The Portland Chinese New Years Tournament

I’d like to thank everyone who participated in the tournament on January 24th, and I hope you all had as much fun as I did. I’d also like to thank the Portland Chinese Times for providing the venue, Paddle Palace for providing the three star NittaKu balls, and the Portland Table Tennis club for providing the tables and trophies. I’d especially like to thank John Peng for organizing the event, Bruce, Judy, Linda, Paige, and Terrance for transporting the tables and Will, Nagini, Jesse, and Mary for setting up and breaking down. We are very fortunate in having a large group of dedicated volunteers who make these events possible.

We had 42 players running the gamut from Pre-Cadets like George Wang, Ethan Liu, Richard Yan, and Alex Li to a cadre of juniors led by Frank Liu and Brian Chia with a group of hoary veterans like Rong Fu Wu, Louis Sien, Phil Goldsmith, Wieda Qian, Mark Kobernick, Michael Jiang and the number one seed Man Ng Yan topping off the list.

This was a six table, seven player round robin with two advancing on each table to a single elimination. The round robins went to form with the exception of Weida Qian who got upset not once but twice.

The stealth contender at the event was Frank Liu who hasn’t played any tournaments in the last year but has definitely been training. He bested two top players in Rong Fu Wu and Sheng Zhen. Brian Chia didn’t meet any resistance until his semi against Frank. They battled it out with loops, counter loops, placements and footwork. This was a great match that went down to the wire with Brian pulling it out, at the last minute, in five.

Man Ng Yan rolled over his opponents getting into the finals. His experience, loops, and infernal long pips were just too much for the other side. Man has a nice little drop off to the forehand side that caught most players flat footed.

The Finals between Man and Brian was an exciting contrast in styles that see sawed back and forth for five games. In the end, Brian’s footwork and ability to keep the ball in play allowed him to triumph. Brian has really improved in the last 12 months and I was particularly impressed with his backhand kill that reminded me of Jörgen Persson’s at the last Olympics. This match was so good that it convinced me to make it best of seven for next year.

Hopefully, there will be a next year, and if so, I hope to see you all again and I promise to do the single eliminations correctly next time?.

I also want to briefly mention an upcoming tournament in early April. I expect to have a date in the next week or two. It’s the Bill Mason Memorial and will be a giant round robin limited to the first 72 players, so be sure to return your entry form promptly. This tournament affords competitors a chance to play a lot of different levels and in addition to the main prize money; winners of the lower tables in the second round will also receive a monetary remuneration. I hope to see you there.

Darell Potter