greetings auburn table tennis club and giants fans  -

*** note:  this coming monday (open play) precedes the tuesday election.  we will be short one room (if this is a “normal” election eve) for play this coming monday, so be patient.   remember, vote in anyone who is known to play and like table tennis.  vote out anyone who favors pickleball, baseball, football, you get the picture…  all other voting criteria are meaningless.   

a giant welcome this past monday  – to meinhard and roland ullrich – keep alert youth coach john hanna, roland is all of 9 years old.  let’s have you 2 connect next monday.  speaking of coaching, a special thank you to larry scott, getting some coaching in for paula cole and then tamara chappell, this past wednesday, after rr.   larry, as usual, the reward comes later, when the students thrash us soundly, and give thanks to you.    nice to see mark copeland back in the rr, too; keep us on your dance card, mark.  join us in the never ending sage of “what paddle surface will they use next?”- a game show starring grant c. and tyler s.   always an adventure.  pips?  grips? we’re starting a pool; 25 cents per guess.

we see a couple additional “new” players monday, but do not see the crucial pink “new player information” sheet in the file, so let’s get on those slackers to sign in  (!)

wed. oct. 27 round robin results – following a turnout of 24 players monday, we had a good showing with 19 for wed. round robin.

group winners –  group 4:  jon saunders, moderate underdog, getting by chuck feyh. group 3: nikolai z., seemed to dominate, ping-ponging now between groups 3 and 2; nicely done.   group 2: anson and grant battle to 3-1 records, with grant winning the head-to-head match.  four upsets in that group; we see tyler reclaiming some ground lost as different paddles and grips were tested.  well, he plays well with most all of them, we should say. 

group 1: sam seo was the benefactor of wins graciously given up by the group (throwing the matches seems like a harsh description), who would have felt bad beating him considering he has twins on the way and must lay off for a time to tend to the home front.  not that patrice t. and john h. did not try, getting to game 5 for both.  bill and tom were far nicer to the expectant father, letting sam mete out 3-0 beatings all in the name of being good hosts.

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

greetings auburn table tennis club  -

a taste of winter, or maybe fall  –  the temperature is perfect at the auburn club, mondays and wednesdays, for a little table tennis.  or a lot.

welcome – new to our twice-weekly slice of the good life – this past monday – richie strikland – joining a capacity crowd including 8 placer high students – always nice to see you all.  if any of you want to take your game to the next level, come talk to me – there is some good skill out there.   also joining us monday was gillian noel, speaking with an accent only john hanna could truly understand …  welcome gillian.  we won’t tell anyone you have not played for several decades.  for what it’s worth, we saw some rust but nothing looks broken.  just kidding about the accent, we know it is us who have the accent.

more welcomes – wednesday round robin – christopher and paula cole – having spent some quality time at the folsom club (not the one with the high walls and shaved heads), decided to gain some elevation and see what happens over in auburn. 

and welcome back, to ricky pisanu, for what he threatens will be an occasional slumming from his new hawaii digs.  ricky, nice to see you and hear the clickity clickity of that hard bat.

wed. oct. 20 round robin results – 4 groups again, some doubles matches at the end of the evening, too.

group winners - #1 sam seo (this is starting to sound like a broken record … at least all his opponents managed to get at least one game off him, for a change …  nice hitting sam; we will be selling the video of your matches for training purposes); #2 patrice tournier (looking like his 3 week absence due to “business trips” may in fact have been absence due to “gone to china for 3 weeks of intensive table tennis training”); #3 larry scott – sweeping his group to remind us that grass valley’s table tennis club is coming up on their 20^th anniversary and deserves a modicum of respect (larry, we respect the gv club … as far as you go, well … be reasonable); #4 chebu herrick, sweeping up, but not without having to go five games with madison k.  (madison, are you not following the cheating guidelines we give you?)   winners all move up a table next week!

we miss you – fred myers has not been around for some time, having been a perfect attendance model for mondays for a couple years.  well, fred reports from a secret undisclosed location in seattle that he has relocated from meadow vista  (it’s not really a secret location).  good luck in the pacific northwest, fred.  fred has joined a table tennis club up there (yeah, like that’s a newsflash).

check out the website for ratings and statistics, if you are so inclined.  you can navigate to get a readout of the trends dating from july 1, 2010, from which our “best record” and “most improved” awards will be calculated.   these are awarded at the end of the year and the end of june, each year.  last year’s prizes included a solid gold table tennis paddle, all expenses paid trip for 2 to world championships in germany, and a monthly annuity/sponsorship including room, board and spending cash, for a player to focus continuously on his/her skills.    this years prizes will probably be scaled down from that somewhat.  we do, however, have a sponsor for several awards – table tennis only – supplier of all things table tennis (linked at our web site, and operated by our own jz).  mighty convenient if you need paddles, rubber, balls, tables … you name it.  for auburn, since we have several players hitting with jz during the course of the week, the goodies are often couriered up to us.  thank you jz, and thank you for the sponsorship. 

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

greetings auburn table tennis club  -

coming soon to the club near you  –  the return from a long sabbatical out of town, club co-founder tim aquino anticipates being here in early november.  something about defending his good name and honor at the club.  for those who have been asking after tim, he says he is ready to break out the balsa wood paddle and see how rusty the rust is.

wed. oct. 13 round robin results – 4 groups, 8 tables, 3 rooms going strong, plus open play that went to pretty close to 9:50 p.m.  now that’s table tennis!

group winners - #1 sam seo (having to work for 3-2 victories over the second and third seeds, however); #2 matthew blom (putting that lesson from avi to good use, it seems, and narrowly getting by patrice tournier in his return to rr play); #3 nikolai z. – sweeping his group; #4 michael martin, also sweeping up.  well played one and all.  winners all move up next week!

club umpire note – for round robin play, if you believe your opponent is not serving legally, please speak up and invite a neutral to observe.  keeping serves legal helps us all, and, diplomatically managed, there is nothing wrong with seeking a 2nd opinion.  vp tom spesick technically has the referee duties, but you can also call on larry scott and others who can assist in this matter.

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

greetings auburn table tennis club  -

wed. oct. 6 round robin results –  congratulations group winners – in group 1 – sam seo continues his version of world domination, taking the table 4-0.  group 2 – going 5-0, grant connell wallops his way to table one; group 3 – completing the “winners’ sweeps” devin forsey goes 4-0 to advance a table.  plenty of upsets and fine matches being played!

this coming wednesday - hang on to your hats, batten down the hatches, put the kids in the cellar, count the silver … our “regular” round robin will have a guest organizer by the one and only john hanna.   one group of 17?   a group of 3, plus a group of 12?  who knows.  we are assured he will comply with traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice, and we indeed look forward to an entertaining and competitive night.

22 plus players last monday, so a great fall turnout!  more of the same expected and this is a good time to get a fine cross section of players. 

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