1998 U.S. Open Over 40-80 Events

By Tim Boggan

Slightly more than one third of all the USATT participants in Tournament Chairman Y. C. Lee's much improved Houston U.S. Open played in the fifteen Over 40 through 80 singles and doubles events. "Veterans" they're called world-wide for their years of service to the Sport, and, as we shall see again with this year's winners, many of whom are past champions, "old experience do attain/To something like prophetic strain."

Senior Men's Teams 40+

This kick-off Over 40 event, which was listed in the Open Program as offering $1200 in prize money, and for which there was no comparable Senior Women's play, surely needs to be better publicized and promoted abroad, for it turned out to be nothing more than a subsidy for a few deserving U.S. players. Aside from a single tie involving a badly beaten Brazilian team ("We're not players," said one, "we're tourists"), the only remaining play pitted a U. S. "A" team against a U. S. "B" team.

In the first match of the final, the A's current U.S. Over 50 Champion Dave Sakai downed the '95 Champion Richard Hicks two straight, winning the all-important first game from 19-all by banging two balls into Dick's middle. Then the A's Barry Dattel, rallying from 14-11 down in the 2nd, got by Ali Oveissi in straight games. And finally, completing the shut-out, Barry teamed with Dickie Fleischer, Dickie's deceptive serves setting up Barry's winners, to prevail over perennial rivals but this time teammates Hicks and George "The Chief" Brathwaite.

All six of these picked veterans would then go on to win Age Event singles or doubles championships here at the Astroarena.

Senior Men's Singles 40+

There were 53 players who actually played in this six-round, one-day 40 singles event. The most prominent of the no-shows? 1995 Champion and this year's #5 seed, Rey Domingo.

Aside from the 40 or so matches which were more or less routine, I might first quietly mention 1988-rated Chris Castro's point-cascading 1st-round loss to Alberto Borges, one of the maybe 20 entries from Mexico to arrive into this Houston ambiance of heat, humidity, and hope. Then, turning to the Control Desk's open mike, I'd like to announce with befitting dignity our USATT Prez Jim McQueen's upset victory over defensive star Bohdan Dawidowicz and then his follow-up 3rd-round win over Chilean Miguel Droguett Valencia. Jim's Boo's Brothers disguise this week was shirt-and-tie innovative, but not nearly as effective as pal Pete May's. To see Pete now in all his red, white, and blue glory you'd have to go to a different kind of down-South tournament, for he's winging or swinging it in something called Disc-o-Golf. (The discs are made of Hard Rubber?)

In the only 3-game 8th's match, Penn State's Hank McCoullum, after giving up just 11 points in the 1st, looked to be a winner over 7th seed Gonzalo Ortiz, but then a dozen of Ortiz's followers roared in as if on motorcycles, and, faced with all that rabid rooting, Hank felt, and fell, gonzo-Gonzaloed.

In the one contested quarter's in the top half of the draw, Hui Yuan Liu, mainstay of the New York T.T. Club in Queens, who in the 8th's had kept the formidable 2230-rated Richard Hicks under 10 both games, lost a tense 18-in-the-3rd match to Attila Malek. Liu, a lefty penholder who uses long pips on his backhand to effectively mix up his serve returns, was leading in the 3rd, but, despite a strong 3rd-ball attack, couldn't hold off Malek, who 20 years ago, after emigrating from Hungary, was our U.S. Closed Champion.

Though Attila heart-felt humbly speaks of every day being his Lord's Day and of returning to Hungary to do Christian missionary work (ironically the name is usually associated with that Hun of history known as the "Scourge of God"), he at the moment is very comfortable with his life. "God always gives you the desires of your heart," he says--and five days a week he enjoys teaching both Table Tennis and The Bible to students at Calgary Chapel High School in Costa Mesa, CA.

Though for the last two months Attila has been seriously training for competitive tournament play with an eye particularly on the $900-first-prize in the Hard Bat event here (which, as it happens, he will later lose in the final to Danny Seemiller), his efforts did not at first pay off. At the prestigious Meiklejohn Senior Championships held prior to the Open he felt he couldn't play up to the standard he'd set for himself. But here in the semi's against the #1 seed, "Jack" Tong Sheng Huang, the improvement in his game he'd worked for found fruition, was well timed. Although he had trouble with Huang's serves, he was able, point after point, swinging smoothly from both wings, to force Jack, perhaps already becoming arm-sore, into an ineffective block defense and so claim victory. "I was surprised," said Attila after his 20, -11, 12 win. "It's been a long time since I played that well."

In the one contested quarter's match in the bottom half of the draw, Barry Dattel, longtime President of the New Jersey Westfield Club, had an early lead in the deciding 3rd against Abass Ekun, the resident coach at New York City's Westside Club, but then couldn't block-contain Abass's hopping backhand openings.

Ekun moved into the final by 10, 14 overpowering Danny Seemiller. Danny's eyes were aching. "Things were getting fuzzy," he said, "but I didn't know why." Then the doctor told him he had mild astigmatism in his left eye, so two months ago he began wearing glasses. Did they help? Knowing that these days Seemiller is more into coaching than playing, I still couldn't resist asking him if this one-sided loss to Abass didn't get to him. "Not at all," he said evenly--and this despite the fact that he'd been disturbed at being beaten in another early event by young Keith Alban just returned from training in Sweden. "I'm really not bothered so long as I can play o.k. and make a few dollars [here $100]."

Abass then 19, 18 got the better of Attila to win this 40's event, perhaps largely because at 19-all in the 1st, Attila, having the attack advantage of service, departed from his usual underspin, and Abass, quick to read the unexpected change with an aggressive return, forcefully exploited what we all know can be a single-point match-turning-opportunity.

All-Star Senior Men's Singles 40+

This All-Star event was really an exact counterpart (though drawing only half the entries) of the earlier Senior Men's Singles, with just a mite more prize money for the runner-up and semifinalists and the requisite reshuffling of the draw, since almost without exception the principal players I've mentioned earlier were all in contention again.

Quarterfinalist Homer Brown provided a mild surprise, however, not by appearing in his 30th straight U.S. Open, nor by losing decisively to Jack Huang, but in 1st-round knocking out Bohdan Dawidowicz who I can only whisper must have had one of the most unfulfilling Opens of his illustrious decades-long career.

In the first of two 2nd-round matches of note, Hank McCoullum (-20, 12, -21) outscoring but not finally outpointing his opponent, almost pulled off a very satisfying win. By beguilely encouraging stalwart defender Hicks to pick-hit his backhand so that he, McCoullum, might quickly counter-attack ("Hicks is much more vulnerable when he's close to the table"), Hank, up match-point, had Richard lobbing 1...2...3...4 balls before failing to put him away.

Some consolation for McCoullum, though--a local CBS affiliate had him on TV. Of course he was asked the usual idiotic questions, one of which was, "Why isn't Table Tennis an athletic sport?"...To which Hank feistily, sensibly replied, "Look, instead of people sitting home making such an ignorant judgment, why don't they come down to the Astroarena and watch...or play?"

Also in the 2nd round, Dickie Fleisher (21, -17, -19) almost eliminated the just-crowned Open Senior Champion, Abass Ekun. Florida-based Dickie has homes in Miami and Jacksonville, and works in Naples, so that in one of those three places, maybe five days a month, his wife of 10 years, Kayo (KI-yo) is apt to find him. The rest of the time Dickie's on the road--plays in four symphony orchestras, and, never mind how, is also the National Harpist for the Dominican Republic. ("The Concert Hall in Santa Domingo is two blocks from the table tennis club--and, wow, talk about hot playing conditions!") By pluck and pick, and, ohh, those long pips, which Abass had such trouble reading, and which often put him on the defensive ("If I don't win the point quickly," said Dickie, "I'm definitely at a disadvantage, so I had to keep attacking"), Fleisher nearly affected a striking 50-rating-point swing. "Oh, well," he said, "there's always another tournament."

In the quarter's, Ekun also had (18, -23, 14) trouble reading whatever stubborn, spin-changing defender Hicks was or was not putting on the ball. But then Abass got help in reaching his second 40's final when Defending Champion Huang had to default their semi's match. Jack's much more a coach now than player, and when he loops hard and long as of course he must in tournament-advancing matches, his arm begins to pain him, so much so that he is what he is and needs the unrealizable equivalent of a cartoon world come to life--Popeye guzzling canned spinach--to pop-out-rejuvenate his aching muscles.

In the bottom half of the draw, Malek downed Barry Dattel, two-zip, but then said he wanted to rest his back, his legs, wanted to concentrate solely on Hard Bat play, so he, too, defaulted his semi's match--to Seemiller.

Down 15-9 in the 1st-game of his quarter's match with Hui Yuan Liu, Danny, reduced to passive pushing and blocking, looked like he might be destined not only to continue being wiped out of event after event, but that he'd soon have to give up that $100 he'd won in the Senior's, for hadn't he promised exactly that amount to the first of his South Bend students who could beat him, and wasn't that time apparently now drawing near? But abruptly, with a sort of "Remember the Alamo" rallying cry to self--a commitment to play, to be aggressive ("At least if I attack every ball and lose, I'll feel better")--he celebrated 1998 Independence Day in Texas as if he were back at San Jacinto with Houston routing Santa Anna. You think I exaggerate? He won 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-9-10-11-12-13-14-15 points in a row--an incredible display of firepower.

Nor was he finished with his fireworks-fun. In the $250 1st-prize final, he (-20, 18, 16) avenged that earlier 10, 14 loss to Abass that he said hadn't bothered him. Down 1-0 and 17-13 in the 2nd, he rallied, almost ran that game out, then, down 16-12 in the 3rd, he did run it out with rapid-fire shots that rivaled those we'd later see streak across the night sky.

Senior Women's Singles 40+

In this 10-player women's field, there were two quarter's matches, where in each 1st-game case had the winners not managed to win at deuce, they would not eventually have met in the final.

USATT Hall of Famer Judy Bochenski Hoarfrost, a 150-rating-point favorite, (22, -16, 15) barely avoided a straight-game loss to USATT Hall of Famer Barbara Chaimson Kaminsky. Barbara had Judy down 20-18 in the 1st, but then, said her sometime mentor, husband Bob, as the two of them later talked with me, "Barbara did a stupid thing. Really, a player of her caliber ought to think, but she didn't. She gave Judy the same stupid backhand serve she'd given her before and predictably lost the advantage." Then in the 3rd, when Kaminsky was up 6-3 and Hoarfrost moved closer to the table, Barbara should perhaps have reacted by shortening her stroke, for she dropped six points in a row, and, said Bob, "She just ran out of energy. Got red as a beet. Tried to hit, hit, hit, and nothing would go on." "I should have played more defense and got my breath back," interjected Barbara. "You know," said Bob, shaking his head, "Barbara really must get in better condition." "I'll have to do it on my own," she quickly replied--and considering Bob's own avoirdupois as startled spectators were distracted by low-flying lovebirds flitting about the confines of the playing-hall-momentarily-turned-aviary, Barbara certainly thought fast enough to wing that one in, score a much needed point there.

Hoarfrost, whose concentration would be affected on discovering that her 10-year-old son Ryan's racket had been stolen (a quick call to her Paddle Palace and he was overnighted another), then went on to oust Defending Champion Donna Hui-Hua Chen, who'd been runner-up to Judy in last year's 40's Closed.

In the other contested quarter's, Ann Alvarez, who calls her windshield-wiper grip "modified Seemiller," (21, -12, 9) barely avoided a straight-game loss to Chile's Maria Adela Cifuentes Stockebran, one of only 10 (of the perhaps 175 attendant) foreigners, men or women, to play in the 40 and Over Age events. For six years Maria was a ranked player in the Chilean Federation, and, as she's now their 4th best Senior Woman player, her backhand-pips-play understandably gave Ann trouble.

Former Iranian National Team member Mahin Roufeh--whose 1995 return to the Sport after an absence of 20 years produced that memorable '96 Closed final she lost to Hoarfrost (29-27 in the deciding 3rd)--also caused Alvarez problems. "Roufeh has pips on both sides," said Ann, "but she hits with only one side. It was like playing a hard-rubber player. In practice she was socking the ball in from all over, and though it took a while to sink in I could see she liked harder, faster returns from me, so naturally I deliberately tried to play long points, simply outsteady her, which as the match progressed I did."

Though Hoarfrost -19, 19, 13 won the final over Alvarez, she was initially confused not by Ann's serves (one of which she was untimely faulted on) but by her unorthodox, over-the-table pips-play ("My mind kept saying, 'That's underspin'--but it wasn't"). Since Judy prefers not to push but to topspin the ball she had to be careful not to rush her shots but show plenty of patience before picking a forehand to try to smack in. As it was, she was at a precarious 10-all in the 3rd before Alvarez faltered. Next year, believe it or not, Ann will be eligible for the Over 60's--that is, so long as the singles and doubles events won't continue to be referred to as the Senior Esquire's.

U-1800 Senior RR 40+

This extremely popular 58-entry event was won by 1572-rated Eddie Bertin who fought his way up through six matches in all--winning four of them by the gutsy scores of 19, -18, 20...-19, 19, 15...20, 19...and-20, 16, 11...to finally defeat 1774-rated Richard Wright in the final.

Senior Doubles 40+

A big surprise here, for past-champion favorites, Seemiller and Sakai, were upset, deuce in the 3rd in the semi's, by Dattel and Fleisher. Danny and Dave were leading in this deciding game 19-17 when Sakai hurried in with a winner to make it match--oh, oh, Dave moved the table--to make it 19-18. Out of such swings new champions come.

In their 16, 19 final win over Abass Ekun and George Brathwaite, the #4-seeded upset-minded Dattel/Fleisher team--and this despite the modulations of Dickie's hard-to-read spin continuing to vibrate with anything but mellow sweetness in Abass's psyche--was down 19-17 in the 2nd before Barry scored with a succession of grand-scale winners.

Strange how some draws turn out. This one allowed Ekun/Brathwaite default wins in both the quarter's and semi's. How so? Well, his own team having been given a 1st-round 8th's default-win in the absence of Domingo, the Chilean with the long name, "Drougett Valencia, Miguel T." it may be never could find his assigned partner--listed on the draw sheet only as "Ca." (This, as it turned out, was an uninterpreted shortening of the name "Castro, Chris," cut off by the castroating Computer? I speculate this was so because the Chilean's partner in the 50 Doubles was one, "Bo"--Boggan, me.)

Also, though the 45-entry Hard Bat event will be reported on elsewhere in this issue, I might comment that if the Computer made the "seedings" for that event's opening round robins it again occasionally went wacky--as when, for example, in one bracket it had a 1929-rated player as 1st seed and a 1648-rated player as 2nd seed, while in Barry Dattel's bracket it had a 2329 player as 1st seed, a 2274 player as 2nd seed, and a 2022 player as 3rd seed. Perhaps, given the USATT's excellent all-around cooperation with those urging a resurgenceof this enjoyable event, the Computer should consult Scott Gordon and his "Underground Hard Bat Ratings"?

Esquire Men's Singles 50+

I don't know why, but there were as many as 10 defaults in this draw, and out of the 33 matches actually played, the most contested ones were 17 in the 3rd, 14 in the 3rd...on down, 12, 11, 10, 9, and 6 in the 3rd. Nothing exactly nail-biting.

Tom Wintrich, who'll go down in Table Tennis History as the USTTA Editor who changed the decades-old revered name of Topics to the short-lived Spin, advanced to the 8th's before meeting up with Brathwaite. "First time I've lost to him in 10 years," said Tom--which, though he seems to be playing better than ever, is just how long he's been out of the Sport. Welcome back, my Houston roomie, if you're not yet the proverbial "old boy," you're still classic "old school" appreciative, huh?

In the quarter's, "The Chief" had to be more than a bit befuddled, as who wouldn't be, by '95 Closed Over 40 runner-up Joe Cummings' crazy-grip game. Story was, Joe's San Antonio coach Paul LeBlanc never tried to change his pupil's grip because, what the hell, he never thought Joe'd be any good. Up 18-17 in the 1st, Cummings served sleight of hand, as it were, and Brathwaite failed to return a single ball. Then up 8-1 in the 2nd, down 15-13, Joe himself seemed confused--"I thought my crowd-the-table offense would win for me, but when George kept steadily looping, I switched strategy to just patiently return shots"--then, what analyst could predict it, of the final 9 points, Joe won 8, George 1.

Meanwhile, in this top half of the draw, Ali Oveissi never seemed to give Homer Brown time to do his infamous "Shuffle," nor Nick Mintsiveris time to refresh himself from his fruit-filled Freezer. And though Cummings beat Oveissi in the U-2200's in a close 3-game match, he didn't beat him in the semi's here. Ali said his strategy was to put the first ball into the backhand corner where Joe was anchored, then the next one just a little more toward the forehand, then another far to the forehand, and, after Joe's moved over, another back to his backhand corner, mixing topspin placements with heavy pushes. As a result, for the second year in a row, Ali was able, via an unplayed final, to share the 50 Singles title.

With whom? With Dave Sakai of course, who had only to play two matches for his share of the title and prize money. After a 1st-round win, Dawidowicz defaulted to him in the quarter's (rather than subject himself to the inevitable--another punishing, cramp-producing Expedite match?). Then Hicks in the semi's couldn't average more than 10 points a game, while from time to time Dave's encouraging wife Donna, cornered at courtside, would glance up from postcard after postcard she was writing.

Esquire Women's Singles 50+

This 11-entry 50's event, begun almost simultaneously with the Over 40 Women's Singles, saw Ann Alvarez and Maria Adela Cifuentes Stockebran play a near mirror-image match of their earlier one, though not in the quarter's but the semi's, and this time with Alvarez coming from behind to again win the 3rd game at 9.

In the other semi's, last year's runner-up but now our 50's Closed Champion, the ever-improving Suzanna Sanders, had a surprisingly easy win over Barbara Kaminsky. Not only could Barbara not flash in backhand winners, but she was vulnerable to Suzanna's angled-in forehands. Said Barbara's husband Bob, never at a loss for words, "Sanders has a tricky game--it takes patience to beat her."

And of course conditioning. For Suzanna, it turns out, after husband Bob first put a racket in her hand, and after she first became serious about the Sport while competing in the '95 Florida Senior Olympics, has a daily regimen of hours and hours of (1) running (she's a marathon runner), (2) swimming (1000 meters, say, at a stretch), and of course table tennis (a 90 minute workout). "But Windsurfing is my real passion," she says; "Table Tennis my addiction."

And what an incredible, endurance-minded final these near 60-year-olds, Sanders and Alvarez, played. Ann, runner-up in the '94 U.S. Open Over 40's, combines a great will to win and a strategic table game. Both were very much in evidence in this last, climactic match, for by relentlessly keeping the ball to Sanders' backhand she was able to deprive Suzanna of her most effective weapon, her point-winning forehand. Again and again over the years Ann has been able to wear down opponent after opponent. And yet it doesn't seem possible to me that Alvarez could be as fit as Sanders, and so, even though Suzanna was not only playing but also working at Control Station C as a member of the Open's Operational Staff and had repeatedly to trek long distances to a water fountain or women's restroom, Ann at the end surely had to be the more exhausted of the two, for she eventually lost this super-tense Championship, -21, 18, -20.

"Were you nervous playing for this your first U.S. Open Championship?" I asked Suzanna. "When I'm tired, I don't have the strength to be nervous," she said. "But when I play well and win, as I did today, my body produces endorphin--and that makes for a natural, orgasmic high. So winning is FUN, is addictive."

Esquire Doubles 50+

Defending Champs Hicks and Mintsiveris 19, 15 lost their title to steady Sakai and Brathwaite. In one of two 3-game matches of interest, Homer Brown/Joe Cummings -9, 19, 18 outlasted Jia Tong Mu/D.G. Van Vooren. D.G., formerly one of the Southwest's best players, was back now with a vengeance after a 20-year absence, practicing daily at the Houston Club under the watchful eye of Manager/Coach Roberto "Dino" Byles. In the other interesting match, Brazilian "tourists" Luiz Carlos Dea/Nelson Kuniyoshi 19-in-the-3rd-escaped Sik-Kay Poon/ Ming-Hong Chang before losing 15, 21 in the quarter's to Drougett Valencia/"Bo."

Senior Esquire Singles/Doubles 60+

A real drop-off here--with almost a quarter of those entering the Singles defaulting. Maybe those who decided not to play thought if they had to get out there on court at the same time as the legendary Marty Reisman they'd miss seeing him in action?

In early 3-game matches of note, Jerry Marcum took a game from Mintsiveris, while the 67-year-old visored Van Vooren one-balled Boggan to the note-taking sidelines, then 18, -18, -12 began roughing up Dawidowicz until Bohdan wised-up and put ball after ball to D.G.'s not overly consistent forehand. Both Mintsiveris and Dawidowicz lost in straight games to finalist Hicks, who in between matches took me out to a table to show me how he used to deliberately serve edge balls down the forehand line. I'd heard he once did this successfully at deuce in the 5th. Unnerving, such nerve, nerves, eh? You try it.

Reisman of course, as will be clear elsewhere in this magazine, played hard bat to hard bat (he'd gotten literally boxes of Hock rackets from Bernie when Gene Bricker squired him round New Albany, IN and environs recently). First he lost to Seemiller in 3 in what I thought was the most attentively watched match outside those in the Pro Tour Arena ("You played nobly," said a visiting Japanese to Marty). Then, after the sensational Saive-Legout thriller, he was beaten by Jimmy Butler, 6 games to 2 (see my write-up of this historic USATT-supported match elsewhere in this issue).

Here in the quarter's of the 60's, Marty, in full, fluff beard disguise, lost -17, 15, -12 to Grady Gordon, who most certainly did not play him hard bat to hard bat. Indeed, Gordon's long-pip serves to Reisman's backhand forced Marty into errors (even with his own serve, Marty, playing poorly, had lost the first 5 points of the match). And then when Grady, helped by Marty's too-high returns, proved able to hit forehands in that Marty, cradling the ball, couldn't, and had some luck besides (up 19-17 in the lst he served an irretrievable edge), Reisman got behind and, though he won the 2nd, couldn't recover.

Gordon, who'll be 72 in November, also played a very respectable -19, -16 semi's match against Brathwaite, a 275-point favorite, who recently came to the astonishing conclusion he'd been coaching--at New York City's 86th St. Amsterdam Billiards [sic] and elsewhere--as much as practicing.

As the Brathwaite-Hicks match is about to begin, George muses aloud, "I'm trying to remember how to play him" (which really can't be too hard, since in both the '97 Open and Closed George beat Richard in the 60's final). Hicks, meanwhile, looks at his watch--as if he anticipates many long points and the possibility of going to Expedite? First game: George, patiently pushing till opening point after point with forehand topspin, is up 13-6, then 13-11, then 21-11. But awful as Dick has been playing, he courageously begins to right himself just when the match appears to be over. He sees he has to hit his picks hard, and from 19-14 down gets in a succession of ball-busters that enables him to...just fall short of extending George into the 3rd.

Hicks, however, did go on to win the 60 Doubles with Mintsiveris--over Dawidowicz/Boggan, who in the semi's had just 21, 19 gotten by Jerry Marcum/Jim Leggett.

Veteran Singles/Doubles 70+

In the absence of superstar George Hendry, whom Gordon lost an unforgettable deuce-in-the-3rd 70's final match to in our last Closed, Grady was a lock to defend his Championship. In the final, taking nothing for granted, exhorting himself to play, he beat a grimacing, error-prone Buddy Melamed, who'd like to turn back the years to 1970, when he first started competing and wasn't suffering those incapacitating arthritic knees. Although Fred Borges did well to take a game from Melamed (more than half a century ago Freddie was among the Top 20 in the U. S.), the only #2 seed to come out of his round robin was Si Wasserman. Si defeated Houston marvel Lisa Modlich, who, since she began playing at age 66, has been up against mostly loopers, and, as she said to Si, "You don't loop!"

Gordon, paired with Doubles-specialist Melamed, winner of a number of U. S. Championships down through the years, as expected won the Doubles, but limber Lisa, who I heard plays 3-4 hours a day at the Houston Club, teamed with the always quick-with-a-quip Louie Radzeli to reach the final.

Veteran Singles 75/80+

Radzeli, as anticipated, won both of these Championships--though in the 75's he was ad-down in the 1st in a preliminary match to Borges, and then in the 3-man final round robin lost the 1st to Si Wasserman. ("I don't know how Radzeli does it," says Si. "Sometimes he looks like he can hardly walk. But though he carries pounds, he has good legs, good movement.")

From 1949 to 1964, Wasserman ran the very popular Table Tennis Center in Hollywood, CA then left the Sport for 30 years. Lured back by Mary McIlwain and Shonie Aki to help them in establishing a California Hall of Fame, Si has steadily improved to the point where he took second here in the 75's by just 14, -15, 21 easing by Arthur Chase (I say "easing" only because Si, who'd been picking backhands, said he deliberately allowed Chase, who'd been picking forehands, to hit and miss at the end).

Chase, the Defending 80's Champion, was very hard-pressed in both the 75's and 80's to win fiercely-contested matches with Henry Rubin. Rubin ("My reflexes are very good") moved Chase around, but was bothered by Arthur's Feint (no sponge) pips play which often made Henry's ball go long. Rubin also lost a tough 18-in-the-3rd 75's match to Leo Egel. "In match after match I'm ahead, but I can't finish," Henry moaned.

Although care is usually taken with the Over 40-80 draws, the Computer should have been more considerate of the Veterans. In preliminary matches in the 13-entry 70's and 9-entry 75's, Si Wasserman and Ed Tracy, and Henry Rubin and Leo Egel, were twice grouped together in 3-man round robins. Also, in the 75's, when the top seeds in each of the three brackets are rated 1891, 1583, and 1574, why place the 4th seed, rated 1557, in the 1891 bracket? And in the '80's, why not, in the one bracket with the 1891 player, a more than 300-point favorite over his nearest competitor, place the 1010, 934, and 885 players? And then in the opposite bracket place the 1583, 1507, and 1461 players and let then fight it out to see who gets to the final? These adjustments all seem to me not out of the ordinary, not one for the books, but reflect just a very common-sense, reasonable approach.

Surely we want to encourage in every way possible these to-be-admired advanced-age entries who support our major tournaments (one of them, '96 Open Over 80 Champ, Ulpiano Santo, is now 90!). Let's be aware that Draw distinctions matter to these still intense players--and always will. And let's reward them for their longtime participation by continuing to take their play as seriously as we do those who are younger...though not more competitive.