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Just got home from a busy day's tournament at Ballarat. Nowhere near the cash bonanza that Bendigo was from a title winning perspective simply because the only thing I won was Runners-Up in the Division 2 doubles with Sahmaniac. However, from a points perspective it was a very successful tournament. I beat 3 people today who are above my rating (one who was over 100 points above me), lost to one player slightly below my rating and lost one match to a player who is now above my rating (the same guy who beat me in 2 of my 3 previous tournaments when he was lower rated, BB from Ballarat). I also lost to a player who is way above my rating, but more on him later.
I thought I'd took some pictures on my phone of the facility, but when I went to upload them they're nowhere to be found. Something went wrong there, not sure what. As far as the facility went it was a very nice place for TT. I think there was around 26 courts as well as the one "centre-court" which was an Olympic style show table with seating adjacent. They also had an excellent canteen and eating area and a nice control room to run the tourney from. Taraflex flooring, good lighting and a range of newer and older tables.
I entered division 2 and 3 and the O40's as far as singles went. My first division 2 singles match was against a hard-hitting lady player who recently took PingPongRob to 5 sets. She was rated 112 points above me and I didn't like my chances against her, given her rating and given the court we had was remote to most other active courts and the only audience was her supporters and her husband who umpired. As we got underway I could see I had my job cut out for me as she looped and slammed balls back at me, some passing me. But I was blocking well with the pips and hitting some good shots off my FH as well and while she got away to a lead on me I pulled it back and took the first set 12-10. In the 2nd set I gave her all sorts of grief and where she had been returning most my serve variations in the first set, I took a lot of points straight from net or long returns. I beat her 11-4. In the 3rd set I was expecting an onslaught and she didn't let me down. She threw everything she had at me and carried a 2 point lead for quite a while, but I squared up around 7 all. After going to 8 all, I managed to finish off the last 3 points to take the set and match with 11-8.
I then played my first O40's match in a 3 player Round Robin. I was drawn for the 2nd tournament in a row against the illustrious Brian Berry. At Bendigo I felt I had done myself proud going down to him 4, 2, 6. This is a player ranked over 800 points higher than me. In US terms he is probably around 2500 or so. The spin he applies to the ball is incredible. I am seriously happy just not to get an 11-0 against me playing him, but today I pushed him in a way that really made him grind out the game. In the first set he beat me comfortably 11-4. A score I'm not unhappy with. In the 2nd set though, I found myself with a 3-1 lead, then 4-1, then 5-1. That soon was whittled back to 5 all, but then I went evens with him to 7 all. In the end he beat me 11-8, where I scored my 8th point putting a solid FH smash through him. Seeings as I was aiming to beat the 11-6 I had scored at Bendigo as my best against him, this was a good result. But then in the 3rd set, I took out a lead of 4-0 on him by serving short underspin that he thought he could flick on me, but caught the net as well as returning his topspin serves off my pips where the reversal was heavier than he realised. I was giving him some real trouble and I think he may have even seen losing the set as a real possibility as once again I had a 5-1 lead, but this time turned it into an 8-5 lead. As he laid down his spinny tricks on me and clawed back toward me I crunched another smash through him from a very low percentage, go-for-broke shot that took me to a 9-7 lead. Now this guy is all class and found his way to levelling back to 9 all and then taking it 11-9, largely because being in the position of actually taking a set from him was more than I could handle. It was incredulous that I had lead him 9-7, both to me and probably him. This bloke is so match toughened in tournaments having played at such a high level for probably 40 years or more, all it took was me to run out of ideas on how to take the match further and it was his. I'm a pebble next to a boulder in terms of experience with him, but it sure was fun taking it up to him. Next time I draw him, I now have to aim for a deuce with him LOL.
I then played the other O40's match against a guy much more in my league. Same guy I played and beat in the tourney at Dandy back in March. So I was confident I could take him again. He's still 40+ points over my rating and to lose to him would mean a fairly large loss in points in this event. I beat him 3-0 as I had in Dandy, but this time he scored 11-6, 11-8, 11-7 (where in Dandy he scored 8, 3, 1).
I also drew another guy in the 2nd round of div 2 who I played at Bendigo and again beat him, but this time in 5 sets instead of 3. I won the first 2 sets 11-3 today and figured I'd coast through the 3rd set, when all of a sudden he began bunting no spin balls to me and I foolishly didn't do near enough with them and allowed him to hit big FH's away on me. He turned the tables and took me 11-3. In the 4th set I adjusted to the new game he was playing, but he still took me 11-9. In the 5th set I got back on top of him and as I did he reverted back to the spinny tactics he'd employed in the first 2 sets as he panicked at his no spin game no longer working. This played into my hands beautifully as I was having to work my butt off against no spin LOL. I took the set out to a 9-1 lead, when he got a 2nd point and I then finished it 11-2. Weird match!
My 3rd round match of div 2 was against the SP/LP Ox combo player I have been confounded by in 3 out of my 4 tournaments this year (not 4 cos I was lucky enough not to draw him in 1 lol). By the time I met him today the length of the day combined with only 2 hours sleep last night thanks to my insomnia leading me to really not give a damn once it was obvious I would need a miracle to beat him (which cam somewhere in the 2nd set lol). So he won the match 11-8, 11-8, 11-4 or thereabouts, as I paid little attention to it as I was over losing to him.
Prior to playing this guy I struck out of the last Div 3 match I'll be playing for a while, in the first round of the division for today. The guy was a penholder with LP on one side and nothing on the other. He was the reason I was so ready to give up against the SP/LP guy because the rallies with this guy went on and on forever. He either played to a pip to pip game with me or gave me low, unattackable balls to my FH that I had to really lift loop to get back. I did hit a few winners down his BH side with my FH, but not enough to win. We went to 5 sets, and I really should have closed it out in the 4th set having a 2-1 set lead, but the let the set escape me with an 11-9 loss. In the 5th set he turned 5-2 up and soldiered on as I lost my patience with the 50 ball rallies and tried attacking everything and beat myself lol. I think the last set was 11-4 his way.
The last match of the day for me was with Sahmaniac in the final of the Division 2 doubles which we made for the 2nd tournament running. Again we met up with BB from Ballarat, the man with the SP/LP combo and a guy who had beaten Sahmaniac earlier in the Div 2 singles. We lead them 2 sets to 1 and lost the 4th set in deuce! And after turning 5-3 down on them, just failed in our comeback attempt losing it 11-7. So we score a minor cash prize to lessen the financial burden of the entry fees lol.
After all this, I calculated that I will for the first time slip out of division 3 and into division 2 by some 14 or 15 points by the time the ratings are done for this month. No more seedings for me in Div 3 and certainly no seedings in Div 2 at the bottom of the pile there lol. But it does add to the fun of TT seeing how you can advance your rating points. In the washup they really mean very little to me (except for the fun of building the points by winning games of TT - where the real fun is) as I doubt I will play many, if any, more tournaments for this year. Who knows what next year will bring? And my club pennant doesn't do ratings points, so they become irrelevant in my normal TT life. Still, I think I'd count today as successful...given it was good fun.
_________________ I'm always in the dark, but the Dark sheds lights upon everything!!  Beauty is only pimple deep! Beauty is in the eye of the pipholder!
S/U 1: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Andro Rasant 2.1 . BH Red Tibhar Grass Dtecs
S/U 2: Blade: Bty Gergely . FH Black Hexer+ 2.1 . BH Red GD Talon
S/U 3: Blade: Bty Gergely . No rubbers...thinking of adding Red Dtecs and Black Rasant
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