greetings auburn table tennis club members -

welcome new player patrice tournier   you may guess from his slight accent that he is not from around here.  well, not originally.  patrice’s background in table tennis includes club competition, which has sparked more than a small interest in a few at the club.

table set-up; put away – quick thank you to all, and it is most everyone, who are pitching in on table set up and put away.  keep a close eye on the wheels, please; they can be adjusted and if they are getting loose, they can be difficult to maneuver.  the butterfly (green top) table is the only one with a designated spot (main room, 1st table) as the leg lifts have been measured for the huge crater it sits in.  all others go where they go.  the butterfly table has its own net (brown); all the rest are blue.  don’t be bashful about asking for a pointer on the net assemblies if they are falling apart. 

wed. oct. 21 – round robin results – for the second week straight, anson dominated group 1.  rumor has it that some “undisclosed” training is going on.  nonetheless, congratulations anson and we are doing our level best to attract competitive players to receive an “ak” thrashing.  tom spesick, paying a rare visit to table 2, prevailed there, in the face of ricky working through and improving his hardbat hitting, and the rapidly-getting-back-in-shape play of patrice tournier.  we spotted some backhand loops; this will be on the highlights video.  group 3 – every match went to the favored seed; sorry fred, we knew you were hoping for an upset, or two.  congratulations doug vaughan and table 2 awaits you next week.  mark copeland gets special recognition for playing every match to 5 games (indeed, 7 of the 10 matches in group 3 went to 5 games, so obviously expert bracketing was done; you are welcome).   group 4 – jp solly, with doug, representing grass valley club well and now looking for scalps on table 3.  group 5 – dylan moon takes the honors and the best rating gain of the night, 26 fresh points.  nicely done.  we ended up with open play until 9:45 p.m., for some reason; nobody left who was not worn out.

quick note on wed. round robin play – our executive committee determined some time ago that the optimum number of players per group is 4 or 5, so we do try to stick to that.  from time to time, depending on the total number of players (and available tables) and a spur-of-the-moment straw poll, we do sometimes put larger groups together.  we have (and will again) also put large groups (8 or 9 players) together as a team, on a special night to be designated, for a team competition.

“check the records” – do please take a glance from time to time (we know some of you study in detail, which may be overboard) the rr results.  if your match result is incorrect, email wkochenderfer@cs.com.  mistakes (few, ok, maybe one in the last 8 or 9 years) have been made.  they can be fixed (up to the date of the next rr).  also, if you cannot complete your matches, or are short on time, do let your group know; they may be able to accelerate your matches so you get out earlier.  not the best way to do the rr, but works in a pinch from time to time.  if you do depart early, unplayed matches are not recorded (i.e. no “default” is counted).  however, if you start a match and need to stop – for injury or emergency – let tom spesick or bill k know this.  if you abandon play without injury or emergency, that would result in a “loss” in that match.  we are a terribly casual club, so this is mainly about playing etiquette and courtesy.  we try and assure everyone is playing, matches are moving along, and the evening is finished relatively timely.

“most improved” – looks like anson, jp and madison lead a group, though bob hemming (106), eric stefanic (103), grant connell (89) and billy tang (74) are all in the running here.  priceless awards will be given out in january, 2010.   we also have a “best record” recognition, based on the won/loss percentage.  we are working on how to extract data to make that calculation.  so far, on a rough look, lu li is at about 71%.  both categories require you to play at least 15 times at the club during the 6 month period.

for wednesdays -  if you think you will be late for the round robin (i.e. after 7 p.m), please call bill (916) 275-0899 or tom (530) 613-0101.   if you reach us, we will put you on a table.

bill