The last match before the Christmas break was lost 3 – 6 to the Tradesmen and we came away reasonabley happy in the circumstances. I was not due to play and was suffering from a cold (although I’m pretty certain this didn’t make any difference to the outcome of my sets) and Derek was supposed to be resting his shoulder that had begun to cause him some pain and mobility problems. However, even with a pool of 6 players we were struggling to put a team together on this occassion. Tradesmen 2 are a good team and two of their players finished in the top 10 last year, Roger and Harry. All the sets against these two went to 4 games apart from John going to 5 before losing. This was probably our best chance of getting another set. So our 3 sets were all against their no. 3, a young lad (Mark?) who had some very good attacking shots but they were deployed rather optimistically at times leading to a lot of errors. In fact just like I play! He clearly has lots of potential and will go on to be a very good player. Despite his game being somewhat erratic he took me to 5 games but for a change I managed to win the 5th. I have gone to 5 games on a number of occassions this year but never managed to win one up to now. Roger and Harry played a patient defensive game mainly chopping everything back and waiting for impatience to overcome us when we would go for a winning shot, often ending up with an unforced error. In my case they didn’t have to wait too long. We watched a Japanese film sometime ago, called Ping Pong, in which the main theme was table tennis. A top Chinese player, observing an opponent who chopped everything back, made the observation that ‘choppers never win”. Complete rubbish, obviously! I think it is fair to say that we played most of the attacking shots and out right winners but we also made by far the majority of errors. In fact both Roger and Harry had attacking shots but rarely used them. When they did they tended to be winners. After one such attacking success young Mark exclaimed “why don’t you play like that more often” to which Roger replied “because we’ve watched you”! Ouch.
December, 2008
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POPPs v Tradesmen 2 – Tuesday 16th December
Friday, December 19th, 2008Popps v Old Town Hounds, Monday December 8th 2008
Monday, December 15th, 2008Popps were well beaten by Old Town Hounds but Peter, playing at No.1 for Popps, saved our faces by winning 2 of his sets. It could have been closer with 2 other sets going to 5 games but the Hounds showed dogged determination and managed to sniff out a victory in both. We took the lead at the start with Peter winning the first set of the evening but we flattered to deceive and soon found we were in for a tough evening. Neither Terry or Mieszek managed to win a set for Popps but both looked the part from time to time and were not disgraced. Mieszek was suffering badly from a heavy cold (in fact technically not a cold but this is not a medical report) and played well in the circumstances. It was noticed that in between their sets the Hounds players consumed some sort of strange fluorescent string. We were on the point of checking this against the ETTA list of proscribed substances but it turned out to be liquorice boot laces. It cannot be certain this is what made the difference between to the 2 teams but Popps, always willing to learn from better teams, will be paying more attention to their dietary preparations in future. We have a lot to learn about table tennis nutrition and perhaps this is an area we can improve on. As an experiment we are thinking of Baileys and vegetarian samosas for a between sets boost. Any suggestions gratefully received.
Like the English rugby, football and cricket teams, Popps are becoming expert in finding positives from defeats. This is a well honoured tradition dating back to Dunkirk of course. We all agree that we are doing pretty well given out lack of experience and that we play as well as many of our opponents some of the time at least. What we need is more consistency and then some of our narrow defeats in games and sets will become victories. My personal response to this has been to moderate my game a little and be rather more conservative and circumspect. I can’t say this has made that much difference yet and I wonder if this is the right approach. One thing I am sure of. A major part of the problem is lack of technique. I am tempted to let up on attacking shots because, although some come off very well and win points, many (most?) just go off the end of the table or just clip the the net (occassionally they land on an adjacent table!). Sometimes a shot is missed because it wasn’t really on. But if it is on I can’t see any advantage in not going for it. Of course, you need to make the right judgement about what is on and what isn’t and that comes with experience and being realistic about your abilities. I’m not sure my attacking shots will improve by not playing them when I should be and I feel this is what I am beginning to do. So, my New Year resolution for the second half is to improve shot selection, go for an attacking shot whenever it is the right shot to go for and don’t pull back or be hesitant, and improve consitency by improving technique rather than holding back when the chances appear.
MATCH REPORT: POPPS v NORTHOWRAM, Monday December 1, 2008
Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008The highlights of this match were wins by John Taylor and Derek Greenwood, and a welcoming cup of tea and a kit kat provided by our hosts. After venturing out in the bitter night to the frozen wastes of Northowram, our team took time to warm up and adjust.
John Taylor took one game off John Wasilewski, and ran him close on two, but eventually lost 3-1, against a player showing more consistency. Derek Greenwood made a good start against Rob Gee, winning the first game, but began to falter as Gee improved, taking the next three games to win 3-1. Martin Halliday cruised ahead of Robin Thomas, to win 3-1, Thomas making many mistakes and not dealing with spin.
Taylor against Gee saw a good start by Taylor winning at 11-7, but by steady play, Gee reeled off the next two 11-5, 11-4. However, Taylor fought bravely to go down 12-10, to lose 3-1, the last game having some good smashes and fight backs. Against Wasilewski, Thomas showed some promising touches of attack and more points than usual on the board, but went out 11-8, 11-1, 11-7.
Greenwood showed a mix of good safe play and well-timed attacks against Halliday to win this one for POPPS, 13-11, 11-7 and 11-2, showing real confidence as he forged ahead in the final game. However, Thomas went down to Gee’s overall more effective game by 3-0. Taylor registered our second win against Halliday, by 3-0, confusing his opponent with his serves, playing a more steady game and by delivering some good smashes.
In the final game, Wasilewski wore down Greenwood, who was being caught out of position and was failing to achieve an effective balance of defence and aggression. In the final game, it was level pegging for a while as Greenwood varied his game, but eventually Wasilewski edged ahead to win 11-8.
Overall, the match still demonstrated weaknesses in the POPPS team, but two wins and some better performances showed that progress is being made.
Bring on the Olympics!