Players claim medals

A contingent of eight players from the Geographe Bay Table Tennis Club returned home after competing in the 34th National Veterans Table Tennis Championships in Mandurah last week.

Yvonne Cleal was outstanding for the ladies, reaching the quarterfinals in the over-65s womens singles.

In the team events she was obliged to compete in the over-50s because her peer group were all advanced Perth players.

Though winning only two of her team matches, she took games from opponents in five other matches.

Sue Jordan managed two wins in the over-70s teams and seemed to have benefited this year from her annual sojourn to Townsville.

But local stalwart Marg Schuts, who recently moved to Mandurah, didn’t fare quite so well in the teams.

Newcomers to the nationals included club captain Matt Cheng and president Ronald Faber in both the over-30s and over-40s.

Cheng had some success with wins in three singles matches, while Les Dearden took five wins in the over-70s, where he teamed with Morley’s John Dombrose and Busselton’s David Cheshire.

The real local highlight of the tournament was in the over-80s category, where the experienced club patron Gordon Lee and former club captain Neil Coy turned the tables on the Victorian A and B teams to take gold in the teams event. This contest went right to the wire, with Coy fighting back to defeat his former nemesis Jim Furness, who had beaten him in the correspond-ing deciding matches in 2008 and 2014.

Lee won 100 per cent and Coy took 75 per cent of their team matches and they finished first and third respectively in the over-80s.

They were the fifth WA team to win gold in the history of national veterans team events.

Lee was named veteran player of the year for his performance, winning two golds, a silver and a bronze medal.