Finals night at the Noosa Table Tennis Club can be full of surprises.
However, the warm favourites on the night were the Magicians who had dominated proceedings during the rounds and were expected to prevail over their less credentialled rivals, the Crackers.
Spectators didn’t have to wait long for the first upset of the night.
It came in the first match when wannabe Moses Kim (Magicians) just got home against heavyweight Greg Yu (Crackers) winning 11-9 in the fifth game.
Magicians were now in the box seat. In a clash between two rising junior stars, the more experienced 15-year-old Peter Enklemann (Magicians) took out 13-year-old Blake Wyer (Crackers), 3 games to 1, to bring the score to 4 all.
It was still anyone’s game.
Both teams spent the night shadowing each other. Neither team could get a break on their adversaries. And no stage did either team get more than one match ahead of the other.
Coming up to the last match of the night, Magicians found themselves in the invidious position of being 10-9 down – they would need to the win the last doubles to square the contest.
Luckily Rita Malik and Peter Enklemann (Magicians) were able to pull the fat out of the fire. They comfortably took care of doubles combination James Zhang and Blake Wyer (Crackers) 11-9, 11-7, 11-5. The Magicians had hung on.
So at the end of the night, Magicians and Crackers were locked together at 10 matches all. Only a countback could separate them.
Even then Magicians could only squeeze pass their rivals by the narrowest of margins, finally triumphing 44 games to 43.
Man of the match, John Nilsson had done the heavy lifting for the Crackers winning his three singles and both his doubles matches. But in the end, it was not enough.
Noosa table tennis is on at the Noosa leisure centre from 6.30pm every Wednesday. All are welcome.
