The 2023 Victorian Closed Veterans Championships was played on Saturday, the 15^th of July with 113 veterans eager to showcase their skills and take home some medals across the day.

Play kicked off at 9:00am with some exciting matches to kick off the day.

The Over 40 Men’s and Women’s categories showcased some of Victoria’s best veterans, including Simon Johnson, Scott Huang, John Griffiths, Victoria Male, Lydia Liu and Belinda Strong.

In the men’s it was down to Johnson and Huang to battle it out with Johnson taking home the win 3 sets to 1. In the Women’s, Victoria Male went undefeated in her round robin matches to take out the title.

Johnson would then go on to back up in the Over 30 Men’s and take home the win, defeating Chris Dobrovic in straight sets, while also winning the Under 2000 singles, the Over 30 Men’s Doubles with Stephen Warr and the Over 40 Mixed Doubles with Lydia Liu. In the Women’s, it was Lydia Liu who beat Kate Carmichael 3 sets to 1.

In the Over 50’s Men’s and Women’s Singles, Harrison Huang and Aviva Brindley both took home wins.

In the Over 60’s Men’s and Women’s Singles, David Brand and Debbie Wilson enjoyed wins, with Wilson backing up in the Over 50 Women’s Doubles with Vicky Carruthers and again in the Over 60 Mixed Doubles with Rod Carlyle.

Moving into the Over 65 and 70 categories, and it was Brian Berry, Anne Bellion and Daisy O’Bryan showing their class across the day.

Berry took home the Over 65 Men’s Singles, defeating Jeff Dever 3 sets to 1 and the Over 70 Men’s Singles in straight sets against Bob Bowler With Bellion winning in straight sets in the Over 65 Women’s Singles, backing up in the Doubles with Judy James and again in the Mixed Doubles with Jeff Dever. O’Bryan won all her matches in the Over 70 Women’s Singles to take home the title.

Across some of the other categories, Igor Klaf took out the Over 75 Men’s Single and the Over 80 Doubles with Buddy Reid with, Reid winning the Over 80 Men’s Singles and backing up in the Over 70 Mixed Doubles with Maureen Fischer and Colin Geraghty won the Over 85 Singles.

Click HERE for the full results.

Table Tennis Victoria Events and Clubs Officer Oscar Yam was pleased with the day and the success of some of the players.

“It was a successful day of table tennis, with the veterans playing some high-quality table tennis and really showcasing their skills, looking to push for State Team selection.”

“I was really impressed with the competitiveness, but also how great it was to see all the players having friendly chatter and an opportunity to catch up with one another.”

“We look forward to holding the Vic Closed Junior/Senior event here at MSAC again in October.”

If you would like to download photos from the day, head to our Flickr page HERE

The next event on the TTV calendar is the Dandenong Open Junior/Senior happening on July 29-30 with registrations still open for the event.