Noosa Table Tennis

What a great year we had at Noosa Table Tennis so good to see the juniors stepping up and rising through the ranks, the Christmas break up was great with pizzas a big hit , see you all next year from 29th jan, and remember winners are grinners

Always good to play against sunshine Coast table tennis club, some good young players, we played 3 matches and won all 3 so a fantastic result for noosa.

Magicians have One Trick Too Many for the Tornadoes

The Tornadoes were the warm favourites on finals night at the Noosa Table Tennis Club. They had dominated proceedings during the rounds and were expected to prevail over their less credentialled rivals, the Magicians. However finals night at the club has a habit of being full of surprises. And so it proved to be. It was a night of mixed fortunes, the winner only known at the eleventh hour.

Early in the night saw the clash of two club heavyweights with Jonas Campbell taking out Steve Gardner 11-8, 14-12, 4-11, 11-9. This was the start of a run for the Magicians winning 8 of the next 11 matches to establish a handy 9-6 lead. In this run Rita Malik for the Magicians had just got home against the better performing Joe Laffey, winning 9-11, 5-11, 11-6, 11-9, 13-11.

However it was Martyn Clarke, the Jerkyll and Hyde of Noosa table tennis, who stopped the rot. He unexpectedly beat his eternal rival Jonas Campbell winning 11-8, 11-9, 5-11, 11-8.

The Tornadoes continued to drag themselves back into contention to make it 9 all. The tide had turned. The Tornadoes now looked to be in the box seat as the three remaining matches heavily favoured them. However the Tornadoes had not factored in the upset of the night that was about to befall them.

And it was Rita Malik who again did the damage, doing the near impossible and taking the shine off Martyn Clarke’s earlier triumph winning 11-9. 11-9, 4-11, 4-11, 11-3. In the end the Magicians had one trick too many, ultimately prevailing 11-10 on the night.

Player of the match was Rita Malik who proved to be wafer-thing difference between the two teams.

David and Goliath Clash in Table Tennis Finals

Finals night at the Noosa Table Tennis Club was supposed to be a straightforward
affair, on paper at least. It was a clash between a David and Goliath – a clash
between the Vipers who were undefeated throughout the rounds and the Smashers
who had struggled just to get into the finals. It was said the Vipers would only need
to turn up to take the title.
Things started off uneventfully. The early part of the clash between this David and
Goliath went accordingly to form with the score at 3-3 all, then 4-4 all. A critical
turning point was now reached. In a match where the combatants were evenly
matched the Smashers’ Alan Franks defeated the Vipers’ Chris Strybos to put the
Smashers ahead with an improbable 5-4 lead.
And there was more to come. In a crucial doubles match the Smashers’ Alan
Lawson and Joe Laffey just squeezed past the Vipers’ Eli Kalugin and Blake Wyer
winning 13-11 in the fifth game.
Surprisingly the underdog Smashers had now skipped ahead to hang onto a slender
7-6 lead. The unthinkable was suddenly becoming thinkable. The Smashers dared to
think they were in with a chance.
It was then the Vipers inexplicably collapsed, losing the next 4 singles to surrender
the crown they thought was theirs for the taking. In the end the Smashers had
snatched the title from their betters in a comfortable 11-7. Things had not played out
according to the script.
And ‘Man of the Match’? It could only be Jonas Campbell who did the heavy lifting
for the Smashers. He won both his doubles games and his 3 singles including the
defeat of club heavyweight Greg Yu to bring off an unlikely outcome.