Finals night at the Noosa Table Tennis Club was supposed to be a straightforward affair, on paper at least.
It was a clash between a David and Goliath – a clash between the Vipers who were undefeated throughout the rounds and the Smashers
who had struggled just to get into the finals. It was said the Vipers would only need to turn up to take the title.
Things started off uneventfully.
The early part of the clash between this David and Goliath went accordingly to form with the score at 3-3 all, then 4-4 all. A critical
turning point was now reached. In a match where the combatants were evenly matched the Smashers’ Alan Franks defeated the Vipers’ Chris Strybos to put the Smashers ahead with an improbable 5-4 lead.
And there was more to come.
In a crucial doubles match the Smashers’ Alan Lawson and Joe Laffey just squeezed past the Vipers’ Eli Kalugin and Blake Wyer winning
13-11 in the fifth game.
Surprisingly the underdog Smashers had now skipped ahead to hang onto a slender 7-6 lead. The unthinkable was suddenly becoming thinkable. The Smashers dared to think they were in with a chance.
It was then the Vipers inexplicably collapsed, losing the next 4 singles to surrender the crown they thought was theirs for the taking. In the end the Smashers had snatched the title from their betters in a comfortable 11-7. Things had not played out according to the script.
And Man of the Match? It could only be Jonas Campbell who did the heavy lifting for the Smashers. He won both his doubles games and his thee singles including the defeat of club heavyweight Greg Yu to bring off an unlikely outcome.
Noosa table tennis is a friendly club and all are welcome from juniors to pensioners Wednesday nights from 6.45pm at the Noosa leisure centre.
