OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Played comp last night, away. Got home from work and left around 6:20pm for the trek to our opponents venue. My wife reminded me not to injure myself running in the rain again. I reassured her that I would not. As it was I got there early and it only rained on my parade there, so no worries.

CJ was already there so we had a warm up. Our 3rd player did not turn up by the start time so we started anyway. My opponent had to hunt for an scorer for our match while their 3rd player umpired CJ's.

First up I played AQ, conventional looper, stronger on the forehand. She asked the usual about my equipment to which I replied normal rubbers. I didn't clue her in to the abnormal game until we started playing. I got the first game reasonably comfortably, then IM turned up and took over scoring duties. 2nd and 3rd games followed for a straight sets win to me. She Later on I found out that neither the fill-in scorer nor IM recorded the scores for posterity, so I made some up which hopefully didn't misrepresent reality too much.

In the meantime, CJ (LH forehand hitter/looper) played KN, a combination non-twiddling FH smooth BH short pimple player. He lost the 1st 2, 2nd at deuce, won the next 2 but finally lost the 5th at deuce.

For the doubles I figured that CJ & IM could play, being an attacking LH/RH combination. They did win, 3-1. Their opponents were AQ & YL.

Next up was myself and KN. I think I had played her around 2 years previously. She had no answer to my spinning retrieving game so another 3-0 with her best game winning 5 points.

Simultaneously IM played YL, a junior state representative. They traded games to get to 2-2, but IM seemingly switched off in the 5th. I had told him to play his game, not hers, when he was down 1-2.

2nd doubles was myself and IM against KN & AQ. IM had problems when KN used her pimples, so after losing the 2nd game I made sure as much as possible to play her forehand. We got up 3-1.

For the last section of singles it was IM v AQ for IM to lose 2-3, after having match point in the 4th. He commented later that he felt that when it got to 2-2 in both of his singles that he tightened up, and that this was not helped by his recent lack of practice.

The other in the last section it was CJ v YL. YL was just too good and ran out the winner 3-1. Although I didn't have the opportunity to tell CJ, I felt that he was playing YL's game to his detriment.

So we came to the final doubles with the rubber score at 4-4. No pressure. It was myself and CJ, two LHs, against KN & YL. We took the 1st 2 games to go 2 up. Then at some point we were rallying and I put away a screamer of a block to the open court. The venue owner's wife and one or two others were spectating, so I made a courtly bow to them straight away. The next incident was more serious. The score was 6-4 to us, and they played a semi smash that looked not just out but very out. As the scorer (their 3rd player) was not calling the score out aloud, it was not until she flipped the score the "wrong" way that either CJ or myself realised that something was amiss. We protested that the score was wrong. The scorer replied that the ball that we thought was very out had touched. We protested that the ball had been a clear miss. The scorer said that she had both heard and seen the ball hit. YL's father, who had been watching, agreed with the scorer. It then seemed that half of the players there on other tables also piled in on saying that the ball had hit. We pulled back and continued with the game as per the scorer's call. There was a moment of confusion then while we worked out who was serving and receiving and everything. The next bit I am not extremely proud of. The next shot I had I played an unrealistic smash which clearly missed and called that it had touched, to make a point. Needless to say I did not get a point. We lost that game at deuce, but won the next one to get the doubles 3-1 and the match 5-4.

Fun facts: I used to play against KN's father and saw him last Sunday. He no longer plays due to a meniscus tear in his knee. Also KN finished her HSC last year just the same as my daughter.

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

Ran the Saturday afternoon community centre thing as usual. A little low on numbers, but did have a reasonable hit with my brother.

Last night played comp with JC, IM and myself, at home. We played RS, RC & SH.

First up I was against RS. He was a very good looper who had a very good kill shot against low pushes, but rallied against higher "looser" shots. So what did I try to do? low pushing, and he murdered me 0-3. JC played RC I think and lost as well.

IM & I played the first doubles and lost pretty closely, but still a loss is a loss.

Next up was IM v SH & JC v RS, both for losses.

Then the doubles was JC & me v RS & SH. Again very close but a loss. I noticed something about JC's service which I will come back to later.

Last singles was me v SH & IM v RC. SH was a penholder with a very good backhand. The 1st 2 games I lost pretty badly by going to the backhand too much. The 3rd game I eked out after a ginormous rally where he was forehand smashing and I retrieved until he missed a smash. At its completion I threw my hands in the air and yelled YES!, then fumbled and dropped my bat . Fourth game I won pretty easily with him succumbing to my spin, setting up the final 5th game. For some reason I was straying to SH's backhand again and we turned at 3-5. I just got further behind the longer the game went for a 2-3 loss. IM lost to RC fairly easily.

Last doubles was JC & IM v RC & SH, with me scoring. You may remember I mentioned something about JC's serve. With both me and IM he was serving forehand while IM & I stood outside the table, so he was serving with his first bounce sometimes in the wrong court. In one of his serves in this match I clearly saw it, so initially I called a let but changed my call to fault. JC changed his serve after that. Anyway the match got to 2-2, then 2-5 and we changed ends and receivers. I asked the players if they were all OK with who was serving and receiving and of course they were. Next change of serve questions were asked and things were corrected and I again asked if everyone was happy. We lost that double 2-3.

And so we went down 0-9. Oh well.

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

Gday mate. You might have noticed I had a small hiatus from the forum Now last I recall you weren't playing competition... Just the social thing. From a quick scan of the last couple of pages I take it you are back into comp? I also noted you became a 4wd owner, which I also recently did..well an Awd more accurately. Haven't done a whole lot of off roading yet besides a few dirt tracks. But its a step up in luxury from my old sedan and I'm enjoying that. I got a Kia Sorrento...what did you get?

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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
Aussie Table Tennis Shop / Aussie Table Tennis Facebook Page / Equipment Review Index / Read my Reb Report Blog: click here.

Warning - Non-TT content ahead.
We have had a VW Caravelle people mover since 2000. It was starting to get too expensive to maintain, had some unfixable (economically at least) issues and our youngest has finished school and now has her own car as do the rest of them. We are also contemplating a tree change at some point. As the 0th step we have bought a 4WD single cab ute. Brand new 2018 Mazda BT-50 3.2l Manual 6 speed, 3rd party tray, 3rd party bull bar. Had 16km on the clock when we picked it up. Only single cab ute on the market with 3 seats, mind you the 3rd seat is a bit minimal shall we say.

Back to TT stuff
I played comp 2 years ago, then went into hiatus last year when my youngest did her HSC year. Was still running the community centre TT once a week to keep my eye in. Started up in pennants again this year. I put my name down late for the monthly veterans comp so am 10th (10th!) reserve for one of the divisions but have yet to receive a call up. Am also doing a bit of official umpiring as well. New rubbers - T05H on the forehand which I am liking for the odd smash, and T05 on the backhand as I already had.

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

Played last Thursday night at the club totally with lower grade players.

Had had some inquiries for the Saturday afternoon at the community centre, including one as I was driving there (on a hands free phone I hasten to add) so was hoping for a good turn out. I was not disappointed.

A mother had inquired for her 11 year old son, and I had pointed out that we would want a responsible adult to stay with him. Apparently his grandfather had or was volunteered for that duty, but he also played so that was a bonus. Meanwhile mother & grandmother went shopping and came to pick up towards the end. A woman and her husband had also inquired about being able to get a table via our other contact person, so they were quite happy to start off playing each other, but then I got them to play with others. The inquiry received en route was from a serious player who started off hitting with my brother, then played a few doubles but did not really pull his shots much if at all when he was clearly the best by far on a table. He complained about playing so much doubles, so I took pity on him and played him a singles which I won 2-1.

I skipped playing at the club on Monday night as we played comp last night. One of our team asked where I was .
I played GM first up, a forehand dominant looper. I got up 2-0, but then it got to 2-2. I think in the fifth we changed at 3-5. It got to 9-9 and then his serve. I folded and went down 9-11 .
Meanwhile MD played SH on the other table in an epic battle which MD lost unfortunately.
First doubles was AF & me v SH & D?. I think we went down 1-3.
MD played GM and beat him 3-0, while AF played MS and lost as well. MD & AF played the second doubles against MS & D? and won.
Next lot of singles was me v MS (combo bat player) where I won the first convincingly but proceeded to lose the next 3 for 1-3.
AF played SH on the other table and I think lost 1-3 as well.
The final doubles was MD & I v SH & GM. We were down 1-2 and it was 9-9. We won the next 2 points to go 2-2, but SH for some reason was convinced that it was 10-10 even though it was his team mate scoring. He was calmed down by his partner, while I just told DM that we needed to keep our concentration up. We did to win reasonably convincingly 3-2.
Overall result was 3-6. One of the opposition organised a photo of all 6 of us and emailed it to me and I forwarded it to the other 2 and our captain.

This weekend we are still having the community centre on Saturday afternoon, so your (gentle reader) guess is as good as mine as to what numbers we will have.

I have volunteered to umpire at a tournament being run by "a religious organisation" on Sunday afternoon, about an hour or so drive from where I live. Our umpire secretary is apparently off to Budapest tomorrow, I wonder why, he is a blue badge international umpire after all - he has given my details to the tournament people.

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

Played last Thursday at the club with a very small turnout due to the upcoming Easter weekend. The organiser said to text him before coming on the Monday. Played a few lower grade players and gave them some tips before going early as troublesome son was at home.

Ran the Saturday afternoon session at the community centre for a similarly small turnout. Hopefully next week will make up for the small takings and it is the last one for the month.

Left with a packed lunch to go umpiring for the religious group on Sunday. After only one spot of heavy traffic and one wrong turn, where the street sign was 20 metres from the corner and was mostly covered up by a veterinarian's sign, I got there early, so had my packed lunch. The other umpire turned up then we were told our first match to umpire was half an hour later than we were originally told. Anyway the people were lovely and there were no disputes. Mind you we were a little lenient. We umpired around 4-5 matches each. Anyway I got back home without any further issues.

Last night decided late to play at the club because of troublesome son. So a text to say I wasn't coming turned into a text that asked if it was on. It was so again I played with lower grade players, a few singles and a doubles.

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

Played last night at the club but got there late due to troublesome son. Played a little cut-throat with AF and M? to begin with. Followed by a singles with J? a lower grader. Then a hit with J? another even lower grader. AF then said that he was happy to either go or I could have a match with him.

So, lastly a match with AF. We went 1-1 then I managed to pull out the 3rd for 2-1. We then agreed to make it best of 5. I was down and out for all intents and purposes, but made it to 10-10 somehow and gutsed it for a win at deuce.

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

Ran the usual Saturday afternoon at the community centre. Had a talk with the mother of an 11 year old who came for the 2nd time. We ended up just not making enough money for the afternoon and the month from fees, but then again we had Easter, Anzac Day & school holidays to contend with. Had a reasonable hit with P? who also goes to the club on Mondays and Thursdays.

Played comp last night at the club. First up was v RS, a conventional looper / driver. He didn't like my brick wall with spin style, so 3-0. Meanwhile IM beat MR. First doubles was IM & CJ on our team. They lost. Next up I played MR who I had played a couple of years ago both in comp and the Top 5. He seemed to be having trouble with his range for loops and timing. I won the first 2 games fairly easily, let him get away in the third but came back to dominate the 4th for a 3-1 win. PU played RS and lost. Next was doubles with CJ & me (2 lefties) v RS & H? Remembering our last effort, I was determined not to lose this time. We got to 2-0 up then lost the last 3. Oh well. PU played H? and lost while IM played ?? (can't remember) and won. Then IM & I teamed up to play H? and MR. We managed to get up 3-1 I think so we won 5-4 on the night.

I may well be on the way back from scouting properties for a possible tree change on Thursday night, but we will see.

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

Got back earlier than expected from tree change expedition, but it had been a long day and I was fairly tired.

Went to the club last night. Started off with a match with M? 3-0 to me. Then a fun doubles with J? against L? &J? where I simply returned the ball without doing much so we won or lost on J?'s shots. We won 2-1 with her finishing off the 3rd game with a flurry of attacking drives / smashes.
Next was cut-throat with MD & AF, followed by a couples of doubles combinations, CJ (left handed driver/looper) & I v MD & AF which we lost, followed by AF & I v CJ & MD. That was closer and in fact I can't remember who won.

CJ & AF left, leaving MD & I to play singles. I think I ended up 4-3, but by the end of it I was pretty much at a standstill, as was MD, so we both left.

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

Ran the Saturday afternoon at the community centre as usual. Had a reasonable roll up and my brother was there when I turned up to help set up.

Played comp away on Monday night. The venue was chaotic. We were requested to be there around half an hour earlier than most venues to start the match, but at that time only one of the home team players was there. Apparently the main organiser turned up late and we were playing somewhere in the middle of a long line of tables without side barriers. I paced out the length of the court we were playing in and according to me it was roughly 5 metres long. We also had issues if during the 2 singles matches a lefty and a right were both down the same end in the separate tables. We had 2 lefties, myself & CJ, and CJ is more of a forehand player than me.

First up I played JZ and trailed all the way - 0-1 then 1-1 then 1-2 then 2-2 (after being match point down a couple of times) then amazingly got the 5th for the win.

AF & I played the 1st doubles after he lost his singles. We did pretty much the same as my singles to pull out a 3-2 win.

It was pretty much downhill all the way from there.

I played EC (different EC to the one I sometimes play at the home club) and I went down 1-3, a bit annoyed at myself for letting things get to me.

While CJ was still playing his singles the home premier team playing comp on the next table wanted us to move our tables across in the middle of the match. I made the point that they had started their match in the existing configuration and that they could finish their match in that configuration and that we had not set up the tables the way they were nor chosen which tables to play on. Did I say that I let the chaotic etc conditions get to me? Anyway CJ was allowed to finish his match in relative peace, still losing it.

Then CJ & I combined for the 2nd doubles. Have I said that he & I don't combine well at the best of times? Well this wasn't the best of times. I think we lost 0-3.

Then AF & CJ each played their final singles and lost for a final rubber score of 2-7.

I had a word with the organiser after the shooting was over, and apparently comp players at his venue prefer to play without side barriers. I also asked him what their system was for allocating tables to comp, and he replied that he usually allocated them, but that tonight had been first come first serve. Another Division 1 comp match had the table against the wall at the far end, and I suggested that the Premier comp match should have been there rather than next to us.

Table tennis was the winner!

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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 on Thursday last week. Can't remember whether I beat AF. I don't know whether that is good or bad. Ended up going 202 with MD.

Ran the Saturday afternoon at the community centre with only 5 players. Oh well.

Played at the club on Monday night - it felt crowded as our other team was playing comp so took up 2.5 tables space. Played mostly doubles, with a hit with a new Div 5 level player and another lower level player, capped off with yet another only slightly lower level player who I had hit with on Saturday.

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

This is feeling a little lather, rinse, repeat but anyway ...

Played at the club last Thursday. Lost to MD as mostly usual, and played with whoever wanted a game as usual.

Had a better roll up at the community centre on Saturday afternoon and had a couple of new people. Unfortunately there are 2 who were regulars last year who have not made an appearance yet this year.

Played comp last night at the club. First singles went down 0-3 to a person who shares my 1st & last name initials playing with short pimples one side and long pimples the other. Anyone who tells you that you can just do that and put the bat in front of the ball to win needs to see people who can do this.

Meanwhile MD beat J? for our only singles win of the night. Then MD & CJ combined to lose the 1st doubles. Then MD & CJ lost the next 2 singles, and CJ & I did our usual 2 left handers loss. I think the problem is that he is a lot more forehand oriented and I am very used to playing with either right handers or neutral left handers, so for half the match (me serving or receiving) we start out behind the 8 ball as it were.

Last 2 singles I won the first against a normal smooth & short pimples combination player, but lost the next 3 for 1-3. I worked out halfway through the 3rd game that he was teeing off on my pushes and chops so attempted to no spin or light top spin him with not much success.

Last doubles was MD & I v J? (smooth rubber looper) and KW (oops). We won the first game, at deuce, lost the 2nd game pretty easily, lost the 3rd game very easily, including a clean ace against me by KW - I can't remember the last time I totally missed a receive. The 4th game we came out playing perfect table tennis to go to something like a 7-0 lead and won it quite comfortably. Fortunately for us we continued our form into the 5th game for a good win. Overall we went down 2-7 for the night.

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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. Initially cut-throat with MD & AF, then doubles. Then a singles with AF which I pulled out 2-1 after being down for most of the 3rd game. AF started off playing very safe in the 1st which I won. I suppose I can play safe better than him!

Another doubles with AF & I v MD & US. I think we won.

Then a singles with MD which I won 3-0. Hi shots were only just missing a lot of the time, and he wasn't quite picking my spin / no spin almost identical serves, fortunately for me.

Another doubles with JH v U? & J?, a real battle of the sexes. The fairer sex won that one 2-1, then we played an extra game for 2-2 and called it quits.

After running the normal Saturday afternoon at the community centre, I am looking forward to playing in the Vets comp this Sunday, only being 10th reserve for the top division. Mind you my CR number has gone down badly since signing up for that

I am also coming down with a bad cold so am dosing the symptoms.

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

Still with the cold. Ran Saturday afternoon at the community centre with all 4 tables out in a row. It seemed to work out.

Yesterday I played in the monthly veterans comp, wearing my OOAK shirt. The only one who noticed was a rival TT seller . Remember I am #10 reserve in the top division.

First up I get to play WH, looper, a past national vets age group champion of roughly my age. We hit up as per normal, then he makes the comment that it is so long since we played that he couldn't remember how to play me. In the 1st point I somehow pin him down to backhand pushes and win the point. I asked him if he now remembered how to play me and he agreed that he now did. I think I got up to 5 in one of the games.

Second game was with PN, forehand looper with pimples back hand. He absolutely hated the varying spin balls I gave him. WH took him aside after the first game, but as a leopard can't change his spots neither could PN adapt his game. I even made him miss the table or hit into the net with his pimples.

Third game, and arguably my best for the day was with SH, a combo player using Mark 5 and some sort of pimples interchangeably. I think he was surprised that I tried to just get everything back against him. Anyway I somehow get to 2-2 but then get behind something like 1-5 in the final game and end up losing 5-11. WH complemented me on my game as I came off.

I think we went down 3-8 overall. One of my team mates beat the same guy I did and we combined to win the 2nd doubles.

That was it for the morning.

!st game after lunch was against F? (who incidentally had won the tournament I umpired at on Easter Sunday). Hitting up he looked very good with both forehand and backhand counter-hitting. We start playing the game and we get into pushing duels. His push is of the sort that attacking players do, pretty much the same all the time, while I was varing placement, speed and spin. I won the first quite convincingly. PP (the rival TT seller) took him aside and I think told him to attack more. Surprisingly, games 2 & 3 were more of the same. Playing a few leopards today.

Next up was PP. The last time we played he just wiped the floor with me, so my expectations were appropriately set (low). However he is a bit older than me and has lost a little consistency. One shot I remember playing was where he had attempted to drop shot me but it went very slightly to the side where I was able to lunge in and lob it up with a little side spin (corkscrew spin to be more correct) that he didn't notice so when he went for the put-away it was "a swing and a miss". I managed to get a game off him to go down 1-3.

Last match was against A? a slightly overweight short guy. Whether I was overconfident or what, I managed to lose that one 2-3.

Overall, I think we went down something like 3-8 again, I am not sure.

All up it was 2 wins out of 6 for the top division, with 2 more losses in 5. Given that my RC rating has gone down a lot since I signed up for the Vets comp, I didn't feel that I let the team down.

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

No time at the club last night. Much to my wife's surprise I took the night off with the heavy cold.

Did get a text this morning asking my availability for our last comp match for the autumn comp on Friday away.

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