Laguna Woods, CA · June 5-8, 2003
By Tim Boggan
Time again for the long-running Bill and Louise Meiklejohn National Senior’s – and what a four-day NSTTA tournament it was! Conditions at the traditional Leisure World Clubhouse 5 site weren’t perfect; but, alright, so the uneven lighting (plus orange ball against orange floor) wasn’t a sight for sore eyes, and so the 12 rather cramped-in tables were of a different make and age – that’s the way the players were too. All in all, it was another very satisfying tournament – as witness this year’s 20% increase in players in the 32 events. Yep, the Senior’s are taking over: 263 entries this year, all vying for Trophies and particularly the “Over $15,000 in Prizes.”
Those
running the tournament under the capable Direction of Ray Kunze couldn’t have
been nicer. They included, among others: Stan Kahan and his wife Olga, grande
dame imperial protectress of the Draw-sheets; Shonie Aki who, after his two hip
replacements, skipped away from the Control Desk long enough to win several
near-death matches as 1800 bionic finalist to Emmanuel Garcia; Julius Margolis,
No-nonsense Mike Manager and Match Mover Extraordinaire; Herb Gilbert who
through the luck of the Draw got to audition as David Zhuang’s National
Doubles partner; Referee Tom Miller and his wife Marilyn (a moot point who had
more Control powers at this tournament, uh, or anywhere); and Walt Wehrli who,
as Treasurer, has promised to donate all his future slot machine winnings to the
NSTTA.
You’d have to say Durability was the theme of this tournament – and I’m not just talking about the 90-year-old division won by Harry Bloom over Romo Chernoff and Dora Morrison, who only last week ran a local clinic in Portland, OR. Turns out the Over 85, Over 80, Over 75 round robins, plus the Over 75 and Over 70 Doubles, were all held Thursday afternoon – and nobody died. Of course at the forefront of these clustered matches was 86-year-old Ivan Slade, who, before he and his wife Rose would leave next summer for the World’s Veterans Championships at Yokohama, was planning to go back to London for his Oxford and St. George’s Club 90th Reunion. (You didn’t know? His father, Alfie, was the “Banana King” of London – uh-huh, that’s what the old man sold, and Ivan as a boy would enterprisingly swipe bunches and sell them to his schoolmates).
Slade won the 85’s over the still agile Bloom; lost the 80’s final to Si Wasserman 11-8 in the 5th; won the 75’s from San Diego TTA Treasurer Neil Smyth; lost the 75 Doubles with Si to Smyth and Byng Forsberg; and won the 70 Doubles with Dick Peregrine over Neil and Byng who I was astonished to find out had starred in all kinds of Senior Games sports – track and field, race walking, in-line skating, snowshoe racing, ice skating, and cross-country skiing. Ask Peregrine, who half a century ago went 5 games with U.S. Champ Johnny Somael, what a spring Byng has to his step. Literally – for the springs on his $165 Z-Coil shoes for sore joints take away 40% of impact force and are great for hopping table-top high to swat down lobs.
In
the 70’s semi’s, Slade, on defeating former St. Louis U.S. #7 Junior Tom
Klutho, went 5 games with #1 seed Hiep Hoa Cung – had in fact been down 2-0 in
games, then rallied, only to see a net ball that sent him 2-0 down in the 5th
break his concentration so that immediately afterwards he mis-served two
in a row. In the other semi’s, USATT Historian Tim Boggan, playing with a
hardbat, survived a 9, -8, 9, -9, 12 marathon match with Chason Koh, then went
on to take the final from Hiep, 14-12 in the 4th.
In the Men’s 60’s, that most durable of players, George “The Chief” Brathwaite, starting shakily with a 14-12-in-the-4th win over Ralph Muramoto, thereafter didn’t lose a game, not even in the semi’s when Howie Grossman had him 10-7 in the 3rd. You wouldn’t believe the incredible photo album daughter Jennifer Howie was proudly showing round – it was almost worth the trip to Hong Kong just for the $10 visit Howie and wife Kelly paid to a studio in nearby Shenzen for the many and magnificent photos. As George was kept busy at one table after another, in event after event, and finalist Nick Mintsiveris (he’d knocked out Viacom’s new Senior Vice President Ron VonSchimmelmann, 11-9 in the 4th) was also very busy at another table off in a side room selling t.t. equipment, they were happy to split the $300 booty.
In the Women’s 60’s (alas, no prize money for that), Pu Har So Chan, rated 1860, had no trouble beating Harriet Quan in the final. But Harriet, who’d only taken up the game in the mid-1990’s and thereafter had played sparingly, was ecstatic over her successes, as who wouldn’t be, for she’d gotten by improved attacker Gail Kendall in round-robin play, and then, though outscored 50-45, had upset feisty Irena Borisova in the semi’s.
The Men’s 50’s saw two early matches of note. Reinhard Freimuth, playing with Toni Hold antispin on both sides (available, it’s said, only in Reinhard’s native Germany), downed Grossman, 11-9 in the 5th. And Chong Keng Tay (2195), 13-11 in the 5th, barely avoided an upset by Lon Dean (2033), runner-up in the 2050’s to Joobian Ataian. Chong, a long-pips penholder with a half-push/half-block “spoiler” game, then almost held off Brathwaite, as George, bothered by the bad lighting over Table 9, couldn’t always read Chong’s changing spin, and so was forced to push-push-push until eyeing a ball he thought he could topspin. Down 10-5 in the 5th, Chong got to 9 before succumbing.
That brought The Chief to the quarter’s where he found Lim Ming Chui, who’d put it to his wife (now estranged) as nicely as he could, “With or without your permission, I’d like to play three more years of serious table tennis.” Ming, up 2-0, was putting it to George too, hampering his spin game with net-close nothing balls, until George, having no success with his short backhand serves, began serving out. Down 8-7 in the 5th, Ming mis-served, but then rallied, only to lose it 12-10. Next time, huh, Ming, for it seems there’ll surely be one.
George (could he have been tired? unthinkable) then defaulted his semi’s to Rey Domingo after Rey had won a ferocious topspin battle with Parviz Mojaverian who not only had to be the best Clinical Pharmacologist in Kansas but its best t.t. player too. As Parviz had to decide if prospective drugs for the market were too powerful, or not powerful enough, so he had to do that with his table tennis hits and hops, and, though he got the mixture right enough to win the 2nd and 3rd-game close ones, he couldn’t pull out the 5th, lost 11-9. “Maybe at the end,” said Parviz, who last year beat Domingo in the 50’s final, “I was too anxious to attack myself – I served long and he looped it in.”
Meanwhile, on the other side of the Draw, Attila Malek – who’d returned from Hungary where (“God is awesome!”) he’d been pleased to have not only been offered a team spot in 1st Division league play this fall but an accompanying place to conduct Bible classes – escaped Changping Duan, 9 in the 4th, then faced Dave Sakai. Dave had come through by besting the fluid forehand sweeps and backhand thrusts of Stanley Tang – for, with games 1-1 and the score 12-all in the 3rd, Tang had mis-served, gone 2-1 down, and couldn’t recover.
Against
Attila, Dave’s fierce up-close table game almost had him a winner. In the 1st,
leading 9-8, he made three errors, then won four points in a row to start the
2nd. But from 10-all he couldn’t win that one either, then maddeningly got
another cluster of points to build a big early lead in the 3rd which – with
his forcing backhand blocks and exchanges neutralizing Malek’s topspin attack
– he had no problem holding. In the 4th, Sakai twice rallied, from down 7-3
and 10-7 match point, but at 10-9 Attila looped in Dave’s serve for the win.
In the final, Malek’s attack was straight-game too much for the ageless
Domingo. I don’t know that Attila was surprised by his 50’s win, but earlier
he’d been plagued by neck pains that, extending sciatically, made it
questionable if he could even play. His hope, he said, and ultimately his
success, lay in the short prayer, “Lord, I’m not asking you for victory.
Just help me glorify your Holy Name.”
The Women’s 50’s ran true to form when Charlene Xiaoying Liu got by Wan Yee Cheung, and Roufeh Mahin defeated peripatetic California coach Bella Livshin to reach the final. Mahin uses short pips on the forehand, long pips on the backhand, and plays with the fastest blade possible (“It’s weird,” she says, “but I like it”). Liu, in an effort to head off frustration, had her coach, “Jack” Huang,” make up a paddle like Roufeh’s, but, ohh, could Charlene learn to hit against those long pips that in the past had been such a bugaboo to her? Afraid not. However, in their cliffhanger 5th, Charlene had a weapon of her own. At 8-8, she jabbed a backhand serve to Mahin’s forehand that the former Iranian National couldn’t handle, and, after Mahin had tied it up from down 10-8, again came this effective jab serve – with the result that the $300 1st prize went to Charlene, the $150 2nd prize to Mahin.
Roufeh
was lamenting the fact that entries in the Women’s Over 40’s included both
U.S. Olympian Lily Yip and former outstanding Tianjin Coach /Player Hong Zhao
(Chinese National Doubles Champion for the ‘79-80 season, but since ‘95 much
more coach than player in the U.S.). Was this fair? What chance had she, who’d
beaten Donna Sakai, against Defending Champion Hong, or Charlene, who’d beaten
both Odessa native, now Boston-based Yevgeniya Kotlerman and Wan Yee Cheung
(erroneously rated as 1699 but actually 200 points better than that), against
Lily? Answer: None. So? So we saw a worthy final – with Hong just getting the
better of Lily, 8, -7, 15, -8, 9. Beaten, but hardly cowed, Lily, who’d come
1st in the 22-entry Hardbat event over 2300 winner Rudy Miranda, would like to
meet Hong at the Walong CCBA Cup tournament she and Y.C. Lee are running in
N.Y.’s Chinatown in Oct.
What’s the difference between this Friday start-off event for the high-rated players and Sunday’s culminating Over 40 event? Actually, since the same players prevail, not much difference at all – except that the Elites offers $1700 in prize money, the Over 40’s $4100.
In the best of the Pre-lims, Rey Domingo advanced over Changping Duan, 15-13 in the 5th through a series of heart-stopping points (“novice-level points,” said a spectator as the poor fellows are end-game struggling to breathe, stay alive). Loc Ngo, who’d win both the 4200 Doubles (with Dinh Nguyen) and the 4500 Doubles (with Doan Le), had an early-round upset over Francisco Mendez, 2-time Latin American Champion and 9-time Champion of Mexico as well as its former World Team Coach. (A good word here, too, for Avishy Schmidt who celebrated his 43rd birthday with psychic candles by eliminating Loc in the 2400’s, and for Norman Bass, who played a great though losing 11-9 in the 5th match with Cisco in the Hardbat event.)
Another upset was recorded when Malek knocked off Li Yuxiang 3-zip. “I didn’t know Li was such a high rated player,” said Attila of this 1976 Chinese National Champion who after coaching stints in Switzerland and at the Borussia Dusseldorf Club in Germany was now based at Jerry Wartski’s NYC Manhattan Club. Li went on to take the Draw Doubles with Tony Quintana (last year’s Champ with Domingo) over Manhattan Club Manager Atanda Musa and Mike Fuschino, 1600 winner over Larry Beatty who’s said to speak 17 languages, 9 fluently. A few more split bucks for Musa when with 2300 runner-up Ajayi Ohore they divided the 4800 Doubles spoils with Chui/Yip.
Though Malek would lose to Musa in the semi’s of these Elites, he bounced back to take the 49-entry 2400’s from Defending Champ Mendez who’d reached the final, first, with a too-slow racket, 5-game win over Tang (Cisco’s schedule had been changed and he didn’t have time to re-glue), and then with a super-fast flurry through Domingo.
The
Elite final was between Musa, low-looping-in bullets from both sides, and our
National Champion David Zhuang, rubber-banding them back just as fast. In the
1st, there’s a beauty of a return by David when, up 10-9 game point, Atanda
flash-loops-in David's serve. Continuing to play aggressively, Musa, the 1984-89 African
World Cup representative for 6 straight years, 15-13 stops Zhuang’s
hadn’t-lost-a-game-as-yet advance. In the 2nd, however, from 5-all, David
pulls away, and the spectators are treated to one of Musa’s playful
crowd-pleasers – for as the ball is rocketing by him, Atanda jumps, wildly
tries to counter, and cries out as if in the throes of one mortally wounded. Oh!
In the 3rd, it was as if they’d taken him to the hospital – an 11-3 loss. In
the 4th, though, he’s resuscitated – is up 3-0 and confiding to the crowd,
“I’m winning! I’m winning!” Then, missing a backhand, he slaps his
naughty racket. It’s no stretch to say I’m surprised at Musa’s ability in
his early 40’s to make the acrobatic gets of youth. He also moves flexibly to
try to take over the forehand offense from David – no mean feat – but he has
to pick his spots, for David, as if he prefers Atanda’s low-trajectory loops
to those higher and spinnier, has what one might call boomerang anticipation.
How well Zhuang understands and anticipates what shots any opponent of the
moment is capable of. At 9-all, Musa gets an edge – but then in a marvelous
dual battery of exploding shots to all parts of the table and beyond, David
prevails. The deuce-game and match finally comes to an end with Zhuang winning
out via “safe” backhand-to-backhand play. Thus $600 to David, $300 to Atanda.
Notable early-round matches in the 51-entry Over 40’s were Samari’s 12-10 in the 5th win over Bin Hai Chu; Brathwaite’s 5-game victory over John Schneider (“My technique’s so old,” quipped George, “it’s back in style”); Lily Yip’s thriller with Dave Sakai (after being down 2-0 in games, Dave rallied to 2-2, only in the end to set up Lily’s 12-10 win by chopping her serve into the net and lifting a high, soft ball to her forehand: “Sometimes,” said Dave, “I find myself waiting for something to happen – and you just can’t do that”); former Ukrainian T.T. Federation President, now a U.S. Citizen and Certified National Coach Aleksandr Mikhlin’s 5-gamers over Mark Wedret (after losing the first two) and Parviz Mojaverian (after Mikhlin not so sotto voce repeatedly addressed himself, and Parviz, grumbling, repeatedly addressed the spectators he fancied sympathetic to him through his 11-9 demise).
As she’d done in the Elite’s, Yip advanced to the semi’s – this time (play now is best 4 out of 7) with straight-game wins over Mikhlin and Mendez who’d had no problems with Coach Christian Lillieroos, hopeful of maybe enrolling as many as 15 players this fall at Texas Wesleyan. As he’d done in the Elite’s, Musa advanced to the semi’s – this time having to share the audience’s fun with San Diego-based Yokohama chopper Kazuhiro Kamada, and later with Malek – and, wow, talk about a Danny Seemiller grunt, occasionally just as Atanda strikes the ball he YELLS. The semi’s between Yip and Musa often finds Atanda exhibiting a lob defense, which the crowd enjoys and applauds…up to the very last kick, miss, and sporting smile by Lily.
As he’d done in the Elites, Zhuang advanced to the semi’s, there to meet not Malek but Li Yuxiang, dispenser of Domingo who, as it happened, had seen Li win the 1996 World Veterans’ Singles and Doubles at Lillehammer. Penholder Li, all energy, opens with a succession of smoothly vicious backhands, startling one and all, and is up 5-1. Then has trouble with some of David’s serves and is down 8-7. But more backhand winners bring him to 10-all. Now two forehands roar in and up goes the acknowledging fist. After which David tops Li’s serve into the net and flips his racket in irritation to the table. “If a 48-year-old comes over here and beats our U.S. Champion,” says a spectator in disgust, “we ought to close up shop.”
But just as Li was hot in the 1st game, so he’s cold in the 2nd – gets only 3 points. On coming back to his corner, he says to sponsor Jerry Wartski, “Too much miz-take.” By now, David is often relying on a short, angled-away serve to lefty Li’s forehand that helps him to win the 3rd at 7. Li begins the 4th by serving into the net. At 6-all, an up-close watcher’s cell phone goes off – and the ump stops play to come over and issue a warning…then no sooner goes back to resume the game than the phone goes off again, whereupon the umpire sees red, as does the carded offender. Again Zhuang pulls away and ends the game with a couple of Tiger Woods’ triumphant uppercuts.
In the 5th, David, employing some fast, precise placements, takes a 3-0 lead. Li is finished? Nope. Cho! Cho! He goes 4-3 up, and David is saying to self, “Let’s go! Think!” At 9-all, Li scores with a forehand and takes the next point to stay in the match. In the 6th, from 3-2 up, Li drops to 6-3 down – which prompts Wartski to call “Time!” But after a barrage of two-wing counters that has the crowd gasping, Li finally misses, and with an expiring shout in German, falls to the floor. He gets up but soon will be counted out. On winning, David hurries over to the closest wall and, as it looks blankly at him, screams in its face.
Before the $1500 1st-prize final, David is introduced by Umpire Stan Kahan as 4-time U.S. Men’s Singles, 5-time U.S. Mixed Doubles, and 6-time U.S. Men’s Doubles Champion. As has been his pattern of play, David starts slow, finishes strong. He wins the 1st easily, but falls 4-1 behind in the 2nd, then gets a break when Musa, who generally has excellent timing – a nice delay, then crack! – blows a hanger. But immediately David gives the point back by serving off. He catches Atanda at 6-all, but after an atrocious drop shot is down 9-6. Musa whiffs, is still up 10-7. “C’mon, GO!” he cries. But he doesn’t go – he whiffs again and soon it’s 10-all. On the next point, Musa points – didn’t his ball hit? No, says everyone. Up goes Atanda’s hands, he smiles – o.k., his mistake. And now, no mistake, play proceeds through edge balls and near edge balls, with some great gets by Musa, but eventually down he goes, 13-11. And when he can’t contest the 3rd, it’s all over?
Not on Musa’s life – he’ll stretch his play as best he can. And David gives him a chance – he misses lumberjacking-down a lob, pops up a serve. But at 10-all Musa backhands off what looks to be a sure winner…says with finality, “Today’s not my day.” Still, for a guy who says he’s embarrassed to tell people how little prize money is available for him at tournaments, and how it might better serve him to spend the weekend coaching, this Meiklejohn – and here comes Treasurer Wherli now – was a welcome exception.
Over 90 Singles: 1st Harry Bloom; 2nd Romo Chernoff; 3rd Dora Morrison.
Over 85 Singles: Ivan Slade d. Harry Bloom, 5,7,4.
Over 80 Singles: Si Wasserman d. Ivan Slade, 8,-7,8,-10,8.
Over 75 Singles: Ivan Slade d. Neil Smyth, 3,7,8.
Over 75 Doubles: Neil Smyth/Byng Forsberg d. Ivan Slade/Si Wasserman, 8,-8,7,-6,6.
Over 70 Singles – Final: Tim Boggan d. Hiep Hoa Cung, -3,6,8,12; SF: Boggan d. Chason Koh, 9,-8,9,-9,12; Hiep d. Ivan Slade, 3,6,-8,-8,6.
Over 70 Doubles – Final: Ivan Slade/Dick Peregrine d. Neil Smyth/Byng Forsberg, 7,9,-12,5.
Over 60 Men’s Singles – Final: George Brathwaite and Nick Mintsiveris split; SF: Brathwaite d. Howie Grossman, 8,9,10; Mintsiveris d. Chong Keng Tay, 6,8,9.
Over 60 Women’s Singles – Final: Pui Har So Chan d. Harriet Quan, 3,7,3; SF: Pui d. Hsing Kiang, 5,4,7; Quan d. Irina Borisova, -5,9,-6,10,9.
Over 50 Men’s Singles – Final: Attila Malek d. Rey Domingo, 10,7,8; SF: Malek d. Dave Sakai, 9,10,-9,9; Domingo d. Brathwaite, def.
Over 50 Women’s Singles – Final: Charlene Xiaoying Liu d. Mahin Roufeh, -6,6,-6,6,10; SF: Liu d. Wan Yee Cheung, 8,4,9; Roufeh d. Bella Livshin, 9,-8,4,8.
Over 40 Men’s Singles – Final: David Zhuang d. Atanda Musa, 7,11,5,10; SF: Zhuang d. Li Yuxiang, -10,3,7,8,-9,6; Musa d. Lily Yip, 7,6,4,8.
Over 40 Elite Singles--Final: David Zhuang d. Atanda Musa, -13,8,3,10; SF: Zhuang d. Lily Yip, 5,6,5; Musa d. Attila Malek, 10,8,8.
Over 40 Women’s Singles – Final: Hong Zhao d. Lily Yip, 8,-7,15,-8,9; SF: Hong d. Roufeh, 6,7,1; Yip d. Charlene Xiaoying Liu, 5,2,1.
Hardbat Singles: Lily Yip d. Rudy Miranda, 5,5,6.
U2400 Singles – Final: Attila Malek d. Francisco Mendez, 7,6,9; SF: Malek d. Avishy Schmidt, 4,-7,9,9; Mendez d. Domingo, 7,8,6.
U2300 Singles: Rudy Miranda d. Ajayi Ohore, -9,-9,9,7,8.
U2050 Singles: Joobian Ataian d. Lon Dean, 7,6,-8,7.
U1900 Singles: Emmanuel Garcia and Bruce Liu
split.
U1800 Singles:
Emmanuel Garcia d. Shonie Aki, 6,7,8.
U1600 Singles: Mike Fuschino d. Larry Beatty, 6,-6,10,9.
U1450 Singles: Winston Ngai d. Peter Wei, 9,9,-9,3.
U1300 Singles: Richard Lee d. Henry Yuan, 6,5,5.
U1200 Singles: Scott Roberts d. Asador Chilingirian, -8,8,5,9.
U1100 Singles: Scott Roberts d. Marvin Nathanson, 3,4,5.
Draw Doubles: Li Yuxiang/Tony Quintana d. Atanda Musa/Mike Fuschino, 5,10,-7. –6,8.
U4800 Doubles: Atanda Musa/Ajayi Ohore split with Lim Ming Chui/Lily Yip.
U4500 Doubles: Loc Ngo/Doan Le d. Tung Phan/Dong Nguyen, -9,9,-8,7,6.
U4200 Doubles: Loc Ngo/Dinh Nguyen d. Lim Ming Chui/Chris Lehman, -4,6,6,3.
U3400 Doubles: Dang Nguyen/Dinh Nguyen d. Emmanuel Garcia/Chihchen Hsu, 3,5,-7,3.
U2800 Doubles: Asador Chilingirian/Larry Portugal d. Stan Kahan/David Kendall, 3-1.
U2300 Doubles: Robert Johnson/Mary Shum d. William Brin/Ray Kawamoto, 1,6,8.
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