In the last week of September the best table tennis players from all around the country took part in the NZ national teams event.
I was taking part as a member of the Canterbury Mens team along with Hongyi Li (NZ rating - 14th) and Griffin Buchanan (NZ rating - 43rd). My respective NZ rating is 5th.
There were 30 Mens teams competing from around the country which were then split into 4 different grades. The top 8 teams compete in the A grade with the winner earning the right to call themselves the best table tennis Mens region in the country.
There would be group play first followed by playoff matches to determine positions.
The top 2 teams in each group progress to the semi-finals.
Follow the links to get the results from the group stage.
Group A:
Group B:
Pivotal Group Match
Our toughest match in the group was against Auckland 1 who had current NZ Mens representative Roger Wang and NZ U19 rep Alex Liu Cao leading their team. We made a perfect start with myself beating Roger Wang in a tense 5 set match and then Hongyi Li upsetting Alex Liu Cao in the subsequent match.
Griffin was however outmatched by John Wu in the third singles which meant we needed to still win 2 more matches to achieve 1st in our group.
The doubles would end up being a crucial match with myself and Hongyi Li unfortunately going down 3 -1 to Roger and Alex. I then lost 3 - 1 to a very fired-up Alex Liu Cao and then Griffin lost to Roger Wang to seal the contest for Auckland.
This meant we would need to play North Shore 1 in the semi-final as opposed to a less fancied Manawatu team in the other semi.
Full Results:
The Semi - Finals
1st semi: North Shore 1 vs Canterbury 1
2nd semi: Auckland 1 vs Manawatu
North Shore youth triumph
The opening match saw North Shore number 1 and current North Island Mens Champion Timothy Choi play Canterbury’s Hongyi Li. Timothy had been very impressive throughout the tournament and continued this form beating Li 3 - 0.
The next match saw me playing one of the most talented Under 13 players that NZ has seen for a long time in August Xiao. He is no stranger to playing at a very high level even in Mens competition having already beaten a number of the top Male players in the country. I do however have a wealth of experience in playing high level youngsters and my forehand topspin and serve proved too much for August as I sealed the match 3 - 0.
The third match in the contest saw our third player Griffin Buchanan pull out the biggest win of his career against NZ U21 rep Max Henderson. This gave us an unlikely 2 -1 lead going into the doubles.
The doubles was a one-sided affair with a very well trained Timothy and August beating myself and Li 3 - 0.
In the all important 5th match it saw myself taking on Timothy Choi. The first game was won by Timothy, and a pivotal moment appeared in the second game when Timothy was leading 10-9. It was at this point that the North Shore coach, Daniel Wei, decided to call a timeout. It is an interesting moment for a timeout as it was my serve meaning that I had control over how the rally would start but I am guessing that Daniel thought that if Timothy can win the second game his chances of taking the match would increase dramatically.
I guessed that Daniel would tell Timothy to watch out for a serve to drift long so I decided to serve a very short side-top serve to the forehand side. This proved to be the right decision as Timothy made a mistake right off the serve and I used the momentum to close out the game 12-10.
The third game had some great rallies with Timothy showing very impressive speed and power from all around the table. I was not able to control the game well enough and Timothy ended up running away with this game and the next to win the match 3 - 1.
We were now down 3 - 2 and needed to win the final two contests to progress to the final.
Li played a very good match against Max Henderson to win 3 - 2 which left the final match of Griffin and August to decide the whole contest.
Now even though August is younger than Griffin he goes into this match as favourite and has a significantly higher rating of 17th to Griffin’s 43rd on the NZ mens list. Another thing going against Griffin is that August is left-handed and in Canterbury where Griffin trains there are not many left-handers if at all of August’s level to play against.
Perhaps Griffin would have the advantage of being able to perform under pressure better than his younger opponent and also take advantage of the momentum he gained from beating Max Henderson in his previous match?
Unfortunately for us this did not prove to be the case as August showed a calmness under pressure well beyond his years to close out the match 3 - 0 and put his team into the final. He would amazingly play even better in the final to beat Roger Wang and with the best player in the tournament Timothy Choi winning his two singles North Shore dismantled Auckland 4 -1
Full Result:
https://ttnz.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/teammatch.aspx?id=74F5611D-6BDA-449F-AC96-53D4C3967E21&match=37 Solid performance seals bronze in 3rd and 4th playoff
The third and fourth playoff is often quite hard to get up for as we can’t win the championship anymore, but we also don’t want to miss out on making the podium either.
We did keep everything together and played in a very focused manner to overcome a determined Manawatu team 4 -1. I was quite happy to win both my singles and beat a highly rated Matthew Ball (NZ rating 9th) to seal the contest.
Full Result:
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