2019 TTV Premier League – Season 1 – Pre Grand Final Report

An astonishing 6 divisions, 36 teams and 127 players is what has made Season 1 the biggest pennant competition in metropolitan Melbourne that is played on a single night. Over 11 grueling weeks, only 2 teams in each division are left to do battle in what should be an exciting Grand Final on Wednesday 15^th May!

Division 1

The Monash contingent of Anthony Majtlis, Phil Riha and Parth Phansekar are looking for their 3^rd premiership in a row on Wednesday but a reformed Balwyn – Geelong United composite team is looking to threaten their reign. The tie currently stands at 1 match all with Balwyn – Geelong winning the Home and Away match and Monash winning the important semi-final clash. However BGU managed to easily get through the preliminary final over Albert Park – Dandenong. Brett Sonnet of APD started with a tough 5 game win over Robert Chan in the first match before BGU won the next 5 – including the match of the night between former university colleagues Rhys Thomas and Australian World University Games representative Steven Phan. Many tough and thrilling matches went to the distance between experience and youth but in the end it was the more youthful team that pulled through. (Robert Chan 1, Richard Li 2, Rhys Thomas 2 def Brett Sonnet 1, Steven Phan 0, Warren Woolcock 0, 5-0)

Division 2

The more frequent members of Balwyn United, Eddie Giam and Binh Vuong, will be boosted when their star player, Harrison (Harson) Huang returns to fight for the minor premiers at Wednesday’s Grand Final. They will be up against seasoned veterans in St Kilda Cricket Red (Leigh Curson, Peter Sheedy, Graeme Strong, and Martin Somic) which what should be an interesting matchup. St Kilda almost had an upset when the young guns of RMIT Park Rangers threatened their Grand Final position where 5 of the first 6 matches went to the 5^th game. This was uncharted waters for a team with 100+ years of table tennis experience who has won the previous two encounters 8-1. However when it was for the final 3 matches to be played, RMIT had run out of puff losing their last 2 in straights. Andrew Ng was the star performer for RMIT having beaten the season’s runner up, Sheedy, when he was 0-2 down and the dogged Curson. (Leigh Curson 2, Peter Sheedy 2, Graeme Strong, 1 def Andrew Ng 2, Aoun Muhammad 1, Stephen Phung 0, 5-3).

Division 3

In a shocking encounter, the Maccabi Vision contingent of Yori Bargil, Ivan Blajer and Jacob Shelton simply had their eye on the prize as they blitzed through Flinders 5-0. Flinders could never respond to what was simply bullet train that rammed past them. Unfortunately for Flinders it was a tale of what ‘could have been’ given their previous two encounters with Maccabi having gone to the very last game. However without their star contributor, Gao Guiqin, away on holidays, Lawrence Tsui, Yen & Tim Ngo put on the brave face to face the inevitable. Obviously fate has it so that it would be an all Maccabi affair next Wednesday! (Yori Bargil 2, Ivan Blajer 2, Jacob Shelton 1 def Lawrence Tsui 0, Yen Ngo 0, Tim Ngo 0).

Division 4

Division 4 provide a more unorthodox approach to finals where the two teams (Maccabi Price & APT Exotics) focused on participating and playing out all the matches regardless of the result. The consistent Stephen Golding showed everyone that his defence was not to be broken in this match up by giving his team the important 3 wins – particularly in a tough display against the season’s surprise young gun, Abhinav Sharma of APT. Maccabi’s Ashley Duns saved his best performance for this preliminary final with also a 3 win display which included 2 gruelling yet impressive 5^th game wins over Sharma and Adwait Vaidya. However APT Exotics should that their lack of experience was not a hindrance and took 2 win from the veteran Marko Boscovski. Maccabi now has a big mountain to climb over the favourites, Old Melburnian AP, in this Wednesday’s final. (Stephen Golding 3, Ashley Duns 3, Marko Boscovski 1 def Abhinav Sharma 1, Adwait Vaidya 1, Thang Nguyen 0, 7-2).

Division 5

Once again youth triumphs experience! A sensational win by MUTTC AP Blue over St Kilda Cricket Brown was simply the definition of ‘handing over the torch’. Many close affairs between these two teams has been the story but finally the contingent of the season’s leading player, Pengsheng Qin, Zehai Sun and Xinran Zhao had a decisive win over the veterans Colin Ditchfield, Rohan Hamilton and Xenia Gorney. Qin won his 3 in destructive fashion, Zhao had two to her name and Sun nearly got through Ditchfield in a close 5 game encounter having initially won the first 2 games. Hamilton was St Kilda’s best performer with a win over Zhao and Sun. To see if these Melbourne University students can finally overcome all veterans, they must overcome their nemesis Maccabi Menches who has beaten them 5-4 in all their encounters thus far. (Pengsheng Qin 3, Xinran Zhao 2, Zehai Sun 0 def Rohan Hamilton 2, Colin Ditchfield 1, Xenia Gorney 0, 5-3).

Division 6

Perhaps Albert Park Stars are going to pull off an upset once again as the pairing of Premier League first timer, Melissa Grenville, and old timer, Jim de Saint-Ferjeux, defeated the second placed APT Osvath. Gabriella starred for APT Osvath with 2 important singles wins yet Grenville and Jim both defeated Osvath Senior, Peter. The doubles was obviously crucial as the pair that practised the most and built their synergy over the season was the one that pulled through – despite Evelyn joining in for the mother/daughter pairing! Having done so last season against the favourites, Albert Park Stars must pull out all stops against APT Sadlers where Captain Ben has gone through the season undefeated and his doubles pairing with son is second to none. I predict it will go to the wire! (Melissa Grenville 1, Jim de Saint-Ferjeux 1, Doubles 1 def Gabriella Osvath 2, Peter Osvath 0, Doubles 0, 3-2).

Conclusion

Some exciting matchups to be played at this Wednesday’s Grand Final! MSAC is the destination and 7:30pm is the time. With our Competition Manager, Kameron Chan, set to be directing the formalities for the first time in his tenure, we should expect only the best show to be presented!

ALSO! We are now open for Season 2 entries – get your preliminary entry in NOW by Saturday 25^th May!!!