PICTURES: Steve Ricketts
Rockhampton table tennis players who attended the 2023 Everything Fleet Queensland Open Championships last weekend at Bundaberg returned home with some impressive results after being pitted against their counterparts from Townsville, Mackay and most clubs from the south-eastern part of the state as well as very solid representation from the Rum City where an impressive carnival was laid on.
Rocky’s Matthew Pettett and Kelsey Le Maistre both made it to the gold-medal matches of the premier men’s and women’s open singles but both were relegated to the silver medal positions. Despite a gallant effort Pettett narrowly failed to upstage Hayden Green, who plays out of Brisbane after starting as a youngster at Rocky before moving to Bundy for a few years and then settling in the state’s capital, 11-9 in the sixth set of a best of seven game contest.
Le Maistre outlasted club-mate Ann-Louise Stewart in the semi final of the women’s singles 11-9, 9-11, 13-15, 11-9, 5-11, 12-10, 11-7 and then went down in the major play-off to Townsville’s whiz-kid Taleisha Gaeta over five close sets in the best of seven game clash. The Pettett-Le Maistre combination had no answer to Gaeta and Lucas Green (Brisbane) in the final of the mixed open doubles while Pettett joined Wynnum’s Andrew Udal to win the men’s doubles over the Green brothers and Le Maistre teamed with young Gaeta to win the women’s pairs event over Stewart and Mackay’s Janice Kent.
Glen McDonald, who continues to play well in local fixtures, did well to reach the main draw in the men’s open singles before bowing out and then won the over-30 men’s singles event over the host association’s Ashley Parrot in a close final. He and Mackay’s Robbie Richards made the final of the doubles in this section but had to settle for the silver medal. In a depleted draw Ann-Louise Stewart prevailed in the over 30/40 women’s singles before going on the win the over-50 event over Mackay’s Janice Kent. Stewart and Kent combined to win the women’s veteran doubles draw.
The local weekly fixture competitions in open grade will continue until the end of the current school term and it’s still too early to speculate which teams could come away as victors in both divisions. The top section sees the combination of Rayden Smith and Erica Nolan leading a bunched field by one point to the good of Dane Coughlan and Relly Pingol while another one point in arrears Joel Coughlan and Ann-Louise Stewart are still in with a great chance of finishing on top of the ladder as are a couple of other sides should results go their way.
The second division is more interesting due to the bye in the first round not gaining any points. Pam Clarke and Leo Lai currently hold down top spot by a few points to Nolan Hao and Allan Clarke, however the front runners have to endure the spell this week and lose the opportunity to gather some points whereas all the other teams will receive a point for each rubber they win. Looking good to improve on their third place over the next few rounds will be Nick Green and Linda O’Sullivan while Dave Hockings and young Judd Carr as well as a couple of other sides also have time left to figure in calculations as the season draws to a conclusion.