OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Still trying to clarify the insurance. The guy at the local state TT association office I was corresponding with had a massive heart attack and died. Unfortunately it was while or after playing table tennis. My commiserations to his family. The local state TT association office closed for at least a week as a result.

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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 Central West Round Robin Open last Saturday, forgoing conducting the training at the local club. This was the official 2022 version, the one earlier in the year being a deferred 2021 version.
This is an all day tournament with, this time 4 rounds, the first 2 of them with 4 players on a table playing each other, then 5 players, then for the final round 4 players. The results in each round are used to place you in the next round, so that most people in the final round are playing people around their level. The final round is rewarded with prizes for the place you came in your group. Additionally there is a trophy for winner on the top table and best Central West player. Different rules are in play for let calls - if a ball comes into your court it is only a let if it is between the players. Also when the score gets to 10-10 it goes to golden point. All matches were best of 3 games.

I ended up 3rd on table 2, out of 39 players, 7th. That is the same position as I have come the 2 previous tournaments.

Notable events:
I played a fellow local club player in the first round robin, same as last time. He took me to 3 games and I prevailed, but this time it wasn't a golden point win to me.
I played the same player in the 3rd round and the 4th round. I managed to beat him in the 3rd round but lost to him in the 4th (money) round
I played a player in the 3rd round and had split the first 2 games. For the deciding game I lost 0-11. This may be the 1st game ever I have lost 0-11. I am still not sure how I didn't get a point in that game.

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

Ok. Grand final of local comp is on tonight. I am sick and can't play. I will have to send the other 2 to play as if they are 3 against 3.

Interesting question: in normal 3 on 3 team matches, how do you choose ABC or XYZ if playing handicap matches? This is what I have been grappling with all year.

Normal wisdom is to play your best player at B or X as these get your best player's results into the match soonest. With handicaps this is not necessarily the case. Being the best player in the team, the way the comp is organised I am the default captain, so get to make this decision. I haven't been tracking who has been playing above or below their handicap, except of course myself. I have managed to only lose 1 rubber in the current comp. So I guess I have been the best player according to handicap. So I have chosen myself as B or X.

The other normal wisdom thing is to play your worst player so they play last. I have usually done this with the lowest (least) handicapped player playing at A or C, Y or Z (I haven't got a scoresheet to hand).

It seems to have worked out as we are undefeated through the normal rounds and the major semifinal.

We play to 11 and the players on my team are -20, -5 and 0. I am still not sure who the opposition will be.

I wish a good game for my team tonight.

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

We had exactly this challenge on Monday (and again next Monday). As you say, one approach is to play the #1 in position 2, but as the #1 in our team, with some rather generous handicapping going on, that can be a risk. In the end we have opted to play me at #2 and back me - I'm the #1 for a reason, and other players have a handicap against me because they need it. There's more pressure on them than on me.

The second thing, again, as you say, is where to play the #3? We have tended to play them at A, so they go first and last. It does mean the pressure is on them if it's 4-4, but it also means if they win the opening match, it's an immediate bonus.

I have considered playing the strongest player at postion 3, as that position has the "clean up" responsibility, if the team get off to a slow start, but I haven't tried that yet.

So: my wisdom: #3 in position 1, #1 in position 2, and #2 in position 3.

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Yasaka Sweden Classic | 802 OX | C8 OX
Check out my blog - LordCope's Latest Learning Log - 10+ years of accumulate mistakes!

Thank you for your thoughts on this LordCope.

To clarify, this is from our winning scoresheet sent to me on Wednesday night:
AvX
BvY
CvZ

BvX
AvZ
CvY

BvZ
CvX
AvY

As I said, conventional wisdom without handicaps is to play your strongest player as B or X, and your weakest player as A or Y.

With handicaps it is a lot more difficult to determine who is likely to be playing above their handicap and who is likely to be playing below their handicap. On the whole, players are not on an improvement path, like juniors say. Also the result is determined by number of games won in best of 3, so losing 1-2 is a lot better than losing 0-2, and our 0 handicapper has picked up quite a lot of 1-2 results, which contributes to whether we win or lose on the night. In addition, up to 2 doubles are played on the basis of whether that can sway the result or gain a competition point. In the unlikely event of a draw in games won after both doubles are played there is a super doubles played, so there is always a result.

For example in our grand final, after all singles were played the game score was us 11, opposition 10, so at least 1 doubles needed to be played, which we won 2-1. This put us up 13-11, so we needed to play another doubles. In the 2nd doubles we won the 1st game, which meant that our opponents could not catch us, so, according to the scoresheet, no further games were played and the final result was 14-11.

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

As posted under "Why you haven't posted for a while" here is a bit of an update:

I now live in a table tennis back water. All matches are handicapped so it is difficult to say whether I am playing well. I am the best player playing comp but not the best player in the club. The best player in the club has a philosophical problem with how the comp is run.

I have started a training and practice afternoon locally as there wasn't one previously. Always playing handicap does not allow for improvement in my opinion. I am now in the middle of adding a come and try part to it. So far have had it featured on the local radio station sports show a couple of times, and in the local free paper. Have put up posters in local towns and am still working on getting it into the local paid paper. So far 1 new member from it and a couple of children of a member have turned up a couple of times.

My contract for work was cancelled in November and I have been looking for work since. Having turned the age mentioned in a Beatles song title, having niche IT skills and living regionally ,new jobs are not plentiful.

Umpiring has been difficult as I am around 150 km from where it all happens in Sydney.

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

Changed rubber about 10 days ago. New Black Yasaka Shining Dragon still on the backhand, back to Red Butterfly Tenergy 05 Hard on the forehand.

As happened last time, put too much water based glue on the first side I did, so resolved to use less on the 2nd side I did. Unfortunately it did not stick when I cut out the rubber on the bat, so I reapplied the glue to both and carefully put them together and this time it worked.

Also remembered to update the profile here .

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

We came runners up in the most recent comp, after defeating the winning team in the final but losing in the grand final after playing the "reverse doubles" when games were even at the end of the normal 11 rubbers.

I was crowned best player in the teams competitions for the year for the second year running. It was said in the presentation that last year's award was very clear, ie me topping the results with daylight second. For this year it was not quite as dominating a display. What they did not say was that I proposed that my handicap be made 5 points higher for the year as I had won quite a lot the previous year and it was. That was what made things closer.

My efforts with the combined practice and newby Saturday afternoon sessions were variously rewarded, with some sessions having me alone reading the weekend newspaper for an hour then going home.

At the Central West Round Robin Open I came 1st on the 3rd table which meant 9th out of 44 overall. There was a mistake in the initial final tallying of results, but in the end justice was done.

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

Wow, that's a great way to end the year, congratz!

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