North Confined Table Tennis Championships 2022-23, Aberdeen Sports Village, 29th April 2023
Download North Confined 2022-23 Complete Results
Article by Donald Pirie
The North Confined Championships took place on Saturday 29 April with a fantastic entry from our local players, one of the highest entries we have had in a long while which also included players from clubs in Elgin, Inverness, and Shetland. The number and diversity of the entries created an excellent and high quality tournament throughout the day.
The Premier events of the day were of course the Rubber Shop Trophy, the AU Open, and the Watt Cup. The AU Open dates back to 2008, but the other two go back as far as the 1930's, and are highly prized titles for our local players.
The ASV Academy 'young guns' were out in force, and made a big impact across all events. The top 12, Rubber Shop Trophy event served up some excellent table tennis, and after highly competitive groups and KO rounds, the semi-finals were contested by defending champion Ross Martin, the Academy players of Harry Blackhall & Daniel Tibbetts, and CTM's Ikenna Asogwa. It was the two junior players of Harry and Daniel who made it through to the final, and after an absorbing first set of 17-15 to Daniel, it was Harry who rallied to find his form, showing some tremendous attacking table tennis, and took the Rubber Shop Trophy with a 3-1 sets win.
The AU Open sees the next 12 ranked players compete, and again was highly competitive. At the semi-final stage Academy players Maja Wojcicka and Jakub Krzyzostaniak faced off in one match, with Triangle's Mitch Reid and RGU student Weijun Ni in the other semi. The equally matched Maja & Jakub were always going to produce a close, attacking match, and so it proved. It was Maja who went onto take a 3-1 sets win, after being close at 1-1 early in that match.
Mitch used his experience and guile to dispatch Weijun fairly comfortably 3-0, and went onto the final to face Maja. With both Mitch and Maja favouring an attacking style, they served up a 5-set thriller! Mitch went down 9-11 in the first set, before take the next two 11-8 & 12-10. Maja then found another level of form and took the fourth set 11-5, setting up the deciding set with the match poised at 2-2. The players traded points on the back of excellent attacking rallies early on, but it was Mitch who pulled away in the second half of the set and took the match 3-2 and secured the AU Open title. Interestingly it was Mitch who was the very first winner of the AU Open back in 2008, and after a 15-year gap, which matches Maja's age, Mitch secures the title for a second time.
The Watt Cup saw all other players take part, and it didn't disappoint either. After 5 groups and knock out stages, the last four were Academy players Mathew Pszonka, Kiishi Adekola & Nikki Mo. Turriff based Triangle player Ralston Johnston completed the semi-final line up. Kiishi and Nikki were up first. The players know each other well and are current Scottish champions and team-mates at all levels. As usual a 5-set all out attacking match was delivered by the girls, with Kiishi going through to the final. Mathew has been in spectacular form lately both nationally and locally, and swept through to the final 3-0. Mathew continued that form in the final, and while closer, also swept to a 3-0 win to take the Watt Cup for season 2022/23.
Not to be outdone, Mathew Pszonka continued his excellent form and also took a second title in the U13 event. It was Ross Drakeford from Shetland who Matthew dispatched this time. An excellent display from Ross though, after a long trip to Aberdeen it was an excellent performance to make it to the final.
All other age category events were played throughout the day, and all were closely contested and continued to offer high quality table tennis. Mitch Reid took his second title of the day, defeating Doug Seller of Westhill TTC to take the Over 60 event.
It was a real international affair in the Over 40's event. A Germany vs. Poland match up in the final with Uwe Petermann (Triangle) taking the win over CTM's Gregor Ksiazek.
Ilona Obst-Wojcicka ensured that at least one title went back to the CTM club, with Ilona taking the 19-39 age category win, overcoming AU club and ASV Academy 'graduate' Gavin Elliot in the final.
It was a good day for ASV Academy player Robbie Martin who took the title in the U15 category, and also made it through to the semi-final of the U19 event. It was Allan He who took the U19 title, going on to defeat Jakub Krzyzostaniak in the final. Jakub can consider himself unlucky on the day, making both the U15 & the U19 final, as well as the semi-final in the AU Open, but a title just eluded him this time around. Allan & Robbie are also ASV Academy players and the strength in depth of the Academy players was evident across the tournament.
A very successful event, refereed and organised in immaculate fashion by Charlie Flint and Alison Woods, with everything running to time and on schedule. We look forwards to seeing you all next season for another successful North Confined Tournament.
Download North Confined 2022-23 Complete Results
