Country Clubs Tournament

The Taupo Events Centre was host to the inaugural TTNZ Country Clubs Teams Tournament on Saturday May 28th.

20 teams were entered for the five round event held across 10 tables.  Each contest had 3 singles followed by 2 doubles, and 48 times out of 50 finished within the allocated 90 minutes.

After the unfortunate withdrawal of 2 Kihikihi teams due to an untimely funeral, and the late loss of some Rotorua players a 12 team Championship section and 8 team Social Grade were formed.

It was soon evident that hosts Taupo would be strong contenders in the top grade, with their trio of Dave Kilmister, David Jarvis and Calvin Kwong proving difficult to take any matches off in pool play.  Indeed Dave K, Calvin and Shane Wilson all remained undefeated in singles on the day.

Lesley and Trevor Gardner combined with Victor Kamizona to provide a strong Tauranga 1 team, and the experienced Manawaru trio of Armindeep and Jatinder Singh and Shane Quigley also showed strength in depth.

The match that determined the 4th semi-finalist for the Championship Cup was actually played first up, with Shane Wilson, returning from illness, defeating Xavier Lea 15-13 in the second set, and Kelvin Tosland beating Dennis Buyukbektas to create a 3-2 win for Hawera over Papamoa.

In the Social Grade, Central (New Plymouth) and Rotorua 2 made the early running.  16 year old Brett Kerr was particularly impressive for the Taranaki team, well supported by newcomer Helge Mueller, the experienced Delwyn Singh and young Matthew Britz from Francis Douglas College,

Harold Vezza from Taupo 3 was the only social grade player to win all 5 singles, and draw the moniker of 'burglar.  Delwyn and Helge were also undefeated in their 3 singles matches.

In the play-offs there were some close contests, sometimes featuring turnarounds from 0-2 to 3-2 with strong doubles play.

The Championship final was, almost inevitably, between Tauranga 1 and Taupo 1.  Trevor Gardner's defeat of David Jarvis made it interesting, before Taupo prevailed 4-1 - although Trev and Victor took the Daves to the wire in the final doubles!

The Social Grade final was a nail-biter, with Delwyn and Helge winning the deciding doubles after Rotorua's Sam Fuller and Dean Tasker had equalled the contest at 2-2.  The key result was Brett Kerr's singles win over Graham Hooper.

The third place playoff was won by Manawaru 1 with Armindeep Singh and Shane Quigley leading the way.  Hawera's Kelvin Tosland could feel unlucky with 2 close losses, but will be pleased with his team's form going into the North Island workingmens club tournament next week.

The Social grade plate winners were Rotorua 3, who defeated Whakatane.  Rei (Leng Hwee Ng) was impressive for the winners, one of 17 female players in the event.

The Championship plate final was the match that over-ran the time limit, and stopped the presentations being made early.  Deniz Buyukbektas could certainly feel unlucky in losing 11-9 in the deciding set to the experienced Dave Scott from Taumarunui.  Then, when Ron Sheridan showed his best form in coming back to defeat John Tuki in 3 it was all on for Tauranga to upset Papamoa.  Xavier Lea beat Pauline Wilkinson to claw one back for Papamoa.  Then John and John Lea ground out a tough 3 set win over Dave and Ron to level the contest.  The fifth match, played as a single set featured some fine play by Xavier (who had earlier beaten Ron) to clinch the win for Papamoa.

The Consolation Championship final was taken out by Tauranga 3 from Taupo 2, with young Max Henderson and Alex Freeman playing strongly, ably supported by Tauranga coach Paul Henderson.

The play-off for 7th place was featured 3 wins for Andrew Leonard from Rotorua, while Barry Jones played strongly for Whakatane.

On the consolation tables Red Star from Masterton fell to Manawaru 3  despite a valiant effort Ian Hull-Brown.  Noel Beattie had a great day for Matamata, but could not bring his team to victory over Manawaru 2.

After the festivities 33 went to the Mole and Chicken for a great dinner and social chat. Most of the players mentioned their intention to come again next year before they left.  Perhaps 10 or 11 tables will need to become 18, and perhaps a stack of barriers might be needed.

Thanks to Dave Kilmister, John Penberthy, Graeme Jackson, Calvin Kwong and Dave Jarvis from Taupo for making the event possible.

Match Results File