The Gripping Pen

The Marlborough Open 2024 sponsored by Gascoigne Wicks was held at the weekend by the Marlborough Table Tennis Association.

Canterbury's Simon Fenwick won the Men's Singles Title, when he beat Nelson's Daniel Astle in the final by 11-8, 11-4, 11-4, 12-10. This was a hard hitting affair, with both players blocking to set up their powerful forehands. There was also some good touch play between these two experienced players. This gave Simon his fourth Men's Singles Title. Simon reached the final with a win over Marlborough's Alex Kennedy in one semi-final while Daniel had a six set win over North Shore's Ben Jung in the other semi. The third place play off was played at the same time as the final with Ben beating Alex by 11-3, 9-11, 9-11, 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8. To say this match was entertaining is an understatement, as both players were long range smashing one minute and dealing with drop shots, the next.

Nelson players Dimitri Bell, Montek Singh and Mark Nalder took the 5-7 placings respectively.

Canterbury's Kris Alisch regained the Women's Singles Title which she last won in 2022, when she beat fellow Cantabrian Anny Li in straight sets in the final. Kris beat the German student living in Nelson, Julia Merz, in one semi while Marlborough's Jacqui Wood lost to Anny in five sets. In the play off for third place, Jacqui beat Julia by 2-11, 11-3, 11-1, 6-11, 11-6. Nelson's Anna King beat fellow Nelson player Ana Vasquez Ramirez in the fifth place play off.

Kris added her second title when she combined with Anny for a win in the Women's Doubles Final over Anna and Ana by 11-8, 11-8, 11-13,11-6.

Her third title came when she combined with Simon for a win over Alex and Anny in the Mixed Doubles Final by 11-8, 11-2, 11-7. As in 2022, Kris ended the day unbeaten.

The Men's Doubles went to seeding with number one seeds Ben and Alex beating the second seeded Nelson combination of Joshua Pigott and Daniel Astle in the final by 11-3, 6-11,11-7,1-11, 11-9.

The third place play off went to Simon and last minute replacement, Marlborough's Chris Hood.

The Motorworld Group C Grade was dominated by Nelson players. Two young Nelson players, Dimitri Bell and Joshua Pigott contested the final with Dimitri coming out on top by 4-11, 11-3, 11-7, 11-6. Both boys played an attacking game. Josh had earlier beaten the number one and three seeds while Joshua beat the second seed. The Women's Title went to Anna King over Julia Merz by 11-5-11-7, 7-11, 11-7. The two singles winners combined for a win in the Mixed Doubles Final over Joshua and Ana Vasquez Ramirez by 11-13, 11-5, 5-11, 11-9, 11-5.

The one title in this section to elude Nelson was the Men's Doubles, which went to the Marlborough combination of Michael Kamson and Nathan Cross by 11-6, 11-6, 9-11, 11-9 over Joshua and fellow Nelson player, Glenn Thorne.

Julia and Evelyn Nashiro won the C Grade Women's Final against Marlborough's Marion Wood and Barbara Burkhart.

Daniel Astle won the Wallace Diack Over-40 Men's Single Title from Glenn by 11-5, 11-5, 11-8. Glenn did well to reach the final from the fifth seeded position. Anny Li annexed the Women's Title with a win over Jacqui Wood by 6-11, 11-9, 11-4, 11-9 in a match of contrasting styles.

Daniel added a second title in partnership with Mark Nalder when they beat Marlborough's Ken Thompsett and Graeme Jackson in the final by 11-4, 11-6, 12-10.

The Robinson Construction Men's Over-55 Section went to seeding with Canterbury's Gregg Davey beating Mark Nalder in the final. After a round robin competition, Anny took the equivalent Women's event with Marion Wood in second,

Ken and Graeme won the doubles title over Canterbury's Gregg Davey and Alan Moore.

In the Harcourts Marlborough Junior Section played on Sunday, the results were:

Under-19 BS: Dimitri Bell (N) -first, Dominic Parrett (C) -second after round robin

Under-19 GS: Julia Merz (N) bt Sophia Dillon (M) 3-0

Under-19 BD: Alex de Bock (C) / D Parrett (C) bt D Bell (N) / Tommy Phipps (M) 11-9, 11-9, 13-11

Under-19 GD: J. Merz (N) / Hannah McDonnell (N)  bt S. Dillon (M) / Caitlin Exton (M) 11-9, 10-12, 11-5, 11-6

Under-15 BS: D Bell (N) bt A de Bock (C) 3-0

Under-15 BD: Alex de Bock (C) / D Parrett (C) bt D Bell (N) / Fletcher Phipps (M) 11-9, 8-11, 11-6, 11-4

Under-13 Mixed Singles: Phoenix Hollyman (N) bt Cora Wilson (M) 3-0

Under-13 BD: P. Hollyman (N) / Ollie King (N) bt F Phipps (M) / Finnbar Duncan (M) 3-0

Thirty-three players took part in the annual pipe-opener singles tournament played last Thursday.

The top seed, Matt Millar, won the singles title with a win over the second seed, Jacqui Wood, in the  final by 11-9,11-7, 12-10. Matt was in good touch, playing his usual error-free game. His defence was solid as well and he also managed some spectacular returns from the barricades. Jacqui, who played in the Top 8 competition for national selection last weekend in Dunedin, was also in good early season form, producing some heavy topspin forehands and angled smashes. Matt beat Nathan Cross in one semi final, while Jacqui beat the hard hitting Ken Thompsett in the other semi. In the quarter finals , Ken beat the third seed Michael Kamson by 11-6,11-7, 4-11, 10-12, 11-6. Ken's forehand was working well, skidding across the table while Mikey was hitting winners with confidence.

The other quarter finalists were Rob Honour, Zac Cowdrey and Ping Muanwong.

The Special Plate section was well contested with Billy Hebberd beating the consistent Graeme Jackson in the final by 11-6,9-11,11-9,11-8. Billy had a great match in the semi final against top junior, Ollie Phipps, just getting home by 11-4,5-11,10-12, 11-7, 11-8.

Graeme beat Kylie Hurren in the other semi.

David Stephens, who has been an enthusiastic club member since his arrival in Blenheim, took out the Plate final from Ray Zinsli by 11-4,11-1,5-11, 11-8, David, a pen-holder, has some tricky serves and a good attack. He beat Supreya Prasertsakda in the semi-final. Supreya is making a comeback to the sport and has represented Marlborough in the Perry Shield. Ray had a four set win over Marion Wood in the other semi.

Juniors were to the fore in the Consolation Plate . The left handed Sophia Dillon beat Billy Hurren in the final by 11-6, 11-9, 10-12, 11-9. Billy had  a great tournament, beating Barbara Burkhart in the quarter final and Lucy Thom ,in the semi.

Sophia beat Janice Thompsett to reach the final.

The inter-club competition starts on Thursday 2 May.

Blenheim hosted Qualifier 3 this weekend. This qualification event for Open, Under-19 and Under-15 is part of the Table Tennis  New Zealand National Selection Criteria process where the top placed eligible players are given a place directly to the Stage 2 of the TTNZ Individual Champs in Dunedin in April.

The Men's Singles was won by Auckland's Jack Chen, who, in the best of 7 set matches, beat Canterbury's Griffin Buchanan and Simon Fenwick both 4-1.

Griffin beat Simon 11-7, 6-11, 11-4, 15-13,14-12 to claim second place. Simon, who is representing NZ in the Over-40 match against Australia at Easter, put his young opponent under pressure and scored points with his trademark forehand.

Young North Shore player, Yelena Yi, won the Women's Singles with two straight sets wins over Marlborough's Jacqui Wood and Canterbury's India Buchanan. Yelena had already qualified for Stage 2 in a junior category, so the top place from this qualifier went to Jacqui, who finished second.

North Shore's Jiming Yang played outstandingly in the Under-15 Boys' Section. Seeded third overall, he beat the second seed from Canterbury, Mihik Advilkar in section play. After a semi-final win over Nelson's Dimitri Bell, he beat Canterbury's Xavier Reid in the final by 8-11,4-11,11-8, 11-6, 11-9. This was a great match with both boys trusting their attacking instincts.

Marlborough's Harry Speakman finished seventh. Tommy Phipps came close to a win , just losing out to Canterbury's Ethan Tiong in five sets, with both players scoring 51 points.

Canterbury's Tracey Hsia won the equivalent Girls' event from Marlborough's Cora Wilson.

In the Under-19 Sections played on Sunday, Griffin finished top of the 6 player round-robin , to claim first place in the Boys's Section. Xavier came second with Jiming in third. Interestingly, all 15 matches were decided in straight sets.

Local player, Ollie Phipps, was up against some classy opponents, but especially against Xavier and Dimitri, he was smashing with confidence.

Auckland's Jocelyn Lam won the Girls' Event from Tracey Hsia . This was a very interesting match with the left-handed Jocelyn looping against some strong backspin shots from Tracey. Jocelyn varied the placement well, while Tracey had to play tactically to get a false stroke from her opponent.

The matches started at 9.30am each day, but the dedication of the players was such that most of them were present well before the start time, and were practising.

Thanks to John Cordue, the TTNZ representative, and Referee Averil Roberts who gave up their time to come to the Qualifier.

There were 7 tables in action last Thursday as 42 players (21 per side) took part in the annual Town v Country match. Town came out on top by 53 matches to 31.

Many thanks to  Peter Wells , Warren Haszard and Josh Sim for putting this together.

Table 1 Town 6 Country 6

T: Alex Kennedy 3, Nathan Cross 1, Doubles 2-1

C: Mikey Kamson 2, Jacqui Wood 1, Josh Sim 2

Great contest with Town taking 3 of the last 4 matches, 2 of them in the fifth set.

Table 2 Town 3 Country 9

T: Graeme Jackson 3

C: Billy Hebberd 2, Zac Cowdrey 2, Rory Osborne 2

The first match was a cliff-hanger with Zac beating Peter Welsh 14-12 in the  fifth set.

Table 3 Town 9 Country 3

T: Malcolm Honour 2, John Diamanti 2, Kylie Hurren 2

C; Ken Thompsett 3

David Stephens came close to getting on the board, losing 5 setters to Malcolm and Kylie.

Table 4 Town 9 Country 3

T: Oliver Phipps 3, Marion Wood 1, David Foley 3 Doubles 2-1

C: Peter Cowdrey 1, Ray Herd 1

Two of the three doubles went to the fifth set.

Table 5 Town 9 Country 3

T: Ray Zinsli 3, Esteban Martinez 3, Lucy Thom 1 Doubles 2-1

C: Bjorn Cowdrey 1, Barbara Burkhart 1

Bjorn and Barbara combined for a doubles win.

Table 6 Town 11 Country 1

T; Sophia Dillon 2, Harry Speakman 3, Tommy Phipps 3

C: Cora Wilson 1

Five juniors played in this match.

Table 7 Town 6 Country 6

T:Peter Dillon 2, Vinny van Kuyk 2, Linda van Kuyk 1

C: Peter Wells 1, Adam Beattie 3 Doubles 2-1

Great performance by young junior, Adam Beattie.

Thirty-two players ranging in age from 9 to 80 took part in the Marlborough Closed, which was a TTNZ ranking event, last Saturday. It was a rewarding day of table tennis which was run by committee members Nathan Cross and Alex Kennedy

Alex Kennedy won the Men's Singles Title, beating Matt Millar in the final by 11-8,12-10, 11-3, 11-7 , dominating with some powerful forehand drives. Alex has been involved in the final of this event for some eight years, which is an incredible record for a player born this century. Alex reached the final with a win over the hard hitting Mikey Kamson while Matt beat Josh Sim. Earlier, Josh had been involved in one of the matches of the day, when he beat Jason Kennedy in the quarter finals by 6-11, 11-8, 6-11, 6-11, 11-9, 11-6, 14-12.

He was down 10-6 in the fifth, before hitting positively to get the win. It was a great match as Jason was playing some brilliant stuff too. The Men's Singles attracted 19 entries, including 3 juniors.

Jacqui Wood won the final of the Women's Singles against Kylie Hurren by 11-4, 11-7, 11-5, 11-6 with Marion Wood in third place. Jacqui has played the Marlborough Open this year, with her last match being the Perry Shield clash against Nelson three weeks ago.

She was in good touch with her flowing topspin shots. Kylie has been in good form too, picking up wins in Thursday's A Grade.

Alex combined with Josh Sim for a win in the Men's Doubles Final over Mikey and Nathan Cross by 11-7, 11-7, 11-7.  The last time that Alex and Josh played together was in the juniors some six years ago when they won the last double against Nelson to keep the Angell Shield in Blenheim.

Jacqui combined with her mum, Marion, for a win over Kylie and Sophia Dillon  in the Women's Doubles Final by 11-9, 11-3, 11-7.

There was a great match in the final of the Mixed Doubles with Alex and Marion beating Matt and Kylie by 12-10, 11-8, 6-11, 8-11, 11-8 to retain their title, in a real tactical match.

Alex won the 22-39 Grade Singles, beating Jacqui in the final by 11-9,12-10, 11-3. Alex beat Mikey Kamson in one semi, while Jacqui beat Zac Cowdrey 10-12, 11-6, 8-11, 11-7, 11-9 in the other semi. Some of the rallies were outstanding with Zac getting tremendous spin on his shots with Jacqui replying in kind. The strength of the grade was shown as Jacqui had five set wins over Mikey and Josh in qualifying with all players showing their attacking and retrieving skills.

Alex and Josh beat Mikey and Nathan  by 11-5, 11-9, 10-12, 3-11, 11-8 in the doubles final.

In the Under-21 Grade, Oliver Phipps beat Adam Beattie 11-4, 11-9, 11-2 to win the Men's Title. Earlier , Adam had a close win over Harry Speakman.  Oliver, Harry and Tommy Phipps all played in the Men's Singles and gave a good account of themselves.

Adam and Tommy beat Oliver and Harry 11-9, 3-11, 11-3, 2-11, 11-4 in the doubles final.

There was a remarkable performance from 9 year old Cora Wilson in the Women's Event as she beat Sophia Dillon in the final by 11-7, 11-9, 8-11, 11-7 . Cora , who has recently had coaching in Dunedin, is probably the youngest player to win the event as this is a relatively new event.

Oliver and Sophia won the Mixed Doubles by 11-5, 9-11, 11-2, 13-11 over Tommy and Cora.

In the Over-40 Section, Matt Millar was in complete control as he beat Chris Hood in the final by 11-3, 11-2, 11-3.  Matt is a magician on court, conjuring up shots from anywhere. He also has the uncanny ability  to predict correctly what his opponent is going to do.

The semi finalists were Jason Kennedy and Ken Thompsett. Marion Wood beat Lucy Thom 8-11, 11-5, 11-3, 11-9 in the equivalent Women's Event.

The doubles results were

Men's Doubles: Matt/Jason beat Chris/Warren Haszard 11-3, 11-6, 11-3

Women's Doubles: Marion/Janice Thompsett beat Lucy/Barbara Burkhart 11-7, 11-8, 9-11, 11-6

Mixed Doubles: Chris/Kylie beat Ken/Janice Thompsett 11-5, 11-4, 11-5

The Over-50 Section was won by Matt over Chris by 11-5, 11-5, 11-4. The semi finalists were  Ken Thompsett and Jason Kennedy. Matt combined with Jason for a win in the Men's Doubles over Ken and Graeme Jackson by 11-6,11-6, 9-11, 11-9.

It was a close match in the Over-60s final with Ken beating John Diamanti 11-8, 11-7, 8-11, 11-13, 11-9. The semi finalists were Gerry van Kuyk and Peter Welsh.

Chris and Warren won the doubles over Peter Welsh and  Peter Wells by 11-4, 11-6, 11-6

Perry Shield

Marlborough lost the Perry Shield  contest against Nelson  by 41 matches to 23 in Blenheim last Saturday.

The Men's Number 1 side of Alex Kennedy,  Josh Sim and Rory Osborne lost 6-3 to their Nelson Counterparts.  Alex won his three singles and hasn't lost a  singles match in the Perry Shield since 2019. Alex won a thriller against the Nelson number 1 William Byström by 7-11, 11-7, 13-15, 14-12. 11-9. William is a Swedish exchange student who plays for the Lekstorps IF Bordtennis Club in South-West Sweden. Josh Sim tried hard as usual and gained a set from Nelson number 2, Joshua Pigott. Rory Osborne was on debut for Marlborough and took sets from Joshua and Donny Harris. Donny is making a comeback to the sport  after several seasons away.

The Women's Number 1 team of Jacqui Wood, Barbara Burkhart and Marion Wood had the same result as the men, with Jacqui winning her three singles , giving her 12 consecutive singles wins in the Perry Shield. Barbara took a set from Shino Yonei, while Marion had strong opposition in the form of Anna King and Ana  Vasquez Ramirez . All three Nelson ladies played in the South Island Teams at Christchurch in June.

6-3 was the result in the Men's number 2 contest with Matt Millar claiming Marlborough's points. He is  unbeaten  at number 4 or 5  since he came back into the team in 2019. Graeme Jackson, a former Nelson player, was on debut for Marlborough and took both Phil Hamblin and Glenn Thorn to five sets. Regular player Jason Kennedy took the same two players to four sets.

Nelson took the Women's number 2 clash by 5-4. Kylie Hurren was unbeaten for the local side but had to work hard against Thelma Mathieson, winning their match by 11-6, 2-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9. Sophia Dillon beat fellow junior Hannah Mcdonnell in five sets, for Marlborough's fourth point. Sophia also took Patricia Martin to four sets. Caitlin Exton was the  third Marlborough debutant and gained a set from Hannah.

The Men's Doubles was won by Nelson 5-4.  Marlborough's points coming from two wins each to Matt/ Jason and Alex/Josh.

Nelson took the Women's Doubles by 5-4. Marlborough's points coming from two wins each to Jacqui/ Marion and Kylie/ Barbara.

The Mixed Doubles went to Nelson 8-4. Matt and Sophia won two from two in the bottom section with Graeme/ Kylie and Alex/ Caitlin winning one each in the middle section.

Matt finished with 7 wins from eight starts with Alex 6/8, Kylie 6/8, Jacqui 5/8

Couper Shield

The Marlborough B team just failed to retain the Couper Shield last Saturday, losing 19-17  to a strong Nelson team at Saxton Stadium in Nelson.

The Number 1 team of Ken Thompsett, Mikey Kamson and Malcolm Honour lost 9-3. Ken and Mikey got on the board  with a singles win each. Ken had a great match with young junior Dimitri Bell,  the opposition's Number 1.

Dimitri took it 10-12, 11-7, 10-12,11-4, 12-10 with both players pounding the ball with their forehands. Mikey beat Pietro Cannata in the first batch of singles. Malcolm Honour combined with Mikey for a 10-12, 11-9, 14-16, 11-8, 15-13 over Pietro and the impressive Michael Holmes.

The Number 2 Teams played out a thriller with a 6 all draw. Oliver Phipps won the first match for Marlborough with an 8-11, 1-11, 11-9, 11-9, 11-8 win over Kevin Neumann. It was  a good comeback from Oliver as Kevin is a clever player with  a variety of shots.

Interestingly, Kevin was two sets to one down against Nathan Cross, before winning  in five. Nathan won his two remaining singles, which included a win over the hard hitting Brendan Doyle by 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 8-11,11-8. Zac Cowdrey also picked up two singles wins, with some tremendous forehand loops. Zac and Nathan combined for a doubles win. Robin Knight, a stalwart of the Nelson team, won the 19th point for Nelson with a close four set win over Oliver.

The Number 3 Team won 8-4. Chris Hood found the Donic tables to his liking , winning three singles . Peter Welsh started things off with an 11-7, 9-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-5 win over ex-Marlborough player, Jeff Sawyer. Peter gave it everything in his other two singles matches, just losing out in five setters to Gary Basher and Sunny Chan. Billy Hebberd beat Gary 11-9, 5-11, 11-8, 12-10 and just missed out in close matches with Sunny and Jeff. Marlborough took the doubles 3-0.

Angell Shield

The third of the Marlborough v Nelson rep matches was played on Sunday when the under-18 teams met in Blenheim.

The local Boys'  team of Ollie Phipps, Harry Speakman, Adam Beattie and Tommy Phipps  faced strong opposition in Finn Brown, Josh Pigott, Dimitri Bell and David Pigott. An indication of their strength is that both Finn and Josh have played and won matches in the top three against the Marlborough  Men's  team. Dimitri won all his matches against the senior Marlborough B team, the day before. Adam came close to getting Marlborough on the board when he took David to five sets, just losing out by 8-11, 11-4, 12-10, 6-11, 17-15.

The other tables stopped to watch the conclusion of this match, with both boys providing a real spectacle. Olly took David to five sets and also gained sets from Josh and Dimitri. If medals were given out for enthusiasm, Harry and Tommy would be contenders for gold as they both were  prepared to play attacking shots against strong opponents.

Nelson had a clean sweep of the doubles but Ollie and Harry went close, being pipped 11-9, 7-11, 11-9, 10-12, 12-10 against Dimitri and David.

The Girls team of Sophia Dillon, Caitlin Exton, Olivia Earl and Cora Wilson won the singles 10-6. Sophia led from the front with four singles wins. The left hander was very consistent in the rallies and had good placement around the table. Caitlin, who played  for the Marlborough Senior Team last week, gained three wins including a win over the Nelson number 1  Hannah Mcdonnell by 4-11, 11-8, 11-5, 11-8.  Her only loss came against Zoe Wing, who had a very good backhand attack. Olivia Earl picked up two wins and took a set from Brooke Robinson. She set the ball up well and hit some hard forehand winners. In the match between the two  youngest players, Cora Wilson beat Aisha Hollyman in four sets. Cora was  on debut while Aisha  showed some good forehand technique.

Nelson's six points were shared by Hannah, Brooke and Zoe.

Nelson won the doubles 3-1 with Hannah/Brooke winning both their matches. Zoe/ Aisha won one match. Sophia/ Caitlin won the point for Marlborough.

Thanks to Mark Nalder, Shino Yonei, Ana Vasquez Ramirez and the parents for bringing the teams over.

The day went off well thanks to the preparation by coaches Debbie Stratford and Alex Kennedy and the volunteers that helped on the day.

Final result: Nelson 29 Marlborough 11. Nelson retains the Angell Shield.

34 players  took part in the annual Half Way Tournament last Thursday.

Alex Kennedy took out the Singles Title beating Michael Kamson in the final, to continue his domination of local table tennis. Alex won 11-6,11-6, 12-10 in a real topspin battle. Michael had his moments with some crashing winners but Alex managed to combat some good play  with some controlled play of his own, to get home in three. Alex beat Zac Cowdrey in one semi-final, while Michael reached the final with a win over Nathan Cross. The "usual suspects" Billy Hebberd, Josh Sim, Ken Thompsett and Jason Kennedy all reached the quarter finals. Reuben Vira from Vanuatu reached the last 16. Welkam Reuben.

The special plate was won by Rory Osborne over Graeme Jackson by 10-12, 11-7.11-8, 11-3. The semi-finalists were Reuben Vira and Malcolm Honour.

The plate was won by John Diamanti over David Foley by 11-7, 8-11, 7-11, 11-8, 14-12 in a titanic struggle which could have gone either way. The semi-finalists were Marion Wood and Steve Rowsell.

Dennis Burkhart won the  consolation plate over Gerry van Kuyk by 8-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-4, 11-7. The semi-finalists were Sophia Dillon and Vinny van Kuyk.

The second round of the competition starts on 29 June.

A large contingent of Marlborough table tennis players and supporters travelled to Christchurch last weekend for the South Island Teams Tournament and the Canterbury Open

The Men's side of Alex Kennedy, Michael Kamson, Nathan Cross and Josh Sim had some tough matches. Alex was the only player from last year's team. Their closest match was a 4-3 loss against Otago with Alex winning both of his singles and combining with Nathan for a doubles win.Following defeats against Canterbury 1 and Canterbury 2, which both had national team players in them, their last match was against Southland. The southerners won 5-2, with Marlborough's points coming from a singles win to Michael and a doubles win to Alex and Nathan.

Jacqui Wood played with Canterbury's Ruhi Advilkar in the President's Team. They beat Otago 3-2, Nelson1 4-1, Southland2 5-0 and  Nelson2 by 3-2 to reach the final. They lost the final to Canterbury 3-0. 

Jacqui and Ruhi won all four of their doubles matches. Jacqui won 7 out of 10 singles.

Matt Millar and Jason Kennedy played in the Veterans Section and after a first up loss to Nelson1 by 4-1,  they beat Canterbury1 3-2, Canterbury2 4-1 and Nelson2 4-1. They finished with a 3 wins, 1 loss record, the same as Nelson1 and Canterbury1.

The Marlborough duo finished third on a countback with Nelson1 winning the grade. Matt won 7 out of 8 singles.

The Under-15  Boys' team had strong opposition but managed to get a good win over Otago2. Oliver Phipps won 5 singles out of 10, with Adam  Beattie and fill-in player Seth Fernando each winning 3 out of 10.

The Under-13 Boys' Team finished 3rd and just missed out on second place. They beat Otago 4-3 and South Canterbury 5-2 and lost to Canterbury2 by 4-3 and the powerful Canterbury1 team by 7-0.

Hunter Wong won 5 from 7, Harry Speakman 3 from 8 and  Tommy Phipps 3 from 5. Levi van Kuyk played his first matches at this level and won a set against Canterbury2.

Zaraya and Cora Wilson were also making their tournament debut and came up against strong opposition in Canterbury and Southland  in the Girls' Under-13 Grade.

Most players stayed for the Canterbury Open.

Alex Kennedy had a great showing in the A Grade as he qualified for the last 32 in the singles. He combined with Marlborough Open finalist Max Henderson in the Men's Doubles and the unseeded duo beat the top seeds, Canterbury's Sang Yong Park and Mr Han in the quarter finals, before losing in the semi-finals. This was a good win as Mr Han went on to win the Men's Singles.

Nathan Cross won the C Grade after beating two Canterbury players.

Jacqui Wood combined with her daughter, Vanessa Wood-Lin, for a semi-final finish in the Women's Doubles.

Oliver Phipps and Harry Speakman reached the semi-final of the Boys' Under-15 Boys' Doubles. Harry also reached the semi-final of the Under-13 Boys' Doubles with Hunter Wong and then did really well to reach the quarter finals of the Boys' under-13 Singles.

The Redwood Trust Marlborough Open was held last weekend, with 72 competitors from as far away as North Shore and Southland. The Open and Under-15 Events also doubled  as the third qualifying tournament for National Selection for The Oceania Championships in Australia, later in the year.

The number one seed, Dean Shu from Auckland, took the Men's Singles Title beating the second seed, Max Henderson from Bay of Plenty in the final by 8-11,11-7, 15-13, 11-8, 5-11, 11-7. This was a great example of modern attacking table tennis as both players served short and pounced on any loose returns. Max was right in the match and it took some brilliant counter-hitting from Dean to get the win. Dean reached the final with a five set win over Canterbury's Griffin Buchanan, who had put out the third seed in the previous round. Simon Fenwick reached his expected allotted place in the draw, before losing in the semi-final to Max. He then beat Griffin to claim third place. Local player Alex Kennedy qualified for post-section play and as the Open was a TTNZ qualifier, played off for 7th and 8th place. He gained seventh place after beating North Shore's Ben Jung in five sets

Canterbury's Abbey Webb beat fellow Cantabrian Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg by 11-6, 7-11, 12-14, 9-11, 13-11, 11-9, 11-6 in the final of The Women's Singles. The scoreline doesn't really reflect how close this match was, as Lydia had match points in the fifth set and had reached that  point  with some great flat hitting. Abbey managed to  save several  match points , before imposing her game  in the last two sets to get the win in a match that could have gone either way. Local player Jacqui Wood reached the semi-final. losing to Abbey in six sets in a tactical match which  featured many rallies. Lydia reached the final with a win over Canterbury's Aarya Advilkar, who had earlier beaten the top seed in the quarter finals. Jacqui beat Aarya to claim the bronze medal.

Dean won his second title when he combined with Waitemata's Andrew Palmer for a win in the Men's Doubles. The unseeded pair beat the top seeds Simon Fenwick and Griffin Buchanan in the final by 12-14, 11-8, 9-11, 11-5, 11-7. Earlier they beat the number one and two seeds. Alex and Canterbury's Vladimir Ivanov finished with a bronze medal.

In contrast, the Women's Doubles went to seeding, with top seeds Abbey Webb and Ellie Zhang beating the second seeded mother and daughter combination of Helen Beumelburg and Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg by 11-8, 11-8, 11-6.

Simon Fenwick and Kris Alisch won the Mixed  Doubles Final over the Buchanan siblings, Griffin and India, by 11-5, 11-5, 11-6, who had earlier eliminated the  second and third seeds.

Nelson's Paul Op den Buysch and Anna King claimed the bronze medal.

In the RB Catering C Grade  Section, there was a tremendous final between North Shore's Ben Jung and Canterbury's Eric Kim. Eric was chopping and keeping the ball low over the net, while Ben produced some tremendous forehand loops, After a tense final set, Eric won the match by 4-11, 11-9, 11-8, 9-11, 15-13. Alex  reached the quarter finals while Michael Kamson , a current Marlborough representative player,  was undefeated in pool play. In the equivalent Women's Event, there was a tremendous performance  by unseeded Ruhi Advilkar. The Canterbury player  came through the draw and beat North Shore's Ariel Liu by 8-11, 11-7, 11-8, 8-11, 11-8 in the final. Neither of the top seeds made it through qualifying.

Other finals in the C Grade were

Men's Doubles: Ben Jung (NS)/ Andrew Palmer (W) bt Gregg Davey (C)/ Teck Woon Tan (A ) 11-6, 1-9, 13-11. (Alex Kennedy/ Michael Kamson third place)

Women's Doubles: Anna King (N )/ Ana Vasquez Ramirez (N) bt Gemma Buzzard (S)/ Maia Cavanagh (O) 11-9.11-9,6-11, 11-8

Mixed Doubles: Paul Op den Buysch (N)/ Ana Vasquez Ramirez (N) bt Alex Kennedy (M)/ Maia Cavanagh (O) 11-9,7-11, 11-8, 11-5

In Sunday's Martella Refrigeration Over 40 Section, the top seeded Simon  Fenwick beat Marlborough's Matt Millar  in straight sets in the final. It was a great event for another local player  Jason Kennedy , as he topped his pool  and beat the third seed in the process.

Nelson's Shino Yonei won the equivalent Women's Final against Ruhi Advikar by 11-5, 11-8, 10-12, 10-12, 11-8.

In the Wadsco Trucks Over 55 Section, the Women's final  featured two local players, with Marion Wood beating Barbara Burkhart. In the Men's Event , Canterbury's Gregg Davey finished top of the round robin pool, with Nelson's  Mark Nalder in second place.

In the Harcourts Junior Section, there were many New Zealand juniors reps on display.

The Under-19 Boys' Title was won by Griffin Buchanan, who beat Canterbury's Xavier Reid in the final by 11-7,11-7,7-11, 11-6. There was plenty of skill on display, with both boys hitting some  hard crisp forehands.

Canterbury's Ellie Zhang won the Girls' Event with a 12-10,8-11, 12-10,11-7 over Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg.

Xavier dominated the Under-15 Boys' Event, with a three set win in the final over Derrick Wong of Canterbury. Canterbury's Mihik Advikar won a play-off to finish third. North Shore's Ariel Liu won the Girls' Event beating Auckland's Grace Looi in the final.

Ariel was involved in one of the matches of the day when she beat Canterbury's India Buchanan in the semi final by 6-11, 11-6, 11-4, 7-11, 17-15. Ariel hit some great forehands with India responding with some spinny loops.

Mihik won the Boys' Under-13 Title over fellow Canterbury player Marco Ravadilla  by 11-5, 11-7, 11-8. Both boys put on a great display of attacking table tennis.

 After a round-robin competition, Auckland's Grace Looi finished first in the Girls' Section with her sister, Karen, in second place. Local player Liv Earl finished in third place.

Other titles decided were:

Over 55 Open Doubles: Gregg Davey (C ) / Alan Moore (C) bt Mark Nalder (N)/ Kevin Neumann (N)  11-7, 4-11, 11-9,14-12

Over 40 Open Doubles: Gregg Davey (C )/ Simon Fenwick (C ) bt Mark Nalder (N) / Paul Op den Buysch (N) 11-8,12-10,11-8

Under-19 Boys' Doubles Griffin Buchanan (C)/ Joshua Piggot (N) bt Christopher Fenwick (C) / Eric Kim (C) 11-9, 11-4, 11-4

Under-19 Girls' Doubles: Lydia Mercer- Beumelburg (C ) / Ellie Zhang (C) bt Hannah McDonnell (N)/ Brooke Robinson (N) 3-0

Under-15 Boys' Doubles: Mihik Advilkar (C)/ Derrick Wong (C) bt Dimitri Bell (N)/ David Pigott (N) 13-11, 11-8, 11-6

Under-15 Girls' Doubles: Grace Looi  (A)/ Karen Looi (A) bt Sophia Dillon (M)/ Liv Earl (M) 3-0

Under-13 Boys' Doubles: Mihik Advilkar (C)/ Marco Ravadilla (C) bt Alex de Bock (C)/ Dominic Parrett (C) 11-9,11-9, 11-3

Under-13 Girls Doubles: Grace Looi (A)/ Karen Looi (A)  by Cora Wilson (M)/ Zaraya Wilson (M)  3-0

Alex Kennedy became the first Marlborough player for over 40 years to win the Men's Singles at the Nelson Open.

Last Saturday, he beat Marlborough's Nathan Watson by 11-8, 5-11, 13-11, 11-8 to win the title.

These two players then combined to win the Men's Doubles Title over Marlborough's Michael Kamson and Nelson's Joshua Pigott.

Nathan won his second title when he partnered Nelson's Ana Ramirez for a win in the Mixed Doubles Final.

Ken Thompsett and Warren Thompsett paired in the Over-50 and Over-60 Doubles events and reached the finals of both.

Ken also reached the semi-final of the Over-60 Men's Singles.

Nelson's Thelma Mathieson, who has been a stalwart of Nelson table tennis for many years, won the Women's Title. She finished with two wins and one loss, as did Anna King, but claimed the title winning their head-to-head

Nathan Watson retained his Men's Singles Title at the Marlborough Closed on Saturday while Kylie Hurren, after coming close on a number of occasions, won the Women's Singles Title for the first time.

Nathan beat Alex Kennedy in the final by 8-11, 11-5,11-8,6-11, 11-13, 13-11, 11-6. This was another  classic match between the pair as one player dominated for a couple of sets and then the roles reversed. Nathan just  won the sixth set, before getting home in the decider.

Some of the shots were breathtaking  with seemingly winning shots being returned and  each player having to smash several times to finish the point. Nathan reached the final with a win over newcomer Michael Kamson. Michael was playing in his first competition for over ten years but showed a lot of skill with some classy attacking play. Alex beat Matthias Kronert  11-9, 11-13, 11-9, 11-5, 7-11, 11-6 in the second semi, and showed great patience and ability to return some low shots from Matthias's pimple rubber.

Young junior Oliver Phipps did well to qualify for post section play.

Kylie won the Women's Title after a round robin competition. Kylie has been in good form in interclub and carried that form through  with some strong attacking play coupled with accurate placements. Marion Wood was second and as usual played a  consistent game with very few mistakes. Tilly Watts was third and gained a set from Kylie, in their match. The rallies were quite long with Tilly getting a really good brush on the ball with her attacking strokes.

Nathan and Alex retained their Men's Doubles Title with a  straight sets win over Matthias and Josh Sim. In the semi-finals, Nathan and Alex beat Nathan Cross and Jason Kennedy while Matthias and Josh advanced to the final with a 6-11, 12-10, 12-10, 14-12 win over Michael and Ken Thompsett.

After being runners-up in 2021, Marion and Barbara Burkhart beat Kylie and Tilly 2-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-3, 11-6 to win the Women's Doubles Title. Interestingly each pair won 40 points in the match.

Alex combined with Marion for a win in the Mixed Doubles Final over Nathan and Kylie by 9-11, 11-4, 11-7, 8-11, 11-8 in a very tactical match. Alex and Marion beat Jason and Sophie Dillon in one semi, while Nathan and Kylie advanced to the final after a high quality four set match against Rob Honour and Megan Honour.

In the 22-39 Age Group, Nathan beat Alex in the final by 12-10,8-11, 11-8, 11-7. Alex beat Nathan in qualifying to be the number seed and he beat Michael to reach the final. Nathan beat Matthias in the other semi.

In a repeat of the Men's Doubles Final, Nathan and Alex beat Matthias and Josh, this time in five sets.

In the Over-40 Section, Chris Hood retained the Singles Title with a win over Jason Kennedy.

Jason Kennedy won two  titles in the Over-50 Section. He beat Chris 11-9, 11-5, 11-9 in the Singles Final before  combining with Ken for a win in the Open Doubles final over Chris and Warren Haszard.

Ken Thompsett captured  both titles in the Over-60 Section, firstly beating Malcolm Honour in the Singles Final and then combining with Warren for a win over Chris and Dennis Burkhart in the Open Doubles Final.

Other titles decided were:

Over-40 MD. C. Hood/ W. Haszard beat J. Kennedy/ K. Thompsett 3-1 

Over-40 XD C. Hood/ K. Hurren beat W. Haszard/ M. Wood 3-0

Eight Marlborough players travelled to Nelson this weekend for the South Island Individual Championships.

For Nathan Watson and Alex Kennedy, travelling to tournaments isn't unusual as the duo this season  have attended Opens in Wellington, Otago and North Shore as well as playing for Marlborough in Christchurch.

Added to that, is the schools  promotion programme that they have put together and have implemented over the last few months.

Nathan was in a tough qualifying group in the A Grade, but took Waikato's Mark Page to five sets. Mark went on to beat the top seed in qualifying. Nathan was seeded sixth in the B Grade and beat the third seeded Jay Zhu to qualify for post section play.

Nathan was seeded second in the A Grade Mixed Doubles with Canterbury's Anny Li and they won the title .

Alex qualified from his group  in the A Grade together  with Vladimir Ivanov, who went on to reach the final against Max Henderson. Alex played well in the B Grade qualifying, and was in a very tough group with the fourth and fifth seeds.

Alex and Nathan brought a title back to Marlborough when they won the B Grade Men's Doubles. Unseeded, they didn't drop a set in beating the top seeds in the semi-final and the second  seeds in the final.

In addition, Alex won the C Grade Men's Doubles with Waitemata's Andrew Palmer.

Matthias Kronert qualified for post section play in the B and C Grades, reaching the semi-final in the C Grade.

Canterbury's Vanessa Wood-Lin, who played in Marlborough  for four seasons, won the A Grade Women's Doubles with Ellie Zhang and was runner-up to that player in the final of the Girls' Under-19 Singles Final.

She was also runner-up in the Combined Under-21 Singles.

John Diamanti had some tough draws in his events, but gained a win in the D Grade Men's Singles

Drew Materoa beat the fourth seed in the Boys' Under-15 Qualifying Section.

Oliver Phipps also won a match in his section in the same event.

Tilly Watts came close to a win in the Girls' Under-15 Section, just losing out to Nelson's Hannah McDonnell in five sets.

Harry Speakman had strong opposition in his Boys' Under-13 Section.

It was a good weekend for  Marlborough Table Tennis as Marlborough Teams regained the  Perry  and Couper Shields from Nelson last weekend.

In the Perry Shield clash last Saturday in Nelson, Marlborough won 36 matches to 30. As in the last four contests between the teams, the result came down to the mixed doubles .

Marlborough took the Men's Number 1 Section  by 6-3. Alex Kennedy and Nathan Watson won their three singles, but were pushed hard by the Nelson players. Paul op den Buysch took a set from Nathan and had a great match against Alex, just going down by 6-11. 11-3, 11-8, 8-11, 11-9 in a match where both players showed some good serve and receive tactics.  Josh Sim played at number three and  as usual gave it everything. In the first match, he went shot  for shot with Paul and just  lost  in a five setter.

Mark Nalder and Michael Holmes also  got on the board for  Nelson.

Matt Millar and Matthias Kronert were undefeated as Marlborough won the Men's Number 2 Section also by 6-3. Nelson had combination bat players, Kevin Withington and Allan Villar in their side and the Marlborough players had to adopt varying tactics to get the wins.

Jason Kennedy lost to the attacking junior player, Joshua Piggott, in his first match but really took it to his opponents in the next two matches. He played a good match against Kevin, just going down by 9-11, 11-8,4-11, 11-9, 11-7.

Nelson won the Women's Number 1 Section 8-1. Anna King was explosive for Nelson, hitting flowing forehand and backhand shots. Shino Yonei also gained three wins, but had a very tight match with Marion Wood, just winning it by 5-11, 11-5,9-11, 11-5, 14-12.

Kylie Hurren got Marlborough on the board with a 10-12, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5, 11-7 win over the experienced Thelma Mathieson. Barbara Burkhart was at number three and got some good blocks away.

Tilly Watts and Sophia Dillon won a single each to go with Jacqui Wood's three wins as Marlborough won the Women's Number 2 Section by 5-4. Tilly lost to Chris Cole by 11-13, 7-11, 11-8, 11-8, 15-13 in a match where both players attacked.

Tilly was down two sets to love before showing great composure to beat Patricia Martin in five sets. Sophia got the team off to a good start with a three set win over Chris.  Iris Scott, a young junior player, won two singles  and was hitting the ball very hard with her forehand.

Alex and Nathan led the way as Marlborough took the Men's Doubles 5-4. They won their matches in straight sets with Alex looping service returns and Nathan putting away loose returns. Matt and Jason  played a different style and came away with two wins.In their last match, they beat the top-spinning pair of Mark and Michael by 6-11, 11-6, 9-11, 11-7, 11-9.

The mother/daughter combination of Marion and Jacqui were undefeated as  Marlborough won the Women's Doubles by 5-4. Kylie and Barbara won two four set matches.

The overall score stood at 28-26 to Marlborough before the mixed doubles. Marlborough took these 8-4 with every pair getting on the board. Jason and Jacqui, who have won the mixed doubles at the Marlborough Closed on several occasions, won both of their matches in the top section with  Nathan and Sophia following suit in the bottom section. The other combinations of Matt/ Kylie, Alex/ Tilly, Matthias/Barbara and Josh/ Marion won a match each. Alex and Tilly won the winning point.

The players really helped and supported each other throughout the contest and a contingent from Marlborough came over to watch.

Jacqui and Nathan  won eight from eight with Alex  seven from eight and Matt six from eight.

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Marlborough B beat Nelson by 20 matches to 16  in  Sunday's Couper Shield match in Blenheim. As  with the Perry Shield  contest, it went down to the last few matches

Nelson won the Number 1 match by 11-1 . Glenn Thorn and Brendan Doyle won all of their matches, while Zac Cowdrey won  Marlborough's point  with a 7-11, 10-12, 11-7, 11-9, 11-5 win over Tony Colvin.

Six matches went to a deciding set. The first match set the tone with Brendan beating Ken Thompsett by 8-11, 6-11, 11-4, 14-12, 16-14 with both players hitting with great power. John Diamanti did well against hard hitting opponents and nearly got on the board in the doubles.

Marlborough took the Number 2 match by 9-3. Chris Hood got three wins with some good backhand placements. Rory Osborne, Marlborough's top junior, won two singles and showed great patience with his attacking shots against Dean McNicholl and  Kevin Neumann.

Billy Hebberd  led Pietro Cannata two sets to love before the Nelson man levelled at two sets all. Billy hit confidently in the deciding set to get home by 11-8, 11-6, 7-11, 9-11, 11-5.

The Number 3 match was won by Marlborough by 10-2.  Nathan Cross won his three singles with some impressive topspin forehands. He had a very tight match with Sunny  Chan, just winning it by 11-4, 11-8, 9-11, 7-11, 12-10. Warren Haszard and Malcolm Honour won two matches each. Their opposition was ex Marlborough  player, Jeff  Sawyer, and promising junior , David Pigott. Sunny won the two points for Nelson.

The Marlborough players benefited from the excellent advice given from coaches Nathan Watson and Alex Kennedy , who were in attendance.

The Half Way Singles Tournament was played last Thursday. The participants ranged from intermediate school children to players with more than 45 years experience and included four families.  Nine of the top  10 men in the province took part plus Nathan Cross, who was number 6 last season, and is playing as  a fill-in player this season.

Alex Kennedy,  the top seed, beat the second seeded Nathan Watson in the final by 11-5,9-11, 11-8,10-12, 11-6. Alex was 2-1 up before Nathan fought back in the fourth set to take it to a decider. In the fifth, Alex had an early lead  and was playing very confidently, which  included a  couple of service return winners. Nathan again staged a comeback, but Alex carried on attacking to get the win. He beat Matt Millar in one  semi-final, while Nathan beat Matthias Kronert in the other semi, in  four sets.

Young junior Drew Materoa performed well in the main draw, taking a set from Matt Millar, a difficult task.

Other titles decided were:

Special plate: Zac Cowdrey beat Billy Hebberd 11-13, 11-6, 13-11, 10-12, 11-8

Classic Plate: Nathan Cross beat Josh Sim 5-11, 11-6, 11-6, 11-9

Plate: Jason Kennedy beat Ken Thompsett 11-9, 11-6, 11-8

Consolation Plate: Dennis Burkhart beat David Smith  11-8, 11-6, 11-5

Gold again for the Marlborough Girls’ College table tennis team.

It is the seventh year in a row that the Marlborough Girls’ College table tennis team have won the girls

section of the Tasman Secondary Schools Championships. The Marlborough Boys College team almost

made it the double just going down in the final to narrowly miss retaining their title from last year.

The championships included teams from Waimea, Nelson, Nayland, Garin and Motueka Colleges

The MGC team of Sophia Dillon, Tilly Watts and debutante Caitlin Exton made a clean sweep, winning all

their matches in the pool play, quarter finals, semi- finals and final all 3/0. Playing at number two, Tilly

Watts was in dominant form and went through without the loss of a set. Number one Sophia Dillon was

also outstanding losing only one set during the entire tournament. Year 9 student Caitlin Exton did

exceptionally well to come through unbeaten at number three. She came back from a set down in the final

against Waimea’s Zoe Wing to grit out a win and give her team gold.

The MBC team of the well performed Rory Osborne along with two year 9 students Drew Materoa and

Ollie Phipps were outstanding getting to the finals. They too went through pool play, quarter finals and

semi- finals, without the loss of a match recording all 3/0 wins. They were always going to be up against it

in the final against Waimea which included two top Nelson players. Ollie Phipps played outstandingly all

tournament at number three going through the tournament unbeaten. He levelled the finals match at 1all

following a convincing win after Drew had narrowly lost to Josh Piggott. It was all left up to Rory to

overcome Finn, who is incidentally on of Nelson’s top senior players. Finn was just too consistent for Rory,

who after losing the first set reasonably easily, rallied point for point in the second before narrowly going

down. It was an excellent effort by the boys to get runner-up.

The tournament which was played on Tuesday at the Saxton Fields table tennis stadium, attracted 12 girls

teams, 24 boys teams and 3 mixed.

Eleven players plus managers and supporters travelled to Christchurch last Saturday for the South Island Teams Championships.

The Men's side of Nathan Watson, Alex Kennedy and Matthias Kronert finished fourth. First up, they played a strong Otago team, who used all five players, winning 6-1. Nathan played a very entertaining match against Wang Qi, with the Otago man showing great defence in the fourth set at pivotal moments to win the set and going on to win the match in five sets. Matthias won the last single, for Marlborough's point.

The match against Canterbury 2 was lost 7-0 , but the Marlborough players were very competitive. Nathan lost to  Sang Yong Park 5-11, 11-7,11-9,4-11, 11-8 with both players taking the ball off the bounce.

Canterbury 1 had highly ranked players John Cordue and Yi Sien Lin in their side with Nathan and Alex both taking sets from Yi Sien.

In their last match,  Marlborough beat Southland 6-1 , with two matches being defaulted  once four points were achieved. Each of the Marlborough players won a single with Nathan and Alex beating the strong combination of Vibhas Sofat and Willie Brocks in the doubles.

It was noticeable in all of the matches throughout the day, that the calibre of players was such that any ball that was slightly loose was quickly put away for a winner.

The Veteran's team of Matt Millar, Jason Kennedy and Ken Thompsett finished third in a six team competition, after a countback with Canterbury 2 and Nelson 2. The team beat Canterbury 2 by 3-2 and Nelson 3 by 5-0, They also ran Nelson 1 close losing 3-2.

Matt  won 4 matches from 5. Jason won 4 from 8, including a win over Mark Wilson from Canterbury 2. Ken Thompsett battled hard for his two singles wins.

The Boys' Under-15 team of Drew Materoa, Oliver Phipps and Harry Speakman had some close matches against strong opposition.

In the 4-3 loss against Southland, Drew won both his two singles matches and Oliver one. Harry was playing at this level for the first time and took his opponent to five sets.

It was the same result against Otago 2, with Drew and Oliver winning a single and the boys combining for a doubles win.Following a 7-0 loss against Canterbury 1, they lost to Canterbury 2 by 4-3. Drew and Oliver again won a single each and combined for a doubles win.

It was very close as the last two matches went to five sets.

Sophia Dillon and Tilly Watts played in the Marlborough Under-15 Girls' team. They beat Nelson 3-2 in their first match , with Sophia winning both singles and combining with Tilly for a doubles win. Their other matches were against strong Canterbury and Otago sides.

Tilly did well to beat a player from the Canterbury 2 side in a 4-1 loss.

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Nathan Watson and Alex Kennedy stayed for the  Canterbury Open on Sunday.

Both players were in tough qualifying groups.  Nathan lost to the Marlborough Open champion Jaafar Moussa in five sets and then lost to Waitemata's Alfred Delapena by 11-4,5-11, 11-9, 10-12, 11-3. Jaafar reached the quarter finals while Alfred won the Men's Singles beating the number one seed in the semi-final and the number two seed in the final.

Alex was a busy man all weekend as he was also coaching the junior teams. He reached the quarter finals of the mixed doubles with Canterbury's Vanessa Wood-Lin. Vanessa, who played interclub in Blenheim for 4 seasons, had a great tournament. Seeded fourth in the Girls' Under-19 singles, she beat the third seed in the semi-final, before beating the top seed in the final.  She also took out the Women's Under-21 Singles Title.

Canterbury's Jaafar Moussa and Kris Alisch won the  Singles Titles at the Mayfield Motorworld Marlborough Open Events on Saturday.

The Lebanese man, seeded fourth, beat the third seeded Simon Fenwick in the final by 13-11,11-6,11-8, 11-8. Moussa showed his skills which included some brilliant backhand winners and some tremendous defence against the smashing ability of Fenwick.

In the semi-final, Moussa beat the second seed, Jesse Wilson by 11-4, 11-13, 17-15, 11-5, 12-10. This was a real tactical battle, with Wilson playing his part with some inspired blocking. Fenwick had a straight sets win over fellow Cantabrian and top seed Vladimir Ivanov in the other semi-final. Fenwick showed why he has won this title on several occasions, serving intelligently and following up with powerful topspins. In the quarter final. Ivanov just managed to hold off a strong challenge from North Shore's  Ben Jung, winning it in seven sets.

Local players Nathan Watson and Matthias Kronert qualified for post section play.

Alisch beat Southland's Lisa Wang in the final by 11-6, 11-6, 11-9, 8-11, 11-5 to retail the title. She always looked in control, being able to keep the pressure on with consistent forehand and backhand topspins. Wang didn't wait  for mistakes from her opponent, winning points with some explosive drives. In the semi-final, Alisch beat local player  Jacqui Wood while Wang beat the second seed from Canterbury, Anny Li, by 6-11, 11-9,10-12, 8-11, 11-6,11-6, 11-9 in the other semi.

There were upsets in the Men's Doubles , with the top seeded pair of Ivanov and Wilson going out to Moussa and Gregg Davey in the semi-finals while the local pair of Nathan Watson and Alex Kennedy beat the Fenwick/ Jung combination in the other semi.

In this match, Kennedy was in outstanding form with every shot hit  with great pace and spin. The Canterbury pair won the final by 11-9, 5-11, 11-9, 11-6.

Alisch combined with Li for a win in the Women's Doubles Final over the mother/ daughter combination of Jacqui Wood / Vanessa Wood-Lin by 12-10, 11-5, 11-4.

Alisch remained unbeaten on the day when she combined with Fenwick for a win in the Mixed Doubles Final over Kronert/ Li by 11-8,11-8, 12-10.

Marlborough players excelled in the Harcourts sponsored Second Grade Events.

Matthias  Kronert  beat the top seed, Daniel Jefferies of Canterbury, in the final by 11-7, 5-11, 11-7, 11-7. The local player had to play a very tactical game to counter the crisp shots of his opponent.

Jefferies combined with Alex Kennedy for a win in the Men's Doubles Final over Davey and Christopher Fenwick by 11-9, 11-7, 11-6.

Marion Wood played intelligently in the final of the Women's Singles,  by serving well and controlling the ball  with her backhand to beat Otago's Liz Franz by 7-11, 11-8, 11-6, 12-10. Marion Wood added a second title in the Second Grade, when she paired with Alex for a win over Davey/ Franz in the Mixed Doubles. 

The Veteran and Junior Events of the Marlborough Open were held on Sunday. The sponsors were Over-40 Section (Specialised Concrete Solutions), Over-55 Section (ITM Blenheim), Junior Section (Burkhart Group). Partial Sponsors for the weekend were  Night n day Blenheim and Goldpine Blenheim

The Under-13 Boys' Singles title was won by Nelson's David Pigott from Marco Ravadilla by 15-13, 11-13, 11-3, 11-8. Both boys showed tremendous technique with many fast rallies.

Nelson's Iris Scott took the Under-13 Girls Singles after a round robin competition with Zaraya Wilson in second.

Marco turned things around in the Under15 Section. Firstly he beat David in the semi-finals before winning the title over Nelson's  Dimitri Bell by 11-8, 11-8, 11-13, 11-8.

Iris finished in a three way tie for first place following a five player round robin with each player winning three singles and losing one. Iris won the Title on a countback of games, with team-mate Hannah McDonnell in second place and Marlborough's Tilly Watts in third.

Christopher Fenwick of Canterbury played stylishly to beat  Marlborough's Rory Osborne by 12-10, 11-6,11-7 to win the Under-18 Boys'  Singles Title.

Hannah was undefeated in the Girls' Under-18 Event with Tilly in second place following a win over Marlborough's Sophia Dillon by 11-9,4-11, 11-4, 11-13, 11-9.

Canterbury's Anny Li won the Over-40 Women's Singles title by 5-11, 11-6, 11-9 11-6 over Southland's Lisa Wang.  These two ladies played an interesting match with Anny using the angles and Lisa hitting confidently. Otago's Liz Franz came in third.

The two singles finalists combined to win the Over-40 Combined Doubles over Nelson's Mark Nalder and Pietro Cannata by 11-6,11-8, 11-6.

Otago's Edwin Nieman was an impressive winner of the Over-40 Men's Singles title. He showed tenacious defence coupled  with some crashing drives to beat Canterbury's Gregg Davey by 11-5, 11-9, 11-6.

The Over-55 Section was a carbon copy of the Over-40 Section with the same winners and runners-up in the Men's ,Women's and Combined Doubles.

Marlborough's John Diamanti upset the seedings to  reach the semi-final of the Men's Singles.

Other Results were: Marlborough unless indicated

Under-13 BD: D Bell (N) / D Pigott(N) bt Harry Speakman/ Thomas Yvon 11-5, 11-5, 11-4

Under-13 GD: Zoraya Wilson/ Cora Wilson bt Emma Straker/ Ellie van Kuyk 11-7,11-8,11-5

Under-13 XD T Yvon/ E Straker bt Levi van Kuyk/ E van Kuyk 12-14,11-8,8-11,11-6,11-6

Under-15 BD: D Bell (N) / D Piggot(N) bt Drew Materoa/ Oliver Phipps 11-9, 11-7, 5-11, 11-5

Under-15 GD: I Scott (N) / H McDonnell(N)  bt T Watts/ S Dillon 11-5,11-7, 10-12, 11-8

Under-15 XD: D.Materoa/ S Dillon by O. Phipps/ T Watts 9-11, 11-5, 11-7,8-11, 11-9

Under-18 GD: Vanessa Wood-Lin (C )/ Caitlin Exton bt I. Scott (N) / H. McDonnell (N) 11-7,11-5,12-14,11-5

Under-18 XD: Rory Osborne/ V Wood-Lin (C ) bt Christopher Fenwick (C ) / Sydney White 11-5, 11-8, 11-3

Nathan Watson, Jacqui Wood and Alex Kennedy played in the Wellington Autumn Open on Saturday

Nathan lost in the final of the Over-25 Combined Singles to Manish Ahlawat. He combined with Jacqui for a semi-final finish in the Over-25 Combined Doubles with their opponents going on to win the title.

He reached the quarter finals of the Men's Singles, an event which was won by Nathan's ex Manawatu team-mate Matthew Ball.

Jacqui won the Women's Singles Consolation with a 12-10, 6-11,7-11,11-8, 11-5 win over a strong junior player, Yelena Yi. Yelena had taken both finalists in the Open Women's Singles to 5 sets in qualifying.

Jacqui also reached  the semi-final of the Over-25 Combined Singles Consolation.

Club captain, Alex Kennedy, was up against some strong competition and reached the semi-final  of the C Grade Men's Singles and the quarter  final of the Men's Doubles with Nathan.

The first competition of the table tennis season was held last Thursday with 26 players playing in the Pipe-Opener Tournament.

The title was won by Nathan Watson, the top seed, who beat the second seed, Alex Kennedy, in the final by13-11.11-3, 11-9, This was a reverse of last season's final. There were some tremendous rallies over the table and when the players went back from the table, both players showed their skills at counter-looping. 

Alex was involved in a brilliant match in the semi-final, beating Matthais Kronert by 7-11, 11-6, 11-4, 8-11, 14-12.  Alex was down 5-10 in the fifth, got it to 6-10 with a cross court forehand then concentrated hard on his service returns to stop Matthias from getting in a strong attack. Such was the tension, both players fault served after 11 all. 

The other semi saw Nathan Watson beat Matt Millar 11-6,11-9,11-9. Nathan was hitting the ball very hard while Matt played one memorable drive cross court, together with some forehand winners.  Marlborough's next top players- Jacqui Wood, Nathan Cross, Jason Kennedy and Ken Thompsett made the quarter finals.  

Veteran Peter Cowdrey is an enthusiastic player who rarely misses a club night and his practice showed as he gained the first set from the title winner in the last sixteen.

The special plate was won by Josh Sim, who beat Rory Osborne in the final by 12-10,11-9,15-13. The losing semi-finalists were Malcolm Honour and Peter Welsh.

In the plate section, Warren Haszard advanced to the final with a close win over Marion Wood while Wellington coach Tim Wilson advanced to the final with a win over Gerry van Kuyk. Warren beat Tim 8-11, 11-7, 11-5, 11-9.

Dennis Burkhart took out the consolation plate beating a promising junior, Oliver Phipps, in the final by 11-8,15-13.11-8. The losing semi-finalists were Linda van Kuyk and Levi van Kuyk.

The first round of the competition starts on Thursday 5 May.

The three Marlborough players that attended this weekend's Wellington Open all had success.

Jacqui Wood was in good touch  the whole weekend. In the Women's A Grade she beat the  second seed, Michelle McCarthy of Wellington to finish in third place behind Ye Zhai and Sabine Westenra.

She also reached the final of the Women's Doubles with Michelle. In the B Grade Combined Singles, Jacqui beat a seeded player in her pool to qualify for the quarter finals of post-section play..

In the Over-30 Women's Section, Jacqui beat Sabine , a player who has been in the upper echelons of national table tennis for many years, to take the title.

The two ladies then combined to win the Over-30 Combined Doubles, beating the top seeds in the semi-final and the fourth seeds in the final.

Nathan Watson reached the quarter-finals of the A Grade Singles. He beat the well performed Joel Carton in seven sets , overcoming a big deficit in the deciding set. Nathan reached the semi-finals of the B Grade Combined Singles.

Nathan combined with Alex Kennedy to reach the semi-final of the B Grade Men's Doubles. The duo then followed that up with a semi-final finish in the Men's A Grade , beating the fourth seeds in the process.

It was a busy weekend for Alex as he finished top of his pool in the B Grade and went on to reach the  quarter final  of the B Grade Combined Singles. He also reached the second round in the Men's A Grade Singles.

Alex literally got off the plane on Sunday morning and headed  straight for Simcox Stadium to help coach the Marlborough juniors in the Angell Shield match against Nelson.

By Chris Hood

On Sunday 8 August, Marlborough played Nelson in Blenheim in the annual Under-18 rep. match for the Angell  Shield.

Nelson retained the shield by 23 matches to 17, with the result in doubt until the last doubles matches.

Marlborough won the Girls' Section 9-7 with three of the girls making their Angell Shield debut. Tilly Watts, who played last year, won  three singles ,  winning points with good forehand drives. She came very close to making it four wins from four, just missing out to Nelson's top player, Iris Scott, by 6-11, 11-6, 14-12, 9-11, 11-9 in her fourth match. Both girls played positively and there were many cross court rallies. Sophia Dillon also won three matches, two of them being in the fifth set, which included  a win over the Nelson number 2 Hannah McDonnell by 8-11, 11-7, 5-11, 11-6, 11-7 . The left handed Sophia also played well against Iris, just losing out 12-10. Both Tilly and Sophia played for the Marlborough Senior Team last week.

Anna Hurren played some good forehand shots to record two wins while Caitlin Exton got on the board with a win over the Nelson number 4 and played some effective backhand shots.

Marlborough lost to the strong Nelson Boys' team 11-5. Rory Osborne won two singles and played well against Finn Brown and Joshua Pigott. The standard of play was high with many top quality topspin rallies. An indication of the Nelson strength was that Finn played at number 1 for the Nelson Men's Team last week while Joshua played for the Nelson B Senior team the day before this match. Drew Materoa, on debut, played well to record two wins and was involved in the match of the day against Joshua. The Nelson player took it 11-9, 6-11 11-6, 13-15, 17-15 with Drew  showing good ball control away from the table. It was real " edge of your seat" stuff in the last set with both boys playing positively. Joseph Ruwhiu won a single. Oliver Phipps was also on debut and tried hard against his more experienced opponents.

Rory and Joseph got Marlborough on the board in the Boys' Doubles as Nelson took the section 3-1. Drew and Oliver took Dimitri Bell and David Pigott to five sets with all four boys scoring points with forehand drives.

Marlborough drew the Girls's doubles 2-2 with the combination of Sophia/ Tilly not losing a set in their two wins.

By Chris Hood

Congratulations to Nelson who regained the Perry Shield by 34 matches  to 32 on Saturday in a pulsating encounter in Blenheim. The match started at 10am , with the result being in doubt until the final mixed doubles match at 4.30pm.

Marlborough took the Men's number 1 clash 8-1. Matt Pigou got the team off to a great start with an 11-13, 11-8,11-4, 9-11, 11-8 win over Jack Wells, a former NZ junior rep. Jack is making a comeback to the sport and played some brilliant blocks but Matt stayed calm, kept the rallies going and played positively to get the win. Alex Kennedy was "all business" in his matches as  he won his three singles without dropping a set. Alex kept the pressure on his opponents with some great touch play and generated good power back from the table and won points with some superb forehand loops. Nathan Watson dropped sets  to Dean McNicholl and Finn Brown but came through undefeated, winning points with flicks and angled shots. Finn beat Matt, to win Nelson's point. It has been a  busy week for Finn, who was undefeated at the Otago Open last weekend.

Marlborough won the Women's number 1 section 5-4. For the second consecutive year, Jacqui Wood was undefeated in singles. Her pushing game was strong and she won many points with her  forehand and backhand topspin shots.

Marion Wood  came back from a set down to beat Evelyn Nashiro 3-11, 11-5, 5-11, 11-7, 11-8. The last set was very close with Marion producing some effective sidespin serves to get the win. Kylie Hurren came from two sets down to beat the same player. In  the deciding set, Kylie scored points with good backhand drives. Estelle Qian and Anna King won two each for Nelson.

Matthias Kronert and Matt Millar led the Men's number 2 side to a 6-3 win. Matthias dropped two sets in his matches but came through undefeated. Service variations played a big part in his wins, coupled with some crisp attacking shots.

Matt  started things off with a win over Paul Op den Buysch, displaying good ball control against a player who has a good record against Marlborough's top players. Matt's last match was an 11-7, 11-8, 13-15, 11-6 win over former Marlborough player, David Watson.

The last match saw Jason Kennedy lose a close four set match to Nelson Association President, Mark Nalder.

Marlbrough's Number 2 Women's side was Barbara Burkhart, Sophia Dillon and Tilly Watts. Sophia and Tilly are under-15 players and were on debut. Nelson's Glenda Ferguson  led her  team-mates, Ana Vasquez and Shino Yonei to a 9-0 win.

Glenda has played many years in the Perry Shield and ended the day unbeaten.

Marlborough won the Men's Doubles 7-2. The established partnerships of Nathan/ Alex and Matthias/ Matt Pigou went through undefeated. A feature of their play was the ability to get in first with their attacking shots. Matt Millar and Jason Kennedy picked up a win and came very close  to beating the top Nelson combination of Finn and Paul just losing out by 11-13, 5-11, 12-10, 11-8, 11-6.

Nelson won the Women's Doubles 8-1.  The mother/ daughter combination of Marion and Jacqui Wood  beat Estelle and Evelyn 7-11, 12-10, 10-12, 11-8, 11-9 for Marlborough's point.

Going into the mixed doubles, the score was 27 all.

Nelson took the mixed doubles 7-5. In the lower section, the experienced combinations of Paul/ Evelyn  and Mark/ Glenda came through  with two wins each while Jack/ Anna won two matches in the middle section.

Dean  and Estelle won the 34th point for their side.  Marlborough won the top section 4-0 with good performances from Nathan/ Jacqui and Matt Pigou/ Kylie. Marlborough's fifth point came from Alex/ Marion.

Marlborough's top performers on the day were Nathan  (8 from 8, Alex (7 from 8, Matt Pigou (7 from 8, Jacqui Wood (6 from 8, Matthias Kronert (6 from 8.

Both teams had good support with Marlborough reserves, Ken Thompsett and Linda van Kuyk also in  attendance.

Thanks to everyone who made the day possible.

The Marlborough B Team travelled to Nelson for the Couper Shield match. The hosts won 26-10.

Marlborough 1 lost their  Section by 10-2. The closeness of the matches  was such that seven of Nelson's  points came from wins after the third set.

Nathan Cross beat Glen Thorn in four sets and combined with Josh Sim for a win in the doubles. Josh played well in his singles, just losing out in five setters to Glen and Phil Osborne.

Ken Thompsett won sets in his matches.

Marlborough 2 lost 7-5. Rory Osborne was the standout for Marlborough, beating Joshua Pigott and Pietro Cannata. He then combined with team-mates Zac Cowdrey and Billy Hebberd for doubles wins. Zac did well to beat the tenacious Robin Knight in five sets.

Marlborough 3 lost 9-3. All three Nelson players played different styles, which was hard for the Marlborough players. Chris Hood got three wins while Warren Haszard and Malcolm Honour gained sets.

By Chris Hood

Great turnout and awesome prizes thanks to everyone who donated. Well done Nathan Watson on winning the tournament

Report on the Halfway table tennis tournament 2021

Nathan Watson well and truly showed his class in taking out the annual Halfway table tennis tournament played at Simcox Stadium on Thursday night. In a field of 24, Nathan breezed through the draw without the loss of a set. He beat Josh Sim in the quarters, Matt Pigou in the semi and Matthias Kronert in the final, 11-7, 11-4,11-6.  Their final was a good one, and although Matthias matched him in the early part of each set, Nathan used his spin and power to forge ahead just when required.  Nathan was too consistent for Matt Pigou in his semi, not allowing Matt to get into any rhythm. Matt had earlier had a great tussle with Jacqui Wood, winning 14-12 in the fourth.  Matthias beat the hard hitting Zac Cowdrey in the quarters and Alex Kennedy in the semis. Alex, who had beaten Ken Thompsett in the quarters, wasn’t up to his brilliant best, just lacking the required consistency when needed.

Matthias however showed the great range of shots he acquires and deservedly took the match. Jacqui won the Classic Plate beating Zac in the final.  It was great to have Vanessa Wood-Lin back for the school holiday from Christchurh and her play certainly didn’t disappoint. She won the Special plate beating Billy Hebberd in the semi and Jason Kennedy in the final.  Kylie Hurren  won the Plate, having a great battle with Peter Wells in the final.

Peter had a great tournament, registering hard fought wins over Marion Wood and Dennis Burkhart. Steve Rowsell won the consolation plate beating Peter Cowdrey in the final.

This tournament marks the end of the first round of competition for the Tarrant Cup.

By Chris Hood

Congratulations to Matt Mally Reubenators, who  are the Tarrant Cup champions for 2021.

They beat Loose Bearings, who were without Matt Pigou, 8-4 to win the Cup by two points. Malcolm Honour got the team off to a good start when he beat fill-in player Kylie Hurren in four close sets.

The next match saw young junior  Reuben Henry beat John Diamanti 11-9, 5-11, 9-11, 11-9, 11-9. Reuben played a good tactical game to just get the win against a player  who has  a wide variety of shots.

Matt Millar hardly missed a ball in his singles matches and effortlessly switched from defence to attack. Ray Zinsli picked up a win for Loose Bearings as did Kylie, who also was unbeaten in doubles.

Red Devils  finished  in second place following a 7-5 win over KCP. Jason Kennedy and Billy Hebberd playing at numbers 1 and 2 won two singles each. Jason has  again been consistent this season with his  all-round game.

Billy has benefited from the training sessions over the summer , adding effective forehand shots to his backhand hits. In his first match, he beat the well-performed Ken Thompsett in four sets. David Smith, filling in for Dennis Burkhart, won a single and a double and impressed with some nice angled shots. Chris Hood had a good night for KCP.

WWW.JPM beat Dukes of Hazzard  7-5 to claim third place. The seventh point was achieved when Jacqui Wood and Peter Welsh beat Nathan Cross and Warren Haszard in five sets, in the last match of the night.This gave their team a clean sweep of the doubles.

Earlier Jacqui had won two singles with Peter and Marion Wood winning one each. Nathan was impressive in his singles matches which included a five set win over Jacqui. Nathan came back to the sport last season and his short game  and heavily spun shots were working well. Warren Haszard came away with  two wins, including a five set win over Peter. These two players have had many close matches over the years, and this was another one .

Hi-Tension beat Table Toppers 7-5. The match score was four all when Jeff Sawyer beat Mike Mehlhopt 11-7, 11-9, 15-17, 5-11, 14-12 to give his side the lead. Nathan Watson raced out on the blocks in his match with Alex Kennedy, winning the first set and kept  the momentum going in the next two sets.  In local competition, these players are one all for the season. Linda van Kuyk won a doubles with Nathan.Tilly Watts played some good forehand shots in her win over Linda. Mike also got on the board for Table Toppers.

Fast but not furious beat Rory's Team 7-5 in a match that could have gone either way. Josh Sim and Zac Cowdrey were unbeaten but they were pushed very hard by Rory Osborne, who just missed out 12-10 in the fifth in both matches

Josh did well to come back in the fifth against Rory, staying close to the table and blocking to save a match point. Steve Rowsell and Peter Cowdrey won  a single each, with Peter being unbeaten in doubles. Interestingly, there were two  father v son matches, with the sons winning  both.

The half way singles tournament is on Thursday 15 July with the new graded  teams competition starting on 29 July.

Final points

Matt Mally Reubenators (Matt Millar) 80, Red Devils (Jason) 77, WWW.JPM (Jacqui) 76, Dukes of Hazzard (Nathan Cross) 73, KCP (Ken) 68, Fbnf (Josh) 67, Loose Bearings (Matt Pigou) 65, Hi-Tension ( Nathan Watson) 62, Table Toppers (Alex) 54, Rob's Mob 48, Rory's Team 42.

By Chris Hood

Extremely well done to all our teams from Marlborough boys and Marlborough girls college who participated in the Tasman secondary school champs. Our MBC 1 boys and MGC both came away with Gold! Well done to both teams.

Winners of the boys event where 32 teams entered was Marlborough Boys, congratulations to Rory Osborne, Joseph Ruwhiu and Theo Sandford-Jury.

Winners of the girls section went to Marlborough girls college, congratulations to Sophia Dillon, Tilly Watts and Sydney White.

Also!! A very well done to our MBC 2 team of Luke O’Brien, Adam Beattie and Reuben Henry. They didn’t qualify for main draw but won many games snd came 2nd in their pool.

Congratulations to all.

Talent galore at the Mitchell Sports Power Marlborough Primary/intermediate Schools table tennis Champs.

Although a smaller field than usual took part in the Mitchell Sports Power annual Primary/Intermediate School champs at Simcox Stadium on Sunday, they more than made up for it in enthusiasm and talent.

Bohally student Drew Materoa and Fairhall schoolgirl Anna Hurren became the 2021 singles champions. Drew was a class above in the field of twelve boys, and in most cases it was a matter of how many points could be amassed against him.  The honour of getting a set against him though, came from Fairhall’s Eddie Russell in the first round after section play.

Drew beat Bohally student Connor Pugh in the semis and faced young Fairhall student Billy Hurren in the final.  It was a great effort by Billy to reach the final after a win over the second seeded Bohally student, Ollie Phipps. Although Billy did well in the final, matching Drew in the close rallies over the table, Drew was too powerful and consistent, showing the benefits of the strong competition he has had lately. Ollie won the playoff for third beating Connor in a close encounter.  Other boys to qualify for the main draw were Fairhall students Harry Speakman, Harley Sangster and Niko Russell.

Anna Hurren had a wonderful battle with Bohally’s Caitlin Exton in the final of the girls. Both girls are hitting the ball beautifully and exchanged many well constructed rallies.

Anna proved a bit more consistent and finished off many long rallies with a strongly hit forehand to the corners of the table.

Drew partnered Ollie to take the open doubles over Harry and Billy in three sets. Other doubles combinations to show out were Eddie and Niko Russell and Anna and Caitlin, the latter who were a little unlucky not to make the final.

In other finals, the Special Pate was a great battle between the Russell brothers, Niko just ousting younger brother Eddie. Harry Speakman beat fellow student Harley Sangster in the Classic Plate final and two more Fairhall students battled out the special plate final with Toby Wakelin being victorious over Hamish Bray.  Promising young Witherlea School students, Tommy and Fletcher Phipps played out the Plate final with older brother Tommy just getting the upper hand.

Scores from finals are-

Boys Singles Drew Materoa beat Billy Hurren 11-2, 11-4, 11-4

Girls Singles Anna Hurren beat Caitlin Exton 13-11, 11-7, 11-8

Open Doubles Drew Materoa and Ollire Phipps beat Harry Spoeakman and Billy Hurren 11-8, 11-4, 11-3

Doubles plate Connor Pugh and Toby Wakelin beat Hamish Bray and Harley Sangster 11-6, 11-4

Boys Plate Tommy Phipps beat Fletcher Phipps 11-6, 11-9

Boys Consolation Plate Toby Wakelin beat Hamish Bray 11-7, 11-4

Boys Special plate Niko Russell beat Eddie Russell 11-8, 7-11, 11-7

Boys Classic plate harry speakman beat Harley sangster 11-5, 11-3

By Debbie Stratford

The highlight for Marlborough in the Canterbury Open was Drew Materoa  winning the Under-13 Boys' Doubles with Otago's Zihan Fu. The boys beat the top seeds in the semi-final before beating the second seeds in the final by 11-8, 4-11, 12-10, 5-11, 12-10.

The boys showed great composure , saving two match points  and played positively to get the win.

Tilly Watts  won a single in the section play of the Girls' Under-15 event.

Alex Kennedy qualified for Post Section play in the Men's Under-21 Section, losing to the eventual winner, Max Henderson of Bay of Plenty. Alex also qualified for Post Section play in the Open Men's Singles.

Canterbury's Vanessa Wood-LIn won the Under-21 Women's Doubles with Aarya Advilkar and reached the final of the Under-18 Girls' Singles and Doubles events.

Vanessa played a big part in Marlborough table tennis in the four years that she played in Blenheim.

Matt Pigou was in a tough qualifying group in the Open Men's Singles. He played a brilliant match against Jay Zhu losing out by  4-11 3-11 11-7 11-8 12-10.  Jay went on to beat the sixth seed in Section Play.

Matt combined with  Matthias  Krönert in the Men's Doubles and they went out to a strong Canterbury pair.

Jacqui Wood qualified for Post Section play in the Women's Singles.

By Chris Hood

Was a great weekend and all Marlborough players did their region proud

Six Marlborough teams travelled to Christchurch last weekend for the South Island Teams Tournament and the Canterbury Open individual events.

The Marlborough Men finished in fourth place, beating South Canterbury and Southland and losing to Canterbury 1, Canterbury 2 and Otago.

Their match against Otago was 5-2 , but such was the the quality  of the matches that it took 75 minutes over the allocated 2 hours to complete.

Otago had their usual strong line-up  of Ben Duffy, Luke Johnston, Tavish Voight in singles and Wang Qi doubles.

Nathan Watson beat Luke and played a great match against Ben. Nathan had match points in the fifth against Ben who saved two of them with some skillful service returns.

Matthias  Krönert just missed out in the fifth against Tavish but beat Luke in five close sets, with the Otago man showing some good touches close to the table.

Nathan and Alex Kennedy lost in the deciding set against Ben and Wang Qi.

Matt Pigou stood down for this match but played well in the other matches, striking the ball well off the forehand and backhand, especially against South Canterbury.

One of the highlights of the day was Nathan's win over Sang Yong Park of Canterbury 2.

The mother/daughter team of Marion Wood and Jacqui Wood were placed in the A Grade with two Canterbury teams and Otago , which all contained top South Island players.

Jacqui is part of this group and played some very close matches.  In the last match against Canterbury 2 , she won both singles including a five set win over Mimi Walle.

Mimi is an expert at returning the ball away from the table and puts different spins on the ball.  Jacqui showed good determination and fitness to overcome a loss in the fourth set to just get home in the fifth.

Marion did well in the doubles, with her opponents having difficulty with her sidespin serves.

The Marlborough Veteran Men's Team of Matt Millar and Jason Kennedy beat Nelson and Otago 2, losing to both Canterbury teams and Otago 1, who won the Grade.

Matt played strongly in his matches , with one of his best wins coming against the skillful Gregg Davey of Canterbury 1.

Jason picked up singles wins against Nelson and Otago 2. The duo played very well in the doubles matches, winning 4 out of 5. At this level, you have to take attacking opportunities when they arise and Jason confidently put the ball away following good set up play from Matt.

Local players Rory Osborne and Joseph Ruwhiu were joined by draft player Daniel Powley of Canterbury in the Boys Under-18 Section. It was a strong section containing Canterbury and Otago teams.

Daniel picked up some singles wins , benefiting from playing some of his opponents previously. Rory and Joseph won a doubles match.

The Boys' Under-15 team of  Theo Sandford-Jury, Drew Materoa and Reuben Henry all finished the day with singles wins.

The Girls' Under-15 team  of Sophia Dillon and Tilly Watts met strong opposition in the group and play-off matches.

Sophia won 3 singles,with Tilly  going close to getting on the board.

By Chris Hood

The Marlborough Open was held last weekend with 72 players taking part. This was up from 56 in 2019, when the tournament was last held. The tournament attracted  players from North Shore to Otago.

Thanks to TTNZ for providing Andrew Palmer  to train us on Tournament Planner before the tournament and for him to oversee proceedings over  the weekend.

Thanks to our sponsors: Biddy Kates (Open), Over-40 Events Discovery Homes, Over-50 Bayley's, Over-60 Active Electrical Services, Under-21 Kennedy Connections, The Intrepid Marketing and Communications (all Junior Events), Wither Hills Winery.

Canterbury Players dominated the Open Events. Alex Zhou won the final against Jesse Wilson 11-3,14-12,12-10.11-6 . There were some great matches leading up to the final. Jesse put out top seed Simon Fenwick in the quarter finasl in seven sets. He then went on to beat Vladimir Ivanov in the semi-finals. Alex beat the second seed, Craig Dye, in seven sets to reach the final. Earlier, Craig had beaten Joshua Kim in seven sets. Joshua beat local player Nathan Watson in the round of 16.

Other local players to qualify were Matthias Krönert, who lost to Vladimir in the last  eight, and Matt Pigou, who lost to Otago's Tavish Voight in seven sets in the last 16.

Kris Alisch beat Mimi Walle  24-26,11-4,11-9,8-11,6-11,11-3,11-8 in the final of the Women's Singles. Marlborough's Jacqui Wood reached the semi-finals.

Alex won his second title when he partnered Joshua to a win over Craig and Gregg Davey in the Men's Doubles.

Mimi partnered with Anny  Li to win the Women's Doubles over Jacqui and Vanessa Wood-Lin.

Mimi gained another title when she partnered Jesse to a win in the final of the Mixed Doubles over Craig and Anny.

Matthias dominated the Second Grade. He won the Men's Singles Final against Alex Kennedy and partnered Matt Pigou to a wn over Alex and Rory Osborne in the doubles.

The equivalent Women's title was won by Nelson's Estelle Cong Qian who beat Vanessa in five sets.

Marlborough players to get placings in other events were:

Over-50 Doubles:  Runner-Up-Warren Haszard (with Dave Samson)

Under-21 Doubles : Winner -Alex Kennedy (with Alex Zhou)

Under-21 Singles : Runner -Up Alex Kennedy

Under-18 Boys Singles: Winner-Rory Osborne

Under-18 Girls Singles: Runner-Up Tilly Watts

Under-18 Doubles: Runner-up Reuben Henry/ Sydney White

Under-15 Girls Doubles:  Runner-Up Sophia Dillon/ Tilly Watts

Under-15 Boys Doubles: Runner-Up Patrick Andrew/ Adam Beattie

Under-13 Boys Singles: Runner-Up Drew Materoa

Under-13 Girls Singles: Runner-Up Anna Hurren

Under-13 Doubles: Runner-Up Oliver Phipps/ Bernard Sandford-Jury

Nathan Watson took out the Half-Way Tournament played last Tuesday. Normally, as the name suggests, it is played during the season, but  this year  it was  at the end of the season .

Nathan beat Alex Kennedy in the final by 7-11, 11-6, 11-7, 11-7. It was another quality match between these two players with some brilliant counter-hitting rallies. Nathan lost the first set but kept the pressure on in the next three sets with some aggressive flicks and angled drives. Alex played his part , switching easily from backhand to forehand while hitting some great winners. Nathan beat Jacqui Wood in one semi while Alex reached the final with a win over Matt Pigou.

In the quarter finals, Jacqui beat Matt Millar 6-11, 8-11, 11-9, 11-9, 14-12 in one of the most entertaining matches of the season. Matt displayed his ability with some brilliant lobs forcing Jacqui to smash the ball continually to stay in the point.

Jacqui was playing  well too with some careful placement and angled drives. The fifth set was real "on the edge of your seat'' stuff as both players pushed to all parts of the table and once a player opened up, there were some breathtaking rallies.

Matt beat Jason Kennedy 12-10,11-9, 11-4 in the final of the Special Plate. The semi-finalists were Josh Sim and Ken Thompsett.

Billy Hebberd won the Plate Final over Warren Haszard 8-11, 13-11, 11-7,11-3. Billy beat Peter Welsh in five close sets to reach the final while Warren beat Malcolm Honour.

Steve Rowsell came from two sets down to beat Peter Cowdrey 10-12-11-13, 11-7, 11-6, 11-6 to claim the consolation plate. The semi-finalists were Dennis Burkhart and Peter Wells.

By Chris Hood

The Marlborough Junior table tennis team were unable to retain the Angell Shield for a third year, when they narrowly lost to their Nelson counterparts at the Saxton table tennis stadium on Sunday. Although the Marlborough girls’ won their section 13/7 the boys went down 4/16, giving Nelson the tie by 23 matches to 17.

Vanessa Wood-Lin and Hannah Smit were in a class of their own, always in command, and both completed the day with an outstanding six wins from six. Jasmyne Henry notched one singles win in straight sets over the number four player, and extended the Nelson number two to four sets. Young Tilly Watts on debut, rallied well in all her matches, and narrowly missed out on gaining a set from the Nelson number three player. Both girls showed their worth in the doubles, with Jasmyne combining with Hannah and Tilly with Vanessa to give Marlborough a clean sweep of the doubles.

In the boys section Rory Osborne, although not quite as sharp as he has been of late, still played some excellent attacking table tennis to notch up two good singles wins, and narrowly missed out on a third. Peyton Ritchie at times played some stunning table tennis and had a good win over the number four player. He got close in many other sets, but couldn’t quite close them out. Joseph Ruwhiu too was competitive in most of his games and extended the Nelson number four to four sets. He played some excellent rallies but often couldn’t quite finish off the point when in an attacking position. Ryo Kimura filling in for an injured Theodore Sandford-Jury made a great debut, picking up sets from two of his opponents. He attacked well, using his powerful forehand smash to good effect.

Leading into the boy’s doubles, Marlborough needed to win all four matches to draw even, and made an encouraging start. Both combinations, Rory and Joseph, and Peyton and Ryo were up two sets to one, but unfortunately both losing out in the fifth, nine and seven respectively. Rory and Joseph won their reverse doubles three straight, with Rory playing some breathtakingly beautiful backhand screamers that left their opponents no chance of a return.

Coaches Debbie Stratford and Alex Kennedy were proud of the Marlborough effort with everyone giving their best, but Nelson performed just a little better on the day. The Marlborough team was well supported from a large contingent of parents who made the trip across the hill.

By Debbie Stratford

The destination of the  Tarrant Cup wasn't decided until the very last game of the first round when Nathan Cross and Rob Honour beat Josh Sim and Warren Haszard 12-10, 9-11, 11-6, 11-3 to give For Pete's Sake an 8-4 win over The Haszards,

For Pete's Sake were one point behind The Northwestern before last Thursday's matches and the 8-4 win  gave them the title as The Northwestern lost on a countback of points after matches were drawn 6 all against Chips' n Dip.

The win was a good reward for Peter Wells, who has been in winning Tarrant Cup teams long before his team mates were born. Peter was part of the Wairau Valley team that played at the "fortress" of the Hillersden Hall.

Earlier Nathan had won his three singles. He made a comeback to the sport this year and has impressed with his varied serves and topspin shots. He beat Warren 6-11, 12-10, 11-5, 11-8 but Warren was right in the match with some consistent returning.

Rob Honour backed him up with two wins. He played a great match against Josh, getting home  by 10-12, 7-11, 11-5, 11-9-11-7. Despite being two sets down, he continued to trust his attacking shots to get the win. In his last match against Warren, he still attacked, but Warren was in great touch, blocking and forcing errors to get the win. Peter won two doubles including a come from behind win with Rob over Warren and Peter Cowdrey.

Peter Cowdrey beat Peter Wells 11-6,11-7, 8-11, 10-12, 11-9 in the last single of the night.

For the first time this season, a match was decided on points with Chips 'n Dip winning 374 points over The Northwestern's 369. Jacqui Wood and Vanessa Wood-Lin won two singles each. Vanessa played a tremendous match against fellow junior Rory Osborne.

Vanessa won it 12-10, 8-11,8-11, 15-13, 14-12 after saving several match points. There were many high quality shots played, one in particular being a down the line backhand by Rory from a tight return. Vanessa also played many good shots and showed confidence to open up the play even in this close match. Hannah Smit won both doubles and came close to a win in the singles. In her last match, she just lost out to Dennis Burkhart 5-11, 11-9, 5-11, 11-6, 12-10 with both players playing an open game.

Matt Pigou was in good touch , winning his three singles. His match against Jacqui was another top notch affair with Matt hitting some explosive forehands and backhands with  Jacqui showing good technique to keep in the rallies.

On the next table, Unknown beat Wham Bam 7-5. The eagerly awaited clash between the two unbeaten players  Nathan Watson and Alex Kennedy didn't disappoint as these  two players put on  one of the matches of the season.

Nathan won it 12-14, 11-3, 9-11, 11-4, 12-10  but the mere scoreline doesn't indicate the effort and skill that both players put into it. After Nathan had taken the fourth set, it looked like he would continue on in the deciding set. Alex had other ideas, forcing his opponent away from the table to take any early lead. Nathan then found his short game and managed to bring Alex forward, to create chances for his powerful forehand. It was really one of those matches that could have gone either way.

Simon Bishell , in his first match of the season, won two singles while Janice Thompsett combined with Nathan for a five set doubles win.

For Wham Bam, Malcolm Honour and Barbara Burkhart  won a single each to back up Alex's two wins.

A Rose and 2 Thorns beat Just Us 7-5. Jason Kennedy won his three singles with John Diamanti getting two wins.  Marion Wood won both doubles and was very  tenacious in her singles matches, going to five sets in all of them.

Joseph Ruwhiu beat John 12-10,2-11, 11-9, 11-8 in the first match of the night and finished with two singles wins. Regular Steve Rowsell and  fill-in player Kylie Hurren also got on the board.

Final points:

For Pete's Sake (Nathan Cross) 68, The Northwestern (Matt) 66, Chips' n Dip (Jacqui) 63, A Rose and 2 Thorns (Jason) 49, The Haszards (Josh) 48, Unknown (Nathan Watson) 46, Forest Gump (Billy) 45, Just Us (Ken) 44, Wham Bam (Alex) 38

Leading players

Nathan Watson P24 W 24, Alex Kennedy 21/20, Matt Pigou 21/20, Nathan Cross 24/21, Jacqui Wood 21/18, Rob Honour 21/16, Josh Sim 24/17, Rory Osborne 21/14, Vanessa Wood-Lin 21/14, Jason Kennedy 24/16, Billy Hebberd 24/15, Warren Haszard 24/14

By Chris Hood

Eight Marlborough-based players competed in the South Island  Championships  in Timaru last weekend, coming back north with  14 medals.

Jacqui Wood won four medals.  In a strong  qualifying group in the A Grade Singles, she played her normal topspin game to  beat  Otago's Shelley Neal , the second seed, 9-11, 11-9, 11-4, 12-10 setting  up a clash with young Manawatu  junior, Abbey Webb, to see who would top the pool.

Jacqui won it 2-11, 8-11, 11-4, 11-8, 12-10. She found her range in the third set, blocking well to take the match to a deciding set. In that set, Jacqui was behind before tight play and some attacking shots saw her take a close match.

In the semi-finals she was up against Jill Liu, the number 1 seed, who finished second in her pool . Jacqui lost in 6 sets, but played well against a player ranked eleventh  in New Zealand .

The A Grade was won by Northland junior Takai Ngata-Henare. An indication of her strength was that she  was unbeaten  in 15 singles matches over the weekend  and  in doing so, won the Under-18 and Under-21 Singles Titles.

Jacqui won the B Grade Singles , giving her the "double" as she won the equivalent event at the North Island Championships in July.

Jacqui was paired with Takai in the Women's Doubles and they took the title with an 11-9, 11-3, 6-11, 11-8 win over Jill and Shelley.  This first-time  pairing combined well, with Jacqui's attacking play with reverse  rubber complementing Takai's attacking shots with short and long pimples.  Jacqui is the third Marlborough player to win this title following Megan Stratford and earlier  Debbie Stratford (nee Looms).

Jacqui combined with Nathan Watson in the mixed doubles and they made the final, losing to Craig and Shelley in four sets. In the semi-final , they beat Canterbury's Jesse Wilson and Otago's Debs King-Newell 12-14, 11-5, 6-11, 12-10, 11-6 in a close match.

Nathan also had a good day. In the A Grade qualifying, he beat the fourth seed, Craig Dye of Canterbury by 13-11, 1-11, 11-4, 10-12, 11-9. Nathan restricted Craig's counter topspins and served long into his backhand to get a no spin return which he could take the initiative from. In the fifth set,  Nathan played a  counter block down line at 5-6  to come back and win the match. This was Nathan's first win against Craig, who is ranked 35.

In the quarter-final, he lost to the third seed, Jesse Wilson by 12-10, 11-3. 12-10, 9-11, 14-16.13-11. Jesse plays with a deceiving no spin/top spin attacking style . Nathan played well to stay in the counter topspin rallies and played an effective  short game and returned serve well.

Nathan won both titles in the B Grade. In the B Grade Singles Final he beat Otago's Tavish Voight by 11-4, 11-8, 11-13, 11-8.Tavish is an explosive player off both wings, so Nathan had to adjust his short and blocking game  to create opportunities for his own topspin shots.

Nathan combined with Alex Kennedy for a win in the Men's Doubles over Tavish and another very promising  Otago player, Isaac Hobbs by 9-11, 14-12, 11-4, 7-11, 11-5.

In the C Grade, Matt Pigou, beat Alex in the quarter-final of the Men's  Singles and went on to reach the final against Otago's Willie Brocks. Matt lost  11-5, 11-9, 6-11, 11-8 to  a player with a strong forehand.

Matt combined with Alex in the Men's Doubles where they lost to Willie and Canterbury's Derek Partridge in the final. Derek is a regular competitor at the  Marlborough Open.

Matt also reached the semi-finals of  the B Grade singles, losing to Nathan.

Alex also went well in the B Grade Singles, losing to  Tavish in the semi-finals.

Vanessa Wood-Lin  reached the quarter-finals of the Under-18 Girls' Singles, losing to Waikato's Minette Whitehead who went on to reach the final.

In the Under-21 Grade, she reached the final of the Women's Under-21 Doubles Final with Canterbury's Aarya Advilkar. They lost to the top seeds in the final, but earlier had beaten Minette and Maia Cavanagh , who were seeded above them, by 12-10,7-11,7-11,11-8, 11-8.

Ariya looped  with a lot of spin to set Vanessa up for the winning shot. Vanessa beat Ariya in Under-21 pool play  by blocking well  and setting up  her fast forehand attack.

Hannah Smit paired with Takai in the Girls'  Under-18 Doubles, reaching the semi-finals, losing out to Minette and Maia in five sets. Hannah had some tough matches in singles competition, but took a set from Canterbury's Lydia Mercer-Beumelburg in the Under-18's.

Warren Haszard won a Silver Medal in the Men's D Grade after a count back of points. This was a good reward for Warren , who has competed in these Championships for many years, regardless of where they have been held.

Marion Wood lost in four sets to Canterbury's Flora Lin in the final of the Women's Over-60 Singles.

Marlborough's Medals

Gold-  Jacqui/ Takai (NL) A Grade WD, Jacqui- B Grade WS, Nathan-B Grade MS, Nathan/Alex-B Grade MD

Silver-

Jacqui/Nathan - A Grade XD, Matt- C Grade M/S, Matt/Alex-C Grade MD, Warren- D Grade MS, Marion O60 WS, Vanessa/ Aarya (CT)- U-21 WD, Hannah/ Takai (NL)- U18 GD

Bronze-

Jacqui-A Grade WS, Alex-B Grade MS, Matt-B Grade MS

By Chris Hood

Thanks to Nelson for coming over for the day.

The Marlborough Table Tennis Team beat Nelson 39 matches to 27  in Blenheim last Saturday, to retain the Perry Shield. It was the first time since 1986-87 that Marlborough has gone " back to back".

The first shield match was played in 1950. One of the pleasing aspects was that at least 10 former players spanning from the 1950's to 2019 were at the venue at sometime during the day.

It was also the first time since 2014 that Marlborough had three players from the same family in the team.

Marlborough won the Men's number 1 section 6-3.  Alex Kennedy was in unstoppable form, winning three singles.Whether close to the table or slightly back, Alex was rocketing forehand and backhand winners past his opponents.

His hardest match was against Nelson number 1, Finn Brown, winning 11-9 in the fifth set. Remarkably,  13 year old Finn was making his Nelson debut straight at number one. He certainly has a big future in the game with his impeccable "table manners" and relaxed attacking style serving him well. Nathan Watson picked up two wins with some good touch play and booming drives. He just lost out to Finn by 13-11, 4-11,2-11, 11-8, 11-8. Matt Pigou was "all business" in his match against Allan Villar , looping well against Allan's anti-spin to get home in straight sets. The experienced Paul Op den Buysch also got on the board for Nelson.

On the next table, Marlborough won the Women's number 1 section 5-4. It was very tight , with Marlborough winning four matches in the fifth set. Jacqui Wood led the way with three wins but had to work very hard in two of them.

Against the impressive Estelle Qian, she was down in the fifth set before confidently employing her attacking strokes to win by 11-7, 11-6, 9-11, 9-11, 11-8. Jacqui had another close match  with Nelson number 1 Kylie Collett, a former NZ junior representative.

Jacqui just prevailed 13-11 in the fifth set after Kylie had come back in the fourth set. Vanessa Wood-Lin picked up two wins, both in the fifth set. The left-handed Vanessa impressed with some touch play and angled drives. She nearly emulated her mum with three wins, just losing out to Estelle 12-10 in the deciding set. Hannah Smit, playing for the first time against these players, took the experienced Glenda Ferguson to four sets. 

Nelson took the Men's number 2 section 5-4. For Marlborough , Matthias Krönert won his three singles. He showed great ability to cushion the ball on the service return  and  regularly found the corners of the table with his topspins. He won his last match against Craig Lee.

Craig, a newcomer to Nelson table tennis, had some very impressive service variations and won two singles for Nelson as did stalwart, Mark Nalder. Jason Kennedy beat Phil Hamblin 5-11, 11-8, 8-11, 11-7, 11-6 for Marlborough's fourth point.

Nathan Cross, on debut, troubled all three of his opponents.

Marlborough won the Women's Number 2 section 7-2. Kylie Hurren was undefeated  but her first match against Thelma Mathieson showed how tough the section was. Kylie won it 9-11, 12-10, 11-9, 10-12, 11-8. Kylie showed great composure after losing match points in the fourth  set, to win the deciding set. Kristin Ruwhiu's attacking style saw her gain two wins and   was just pipped by newcomer Ana Ramirez 6-11, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 13-11 in her third match. Marion Wood won two singles with some very calm play and just lost out to

Shino Yonei in five sets.

Marlborough won the Men's Doubles 5-4. The combinations of Nathan Watson/Alex and Matt/ Matthias won two each . Jason and Nathan Cross won their first match but it doesn't tell the whole story as they had match points against the outstanding pair of Finn and Paul. before losing in the fifth set. In their last match, they just lost out 12-10 in the fifth to the Craig/ Mark combination.

The Women's Doubles were poised at 4 all, before Marion/ Hannah beat Ana / Thelma 11-9,11-6, 4-11, 11-7  to win the section for Marlborough. Earlier Jacqui/ Vanessa and Kylie/ Kristin had won two each for Marlborough with Kylie/ Glenda and Estelle/ Shino doing likewise for Nelson.

Marlborough took the mixed doubles 7-5 . The middle section was outstanding for Marlborough  with the Matt/ Kylie and Matthias/ Kristin combinations  winning both of their doubles with some good set-up play. In the top section, Nathan Watson/ Jacqui and Alex/ Vanessa

won one each  and both pairs just lost out to the undefeated pair of Paul/ Estelle in the fifth set. The Craig/ Shino combination were undefeated with Phil/ Thelma getting Nelson's fifth point.

For Marlborough overall , Matthias and Kylie won 7 from 8 and Alex, Jacqui and Kristin 6 from 8.  For Nelson, Paul and Estelle won 6 from 8, with Finn, Craig and Shino getting 5 from 8.

Nelson retained the Couper Shield 23 matches to 13 over Marlborough B in a contest  played at the same time as the Perry Shield.

The Nelson trio of Pietro Cannata, Quan Pham and Dean McNicholl took all of the singles in a 9-3 win in the top section. The Marlborough team of Josh Sim, Jeff Sawyer and Warren Haszard were right in the mix though with five matches going to the fifth set, with the locals winning the doubles 3-0. Jeff took all of his opponents to five sets with Josh and Warren doing likewise with Quan and Pietro respectively.

Nelson took  the number two section 8-4. Newcomer Santiago Paolini and the experienced Kevin Neumann led the way with two wins each with Harrison Foote winning one and playing a part in his team's clean sweep of the doubles.

Young junior Rory Osborne was outstanding for Marlborough, winning three singles. Rory was very impressive, coming back from two sets down in two of his matches. He beat Santiago 6-11,7-11, 11-7,11-8, 11-7 winning the fifth set with some great backhands.

Rob Honour beat Harrison  12-10 in the fifth while Malcolm Honour gave everything in his matches.

It was a 6 all draw in the third section . Gary Basher, who has played in many of these contests, was undefeated for Nelson with young junior, Joshua Pigott backing him up with two wins. Sunny Chan added a single.

For Marlborough , John Diamanti won two singles and Peter Welsh one. Steve Rowsell spearheaded the doubles effort which Marlborough took 3-0.

By Chris Hood

Well done again to our Marlborough contingent representing us on the weekend at the Wellington Open

Jacqui Wood was part of a small Marlborough contingent at the Wellington Open last weekend. At the same venue two weeks ago Marlborough picked up 11 medals, including doubles, at the North island Championships.

Jacqui  finished fourth in a strong field in the Women's Singles after a round-robin. The field included Ye Zhai, ranked number 2 in the country. Jacqui gained a set from Wellington's Michelle McCarthy. Michelle has a very strong forehand loop and has had experience playing for clubs in Asia. Her next game  against Sabine Westenra was a total contrast. Sabine is a long standing  New Zealand representative and is a chopper who plays with long pimples on the forehand. Jacqui's two wins came against fellow NZ  Training Squad member, Lisa Yue, and promising junior, Yashka Rabichand.

As the only woman who entered B Grade, Jacqui was  placed in the Men's Section. She beat two players above her to qualify for post-section play. Her first win was against Depak Patel, who is a very consistent player. Jacqui served well and played with heavy spin to win 3-1.

Against Zhidong Yu she had to employ deep pushes and chops to keep Zhidong on the back foot. These tactics paid off  as she overcame  a 7-3 deficit in the fifth set to get home.

By chance, she drew Marlborough-based Nathan Watson in the quarter-finals and lost in four sets. Ironically, these  two players had played each other in local inter-club two days earlier.

Jacqui's good form continued in the Over-30 Mixed Singles. She beat David Buckrell in five sets to qualify second in her pool. An indication of David's strength was that he beat the number 1 and number 3 ranked Marlborough Men at the North Islands.

Post-section play saw Jacqui up against Wellington's Daniel Rosner, who won 3-1. Daniel is a very strong looping player but Jacqui was able to block to different parts of the table to cause Daniel  to change to a chopping game.

In the Over-30 Doubles, Jacqui combined with Sabine for a semi-final finish.

After the tournament, Jacqui  moved from 39 to 29 in the New Zealand Women's Ratings.

By Chris Hood