By Liam Emerton
A very strong entry resulted in an incredible number of matches being played in the annual Rockhampton Open Table Tennis Championships over the weekend. Players and supporters from Townsville and Mackay joined visitors from Bundaberg and Moreton Bay as well as a host of locals to turn on some play across the thirty events staged.
The cream rose to the top in the prestigious Bernie’s Pies men’s open singles and doubles draws with locals making the concluding rounds. The men’s singles saw Rocky players occupy the semi-finals when Joel Coughlan prevailed over a strong challenge from his brother Dane and Matthew Pettett survived a really strong threat from his younger opponent in Matthew Steffen 11-9, 12-10, 10-12, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9. Joel Coughlan had earlier ended the chances of the other local hope in Rayden Smith in another solid encounter.
The grand final was a classic that went the full distance between opponents who know each other’s games quite well. In a clash that included some brilliant exchanges Coughlan won the battle 12-10 in the deciding seventh set. The Coughlans teamed up in the men’s doubles and were too strong for the reliable combination of Pettett and Smith.
The Bolsover Radiology women’s open singles also provided plenty of exciting matches and adopted local Kelsey Le Maistre confirmed her favouritism with a five-set victory over club-mate Ann-Louise Stewart. In the semi-finals Le Maistre beat Bundaberg’s Susan McDonald, who had earlier ended the run of another local hope in Erica Nolan, and Stewart downed Mackay’s Emma Widdup by a few points in another seven-set classic. The finalists started as top seeds in the women’s doubles and outed Nolan and Pam Clarke in a very close decider that also went the full distance while in the mixed doubles the regular pairing of Pettett and Le Maistre had too many aces for Joel Coughlan and Stewart in the play-off.
Rockhampton Table Tennis Association president Allan Clarke said it was a great weekend for the club which saw play stretch till after midnight on Saturday.
“It was really good. We had really high entries and the level of play was exceptionally high,” he said.
“We saw some players who are fairly new to the game. It was really good to see the overall friendliness of the matches and everyone was there just to improve.
“We’re blessed to have some really good players in the men’s and the women’s opens.
“It was a great event. We were under the pump for getting it out on time but we had a lot of those ‘see you next year’ chats.”
The Chauvel Industrial Services ratings events provided plenty of action in the four divisions staged. Rayden Smith prevailed in the top section after surviving a strong challenge from Le Maistre in an exciting final. Rocky’s Nick Green played brilliantly to win the second section over club-mate James O’Sullivan and he joined young Emily Steffen to win the doubles event. Improving junior, Judd Carr, won the third division over another local in Chris Leitner.
Locals also fared quite well in the Lawless-Pyne Electrical age events although visitors took home a lot of the spoils. Nick Green took out the under-21 men’s singles and Nolan Hao the under-19 singles. At the other end of the competition based on birth dates Ann-Louise Stewart was victorious in the over-30 and over-50 women’s singles, Erica Nolan the over-40 women’s singles and Darren Green the men’s event in this age-group. James O’Sullivan enjoyed a wonderful tournament and some of his exceptional results included his wins in both the over-50 and over-60 men’s singles. Pam Clarke prevailed in the over-60 women’ event. The over-40 doubles draw included a ‘blast from the past’ when former local champions in Barry Hare and Les Juds (Moreton Bay), who have both taken up the sport again after many years of doing other things, won the event.