Reports from the 2010 ITSF World Championships - Senior Team
Submitted by Tom King on 7 February 2010 - 10:53am
Senior World Cup Report by Dave Ziemann
The UK Senior team was: Boris Atha, Chris Haddon, Martyn Harris, Paul Martin, Dave Oates and Dave Ziemann. The coach was J-P Thompson.
This is a story of a series of great decisions, and how they led to our Senior Team Bronze medal. I believe we were one goal away from Gold, but I’m getting ahead of myself...
We were in a single large group of 7 teams, so we knew exactly who we were going to play, and we knew that our Garlando table pick was going to work well for us. And if we qualified we knew that the strongest teams were the Germans and USA, both of whom would rather play any other table.
In the qualification round, you play 3 doubles and 2 singles matches, each match consisting of two games, one on your home table, and one on their table. You win the fixture if you win 6 or more games.
Netherlands
Chris and Martyn started our charge by losing 3-5 on Roberto and winning 5-3 on Garlando.
Boris (being Boris) reversed this by winning his singles game 5-3 on Roberto but losing 3-5 on Garlando against the tricky Mat Koussen. Boris complained about being out-hacked.
Then Boris and Chris won both legs in the 2nd doubles, 5-1 on Roberto and 5-3 on Garlando.
In the 2nd singles I lost 4-5 on Roberto and won 5-3 on Garlando against Theo Conjour.
In the 3rd doubles match Martyn and I won both our legs, 5-1 on Roberto and 5-3 on Garlando.
Score: 7-3 to us, a comfortable win against Netherlands.
Italy
Boris defended for me in our 1st doubles against Italy, and we won both games 5-3.
Paul drew their star singles player Massimo Ragona and lost 3-5 and 2-5.
But then Paul turned it all round in the 2nd doubles match which he played with Dave Oates, winning 5-4 on Roberto and then 5-0 on Garlando, with Dave playing a brilliant defensive game.
I then won the 2nd singles leg 5-3 on Roberto and 5-1 on Garlando.
Boris and Dave Oates completed the fixture with a comfortable 5-2 win on Roberto and a huge 5-0 on Garlando, with Dave again showing his great defensive experience on Garlando.
Score: 8-2 against Italy.
France
This was a bit of an upset in that most of the wins went with the home table. I was disappointed to lose my singles 2-5 on Bonzini to Pascal Lecoz.
It was 4-4 until the key last leg, when Boris and Paul won both their games 5-2. Boris was playing forward and basically ‘ruined’ the victory by scoring a 3-bar winner after Paul scored had the first 4 goals from the back!
Score: 6-4 against France.
Germany
We always knew it would be tough. Boris and Dave Oates started with a 5-1 win on Garlando and a 1-5 loss on Tecball. It was going to be interesting!
In the 1st singles I had to play the very tough Johann Wahl, who had previously beaten me 3 games to 0 in the Senior Singles semi-final. I beat him 5-4 on our table but lost 2-5 on his.
Things looked up after Martyn and I played the 2nd doubles, winning both our games 5-2.
Boris had a bad 2nd singles against Jet, narrowly losing 4-5 on Garlando and being trounced 0-5 on Tecball.
4-4 and the 3rd doubles leg would decide the fixture. Unfortunately Martyn and Dave could not hold back the German pair, with the very strong Heinz Kiessling in defence, and we lost 2-5 and 3-5.
Score: 4-6 against Germany.
USA
Martyn and I kicked off against Greg Perrie and Robert Janac, and I was disappointed to lose 4-5 on Garlando, as well as 2-5 on Tornado. We may have had a bit of bad luck on our table, but this happens.
Chris lost his singles games to Robert Janac 3-5 on Tornado and 3-5 on Garlando.
I failed to hold my singles against Greg on Tornado, losing 3-5, but beating him comfortably 5-2 on Garlando.
The score was now 3-5 to USA and we had to won both games in the 3rd doubles leg to make a draw.
Martyn and Dave won the 3rd doubles leg 5-3 on Garlando, but unfortunately narrowly lost 4-5 on Tornado to Robert Janac and Bud Spredeman.
Score: 4-6 against USA.
Belgium forfeited their match, so we lost 2 out of 6, placing us 3rd in the group. We calculated that we would have to play Germany, who were in 2nd place.
Elimination - Germany
We had a short time to decide and submit the 4 players for our knockout fight with Germany. I decided to play myself and Boris for singles, with Chris and Martyn playing doubles. It was a very hard decision because everyone played extremely well in the quals, and I was grateful for the assistance of our fine coach J-P Thompson.
The next problem was the order of play, and in particular the singles match up. I calculated that Boris might on average do a better job against Wahl than I would, and that I would be more likely to prevail against Jet than Boris would. I also reckoned that they would play Wahl as their lead singles, expecting us to do the same, so I put Boris in the lead slot.
Chris and I were up first, against Jet and Heinz, their top defender. In the KO you play 5 matches again. Each match is one game on each table again, but this time if it’s 1-1, you decide the match winner by playing a 3rd game on both tables, first playing one ball on one table and then alternating 2 balls on each table until the win. The winner is the first team to win 3 matches.
We were disappointed to narrowly lose both games 4-5, there was slop, but I was pretty dejected because I thought we had to win the first leg to stand a chance.
But now Boris was up to play 1st singles, and the plan had worked! He was stacked up against Wahl. Boris and Johann are VERY similar players. To get the picture, imagine one of those computer games where you can either play the computer or you can get the machine to play itself. Well watching Boris vs Johann was like watching the machine play itself. Boris played really well and contained Wahl 5-2 on Garlando followed by a narrow but highly significant 5-4 victory on Tecball.
We were back in the running!
But now Boris and Martyn had to play Johann and Jurgen Stachowiak. The Germans prevailed 5-4 on our table and 5-1 on theirs, so we were 1-2 down.
Next was my singles game against Jet. If I lost we would be out of the tournament.
I won the toss and chose to play Garlando first. Jet came out strong and scored a snake on me from the 2-bar. He was also passing and shooting well on the 3. But the real damage came from the back. My D clearly sucked because he scored two more angled snakes from his 2-bar. I took a time-out and got some good advice from Boris on my D, but it was too late to turn it round.
Jet beat me 2-5 on Garlando and it looked all over.
But I played well on Tecball. Jet wasn’t scoring from the back now but he was passing and snaking well on his table. I can’t remember if I was 1-4 or 2-4 down before the game started to swing.
For some reason I felt calm and strong even though I was almost dead. When I got the ball on the 3 I was shooting good snakes to both sides. I played out of my skin to even it up. I became aware of people shouting and screaming, and it took a while to realise they were shouting at me and Jet. I took the 4-4 time-out and scored the winner to even the game score. Jet thought he’d finished me and was now worried, as it was going to a 3rd game, with the first ball on Garlando.
It was an epic game, and I don’t remember too much about it, but it was pure quality and I was shooting very well on Tecball. It went pretty much ball for ball. Finally I went 7-6 up on Tecball and with the next ball on Garlando I knew I had the chance. I scored the winner from the 2-bar, my favourite, dummy the pull-shot and play a brush across the table.
The place erupted and I remember Martyn lifting me off the floor! We were back in the game.
Last up were Martyn and Chris, and the pressure was on. Our boys did great, destroying the Germans 5-1 on Tecball! But then horror of horrors, the Germans responded, beating our boys 5-1 on Garlando. As Martyn has already reported, it came down to the final table-swapping game which went ball for ball, with huge shouting on every point.
The Germans had a bit of luck and we had none. It hurt that every decision we made was a good one, and yet we still most by the narrowest margin.
After the Americans beat the Germans in the final I spoke to Greg Perrie, and he confirmed what I had thought – that they were greatly relieved to be playing on Tecball rather than Garlando.
I’m sure we’d have won if we’d played the Americans, because we are better on Tornado than they are on Garlando.
I can’t emphasise enough how much of a team effort this was. Without each individual it would not have been possible, each player made multiple key contributions without which our campaign would have ended, and that includes our magnificent coach who solved difficulty after difficulty.
The UK Senior team was: Boris Atha, Chris Haddon, Martyn Harris, Paul Martin, Dave Oates and Dave Ziemann. The coach was J-P Thompson.
This is a story of a series of great decisions, and how they led to our Senior Team Bronze medal. I believe we were one goal away from Gold, but I’m getting ahead of myself...
We were in a single large group of 7 teams, so we knew exactly who we were going to play, and we knew that our Garlando table pick was going to work well for us. And if we qualified we knew that the strongest teams were the Germans and USA, both of whom would rather play any other table.
In the qualification round, you play 3 doubles and 2 singles matches, each match consisting of two games, one on your home table, and one on their table. You win the fixture if you win 6 or more games.
Netherlands
Chris and Martyn started our charge by losing 3-5 on Roberto and winning 5-3 on Garlando.
Boris (being Boris) reversed this by winning his singles game 5-3 on Roberto but losing 3-5 on Garlando against the tricky Mat Koussen. Boris complained about being out-hacked.
Then Boris and Chris won both legs in the 2nd doubles, 5-1 on Roberto and 5-3 on Garlando.
In the 2nd singles I lost 4-5 on Roberto and won 5-3 on Garlando against Theo Conjour.
In the 3rd doubles match Martyn and I won both our legs, 5-1 on Roberto and 5-3 on Garlando.
Score: 7-3 to us, a comfortable win against Netherlands.
Italy
Boris defended for me in our 1st doubles against Italy, and we won both games 5-3.
Paul drew their star singles player Massimo Ragona and lost 3-5 and 2-5.
But then Paul turned it all round in the 2nd doubles match which he played with Dave Oates, winning 5-4 on Roberto and then 5-0 on Garlando, with Dave playing a brilliant defensive game.
I then won the 2nd singles leg 5-3 on Roberto and 5-1 on Garlando.
Boris and Dave Oates completed the fixture with a comfortable 5-2 win on Roberto and a huge 5-0 on Garlando, with Dave again showing his great defensive experience on Garlando.
Score: 8-2 against Italy.
France
This was a bit of an upset in that most of the wins went with the home table. I was disappointed to lose my singles 2-5 on Bonzini to Pascal Lecoz.
It was 4-4 until the key last leg, when Boris and Paul won both their games 5-2. Boris was playing forward and basically ‘ruined’ the victory by scoring a 3-bar winner after Paul scored had the first 4 goals from the back!
Score: 6-4 against France.
Germany
We always knew it would be tough. Boris and Dave Oates started with a 5-1 win on Garlando and a 1-5 loss on Tecball. It was going to be interesting!
In the 1st singles I had to play the very tough Johann Wahl, who had previously beaten me 3 games to 0 in the Senior Singles semi-final. I beat him 5-4 on our table but lost 2-5 on his.
Things looked up after Martyn and I played the 2nd doubles, winning both our games 5-2.
Boris had a bad 2nd singles against Jet, narrowly losing 4-5 on Garlando and being trounced 0-5 on Tecball.
4-4 and the 3rd doubles leg would decide the fixture. Unfortunately Martyn and Dave could not hold back the German pair, with the very strong Heinz Kiessling in defence, and we lost 2-5 and 3-5.
Score: 4-6 against Germany.
USA
Martyn and I kicked off against Greg Perrie and Robert Janac, and I was disappointed to lose 4-5 on Garlando, as well as 2-5 on Tornado. We may have had a bit of bad luck on our table, but this happens.
Chris lost his singles games to Robert Janac 3-5 on Tornado and 3-5 on Garlando.
I failed to hold my singles against Greg on Tornado, losing 3-5, but beating him comfortably 5-2 on Garlando.
The score was now 3-5 to USA and we had to won both games in the 3rd doubles leg to make a draw.
Martyn and Dave won the 3rd doubles leg 5-3 on Garlando, but unfortunately narrowly lost 4-5 on Tornado to Robert Janac and Bud Spredeman.
Score: 4-6 against USA.
Belgium forfeited their match, so we lost 2 out of 6, placing us 3rd in the group. We calculated that we would have to play Germany, who were in 2nd place.
Elimination - Germany
We had a short time to decide and submit the 4 players for our knockout fight with Germany. I decided to play myself and Boris for singles, with Chris and Martyn playing doubles. It was a very hard decision because everyone played extremely well in the quals, and I was grateful for the assistance of our fine coach J-P Thompson.
The next problem was the order of play, and in particular the singles match up. I calculated that Boris might on average do a better job against Wahl than I would, and that I would be more likely to prevail against Jet than Boris would. I also reckoned that they would play Wahl as their lead singles, expecting us to do the same, so I put Boris in the lead slot.
Chris and I were up first, against Jet and Heinz, their top defender. In the KO you play 5 matches again. Each match is one game on each table again, but this time if it’s 1-1, you decide the match winner by playing a 3rd game on both tables, first playing one ball on one table and then alternating 2 balls on each table until the win. The winner is the first team to win 3 matches.
We were disappointed to narrowly lose both games 4-5, there was slop, but I was pretty dejected because I thought we had to win the first leg to stand a chance.
But now Boris was up to play 1st singles, and the plan had worked! He was stacked up against Wahl. Boris and Johann are VERY similar players. To get the picture, imagine one of those computer games where you can either play the computer or you can get the machine to play itself. Well watching Boris vs Johann was like watching the machine play itself. Boris played really well and contained Wahl 5-2 on Garlando followed by a narrow but highly significant 5-4 victory on Tecball.
We were back in the running!
But now Boris and Martyn had to play Johann and Jurgen Stachowiak. The Germans prevailed 5-4 on our table and 5-1 on theirs, so we were 1-2 down.
Next was my singles game against Jet. If I lost we would be out of the tournament.
I won the toss and chose to play Garlando first. Jet came out strong and scored a snake on me from the 2-bar. He was also passing and shooting well on the 3. But the real damage came from the back. My D clearly sucked because he scored two more angled snakes from his 2-bar. I took a time-out and got some good advice from Boris on my D, but it was too late to turn it round.
Jet beat me 2-5 on Garlando and it looked all over.
But I played well on Tecball. Jet wasn’t scoring from the back now but he was passing and snaking well on his table. I can’t remember if I was 1-4 or 2-4 down before the game started to swing.
For some reason I felt calm and strong even though I was almost dead. When I got the ball on the 3 I was shooting good snakes to both sides. I played out of my skin to even it up. I became aware of people shouting and screaming, and it took a while to realise they were shouting at me and Jet. I took the 4-4 time-out and scored the winner to even the game score. Jet thought he’d finished me and was now worried, as it was going to a 3rd game, with the first ball on Garlando.
It was an epic game, and I don’t remember too much about it, but it was pure quality and I was shooting very well on Tecball. It went pretty much ball for ball. Finally I went 7-6 up on Tecball and with the next ball on Garlando I knew I had the chance. I scored the winner from the 2-bar, my favourite, dummy the pull-shot and play a brush across the table.
The place erupted and I remember Martyn lifting me off the floor! We were back in the game.
Last up were Martyn and Chris, and the pressure was on. Our boys did great, destroying the Germans 5-1 on Tecball! But then horror of horrors, the Germans responded, beating our boys 5-1 on Garlando. As Martyn has already reported, it came down to the final table-swapping game which went ball for ball, with huge shouting on every point.
The Germans had a bit of luck and we had none. It hurt that every decision we made was a good one, and yet we still most by the narrowest margin.
After the Americans beat the Germans in the final I spoke to Greg Perrie, and he confirmed what I had thought – that they were greatly relieved to be playing on Tecball rather than Garlando.
I’m sure we’d have won if we’d played the Americans, because we are better on Tornado than they are on Garlando.
I can’t emphasise enough how much of a team effort this was. Without each individual it would not have been possible, each player made multiple key contributions without which our campaign would have ended, and that includes our magnificent coach who solved difficulty after difficulty.
