See below the example Chart of Winners.
Daniel M Ekaterina M Jacek P Gopikrishna P Pehej V Graham M Gennadii A Graham M Louise F
& &
Julian T Andrew A
Thanks again to Eric for all his efforts.
Below is his full Report.
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35 players signed up for the Reading Closed Tournament, which was held on Sunday 17 March.
Participant numbers could have easily reached more than 45 players had it not been for Ramadan – which prevented the loyal Kingfisher cohort led by the Kingfisher I team from participating this season – and some unforeseen last-minute cancellations.
Play started a bit late after I noticed at 8:45 – 15 minutes before play was supposed to start – that nobody had arrived yet. A faulty school gate was to blame, and the queue of stuck cars had created a rare and curious morning traffic jam in the Cippenham area.
So we started about 25 minutes later than planned with the Divisional events.
Divisional Events
Division 1
3rd seed Ian Cole had called in sick, which left 6 players in 2 groups of 3 to play to get into the semifinals. 2nd seed Ross Saxby defeated Paul Savage and Tim Raby in Group A to go through, while Graham Mendick (4th seed) won Group B ahead of Julian Telford and Nick Sears. Julian sneaked into the semis as best 2nd, where he would face top seed Daniel Moses – who was exempt from the group stages.
Daniel needed no warmup to get past Julian and reach the final (6,7,8) while Ross had to fight harder to defeat Graham (3,-12,7,13)
Daniel vs Ross Part I (foreshadowing!) was a straight affair for Daniel, taking the title in straight games (8,6,7).
Top matches: 2 to pick out here – Tim on fire against Paul with a 3-0 win (8,6,6) and Graham nearly letting a 2-0 lead slip against Julian before taking the win (5,7,-3,-5,9).
Division 2
12 players fought hard to get through as group winners into the semis. In Group A, top seed Kate Maksimenko wasted little effort to defeat Bill Stamatiou (2nd) and Ajay Yesi to go through. In Group B, 2nd seed Simon Rowland had it slightly tougher to get past Wayne Alleyne (2nd) and Andrew Adair. Glen Armashula (3rd seed) took the honours in Group C, ahead of Nilanjan Chakraborty (2nd) and Qing Wu. Finally in Group D it was 4th seed John Willcocks who took top spot ahead of Parvin Baishkiyar and Arav Kaushik.
Kate defeated team mate John in straight games to reach the final (11,6,8) where she met Glen – who had to come from behind twice to beat Simon in the deciding game (-10,10,-6,9,9).
Also the final went to the wire, where Kate pulled out all the stop to overturn a 2-1 deficit (-7,8,-8,5,4)
Top matches: the semi final battle between Glen and Simon, and Wayne’s dramatic 5-game win over Andrew in Group A (9,-4,-12,6,1).
Division 3
9 players in the “OLOP” division (6 players), with 4 to go through to the semis. In Group A, top seed Jacek Piechocki powered past Brett Hastings (2nd) and Pehej Vig. In Group B, 2nd seed Mark Carless, Patrick McIntosh and Simon Brookes all defeated each other, with Mark taking top spot on countback. In Group C, Louise Forster ‘upset’ the rankings as 4th seed by taking out 3rd seed Graham Stark and Peter Wilson.
In the semis, Jacek swiftly raced past the best 2nd player Patrick (4,1,5) and Mark managed his nerves best after a 3-1 win over Louise (-10,6,11,10).
In the final Jacek proved his number 1 status by defeating Mark 3-straight (10,7,8).
Top matches: Brett and Pehej showing their skills in an entertaining 3-2 win for Brett (9,-7,10,-12,9), and Louise’s nervy win over Peter (9,-8,11,-9,6).
Division 4
This event was slightly handicapped after the withdrawal of the number 2 and 3 seeds, which meant this event went straight to the semifinals.
Top seed Gopikrishna Ponnapalli defeated Houron Tsun (6,9,-7,9) while Anish Shukul upset the books by getting past 4th seed John Evans after a nailbiting decider (10,5,-5,-10,10).
Houron played well to beat John for third spot after going 2-1 down (-7,8-11,5,7), and Gopi took the title after a 3-leg win over Anish (7,10,4)
Age-Restricted Events
Juniors
Pehej Vig took the title of Junior champion in a 3-way round robin event, defeating Houron Tsun 3-1 (-10,7,8,6) and Arav Kaushik 3-0 (8,8,10). Houron then beat Arav for 2nd spot (4,-8,9,11).
Under-40s
Kate Maksimenko raced past Peter Wilson (8,6,5) in the only quarterfinal to set up an encounter with Daniel Moses, who himself dispatched of Kate in 3 games (3,5,2) to reach the final.
Ross Saxby joined Daniel after a 3-0 semifinal win over Patrick McIntosh (5,5,9), thus setting up Daniel vs Ross Part II. Ross got a lot closer this time round, though Daniel still managed to add a second title after a 3-1 win (2,10,-8,5).
Veterans
17 players participated in this event. Because that’d have been 16 matches to report on, I’m highlighting the most interesting ones:
Qing Wu caused an upset by upsetting Tim Raby in the first round (-4,10,-5,10,9). Parvin Baishkiyar only needed 3 games to get past 6th seed Simon Rowland (4,3,9), while Bill Stamatiou played well to defeat 7th seed Nick Sears in the 2nd round after a bizarre scoreline (-1,5,-3,8,5).
By the time Jacek Piechocki beat 4th seed Paul Savage in the quarters (3,7,6), everyone knew he’d be a tough customer. His semifinal opponent Glen Armashula found it equally hard and could not prevent Jacek from reaching the final (4,6,8), where Jacek met remaining top seed Graham Mendick, who had needed 5 games again to get past Julian Telford, who will regret squandering his 2-0 lead and being close to the win in game 4 (-7,-4,7,11,8).
The final – one of the last sets of the day – was a terrific battle in which Jacek led Graham 2-1 after 3 close games, after which Graham fought back to take the title 11-8 in the fifth (9,-9,-10,13,8).
Over-50s
In absence of Ian, the 2 top ranked players Simon Rowland (3rd seed) and Graham Mendick (2nd seed) reached the final relatively unscathed.
There were no upsets in this event, and not even a single fifth-game battle. Simon defeated Tim Raby in the quarters after a monumental 19-17 win in game 2 (5,17,-9,4). Wayne Alleyne and Nick Sears joined Simon and Graham into the semis with a 3-0 win over Brett Hastings (plus a bye) for Wayne, and a 3-0 win for Nick over Andrew Adair.
Both Wayne (against Simon) and Nick (against Graham) did not oppose the top seeds progressing to the final, where Graham powered through to win his second title with a 3-0 win over Simon (6,4,6).
Over-60s
More drama in this event, where 6 out of 10 sets needed a deciding game.
Clive Gold beat 7th seed Qing Wu (8,9,-10,-9,10) and Nick Lean overturned a 2-0 deficit to beat Simon Brookes (-7,-8,8,9,4) in round 1. Andrew Adair avenged his earlier Division 2 loss by Wayne Alleyne with the narrowest of margins (8,9,-10,-10,10), Mark Carless played his socks off to drop 3rd seed John Willcocks (-9,9,-10,8,6), and Glen Armashula held off Clive in another nailbiter (-10,2,-10,8,9) to reach the semifinals.
Top seed Paul Savage may not have expected Andrew Adair to still be fresh after his earlier round, but Andrew bounced back from 2-0 down to reach the final (-8,-2,11,7,6) where he met Glen, who had taken control with a 3-1 win over Mark (5,6,-6,7).
The final could have easily been a tiebreaker as well, but Glen found a little bit extra to keep Andrew at bay, and took the title with a 3-1 win (9,-15,8,9).
Main Events
Mixed Doubles
A last-minute drop from 4 to 3 pairs meant the event would be played in group format.
All 3 pairs were evenly matched, and each took a set off one another: highest-ranked pair Kate Maksimenko & Nick Lean fought hard to beat club mates Linda King & John Willcocks 3-2 (10,9,-8-8,8) but lost to Louise Forster & Andrew Adair in 4 games (3,-11,-8,-8). Linda & John defeated Louise & Andrew in a super tense epic (7,11,-8,-11,11), which meant that Louise & Andrew were crowned champions by virtue of a better game ratio (5-4) than Linda & John (5-5) and Kate & Nick (4-5).
Men’s Doubles
22 players signed up for the event, many of which were randomly paired up before the event. This created some interesting pairs like Div 1 & 4 pair Ross Saxby & Anish Shukul and Div 1 & 3 duo Daniel Moses & Pehej Vig.
While round 1 did not produce too many upsets, the quarterfinals were a lot more interesting: Ross & Anish beat Bill Stamatiou & Graham Stark 3-0 (9,6,6), Mark Carless & Jacek Piechocki dispatched of 4th seeds Glen Armashula & Parvin Baishkiyar (8,-8,8,7), Daniel & Pehej fought back from 2-0 down to beat 3rd seeds Paul Savage & Nick Sears (-6,-6,5,13,6), while the seasoned pair of Graham Mendick & Julian Telford took care of Andrew Adair & Wayne Alleyne (5,6,6).
Both semifinals were great to watch. Ross & Anish tried to keep up with Mark & Jacek, but missed out in the crucial stages of the set (8,-8,8,7). Daniel & Pehej were on their way to cause a major upset after setting up a 2-0 lead, but were constantly on the backfoot from game 3 onwards when Graham & Julian found the right gear (-10,-4,6,3,5). Graham & Julian continued their momentum in the final, and – despite some awesome rallies and a tight 1st game – took the title 3-0 (9,7,6), the third title for Graham.
Women’s Singles
3 players battled it out in group for the title. Both Kate Maksimenko and Louise Forster defeated Linda King (-8,4,3,5 to Kate, 5,9,10 to Louise), which meant their last fixture was the de facto final. In a very evenly matched set, Kate found the extra strength to win 3-1 and claim the title (7,-9,9,11), her second of the day.
Men’s Singles
With Daniel Moses and Ross Saxby (1st and 2nd seed) on either side of the table, 31 other competitors would be trying not to have a third instalment of Daniel vs Ross.
In round 1, the highlights were Div 4 champ Gopikrishna Ponnapalli recovering from 2-0 down to sneak past Andrew Adair in a close contest (-6,-6,9,9,10), and Brett Hastings took the scalp of Parvin Baishkiyar to move to the next round (-10,7,5-6,9).
One of the performances of the day in my opinion was (again) by the hand of Brett in round 2, when he played out of his skin to defeat 6th seed Paul Savage and move into the quarters (7,-5,11,-6,10).
In quarterfinal 1, Daniel Moses soldiered on past Nick Sears into the semis (6,1,6). In quarterfinal 2, Graham Mendick had to move past Julian Telford (again) to progress, though this time in 3 straight games (6,8,7). Bill Stamatiou put a stop to Brett’s progress and reached the semis himself after a hard-fought set (12,7,-14,-9,6) in quarterfinal 3, while Ross Saxby had to fight a tough battle to get past Jacek Piechocki (-9,3,9,11).
No surprises in either semifinal, when Daniel had enough class to keep Graham at bay (3,9,7), while Ross was only troubled briefly by Bill during his victory (3,-9,5,7).
Daniel vs Ross Part III produced the closest set between the two players all day, but again it was Daniel who had enough in the tank to take the win, and his third title (9,-7,6,7).
The last match finished around 6:45pm, and thanks to the remaining crowd, we managed to leave the venue tidy within a couple of minutes.
Congratulations to the winners, my gratitude to those who helped out with umpiring and tidying up, and thanks for the great atmosphere. Next season will be my last as organiser, so I am hoping someone can step up and take over, because the Reading Closed is one of those very rare occasions where good competition and camaraderie are a great testament to the players of the R&DTTA, and it’d be a shame to see it go (also, I’m hoping to see many more players sign up for this tournament, so we wouldn’t end up watching repeats of Daniel vs Ross or Graham vs Julian …)
… and more thing
One-Shot Tournament
This idea was inspired by a couple of YouTube videos (Table Tennis Daily to name one of them), and the concept was simple: pairs were randomly drawn against one another (the second name getting choice of serve), and sets would only last 1 single point. Winners would progress to the next stage until 1 player remained.
The event was held ahead of the Men’s Singles semifinals. No logs were kept due to the informal character and the fast nature of the event, but the quick format was a great hit, especially when some of our own players’ offspring (added to the mix on general consensus) created some real upsets!
Gopikrishna’s son Ashrith managed to beat Louise Forster with a cracking backhand, while Julian’s son Levi surprised everyone with his shot making, in particular accomplished Div 1 players Graham Mendick and Nick Sears! We also can’t forget Peter Wilson who ended up being the only singles player on the day to defeat Daniel Moses! Honourable mentions go to Hugo Stark and Hugo Piechocki for making their adult opponents very nervous!
In the final, Jacek Piechocki awesome tomahawk serve troubled Ross Saxby enough to take the win and the Belgian Beer top prize.
All results are available on the Tournament website or as part of a dataset on Tableau Public.
