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Happy
End of Summer Heat Wave to all members of the Auburn
Table Tennis Club -
Hardbat
Successes!
– This past Wednesday Sept.
22, we welcomed the sounds of high pitched tick-tick-ticking as hardbats
were the order of the evening. Our
first ever, but not last ever, hardbat Round Robin evening.
Four round robin groups were assembled,
with the (alleged) talent evenly disbursed. Round robin 1st, 2nd,
3rd and 4th place finishers then all had single
elimination playoff matches in the quest for the coveted,
now-available-on-EBay-only Auburn Table
Tennis T Shirt.
Suffice
to say, not one single RR group played completely to
“seed.” Eric
Stefanic (henceforth to be referred to as “the Ringer”) took
his group and then took a commanding 1-0 lead against JZ in their
playoff match. Who knew!? There was visible sweat on JZ’s
brow as he dug deep for the best serves he had, and some exciting rallies to be
seen. JZ prevailed, setting
up the #1 finishers trophy match (more on that shortly).
In Group
4, Sam Seo made clear with his 2-0, 2-0 and 2-0 victories that he has no
problem with whatever equipment we wish to throw at him (OK Sam,
next time we will make you use your shoe).
This paved the way for Sam to challenge Scott Gordon, who
had similarly prevailed in Group 1 (2-0, 2-0, 2-0). Yes the status of having our precious
T-Shirt is quite a motivator.
Sporting
the classic “Hardbat Rules” attire, Scott Gordon kindly
invited Sam to bring on his best game.
We noticed more than a few decent rallies, and only an occasionally
expletive uttered, during this battle of the undefeateds. Scott advanced; we have no
official report but suspect Sam continued to maintain his unflappably good
attitude. Sam, for crying out loud,
if you need to throw a tantrum, we understand, and for good examples, you can
always look to … well, let’s just say there are some examples.
In
the battle of the 2nd Place Finishers – Devin Forsey
administered a courteous but decisive whipping to Bill K.,
advancing to the all important
“T Shirt Match” against Tom Spesick, who had played one of
the night’s longest matches in his playoff against John Hanna. Seems no matter what the setting, John
and Tom cannot do any less than multiple deuce games, with deuce in the
last game going on, and on, and on. While no money changed hands (cash
betting is prohibited at the club since that ugly leg breaking incident), we
did see John hand over his car keys to Tom at the end of that
match. And Tyler did seem to breath a sigh of relief and
mutter something about being happy not ending up being John’s yard-work
slave for a year.
But this is all just rumor, of course.
The Devin
v. Tom match, from our vantage point, looked to be close, to the extent
that both players were in the same room, playing at the same table. Devin, however, along with garnering the
“nicest player in the world” award, appeared to administer a
tutorial on the dominating play of a regular hardbat player against a player who is used to rubber. Enough said?
In
the Group 3 winners circle – Steve Garretson and Tyler Spesick
found a playoff table, and Larry Scott and Chebu Herrick found
the same table. Steve may
have felt a few of Tyler’s
stinging smashes (we recommend aloe vera on those, Steve), but we
believe Larry and Chebu played a push-push-push rally game. Styles aside, the results pitted Larry
Scott against Tyler Spesick for the blood match. In the spirit of friendship and brotherly
love, and in gratitude for Larry bringing a dozen hardbat paddles to the
event, Tyler
was a consummate gentleman and let Larry win the match. Hey, we don’t make up the news, we
just report what we have been told.
Just like the Moscow Daily.
In
the 4th Place Finishers bracket – possibly the most vociferous
of all the play – Chuck Feyh beat Tamara Chappell, earning
him the right to play Nikolai Z., who had gotten by Bob Hemming. No T-Shirts in the 4th and
the 3rd place brackets, but pride was at stake, and for the time
being, those bragging rights are with Nikolai.
Returning
back to the final match of the night – 1st Place Finishers – Scott
Gordon v. JZ Zhuang. It was
hit, return, smash, return, dink, return, hit, return … you get the
picture. This is what happens when
you put a couple of veterans on the table and tell them that an $11 T Shirt
awaits the victor. JZ
dished out spinny serves not unlike those we see from the rubber paddle
play. Scott conducted
several clinics on how to return, and return again, most every shot that can be
hit. There is a reason these kids frequently
make it to the finals in hardbat events at major tournaments.
In the
end, the true winners were the spectators – what a great show. Scott Gordon prevailed and, along
with Devin Forsey, they graciously accepted their trophies. Pictures on the Website!
Autographs
available for a small fee. This
report is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced in whole or in part without the
express written consent of Major League Baseball.
We
resume regular Round Robin Wed. Sept. 29. Open play Mondays as usual! Thanks to all who came out to hit
the hardbat, and thanks to Larry Scott for the extra paddles.
If you
have a suggestion for a special event evening – let us know. We’re due for a doubles night,
perhaps in December.
For Wed. night, - if you will be late (after 6:45
pm), be sure to call Tom at 530-613-0101 or Bill
(916-275-0899) and let them know. If
you reach us, we will get you on a table.
Also for Wednesdays, tables permitting, if you wish to
come and hit for fun (i.e. not participate in the round robin), that is fine
and the Club will charge $2 per person for that.
Bill
Kochenderfer
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