Whilst matches contested in the Chauvel Industrial Services open events at the annual
Rockhampton Open Table Tennis Championships that were played at the Leichhardt Park
playing centre on Campbell Street over the weekend before last were entertaining players
from clubs across the state also turned in some great performances in the Bolsover
Radiology ratings events as well as the Lawless-Pyne electrical junior and veteran events.
The ratings events were spread across four divisions. All players who take part in the
tournament circuit earn an individual rating based on performances and this system,
which is used across the nation, replaced the rather subjective gradings-styled events
which were not always considered to be accurate. The down-side to ratings is that in
reality players need to participate in a fair amount of tournament-play to receive a rating
that accurately reflects their standard in comparison to their counterparts.
In the top division singles event Rayden Smith caped off a fine carnival when he conjured
an impressive victory in the final over Mackay’s Goncalo Gageiro in a close three
straight sets result. The second section featured some very good matches and local Leo
Lai emerged from a strong field to pick up the spoils. He defeated Gageiro (Mackay) in
the gold-medal match after narrowly beating fellow local Joel Gifford over five long
games in the semis. In the other play-off for a spot in the final Gageiro outed Rocky’s
Nolan Hao across three straight sets. Gageiro partnered his club-mate Steven Whiting and
they took out the doubles in this section over locals Judd Carr and Allan Clarke.
At fourteen years of age leading local junior Carr had an excellent tournament and his
win in the singles in the third division over the tricky game Wynnum’s wily veteran Allan
Robins was a good victory. He then partnered club-mate and fellow junior Levi Sarin to a
win in the doubles event in this section. In the fourth section newcomer to the sport
Cooper Bulow, who attended the recent state junior championships at Brisbane as a
Rocky representative, continues to gather experience and his win in this event will help
him along the way as his game continues to improve.
The Lawless-Pyne Electrical age events were also well contested from under-17 through
to over-60. The under-21 men’s singles featured three of Rocky’s more serious
contenders in the age-group but none were able to unseat the favourite in Bundy’s Kane
Chantarat although a count-back was necessary as he did not return an undefeated score
sheet from the round-robin stages. Nick Green (Rocky) came home in second spot just to
the good of club-mate Nolan Hao. Chantarat did it again in the under-19 event when he
narrowly won over Hao. Hao went on to win the under-17 boys’ singles with Judd Carr
coming home in second spot ahead of fellow locals Levi Sarin and Cooper Bulow.
Locals Pam Clarke and Monica Deeth had to be content to play second fiddle to the very
reliable game of Brisbane’s Clare Owen in the over-60 division while she repeated the
dose to the locals as well as Bundy’s Lorraine Fourro in the over-50 group. Fourro picked
up a win in the over-30 women’s singles after proving too good for local hope Erica
Nolan and the winner of the women’s open singles Jeraine Sebastian of Gold Coast along
the way.
In the over-30 men’s singles Mackay’s Goncalo Gageiro proved too good over a strong
field while Joel Gifford of Rockhampton had a win in the over-40 section when he was
pitted against Mackay’s Steven Whiting in the play-off for gold after both players
emerged from round-robins that contained plenty of talent. Locals James O’Sullivan and
Monica Deeth won the over-40 doubles over club-mates Allan and Pam Clarke in a very
tight five-setter. Bundy’s evergreen John Fourro wound the clock back a few years when
he overpowered the very strong game of first-timer to the Rocky Open in Gregory
Mowle, who travelled from Canberra to represent the ACT Association, in an
entertaining final of the over-50 men’s singles. Mowle had earlier beaten Fourro in final
of the over-60 men’s singles over a straight sets duel after both players emerged from
round-robins that included some handy players.