to play over our summer holiday, so I gave them some ideas.

Then Sunday was the last session at the PCYC for the foreseeable future for reasons given, and I am not aware of any more volunteers either from the local association or nearest local club. For a swan song, L1C turned up so we had our usual "I think I should beat you because I have better technique and actually train" (from his perspective) and "I don't have the technique, nor do I formally train but I'll beat you anyway because I'll make you play my game" (from my perspective) lot of games. I didn't lose any. While I entertained the other player who turned up, L1C looked impressive doing shadow strokes and some footwork. Then we played some more with the same result as earlier.

So that was it for the year. Merry Christmas, gentle reader, and I don't foresee much happening in this blog till around half way through January, but you never know.

PS There is someone coming over from Japan (MickD from My TT) looking for somewhere to play in Sydney soon. I am not sure where will be open.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Dusting off the blog ...

I have been slack here. The club started back on the 15th and I have been there Mondays and Thursdays since then, and will be there tonight too. Have played JC a few times and lost each time. Have played IF a couple of times and beaten him reasonably easily each time. Tonight will be the last regular time as school goes back for my daughter tomorrow.

On Saturday my wife & I drove up to Armidale for a golden wedding anniversary afternoon tea where she had been the flower girl at the wedding. Think 500+ kilometres and around 6.5 hours of driving. At the last moment I put my TT gear in the car as the local TT club according to the wonderful interwebs had practice. So while she went to have her hair done, I went to the local club.
I walked in to find only 2 tables, 4 playing doubles on 1 and a guy sitting around. I introduced myself to him and he told me he was the number 1 at the club. We had a hit, exchanged RC numbers (we were in the same 100) then the doubles finished. The number 1 called a combo bat player over to give me a hit. I suspect that number 1 thought I was beneath him or something.
Combo bat player and I also exchanged RC numbers (I was around 300 up on him), and he commented that he would expect to beat me even so. I asked if we could play a game. Either in the 1st or 2nd game I beat him to 0. My wife then turned up from having her hair done, and we continued to play the 3rd game, which I also won. Along the way he complemented me on not putting his long pimples shots back to his forehand to finish. i replied that I wasn't usually the one to let someone play their own game. He also made the usual comment about floating spinless balls being the way people usually played him, while I played against him with a lot of spin. I was using my tactic of over then under then over then under against his long pimples then sometimes suddenly switching an under to his forehand which he usually dumped in the net.
Went back to the motel, had a shower, went to the afternoon tea, then drove back yesterday .

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

wow do people really act and speak that way without joking?
It's good that you showed him up, I suspect #1 didn't want to play you because secretly he was worried of being shown up.

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Is it really common to 'exchange RC numbers' before the match? Does not happen a lot here (replace RC with USATT, of course). You do occasionally get someone challenging a player well above his level because they don't know any better, but it gets sorted out pretty quickly.

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USATT: 1807 | League: 1887

pgpg wrote:


First time it has happened to me. They both asked me separately as we were just hitting up. I was a bit surprised that the combo bat player said what he said. Maybe he thought I was inexperienced against long pimples. I have played IF at home who has plays with long pimples, since 1982. When playing against them I do restrict the amount of side spin that I use and am very careful with my next shot if I do use side spin.

Ndragon wrote:


I did give number 1 the benefit of the doubt with the "...or something" in my original post.

The combo bat player did complement me on my play as we played the match and afterwards, and I also explained to him that I usually don't look that tough to beat in the warm up (am usually worse at the warm up countering than my peers) but that I have an unusual style which can be misleading.

We also discussed that RC numbers can be from isolated groups if there is no "cross-pollination" going on. I am not sure how many Armidale players have played against any Sydney players, let alone Northern Beaches players, let alone a player I would have played in either Division 2 or Division 1 in a RC recorded match in the last year.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Saturday afternoon was the first session that I help run at the community centre for the year. To begin with, instead of sweeping the floor before putting up tables and curtains, I had brought an old rag and towel to wipe the tables down with. I just used water. We had a fair turn out even though the local paper had us playing last week, but no notice this week

In one of the doubles I totally missed hitting an easy push. Later that night I saw the part of The Magnificent Seven where Robert Vaughn goes to try to catch 3-4 flies, only manages to get one and says that at one time he would have caught all of them. That was how I felt to some extent.


Last night I went to the club. I managed to beat 2 of my team mates from last year, AF (his 1st hit this year) & MD. Fortunately (or maybe unfortunately as I was playing OK ) I did not play JC.

First up I played SB whose wife is in the Australian Commonwealth Games TT team for The Gold Coast in a couple of months. He was visiting for a hit up - he is a player of other sports - he mentioned that his wife usually has better hitting partners and that one time he played her at squash and beat her to 0 in a game to show her what it was like and that she did not enjoy that experience much. Anyway he was a sort of retriever and we got on pretty well. he was impressed with how much spin I get on the ball. We later played doubles and did OK. He may be back as I get the impression that we at the club are a little more easy going and enjoy playing, rather than where he usually plays, let alone how his wife has to approach it.

I did play another guy, a penholder who i disposed of without too much problem. I didn't set him up for his smash like he obviously wanted me to. Afterwards he asked me if I used antipower as he couldn't read what I was doing to the ball and subsequently him. I showed him the red Tenergy 05 and the black Evolution FX-P on my bat and showed that they were both still normally spinny. Go figure. Usually they ask me which pimples I am using. I am not sure which is worse.

Next up is the district AGM on Friday night with a possible hit afterwards at the venue, then on Saturday the state AGM where I am one of 3 official representatives of the local district, followed by the Umpires Association AGM. The local district wants players who play in our comp to pay $10 to affiliate with the state rather than $70 which is what should be paid. This is so the local district can put its fees up of course.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Went to the local district AGM on Friday night. Won a lucky door prize of a TT shirt - Ou-kei (spelling) without collar. Apart from a couple of contentious issues - subbing between teams from the same club in the lowest division - claim was made that the committee had gone against its own by-laws which as a member of said committee we claim we didn't as the by-laws didn't cover the lowest division for this. They do now. The other was a rule we have where to play in finals for a team a player has to have played 3 team matches of singles. Example was given of a player with injured back who managed to play at least 3 team matches of doubles but not any singles. Proponent didn't turn up to the meeting.


Then on Saturday went to the state AGM only, the Umpires one having been deferred (and since deferred again) as a delegate from the local district. Our main thing was to get the state registration fee reduced as we need to put our fee up.

The costs to play comp in our district are:
TT club membership: $varies
District comp fee: $25 (want to increase this to $30 or $35)
Venue fee to play a comp match: $varies from 0-10
State registration fee: $10 for social, $70 (of which $30 goes to the country TTA) for comp up to state, $90 to comp up to national.

Our other delegates put the case for only paying the social fee rather than the comp fee. I made the point that TT is almost the only sport where you pay this much to you club, that much to your district and the other much to your state, whereas to play football (soccer) you pay one amount which you don't explicitly know the break up of. The state people made the point that they couldn't let our district be treated differently as everyone would want the same treatment. I countered with presenting the state registration form which states that country or non-metropolitan players can play comp but only pay the social fee to show that they already treated some players differently. There's nothing like introducing facts do a discussion! The state people were somewhat taken aback by their own registration form. There was murmuring that this text should not have been on the registration form.

It looks like the state fees will remain the same for our members. I am in full agreement with this, however it was interesting arguing against what I really believe, to represent the best interest of our members.

In reality this is very cheap, however. $105 for district & state fees is only around $2 per week - less than a take-away coffee.


I played at the local club on Monday night. Played AF and lost in 3, MD and won 3 straight. Played G?, a visiting Brazilian penholder and lost 3 straight, and played M? a visiting Chinese coach who had his son there as interpreter and lost 0-3 as well. One of the few club nights that I went 1-3 in win - loss terms in singles.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Have mostly just been running TT at the community centre and playing at the club once a week for a while. Have beaten DM 2 out of the 3 last times I have played him, and lost to JC most of the time, and beating most others I play against.

With the local school holidays, I played last Thursday at the club against a short pimples / long pimples twiddler. I was up 2-1 then lost in 5. Next time. Afterwards he told me he thought I should have hit more. I told him that I have been told that since 1982. Of course, I only remembered the shots that I had missed.

Friday afternoon, I took part in the local council's combined youth and senor citizen's event on outdoor tables called "The Intergenerational Table Tennis Competition. Sunny day with a small amount of wind. Of course the ones running it had very little idea. They did do 11 point games but wanted 3 serves each, and wanted doubles served on any diagonal. Oh, and the balls were no-name cheapies that floated in the wind worse than 3 star would have. I got to the singles final and played a teenager by swapping hands each shot and won something 11-8. In doubles I got paired with someone who just had fun, and we lost the semifinal. I did practice safe outdoor table tennis by placing my bat back in its case as soon as a match was over. A couple of the new community centre regulars came along too and had some fun. I gave out some flyers for the local TT association, so we'll see if anything comes of that.

I have had some fun since by telling acquaintances that I am the local intergenerational outdoor table tennis champion.

At a recent association committee meeting, the perennial illegal serving in local competition issue has been raised. We have a summary of the service rule on our web site. I pointed out that at a pennants match the person scoring was supposed to be the umpire, and that the 2 captains are supposed to act as the referee, and that anything unresolved should then get passed to the recorder and ultimately the committee for decision. A complaint of illegal serving should be made to the umpire, not the server. A complaint of not faulting illegal serves after this should then be made to the 2 captains. If the 2 captains do nothing, then the complaint should go to the association committee. We have previously advised that in the event of disagreements (not just about illegal serving) that matches should be played out and any objections can then be raised at the committee for resolution, as against refusing to play.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Played at the club last night and beat JC for the first time in a few weeks. 3-0, then we played a couple more to be 4-1. Also played OC, his son who is improving. Also J? and L?, much weaker players. For JC, I resolved to just play side and back spin with the very occasional top spin which worked very well for the 1st 3 games.

Also we had fun trying to get the 2 halves of a folded up Stiga table apart. It looked like the supports had gotten bent so that they were wedged against each other. Eventually one of the other players got them apart.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Played at the club last night (school holidays), and lost 0-3 to JC, although every game went to deuce. Just couldn't get over the line in any of them. Had some enjoyable lobbing against a flat hitting penholder lower ranked player as well.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Thursday night, supposedly had a local district meeting at a venue about 30 minutes drive away. It had been set down at the previous meeting, and my (silly?) attitude is that it is on unless told that it is not. Watched some footy on a big screen for 20 minutes or so and went home as I didn't have a quorum nor member of the executive.

Saturday afternoon, ran the community centre TT as usual. A guy turned up for the 2nd time this year with 3 C-pen bats. He asked me which would be the spinniest. I told him the one with XIOM Omega something (the others were Sanwei Target and PF4?). They were all bare wood on the back, one showing signs of a previous rubber having been removed. Anyway, we played and I just used the spin he put on against him. I should advise him to get equipment he can control.

Last night went to the club. A new guy who I had corresponded with via email turned up. He said he played as a junior in NZ a number of years previously, but pretty much nothing since. He had a Donic Waldner with Uga (Liga?) rubbers and I asked him if it was a pre-made. He didn't think so, but just googling found a number of Donic Waldner premades with Liga on them. Oh well, is the blade any good, and does the rubber come off easily? I had told him he would probably not want a premade in emails.

I played AF and won after 3 but drew after 4 when we stopped. Also played MD who beat me 3-1.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Just been playing seriously on a Monday at the club and running Saturday afternoons, this month.

A new player, IM, a former overseas junior has started playing. He goes for his shots with a pre-made from a local sports store. He has turned up at the club a couple of weeks ago, last Saturday, then the club again last night. He was fascinated that someone could get back his shots including a few chop smashes, and that a defender like me could beat him "relatively" easily. We played twice last night. The first time was a reasonably comfortable 3-0. I also played JC and won, the coach from the local PCYC who I also played twice 3-0. Then I played IM again. I won the 1st game, again comfortably. Then he won the second and celebrated somewhat. The 3rd went to deuce and he won that too. Another celebration, not Harimoto grade though. I think I might have to play a bit more "tightly" next time.

Saturday afternoons has covered its costs again this month.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Saturday afternoon there were the usual casual players, none really competition standard, so just played nice when playing with them.

Last night at the club, played JC fisrt up and lost fairly easily in score, but not in deuces, well one deuce anyway. Then I played AF, was 2-1 up then lost 2-3. Then I played IM again. The first 2 were something like 11-2, 11-3 to me. I made the comment that nobody there played quite like me which he agreed with. Then another couple of wins to me followed by a 12-14 to him. Then a win or 3 to me then a 6-11 then another win or 2 to me. During it he wanted to play me with no pushing allowed to get to what he thought were more interesting rallies. My response was that he had to earn the more interesting rallies which he thought about and ultimately agreed with.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Saturday afternoon, again almost all players were casuals except my brother, but he had to go before I could give him a game.

Last night at the club I played PU first up, a Japanese penholder (ex Brazilian of Japanese descent) and beat him without too much problem.

Then next J? who uses Hurricane on his back hand but cannot control it or his forehand.

Then I played IM. He got the first game, then I got the next 3 then he got another 1. I then told him one more game unless he won. He lost. He wants to get something slightly better than the Donic premade with Liga rubbers that he has been using for his come back after 20 odd years. I am hopeful that he has gotten used to his current set up and will be easier to play until he gets used to it.

Lastly i played JC, penhold counter hitter. He won the first game to something like 6. Second game we went to deuce a few times but ultimately he won the second. Then something happened to me that almost never happens. I think he got the first 8 points to me being scoreless. I think I ended up getting something like 4 or 5. It was similar to when in the best of 5 the 4th game is tightly contested but the one 1-2 down wins it then runs away with the 5th game very easily. Oh well there is always next time.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74

Last week was eminently forgettable - only 4 at the community centre and 6 at the local club.

Then last Saturday we had a new person - Peruvian lady who had not played in years. Her first few hits were pretty dire, but she improved as the afternoon wore on. At the end she wanted to go to the club on Monday night as she lives in the same suburb. I recommended that she come for a couple more Saturday afternoons then go play at the club. She seemed intent on coming, but never turned up. Also had IM who previously had a Donic premade - it was his first hit with a new bat - Off- Butterfly blade (can't remember the model) and Tenergy 05FX rubber both sides. We played games and I think I won something like 5-2.

He also turned up at the club last night. We played 4 or 5 games, 2 went to deuce, but I won them all. Either Saturday afternoon or last night I told him that I love playing people with new rubber. He seemed to adapt to his new bat pretty quickly. I lost to MD again 1-4 though it was mostly closer than that sounds.

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Retriever (sometimes golden, but often leaden)
Moderator, Inverted Retriever Technique sub-forum - http://ooakforum.com/viewforum.php?f=74