By Tim Boggan

 

            In honor of longtime sponsor Bill Meiklejohn who passed away last December, this annual Southern California event, now in its 19^th year, was renamed The Meiklejohn North American Seniors Tournament. Held as usual in the Clubhouse 5 venue at Laguna Woods Village, June 5-8, 2008, it offered over $18,000 in prize money. The major sponsor was Bill’s wife, Louise, and additional sponsors included Nittaku, Paddle Palace, the Golden Rain Foundation, the City of Laguna Woods, and of course the Village Table Tennis Club.

            Present were the familiar pantheon of Association officials: The Chair, Dame Olga Kahan, who by dress and thronely demeanor retained her ever-befitting air of twinkling gravitas. The Secretary, Stanley Kahan, a.k.a. Olga’s husband, President of the local Chess Club, who, in playfully likening his bewhiskered self to Zeus, must momentarily have had, at least in his spouse’s matriarchal eye, a better-turn-over-your-king Senior moment. The Tournament Director, Ray Kunze, who not satisfied with collecting entries in all 33-events, paired with Dick Peregrine to win one himself, the 75 Doubles. The Treasurer, Walt Wehrli, who, often dispensing trophy in hand to this or that winner, actually won one himself after he and Walt Witkowski scored an upset in that same 75 Doubles over the #1 seeded team of Neil Smyth/Byng Forsberg.

            Yes, of course there was a Tournament Committee—headed by Operations Coordinator Craig Krum. Time for you to play, you couldn’t escape him, he’d find you on his computer screen or anywhere on the premises, might even send his assistant Mas Hashimoto off in his zippy Honda convertible to track you down. Other operation facilitators included just-returned-from-Alaska Shonie Aki and son Eric, and my chief liaison, Marilyn Miller, conscientiously papering me with results at every opportunity. Chief Referee was Marilyn’s mellowing husband Tom who on one occasion, called to address a player giving way to stress and addicted to accentuating it, held reasonable ground, thus providing a slow but successful antidote to the very real possibility of a mini-Hulk-like explosion.

            Offering Tournament Committee help and advisement were the tried and true: 95-year-old Harry Bloom (“I’m young!” said this Over 90 runner-up to Arthur “Buster” Chase); 89-year-old Tournament Grounds Inspector/Adjustor Herb Gilbert; Lenny Hauer (“10 bowling balls” or 169 pounds lighter through dieting and it seemed 24/7 hours of daily table tennis); Jack Lopez; Julius Margolis; and new Club President Artie Rosenstein.

            A welcome accompaniment to the Thursday through Sunday on-court action was the gala Friday night CA Hall of Fame Banquet. Honored inductees included esteemed Coach Bill Lui; a tearful but happy Pam Ramsey; the long-ago serial actor Don Terry; and one-time Thai track and field enthusiast Bill “U” (for Ukapatayasakul). Speakers and presenters were HOF President Y.C. Lee, MC Terry Timmons, Banquet Director Olga Kahan, Azmy Ibrahim, Christian Lillieroos (new USATT Board member and U.S. supporter, along with Clark Mitchell, at the June 10-12 Nixon Library’s Ping-Pong Diplomacy U.S.-China Rematch), Neil Smyth, and Si Wasserman who paid special homage to the recently deceased Mary McIlwain.

            Si wasn’t around just to speak. In the 85’s he lost to Chase, winner over Fritz Baresel (ex-home town, Stuttgart, Germany where, as it happens, my mother’s mother was born). Buster, 91, also won the 80’s—his third straight event without rest. He’d retired from his civil engineering job way back in ’62, was keeping in shape by redoing the sprinkler system in his large yard (he’d put it in 30 years ago; now it had been torn up by a cable company). In the semi’s, he had a great 12-10 in the fifth match with Neil Smyth. Neil’s unconventional grip allowed him to swipe troublesome forehands to Buster who then had to adjust his own grip to allow for better double-wing play. In the four-game final, Chase’s quick-hit, spinny forehands proved too much for a game but tiring Kunze.

            I won the 75’s, downing Witkowski in 5, then Peregrine 12-10 in the 4^th in the final. Dick was severely handicapped, though, by a strange discolorment and swelling of his playing hand which his doctors could find no explanation for. 70 Men’s went to Nick Mintsiveris. After struggling by flat hitter Ralph Guillery in five, Nick again found himself in the fifth against long pips penholder Chong Keng Tay who forced Nick to one-ball hit in, else be pushed around and angle-blocked away from the $100 win. In the 70 Doubles, the pick-up team of Smyth and ex-firefighter Marty Theil, now retired and enjoying, as he said, “singe benefits,” 13-11-in-the-fourth survived Viktor Troppmann/John Opperman before falling in the final to Larry Portugal/Henry De Los Santos. Two good five-game semi’s in the Women’s 70’s: Harriet Quon over a down 2-0 but still gritty Millie Drake, and Harriet Brin over Mary Nauman. The winning Harriet, Quon, came to the U.S. from Hong Kong about 40 years ago and said, “Table Tennis saved my life, allowed me to meet new friends.”

            In other events completed on Thursday, player/umpire Irena Helwig, who’ll soon be off to a tournament in Hungary, then will move on to Moscow to see her parents, won the Women’s 60’s from Hsing Kiang. In the U-1100’s, Richard Chang, a retired teacher from Langley, British Columbia, made his Meiklejohn debut a successful one, proving too steady in the final for Dave Hartman, former nighthawk at Herwald Lawrence’s famed New York City club but now more into golf than t.t. In the U-1450’s, Tom Lowy got by Sam Jeon in five, but in the final Dong Ta, though almost losing three straight to Lowy, prevailed in the fifth, his racket often negating much of Tom’s spin. Portugal won again, taking the U-2800 Doubles with Asa Chilingirian over Alan Tran/Jack Janes. Janes, however, described to me as “A happy guy, full of energy,” teamed with Ed Nakanishi to finish first in the U-2300 Doubles, winning 12-10 in the fourth over Fred and Sara Cericola.

            Stuffy Singer, who 46 years ago had gone five games at the U.S. Open with U.S. Champion Bobby Gusikoff, and who’s also a veteran of three Achilles tendons surgeries, dominated the U-1200’s/U-1300’s. “The Journey is the Destination” said his playing shirt, but it didn’t take him long to get there—he lost only two games total. Finalist in the 1200’s was Rob Little; in the 1300’s, Derrick Stockhausen. The first Doubles entry offering prize money—the U-4500’s with $400 to the winners—went to Dan Seemiller/Tom Wintrich over Loc Ngo/Quang Vo, 11-9 in the 5^th. Kudos to Tom, successful hip transplant behind him, for unflinchingly handling Loc’s spinny serves at the end. In the Hardbat event it was Seemiller’s turn to hold firm in the end game. In his semi’s match against Che-Him Leung, Danny won the first 23-21, but was down 15-10 in the third before rallying. An exhausting match, said Danny, for Leung had him running all over the court. Seemiller’s final with Loc I didn’t see, but someone told me both were satisfied with the result.

            Money was certainly to be won in the remaining Women’s matches. The 50’s (first prize $300) went to Bella Livshin, who afterwards would put her coaching on hold (“I love it more than ever”) to umpire at the Nixon Library Rematch in Yorba Linda. Runner-up was Chiyako Suzuki, nicknamed by a fellow player “Tsunami” because of her speed. Best in the 40’s with a name and a game that could scare you: Bhoo Hyeon Young, an attacking long pips penholder originally from South Korea. She’d been based in Nebraska for some years, but rather recently had moved to Phoenix where she’d become the Arizona Open and Closed Champion. In the one semi’s, Bhoo stopped Diane Chen, now near anonymously, as it were, playing shakehands, her penhold years in China as a teen Provincial professional unknown to many. In the other semi’s, Hong Zhao defeated Marina Cravens who’d bested Bella, sort of friendly-like, since someone said they could be seen chatting amiably together in Russian. The final went to Bhoo ($400) over Hong ($200).

             In the Senior Elites, two-time Olympian Khoa Nguyen had only one shaky match—his 11, -8, 9, 5 quarter’s with the ever-energetic Qifan Li. Seemiller who met Khoa in the final didn’t lose a game getting there, but, once there, didn’t win a game. “Just wasn’t up for it,” he said, “but I will be for the Sunday 40’s.” The Over 60’s saw two famous players from yesteryear drawing spectator attention: Bobby Fields eked out a 16-14 in the fourth win over John Harrington before going down to the winner Duc Loi; and Errol Resek, not yet used to the variant rubbers he’s faced with nowadays, lost a five-gamer to Chuan “Robert” Liu. Loi, hitting bolts of backhands from his forehand side, had a straight-game final’s win over Dave Sakai, but both had challenging matches earlier—Dave, 11-9 in the fifth (after being up 2-0), over ex-Canton, China Junior Champion Che-Him Leung, a penholder with not just a forehand but a punishing backhand; and Duc, 11-9 in the fourth, over Alireza Hejazi, owner of two Subway eateries in the Laguna area, hence hungry only for the win.

            If ever a team deserved to win the Saturday morning Draw Doubles, it was John Thach Tran/David Hickman. They were on record as winning three 11-9 in the fifth matches—over Toshio Yamashita/Nghiem Le, over Lim Ming Chui and Bill Guerin, lured back to tournament play after a 30-year-absence, and over Tuan Le/Skip Polacchi. The 3600 Doubles saw Tran again, and again extended. This time, paired with Harold Lemaster, he played 14 games from the quarter’s on, the last 10 of which, we’re to believe, ended 11-9. Never mind, the victims we know—Vo/Le; Khoa Nguyen/Heang Duong; and Andy Phan/Tri Phan. John sure was going after that prize money. After all, he had to be highly motivated—just went to Vietnam and got married. So now his bride’s last name was Tran….Just as it was before. Unless her last name would be written Tran-Tran.

              As for the 4200 Doubles, I had to be seeing double, no triple. The winners there—with again the last 10 games scored 11-9—were…Tran for the third time but now partnered by Tim Nguyen over Bui and Loc who was continuing for the fifth year now his heavy schedule of local coaching. Dare I check out the 4800 Doubles?... MARILYN! What day is it? Am I hallucinating? Seeing double/double? Can these results be right? M’god, Tran’s fourth doubles win with a different partner, Tuan Le, over Attila Malek/Tung Phan.

            In the 50-entry U-1800’s Heang Duong (rated 1652) eased into the final, whereas his opponent there, Wilfredo Escobar, had struggled mightily against Jim Weisbecker, Ming-Lee Chan, and Frank Zandpour, then, up 2-1 against Duang almost pulled that one out too. A surprise in the U-1600’s—for John Nguyen (only 1380) lost but one game en route to the final and a win over Mike Wingfield.

            In the 2400’s, Rudy Miranda, his bandanas always color-coordinated with his playing clothes, took advantage of Diane Chen’s absence in his prelim round robin (she was sick) to advance—and, smokin’-in a down-the-line loop, win a 12-10-in-the-fifth, all-out slam-bang match with the ubiquitous John Thach Tran. Afterwards, Rudy capped this exhilarating win with a hand-slapping victory-walk past outstretched spectators. Then, moving on to another triumph, concentrating on returning Malek’s serves, he beat the former U.S. Champion, now almost 30 years away from that not-to-be-forgotten day at Caesars Palace. “The will to win is important. The will to prepare to win is vital,” Attila tells the students at his Power Pong Academy. He follows through by teaching them, via John Wooden’s Pyramid of Success, not only good table tennis but (and this of course appeals to the parents) good character. In this straight-game match with Rudy, though, Attila didn’t look like he’d been giving much thought to sharpening his t.t. play (“My shots were too slow, too weak. There was a big difference of energy out there between Rudy and me”).  In the final, Tuan Le and his serves were too much for the mentally drained Miranda.  

            Seemiller, as expected, won the $400 top prize in the 50’s—though unexpectedly, from up 2-0 and 10-all in the third, he had to go five to beat Tung Phan. “I have trouble playing against mid-distance topspin,” said Danny. “Phan gets a lot of arc on his loops, and when that ball’s spinning high, my blocks go out.” Best early-round matches were: Borko Dragojlovic over Chi-Hsiung Wang; Bin Hai Chu over Stanley Tang; Lon Dean over Xiaoquang Cheng; and Malek over the boyish-looking 60-year-old Alex Salcido. In a disputed-point match, fraught with dramatic overtones of a 40-year rivalry, Chui defeated Sakai, 12-10 in the fourth after leading, he thought, 10-4—then, as they say, losing it. Earlier, in the 60’s, Dave, playing patiently, had beaten Chui three straight, but that didn’t seem to bother Ming at all because then he hadn’t gotten it together—couldn’t find his racket (it later turned up in his wife’s bag), and couldn’t find any glue for the racket he did play with.

            Meanwhile, the eventual runner-up Mojaverian was involved in a theater of his own. First, he got into a deuce game with 69-year-old Norm Bass. Norm was rightly incensed (or, make that irritated, if he gets mad it’s bad for his arthritis, no, make that mad) when, intent on making the U.S. Paralympic Team of 16 to Beijing, he’d traveled to Jordan and Argentina to pick up the requisite points, only to be replaced because he was “too old.” Instead of going to bat for him, officials weasled, “Norm, you’re going to be First Alternate.” Next up for Mojaverian: an ever-smiling Lon Dean, impervious to what some called Parviz’s “bullying”—his running dialogue with both self and the audience that would later so bother Malek. Parviz won this match 12-10 in the fifth, then planted a kiss on Dean’s cheek—after which the guy was still smiling. Mojaverian’s quarter’s opponent was Chui, now composed enough to lose 11-9 in the fifth with at least some equanimity. Finally, though Parviz was saying on the brink of his semi’s, “I always lose to him,” he didn’t quite fall to Malek this time. Up 2-0 and 10-7 in the 5^th, he teetered at the precipice, but steadied just in 11-9 time.

            Sunday, Finals Day—and still something for everyone. Ninth-seed Tung Pham (1803) won the wide-open 1900’s from Brian Bui (1734). Soon Jae Park, on getting by Leong Kuok, 11-9 in the fifth, in his opening match, lost only one other game to take the 45-entry 2050’s from (“KENNY” read his shirt in bright letters) Kenny Tien. In the U-2300’s the Champ was another Nguyen, Steve. Given the fact that Joey Kuok, behind 2-0 in the eighth’s to Quoc Nguyen, defaulted in the final (for the second straight year—why’d he do that?), Steve’s only uncertain moment was his taut five-gamer with Qifan Li. Penholder angler Bin Hai Chu had a good win over Mojaverian. But the most exciting player to watch was Miranda. Yesterday, in the U-2400’s, Rudy had rather easily beaten New Yorker Michael Henry—Tournament Director and Youth Coach at the Brownsville Strikers Club in Brooklyn. Today, however, he lost the first at 1, recovered to take the second at 12, and eventually won the fifth at 9. But then in the quarter’s, ohhh, up two-zip against Joey, he lost the fifth, 15-13.

            Now for the Premier event of the 33 offered—$23 to enter this 40’s event (and an even 40 did) with $5,400 to be split among 20% of the field, the quarterfinalists to get a minimum of $300. No surprises to the last 16—though Chu was tested by Guillermo Morales, and Mojaverian by Danny Ho. Then, as the seedings were sound, nothing unexpected to the last eight—with one exception. Miranda, whose first three games with Chui were -6, 15, -3, advanced to outlast Steve Nguyen, 14-12 in the fourth.

            Three of the four quarter’s didn’t arouse spectator interest—Khoa Nguyen stopped Henry; ditto Seemiller, Miranda; and Tuan Le gave John Thach Tran a default wedding present as it were. Loc Ngo and Malek, however, went the crowd-pleasing limit. At 9-all in the first, Attila served and followed, then, after being in no hurry to win the point, made his move, came crouching in to forehand attack, smoothly, without any excess movement—but failed, though only for the moment, to get the game-clincher. On taking the second to go 2-0 up, Malek would be a quick winner? Did Loc fear that? If so, no such concern showed. He seemed composed, his face impassive. In the third, from 3-all, Loc ran it to 11-5. In the fourth from 3-2, he 11-4 outplayed Attila again.

            But in the fifth, down 2-1, though seemingly on a roll, Loc abruptly called Time! Which Malek later said allowed him to think more about what serves he wanted to use. The delay worked just the opposite effect Loc was hoping for—he lost concentration, went into a funk, and was down 8-2. But from 5-9 he recovered his focus, and amazingly won five straight to go match-point up, then erred. Now Malek got the ad, but Loc caught him on a placement. Then it was Loc’s ad, but Attila got away with returning some high balls that Loc didn’t take advantage of. Nor did Loc make the most of an edge ball that gave him another ad. Suddenly he looked a $350 loser instead of a $700 winner—and was. “Be like a stamp,” Malek tells his kids, and maybe told himself in the end game here. “You stick to it until you arrive.”

            Seemiller in the meantime, was trying to advance to the finals to meet Khoa Nguyen who’d proved to have, as Attila himself said in between points, “Too much speed, too much power.” Yep, watch as Danny, going down to the proverbial wire stretched across the fifth-game net, faced John Thach Tran and his overpowering wind-up forehands. At 9-all in the fifth, Seemiller maneuvered to loop in a winner, then, match-point up, boldly looped in Tran’s serve that—sour finish for John—caught the edge.

            Two exciting matches the spectators had enjoyed—and we still had the best four of seven final to come. Places, please. Chairs are brought up table-side, people move in. Requests for cell phones to be turned off are honored. Tuan Le’s coaching Khoa; Mark Nordby, Danny. Referee’s Tom Miller. Umpire’s Linda Hsing. Announcer’s Zeus.  

            From the first point on, when Danny loops in Khoa’s serve, and Khoa soon follows in like manner, there’ll be no tentative play in this match. Up 10-7, Seemiller yells encouragement to self, then fails to return serve. But he’s off to an 11-8 start. It’s the first game in this event Nguyen’s lost. But then, bummer, Danny’s got a leg cramp for which there’s no injury time out—no, no, not a cramp it’s a real (a minor hamstring?) injury, and Danny asks for the customary ten minutes to recover. Tom Miller has seen a lot from his lofty position—he’s wary, will give Danny five minutes. But (at Malek’s urging?) he changes his mind, and Danny takes the full 10. When Seemiller returns to play, he falls behind, stages a late rally but is repulsed when Khoa loops in two big forehands and finishes with an off-the-bounce backhand.

            Nguyen also wins the third game to the accompaniment of loud noises, even a piercing scream, from near-ending play in other events. At 7-all in the fourth, a ringing cell phone stops play. Referee Hsing spots the offender—red cards him. Down 10-8, Khoa fearlessly hits in hard one of Danny’s net-skimming chops, but then misses the next. “YEAH! YEAH!” Seemiller shouts and runs around to the other side of the court. Match tied two apiece. The fifth is close too. At 9-all, Nguyen makes a point-winning placement to Seemiller’s sometimes vulnerable forehand, after which Danny makes a bad serve that Khoa socks in. There’s applause as the sixth game begins. Khoa misserves to go 3-1 down, but almost every time Danny’s forced into chopping, he loses the point. When Seemiller’s down 7-6 Nordby calls Time. It seems to help. At 8-all, Danny scores with a serve and follow; then Khoa, trying to place the ball to Danny’s far forehand, misjudges, pushes a return off the table; and Danny closes out the game by looping in Khoa’s serve. Match tied at three apiece.

              Big round of applause for the seventh and final game. Seemiller makes a near uncanny anticipatory block of a vicious forehand by Nguyen, but is still down 4-1. However, Khoa begins missing forehands, and Danny, with a remarkable 7-out-of-8-point run, nothing like it in the match before, leads 8-5. Time! for Nguyen. Danny inches ahead 9-6. Then—how does it happen, and so quickly?—Danny misses two forehands, Khoa gets a match-turning edge, and Danny whiffs, and whiffs again—loses five in a row and the match.

            No, it isn’t every weekend that Seemiller can win over $2,000 and still sit with his head down in his hands.