Last night I played in the TTV Super League Grand Final for the second year in a row. This is Table Tennis Victoria’s premier pennant competition and has 4 of Australia’s Olympic representatives competing in it this year.

The Regular Season

During the regular season my team MSAC MyDBA managed to go undefeated. I had a strong team with Shibaji Datta being our number one player. Shibaji represented India in the 2006 Commonwealth Games and is now living in Australia. Unfortunately Shibaji had to return to India the week before the final leaving us without our number one player. The organisers managed to get Brett Clarke who was my doubles partner at the Sydney 2000 Olympics to step in for us but this was still a big loss and was going to make it much harder for us to win. Brett has been a fantastic player for Australia over the past 10 years but has recently taken more of a back seat and doesn’t compete regularly anymore.

A Tough Night Ahead

There was a big gap between the end of the regular season and the finals. It had to be this way because there was a lot of big events which the Super League had to plan around. There was the Australian Closed Championships, Oceania Championships and then the Australian Open. And because my team finished on top of the ladder we progressed straight to the grand final and so did not need to compete in the semi-final. This meant that it was a 6 week gap between my last match of the season and the grand final. Our opposition was well and truly grooved after playing a lot of important Table Tennis matches in those tournaments which I don’t compete in so I knew it was going to be a tough night.

To throw in another complexity, I had turned my ankle the week before playing indoor soccer and so had stayed off it for the week hoping it would be right in time for the final. I was a little worried that it wouldn’t hold up. However once I arrived and had a warm up, my ankle felt fine and was not an issue for the entire match.

The Match

The night is decided by playing up to 7 matches with the first team reaching 4 declared the winner for the night. The first two mens singles were played on two table simultaneously. Lets just say the night did not start well for my team MSAC. I quickly lost the first set to Chamara Fernando only troubling the scorer for a couple of points. I looked up and noticed that Brett had also dropped the first set after being up early on in the set. I got off to a much better start in the second set but Chamara played some good Table Tennis and proved too strong taking the second set. Then in the third Chamara got off to a flyer going up 6-2 and I was in deep trouble. I called a timeout which managed to holt his momentum briefly. I played some gritty points and got back to 6-5 at which point Chamara called his own timeout. I managed to win a few more good points to take the lead at 8-7 but unfortunately this was my last point for the match. Brett faired a little better and managed to take a set of David Powell but ended up going down 3-1 complaining of cramping in both calves. It was starting to look very bleak for us.

The woman on my team is Melissa Tapper and she was playing against one of Australia’s Olympians Stephanie Sang. Stephanie won the first two sets very comfortably and then lead 10-4 in the third holding 6 match points. Incredibly Melissa then won the next 8 points in a row to claim the third set. The revival was short lived and Stephanie won the next set comfortably 11-2. So it was 3-0 to Croydon with them only needing one more match to claim the night.

Could MSAC Make a Comeback?

It really was now of never for us. We were 3 nil down in only half on hour. The organisers decided to only play the next set of mens singles on one table to ensure the match lasted more than 45 minutes for the spectators!

Brett was worried about his calves cramping and so decided on forcing the rallies by playing powerful shots. The idea was to keep the rallies as short as possible. Chamara likes to play long rallies and is exceptional at keeping the ball in play. But tonight Brett’s plan worked beautifully. Brett served aggressively and returned aggressively and all of his shots seemed to go exactly where he wanted. The match was over quickly in 3 straight sets and MSAC was on the board.

Back in the Fight

Next up I was to play David Powell. David has had some excellent results this year against some of Australia’s best players and so this was going to be a tough match. However it seems the momentum had turned. Everything went right for me and nothing seemed to go right for David. I had some luck go my way with some edges and even managed to hit a forehand counterspin off the edge of my bat onto the table. Before I knew it, I had won the match in straight sets. That made the main score 3-2 and we were back in the fight.

Mixed Doubles

Next up was the mixed doubles and we sent out Brett Clarke and Melissa Tapper to try and level the scores for us. They had picked Chamara Fernando and Stephanie Sang to play for Croydon. With all the momentum now back on our side, we took the first set. I could feel a big comeback in the air. However Croydon steadied and won the next set, the first one for 2 and a bit matches. We (MSAC) managed to claim the third set to lead 2-1 and then Croydon hit back taking the fourth to level at 2 all. Now this was a dog fight. We got off to a great start leading 4-2 in the deciding set and with Brett Clarke to serve twice we were looking good. Then the strength of Croydon showed through. Olympian Stepahie Sang played some great points and Chamara lifted his game. I think the weeks of hard competitions they had played previously had helped their mental toughness and they triumphed taking the deciding set and the match.

Next Year

So again I finished up in the runner up position with MSAC. Croydon was just too strong on the night. But as they say there is always next year!

TTV Super League

If you are interested in more information about Table Tennis Vicotria’s premier pennant competition then check out the TTV Super League website.