Meiklejohn Moments

By Tim Boggan

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            The May 31-June 3, 2007 Meiklejohn North American Seniors Open offered “Over $16,000 in Prizes” and so kept 260 players busy in 33 events. Which meant that Treasurer Walt Wehrli not only had to continue to keep track of his children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren, numbering now, I believe he said, “17 and ½,” but had to write (and hand deliver?), by my count, 124 checks—though certainly this number was checked by Tournament Director, a.k.a. retired Math Professor, Ray Kunze, with perhaps an assist from ever-vigilant Computer Operations Coordinator Craig Krum and his equally bright-eyed, screen-struck Assistant, Mas Hashimoto. The Millers, bless them, earned my thanks—Marilyn for keeping me up-to-date on the Draws, especially the changing ones (all posted so conscientiously by Eric Aki), and Referee Tom for keeping his burly cool when two arguing players got all heated up over an umpire’s call.   

  Happily, the accompanying CATT Hall of Fame Banquet saw the attendance of the tournament’s longtime major sponsor, Bill Meiklejohn. The Hall’s President Y.C. Lee opened the Awards presentation. Executive V.P. Shonie Aki (undisturbed as he had been in a match when his opponent answered his cell phone at the table and began rudely chatting) served as MC. And the program’s listed speakers did the honors for the honorees—Si Wasserman for the absent Chuck Feldman and Frank Nemes; Bruce Liu for Peter Chen; and Azmy Ibrahim for Masaaki Tajima. Current Club president Alma Beckerman, and such past Presidents as Harry Bloom, Herb Gilbert, Julius Margolis, and Art Wirschafter were given appreciative mention. Of course the Kahans, Stan and Olga, were magisterially there. Since his Ph.D. had allowed him to teach Film History and Humanities, Stan had a flair for the dramatic—years ago he’d met Olga at a ping-pong club and promptly pinned her…with a USTTA pin. Olga, her usual regal self, was doing double duty this weekend as omnipresent Tournament Committee Chair as well as solicitous table-hopping, er, well, not exactly hopping, Banquet Director. Since she had her Ph.D. in psychology and gerontology, and was also qualified as a marriage counselor—need it be said, she was a perfect match, a complement for Stan.

 
Left to right: NSTTA Treasurer Walt Wehrli, Over 40 winner Khoa Nguyen, Meiklejohn's Caretaker, Sponsor Bill Meiklejohn, Over 40 runner-up Atanda Musa, NSTTA Tournament Chair Olga Kahan, NSTTA Tournament Director Ray Kunze, NSTTA Secretary Stan Kahan
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Rating Events—Singles and Doubles

With a nod here to sponsors Paddle Palace and Nittaku, I note the tournament got underway with the U-1100’s—18 entries, 7 of whom, encouragingly, were women. More women this year venturing to play in the U-1200’s too. Both of these lower-rated events were won by Calgary’s David Adelman (rated 1099) over, first, Ed Nakanishi, then Dao Tran. David had only one tough match—against Oceanside’s Burt Bialik.  Burt also gave U-1300 winner Conrad Santiago (1299) trouble, but so did Walt Blehm, Ron Buxton, and runner-up Tuat Mai. During these events one saw noticeable improvement in the play of New Yorkers Jim Bergman and Paul Herzan, both coached by former Czech star Renata Peluchova. Sparks were gonna fly if I didn’t get the U-1450’s right. Officially, the winner was Allan Ferrenberg over his U-2800 Doubles partner Howard Lambert, then, oops, officially, that was wrong, the winner was Lambert over his U-2800 Doubles partner Ferrenberg—with Frank Rahmanian splitting tough matches against Allan and Lee Swander.

            The surprise U-1600 Champ was Ming Shi over Howard Vu. Shi, rated a lowly 1286, came out of the 59-entry preliminary pack with two upsets, then struggled through 10 games wherein his opponents got 9 or more points. U-1800 winner Borko Bragojlovic I’d met at the 1981 Novi Sad World’s. He’d played seriously in Yugoslavia with the likes of National Team member Zoran “Zoki” Kosanovic only to stop when he was 14. His grandfather had said, “Are you crazy? You want to quit school and tour? Can you make any good money playing table tennis?”  Borko’s answer was No, and he became an aeronautical engineer. Didn’t play again for 35 years when a stroke prompted him to compete for health reasons. Here he 14-12-in-the-fifth escaped former San Diego Club President Kamran Azimzadeh, then won a long-point match in the final against Wei Liang who’d gone 9-in-the-fifth with Chuan Chiao “Robert” Liu. The U-1900’s went to New York’s Sports Trivia buff Mark Berg over Liang in the semifinal, Sheon Leung in the final. Lefty Joe Tran won the U-2050’s from former South African native Hilton Siman, but not before enduring a -10, 10, -11, 10, 9 marathon match with Hung Nguyen. Siman had advanced over Lenny Hauer who when I astutely asked him if he hadn’t lost weight said, “107 pounds.”

In the top half of the U-2300 draw, Joey Kuok advanced to the final by getting by his toughest opponent, Vancouver’s Danny Ho, 9, -8, 10, -9, 9. Ho had an ancient racket, used only one side of it (if he didn’t forget); the other side was illegal, whether covered with rubber or (when the rubber’s stripped as an opponent demanded) some adhesive black goo. In the bottom half of the draw, Alireza Hejani, years ago the best player in Iran, still showed a strong forehand counter. He outlasted Tri Dinh, 14-12-in-the-fifth, then fell in five to 1963 U.S. Junior Champion Alex Salcido. Alex, in turn, was eliminated, 16-14 in the fifth, by Quoc Nguyen, described as having strong up-to-the-table backhand thrusts, good deep serves, and fast loop-kill follows. So how did 58-year-old Parviz Mojaverian successfully defend his title? By taking down Tung Phan, 12-10 in the fourth, Zoltan Boldy in five in the quarterfinal, Nguyen in four in the semifinal, and Kuok by default in the final. (Why a default? Kuok, after having a 2-0 lead in last year’s final, ought to have been primed for revenge.)  

John Thach Tran and his powerful forehand also repeated their 2006 win in the U-2400’s—this time 12 in the fourth over Michael Henry, and 9 in the fourth over Loc Ngo, Hardbat winner over Rudy Miranda who’d won his battle-of-the-backhands against the penhold play of former Chinese professional Diane (Dongye) Chen. Later, in the 40’s, bandana-bound Rudy would struggle to a gritty comeback win against Tri Dinh.

Who had the most fun in the always popular Draw Doubles? Nope, not the winners Ky Nguyen/Tri Phan for stopping Swander/Quoc Nguyen. It had to be the 2562/610 pair, Li Yuxiang and Berta Speisman, for reaching the semi’s. Coach Li couldn’t have been more encouraging, and Berta more ecstatic—after all, she was 81, and when had she ever won a $50 ping-pong prize? Last year’s U-2300 Doubles winners, Stan Kahan/Don Bourassa, lost in this year’s final to Dana Cheng/Hsing Kiang. U-2800 Doubles went to Wang Yuensen and his ever-imaginative partner Byng Forsberg who, perhaps a bit delirious at not losing a game to runner-ups Al Tran/Jack Janes or any other pair, was off court modeling a thatch-of-sprouting-hair—a whacky-looking hair-cap he’d picked up at a street fair in Lodi. There was another Doubles win for Ky Nguyen—in the U-3600’s with Toshio Yamashita over Alex Hernani and Hauer who probably lost a few more pounds with their 15-13-in-the-fifth semifinal win over Tri Dinh and Nghiem Le of the Little Saigon Club in Westminster.

More bucks too for Coach Li who, partnered by penholder Ting Ning Cheung, took the U-4200 Doubles from John Tran Thach/Tim Nguyen, survivors of three close matches—over Hong Shao/Xuan Liu, Diane Chen/Sammy Liang, and Khoa Nguyen/Howard Vu. Survivors there almost weren’t in the match between Loc Ngo and Peregrine vs. Chui and Ray Wu (whose daughters, tennis players now, were National Champions—in 1979, Ai-Ju for Girls U-15, and in 1980, Ai-Ju and Ai-Wen for Junior Miss U-17 Doubles). The match was a disputatious comedy—except, for the irate players, it wasn’t a comedy.  

John Tran Thach, paired with Iraqi-born Douglass Younan in the U-4500’s, came second again…to Tung Phan/Quoc Nguyen. John then picked up his 4^th check—yeah, by now with a reportedly sore shoulder, but, hey, he needed the money, said he had responsibilities, aging parents, a girl friend who didn’t play table tennis. He and Joe Tran scored a 5-game quarterfinal win in the U-4800 Doubles over Michael Henry and Lim Ming Chui before they’d go down in the semi’s to Atanda Musa/George Braithwaite (the No. 1 seeds with a calculated combined rating of 4799). Ming said he recently went off to China to play in six different clubs and climb three mountains. Perfectly normal behavior…for Ming, who was also telling Parviz Mojaverian that raw ginger would stimulate more hair growth, if that’s what Parviz wanted.

Also making the semifinal before losing to Coach Li/Diane Chen were Loc Ngo and his partner Avishy Schmidt who’d been in Zagreb rooting for our U.S. Team. Loc said they were able to defeat Khoa Nguyen/Quoc Nguyen because he and Avi “played a thinking game.” In the final, lefties Li and Diane, up 2-1 and 9-all in the fourth, had a great chance to win the $500 first prize, but didn’t. Had an even greater chance in the fifth, up match point. But Musa fearlessly hit his serve return in hard as he could, then scored on a marvelous counter, then finished with another great clutch shot.

 

Women’s Age Events

            By offering the Women $400 for first, $200 for second, the 40’s event drew, as expected, Californians Hong Zhao (rated 2267) and Diane Chen (2230), but not perennial finalist Lily Yip who just the week before had been watching her daughter Judy play at the World Championships. Taking Yip’s place, as it were, was Gina Dole (2091) who’d lost to Lily in the final of the Over 40’s at the 2005 U.S. Closed. Though the entry form listed $50 for both third and fourth place, 4^th place was eliminated, and so was Bella Livshin (1987)—Gina got the better of her in one of the three prelim round robins. Which meant that in a single semifinal Diane played Gina, friends since they’d been grade school classmates in China.

Both women in the past had taken a long absence from the Game. Back again and wanting the exercise, they had only a limited time to play—Gina, trained as a coach, was interested in coaching, while Diane was kept busy with two kids, including a 12-year-old daughter who liked to play but didn’t want to practice. So both, though wanting to win, were anything but grimly serious on court. Gina seemed content with her two-sided short pips and penholder style. Diane was ready to experiment with slower rubber, a shakehands racket, but, after an attempt to chop better, returned to a close-to-the-table attack. She defeated Gina, 8 in the fifth, then lost in four to the more formidable attacker, former Tianjin player/coach Zhao, the 2003 Meiklejohn 40’s Champion and more than a quarter-century ago the Chinese National Doubles Champion.

             As expected, Bella Livshin (1987), who’d won the U.S. Open Women’s Over 50 the last three years, took the $200 first-prize 50’s—but the ratings, or Bella herself, had to have been a bit off. Not only did she three-game -7, 13, 9, 2 struggle in the final against defender Ming Zhu Min (1871), the 2005 50’s winner and this year’s 9-in-the-fourth semifinal advancer over Hui Xianyu, she had even more three-game precarious moments in -9, -9, 12, 4, 1 rallying against tall, bespectacled Chiyako Suzuki. After playing in high school and college in Japan, Suzuki came to the States and eventually to Balboa Park where it happened Bella was teaching table tennis, something she’d very much enjoyed doing since 1968. Thanks to Bella, Chiyako began playing seriously, and, using short pips on the forehand and medium pips on the backhand, was getting decidedly better than her deceptive 1571 rating—she plays every day!

The 60’s went to Joyce Arpon over Kuniko Jessup who’d been tested in a taut -4, 9, 9, 14 match with Gail Kendall. Harriet Quon, who didn’t play in the 60’s event, rallied from 2-0 down to take the 70’s from Arpon. Joyce had retired to Vegas where she said it was too hot to play tennis and so she’d switched rackets. Her transition to table tennis was easy, she said, except the balls came back much faster, and she needed to rely more on muscle memory.

 

Men’s Age Events

            Ivan Slade won both the 90’s (over Romo Chernoff) and the 85’s (over Si Wasserman). I believe it was Ivan who said he’d recently taken a 17-day Cruise Tour where he’d played at a club in St. Petersberg (“They all spoke English”), and also one in Copenhagen near the Tivoli Gardens. Never too late to pick up new European training methods, eh?

In the 80’s, Neil Smyth, the San Diego Club Treasurer, said he expected maybe 500 members at the Club this upcoming season, especially since Stellan Bengtsson and his wife, the former Angelita Rosal, were giving private lessons and running clinics there. In the one five-game semifinal, Neil rallied from down 10-7 in the fifth to get by Wasserman. In the other, Defending Champion Cuong Chi Lam upset Byng Forsberg who, sort of summing up his Life experience, said three things are important: 1. someone to love (he’d been married to his wife Bobbi for 40 years); 2. something to do (which in his case was his antique business and of course his participation in many different Senior Games sports); and 3. something to look forward to (all those TV and radio interviews, which he was still giving, about his very private match with Governor Arnie that he said provided a needed distraction to his grief over the death of Bobbi). In the final against Lam, Neil, who continues to enjoy the mental part of the Game, switched from smooth rubber to short pips and, rallying from two games down, prevailed in 5.

In the 75 Singles and Doubles it was all Dick Peregrine and Ivan Slade, though in his semifinal Ivan won two 12-10 games from Alan Miller who always had such fun swinging at the ball—particularly with his elongated “pizza parlor” racket. He didn’t bake the rubber like some “junk” players did decades ago, but it looked like, if it had a slice of pizza on it, that it’d be ready for the oven. This racket, quite legal he insisted, gave him an advantage, for it helped him change the pace of the ball—if, for example, he made contact at the extended top, he got more power. No fun, no chance for him to have taken a swing at one opponent at the World Veterans Championship in Bremen last year though—not when walking home late at night from the venue he was mugged one block from his hotel. The mugger used an advanced technique: he just ripped the wallet pocket right out of Al’s trousers.

As for Peregrine, he wasn’t always feeling too good either. He wore contacts and suffered from strictures in his tear ducts, so that for relief, when he wasn’t repeatedly wiping his eyes, he’d watch a doctor put a needle through the corner of an eye that had looked out as from a fish bowl. This, if you can believe it, was far less painful that what Slade saw in his final with Dick. Ivan lost a very important first game from 7-1 up that eventually allowed Dick and his Dr. Neubauer racket to down him 11-9 in the fifth.     

            Competing in the 70’s, Nick Mintsiveris was amazed that his current weight was the same as when years ago he was pumping iron, swimming, and running regularly. He took out Peregrine, then was eliminated in his semifinal with George “The Chief” Braithwaite. Peter Chen, a self-taught blocking expert with a Neubauer racket, reached the final with a 9-in-the-fourth win over hardbat player Tim Boggan and successive advances over Jack Howard, recently encouraged by coaching from a former South Korean International, and Gayle Wickerd. Braithwaite was down 1-0 and at 10-all in the second to Chen before he realized he couldn’t try to power a second spin-ball through Peter’s long pips; instead he had to push, then if the ball came up high enough, he had to kill it. Howard/Boggan won the 70 Doubles from hard-hitting Laguna local John Opperman and former Hamburg, Germany resident Victor Troppmann who’d participated in the 2006 World Veterans World Championships in Bremen. In the one semifinal, Opperman/Troppmann upset, -3, -6, 10, 7, 8, really upset with a barrage of nets and edges, Slade/Peregrine. In the other, Howard/Boggan, after a 2-0 lead, had to rally from 10-7 down in the fifth to escape Braithwaite/Smyth who’d defeated them last year.

In the 60’s, Allen Silberman lost to Sammy Liang 14-12 in the fifth, then was eliminated in an eighth’s match, -13, 8, -13, 9, 8, by Tony Rodriguez. The one semi’s saw defending champion Che Him Leung down Peter Chen, advancer over Ali Hejazi who’d had initial problems with arthritis-battler Norman Bass. The other semi’s saw long-pips penholder Tay Chong (member, along with Leung and Sammy Lee, of a Senior team at Monterey Park’s Langley Center) down Duc Loi in an uneven -9, 5, 1, -4, 7 match. In the final, penholder Leung, at one time a Canton, China Junior Champion, was 11-9-in-the-fourth too strong for penholder Chong.

  Attila Malek, last year’s 50’s champion, didn’t play in the tournament this year, but he came by and talked to me of his Power Pong Academy vision for U.S. Table Tennis. Children are taught early the correct strokes and how to read spin by Academy coaches intent on making a good living. When the kids are 13-16 they must have rigorous training, and, as a needed incentive for them and their parents, college scholarships are a must. To see how his proven programs work, check out his training center at the Los Caballeros Racket and Sport Club in Fountain Valley.

As I’ve pointed out, Borko Dragojlovic at 14 became convinced he couldn’t continue as a serious player, but his training at least made it fun for him to play in his middle age. Though he lost in the first round of the 50’s, his five-gamer with Te-Ching Chung was one of the two most contested of the early-round matches. The other, a first-round thriller, was Peter Chen’s -10, -8, 8, 9, 9 reversal that had Parviz Mojaverian, impatient, unable to stop attacking, talking to himself and whoever would listen. Parviz said, “The only reason Peter’s here is because California put him in their Hall of Fame. Next year I’m going to call ahead and if Peter’s in the draw I’m not coming.” And it wasn’t only Peter he was complaining about, because he added, “I’ve never seen this many crazy players with so many crazy rubbers in one place.”

Before losing his semifinal to Li Yuxiang, Chui, down 2-0 and at 13-all in the third to Salcido, turned the match around and won in five. How’d he do it? Instead of receiving in the middle of the table, he moved over, started taking every ball with his forehand. Ming, who plays out of New Jersey, thought the West Coast players were better than the East Coast players—had better technique. Tung Phan, 1982 U.S. Intercollegiate Champ, before losing his semifinal to Dung Nguyen, had two gutsy five-game wins—over Hejazi and Chen. The 50’s winner was Li who didn’t lose a game. Not bad for someone who said he had no time to play. Said he was busy coaching. Said he was bringing eight of his most serious students (they practice every day) to the U.S. Open, and that in a couple of years he’d have a champion or two.

Chui had been upset in Hardbat qualifying by 60’s winner Leung, but he had an excuse: his wife had forgotten to pack his regular racket and so he was improvising with some $10 rubber sheet that didn’t offer much speed or spin. When he lost in the Friday Elite round robin to the energetic Li Qifan whose penholder game Ming said much resembled his, he had an even better excuse. Turned out the 59-year-old had such a severe case of calcium build-up in his left elbow that he couldn’t extend it, and because of that he was eligible for, and would be playing in, the Standing Disabled event at this year’s U.S. Open! Though Musa blanked all opposition to win the Elites, Coach Li, who’d been seeded second, had the time, the experience, and the game to earn the $300 runner-up prize by squelching John Thach Tran’s 2-0-down move into the fifth.

The climactic event of the tournament, the Over 40’s, brought in two new seeded players for the weekend. One was Olympian and USATT Hall of Famer Khoa Nguyen who’d recently taken a 10-day business to trip to Russia where he’d managed with an associate to hit some balls at the Moscow University Club. The other was Dr. De Tran who practices trying to get away from his practice for a tournament day or two. Along with Musa and Li they made the semi’s—their best four-out-of-seven-game matches to be played simultaneously on two adjacent, somewhat cramped courts. Those who advanced to win $150 were Diane Chen (over Zoltan Boldy and Avishy Schmidt); Dr. Tuan Dai Le (who, after going five with Li Qifan, forced De Tran into the fifth); Loc Ngo (over Michael Henry), and John Tran Thach (his arm even sorer now, but not too sore to pick up his sixth check, over Ajayi Ohore after John had lost the first two games at 9 and 12).

It had been 32 years since Musa played in his first World’s, 15 years since he’d played in his last Olympics. Now he coaches—anybody—from 4 p.m. to 10 p.m. at Robert Chen’s NY Federation Club on Canal St. Given his stature, his back-from-the-table spin game, the court seemed small for him. With the match tied 1-1, Musa started the third with an edge, but it was De who ended it, making the point that, yes, he really did enjoy smacking in backhands. But again the match evened. Then, with De topspinning and Musa mostly fishing and looking to score with his own loop openings, the Dr., who was to lose this game 11-9, maybe began thinking too much and in between points walked over to his opponent’s side of the court to straighten up a barrier that was just the smallest bit unaligned. Would this help to order his thoughts? When, obsessively, in the sixth and last game, he went to the barrier again, to merely touch it, for he realized it didn’t need straightening, did this gesture try to put closure to his doubts? Perhaps. But from 6-all, he lost the game 11-7. Consolation semi’s prize: $500.

It’d been quite a few years since Li Yuxiang had been the Chinese National Singles Champion, but here he was, even up with Khoa Nguyen as they went into the third. Snapping in backhands, grunting encouragement to self, even hamming it up to the audience after a clever drop shot, he took an 8-3 lead. Which he almost blew with a late-game misserve—but righted himself, banged in a serve return winner at 10-all, and went up 2-1.

That was it, though—he couldn’t win another game. Perhaps in part because, first he was warned by International “Blue Ribbon” Umpire Lee Kondo to throw his serve-ball higher, then faulted, then, upset when he lost a point on what he thought was a net, was given a yellow card for protracted arguing. Clearly he was not happy when at game’s end, hand outstretched, he swooped past Khoa’s extended hand without touching it.

            After Stan Kahan had introduced the stars for the final, and the audience had settled down, I was struck by the sound of the ball against the glued rackets. It was as if Musa was banging away with a hard bat. Both played a bad first game—which Nguyen won. The second, from 9-all, was all unrelenting serve, serve follow, and serve return play. Khoa’s misserve didn’t cost him the game; Atanda’s serve return into the net did. Undeterred though, Musa, helped by another misserve and a whiff by Nguyen, moved in the third game from 4-all to 10-4, and finished with a vicious, disdainful swat-in of Khoa’s serve. In the fourth, from 8-all, Atanda mishit, again pushed a final return into the net, came off the table with a broad smile. Nope, he wasn’t rising to the occasion; ridiculous—he usually did. Khoa finished him off in the fifth with a clean ace. Nguyen: $1,500; Musa: $1,000.