|
Greetings everyone of the Auburn Table Tennis Club -
School
Kick Off Time is Nearing – If this
is your signal to revive your visits to the club, we are ready for you. Eric Stefanic has recently returned from
some months of travel and duty out-of-county. Welcome back, Eric.
Wed.
RR – August
11 – Special Report provided to the “table tennis
tattler” by John Hanna (apologies to Dickens and E.B. White):
“With Bill and Tom
suspended from the club for a lot of cheating last week, mainly against John
H., Group A still had an unpredictable feel about it. Sam had not lost a match for a
couple of weeks, and Anson had taken John H. last week much to
the astonishment of… er…JH, and Grant was due for a bit of
form, and Matthew was up for some tough matches after he took Group B
last week.
Once we cut the club storage
cupboard open to get the nets/balls with a borrowed chainsaw from a man in the
woods wearing a hockey mask, we started the RR at 7:45pm. Grant had written the combination for
the padlock on one of his rubbers, but he could not remember which rubber he
had written it on! We tried 729
until Tamara pointed out that was part of the brand name. I think O5 and 64 were also tried!
John, fresh from playing 5 times in the last 6 days, turned Anson’s white
strip smile to a shade of grey as he took the first two
games with TOTAL confidence, and was
certainly on a CREST of a wave.
However, Anson came out fighting the decay,
showing gumption and gritting his teeth got ahead a couple of points to lead 9-7. But John managed to floss his way between the gaps in Anson’s attack, and filled the hole and cemented the
victory in enamel! Anson was brushed aside. [Editor’s Note: Rest assured John will be
punished severely for these puns]
Meanwhile, it was a battle of the
top spinners in the 2nd match of Group A on Table 2, with Sam
and Grant standing 20 feet back from the table looping the loop against
each other. Sam pulled off
his 9th win in a row at the club, and maybe a seeded A v B
Group A decider was on the cards.
Matthew B. took a game from Anson in his first match, and later even took
game three 11-2 from John, and finished the night winning 4 games, but
alas, no matches.
Anson gave Sam a thorough drilling,
and got to 10-8 up in the fifth before Sam outshone his opponent and finished off with a wider smile, as if he had just drank a bottle of mouthwash! 3-2 to Sam.
With all the matches going as
seeded, the highly anticipated Sam v John H. potential epic awaited an
eager crowd (Tamara and Eric).
Sam had recently dropped some hints about the way to beat him via some
e-mails, so John had a game plan and took the first two games with
surprising ease, (huh Sam?), but then made the mistake of missing two
kills at the start o the 3rd, and Sam suddenly led 4-0. Game over. The fourth game also went to Sam,
and the fifth was looking to go the same way at 8- 5 up to Sam. The regulars at the club will be aware
of John’s ability to step up at the right time, and the match got
to 10-10 after some incredible rallies and power points under pressure. Grant and Matthew stop
their match on the adjoining table to watch.
John takes the serve at 10-10 and takes the point. Then Sam serves a pendulum to John’s
backhand at 10-11 down, but John pushes the table to the right, and the
ball misses the table completely off the side! Game over! Fortunately, Sam did not see this
quick movement of John’s hands. The clue was that John laid his
paddle on the table and a flashing beacon on top of the paddle operated by an
extension cord from the hall way.
Still, the result stood, Sam didn’t see it, and it was for the
table! A high five after the match
between Sam and John confirmed that the night had ended up on an
expectedly friendly note. Although,
John got pulled over 8 times on the way back home by some laughing Placer County
CHP Officers! MEOW, he certainly
appreciated the humor, though.
In Group B, Dave G.
had managed to send his wife away for another one-night vacation, and secretly
made the journey to Auburn! Don’t worry Dave, with DVR,
you can still tell your wife what you watched between 6 and 10pm on HBO! Larry, Eric, and Chebu,
who won Group C the previous week, were unable to handle Dave’s
tough serves and his dominant forehand top spin drives. Dave earns his place in Group A
next week, but alas, the ATTC link we forwarded to Mrs. G. may keep him away
next week!
All matches went to seed, except for
Larry v Eric, who actually trained for an hour with John H. a few days
before, without wearing his cap. Welcome
back Eric! I have a feeling
that Eric will be 1500 plus before long. Probably 1500 miles away, watching WPS
(Women’s Pro Soccer). Some
people have the coolest jobs!
Group C was looking a little light on numbers until a last minute text arrived
suggesting Devin F. would be arriving.
This would provide some interesting match-ups in this Group. Tamara had been receiving
coaching from the Monday night mob; John, Grant, Bill, and
Larry as well. Her forehand
is coming on strong and she took games from Nik Z., Jr., (son of Nik
Z., Sr.), and also from Michael M., (who has two first names). Nik beat Nik as predicted,
and Devin, who would have been seeded two in the group, didn’t actually
make it to the club! A new rule
recently introduced removes 850 points from Devin’s ATTC rating as a
forfeit! I’m sorry Devin - I
hear that Nik Sr. was looking for you!
[Editor’s Note: No worries Devin; come up next week, all is well]
So Nik Sr. wins Group C,
and should match up against some of the higher rated players next week, (if
they bother to show up!).
P.S. Anyone seen the takings for last week?”
John,
thank you for the report, and nice work not exaggerating any of the
information. Very factual.
Tournament – Sacramento - September 18th, 2010. Lots of events, lots of fun. Not too far away, too. Linked info on our links page, at the
Sac Rec Table tennis Club and in our Tournament Info link. We
see there is also a high school event, for unranked (USATT) players –
very nice.
Sign ups
due by Sept. 8th.
For Wed. night, - if you will be late (after 6:45
pm), be sure to call Tom at 530-613-0101 or Bill
(916-275-0899) and let them know. If
you reach us, we will get you on a table.
Also for Wednesdays, tables permitting, if you wish to
come and hit for fun (i.e. not participate in the round robin), that is fine
and the Club will charge $2 per person for that.
Bill
Kochenderfer
| 