Members aged nine to 80 years old from The Oaks Club at The Actonians competed in its 38th annual table tennis championships last Friday (5 July 2024).
In the Under 11 singles Alex Cheung overpowered the less experienced Youssef M’rabet to win but not without Youssef keeping Alex on the run by hitting some cracking forehand shots past him.
Team mates Dominic Cotier and Matthew Cook found themselves playing each other in 3 singles finals. With 3 amazing hard hitting, close matches, Matthew clinched the Junior Under 19 Boys Singles and the Minor Singles and Dominic the Cadet Under 15 Singles.
The Junior Girls Singles saw Jacqui Lesh’s attacking game overcome Sophia Marshall in 3 straight games but with Sophia fighting all the way through.
The Ladies Doubles event was won by Jacqui and her mum, Gill, who out played Sophia and Kitty Lo, one of our newly qualified coaches, who tried everything in their power to angle out Jacqui and Gill.
The Mixed Doubles proved to be an exciting match with 11 year old Alex Cheung playing with his coach, Gill Lesh, beating experienced players Kitty Lo and Greg Paluch in a close 5 game match.
The Ladies’ Singles found Gill and Kitty playing each other once again but with Gill’s experience overcoming Kitty’s steady blocking game.
In the Men’s Singles the club’s top player, Jacek Langa, overcame local cricket legend, Luke Stoughton, in a close semi-final and then proved just too consistent for his team mate, Mario Brozko’s big forehand attack. Mario had just scraped home against the steady Stephane Vial in the other semi-final. Jacek also overcame Gill in the final of the Over 50’s event and Mario in the Veteran’s (over 40) singles.
A new event this year was the Novices Singles – an invitation event for the parents of our junior members which saw Alex’s dad, Keith Cheung, overpowering Youssef’s dad, Adil M’rabet. Keith’s “big” forehand drive, proved just a little too hard and consistent for Adil who put up a good fight..
The presentation of trophies was made by one of our longest serving members and Life Vice President, John Wu, who is looking forward to competing at a later date in the Drawn Doubles final.
The Men’s Doubles and Drawn Doubles finals will be played at a later date due to illness.
The Oaks at Actonians is currently welcoming new members for social play, training and coaching as well as offering the opportunity to compete in 2 local senior leagues and the National Junior/Cadet Leagues.
The club runs sessions on Monday and Thursday evenings and junior coaching sessions on Friday evenings during term time and plans to start offering more sessions for adult beginner coaching.
For more information on The Oaks Club, email: info@the-oaks-club.net
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