Rockhampton Table Tennis Association

Flashback 🏓

In this week's (late) Flashback, we jump back to 2017 where two of Rocky's competitive senior players were teaming up with another former local to contest the 2017 Queensland Closed Championships in Townsville.

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Fixtures Recap 🏓

With two weeks to go, teams are starting to make big moves on the leaderboard to close the gap between the current front-runners and the rest of the pack!

To see more detailed fixture results, check out our website!
https://www.rockhamptontabletennis.com/fixtures-v2

Weekly Recap 24-30 August 2026 🏓

The 2026 Edition of the Rockhampton Closed Championships had an extremely eventful final evening. To read all about it, continue on!

The 2026 edition of the city’s annual closed table tennis championships wound up last week at the local playing centre on Leichhardt Park on Campbell Street. With Ann-Louise Stewart and James O’Sullivan figuring prominently in the women’s open singles and veteran singles and doubles events that were decided during the first week of competition a few others got their names on major medals, however this pair still created some solid performances during the second week of the tournament.

The premier men’s open singles was finalised as per the program, however the grand final did not unfold as the players and onlookers would have anticipated or imagined. Following the round-robin series the previous week to sort out which players would qualify for the round of eight to compete for men’s singles club champion as opposed to the consolation singles, plenty of good matches were witnessed in the closing stages of this major event.

Matthew Pettett and Rayden Smith had already qualified for the semi-finals due to entry-numbers. Emerging youth player Cooper Bulow outlasted Nick Green in the quarters
11-9, 5-11, 11-8, 11-13, 11-8 in a clash that featured an abundance of great plays from both contestants to qualify for the semi-finals against the title holder in Pettett. James O’Sullivan had too many tricks for Jakob Baker in the other quarter on the card and he won over straight sets that all had narrow score-lines to have a shot at the second seeded Smith.

In the semis Pettett was just too strong on all fronts for Bulow to win three-zero and Smith pretty much set up the same situation against O’Sullivan, who has beaten him in past fixture encounters.

This set up the same final as in last year’s competition where Pettett won across four games in a best of five rubber contest against the player who he went through the junior and youth categories with where they were regular training partners when they were very busy on the state tournament circuit at these lower age-levels. Both represented the state and their regular practice sessions kept them in fine fettle over a number of years.

The play-off was looking in Pettett’s favour when he lead by two sets to nil 11-6, 11-6. In the third game Smith appeared to be mounting a potential come-back into the clash when he had a 10 points to 8 cushion and needing a point to win the game at that stage. During that rally Pettett went for a forehand drive shot and succumbed to a shoulder injury which ultimately did not allow him to continue the match. The outcome was that the title-holder could not continue in the match and Smith was awarded the title.

Earlier in proceedings Pettett had partnered Chris Leitner to victory in the open doubles event. This pair, who were the title holders, entered the comp as top seeds and took on the second favourite pairing of Dane Coughlan and Allan Clarke in the final for the second year in a row. In earlier clashes the Pettett/Leitner combination outed Cooper Bulow and Tom Tonkin after these youngsters had surprisingly beaten James and Linda O’Sullivan (11-9 in the decider) after downing another solid combination of Glen McDonald and Warun Wilkinson 11-9 in the fifth set after trailing two-zero.
On the other side of the draw the passage of Coughlan and Clarke was challenging as they narrowly defeated Jakob Baker and Nick Green 11-8 in the deciding fifth set in the quarters and outlasted Rayden Smith and Pam Clarke over four very close sets in the semis.

The consolation singles event which includes players who do not make it through to the main draws of both the men’s and singles open events was again hotly contested and finished with a very good final where Chris Leitner posted a great win over Glen McDonald 13-15, 12-10, 11-9, 11-7.

Leitner, who emerged from an unseeded position, earned his pot in the play-off after he prevailed over the reliable game of Julien Wright over four sets prior to overcoming Warun Wilkinson in another close four-game encounter and then knocking Pam Clarke out of contention in the semis. McDonald’s earlier victims included Linda O’Sullivan, who had earlier beaten the vastly improved Sajan Baral 12-10 in the decider, and Jeff Jordan, after he qualified for the semis on outlasting veteran Allan Clarke over five lengthy sets.

As always, our full archive of articles can be viewed on our website!
https://www.rockhamptontabletennis.com/blog

Bat & Chat hits off tomorrow (Monday 31st of August) at 9:30am!

Bat & Chat is held every Monday at RTTA and over the past 4 years has grown into a vibrant community who love table tennis and the chance to catch up over a cuppa!

If you or someone you know is over 50 and would like to try Table Tennis in a fun and relaxed environment, give Bat & Chat a go!

Cost - $6 members/$10 non-members
Time - 9:30am - 11:30am
Location - 157 Campbell Street
Equipment - Available to borrow free of charge 😁

Just bring a water bottle and a pair of sports shoes (non-marking
preferable) and you’re good to go!

Have a great week! 🏓

Flashback 🏓

In this week's Flashback we jump back to 2017, where one Rocky Junior was preparing to travel to Tasmania for the Australian titles.

Have a great weekend

New Rocky Shirt Order Closing Soon 👕

A friendly reminder that the current order for the new club shirts will be closing soon. If interested make sure to complete the form at the front counter.

If you have any questions feel free to ask the session controller!

Weekly Recap 17-23 August 🏓

Week one of the 2026 Rockhampton Closed Championships did not disappoint, with all the thrills and spills commonly seen at the annual event being on display! To read all about it, continue on below!

Despite most participants playing exceptional table tennis during the first week of the annual Rocky Closed Championships the medals mostly went to the same people as last year in the major events contested so far. The tournament will wind up this week at the Leichhardt Park playing centre with the finalisation of the men’s open singles, the open doubles and the consolation singles for those who did not make through to the main draw of the major singles events.

In the first event concluded, Ann-Louise Stewart confirmed favouritism in the women’s open singles to take out the title over the second seeded Monica Deeth 11-,9,11-9, 11-9. The play-off was an entertaining match that featured plenty of fine rallies and whilst Deeth’s consistent counter-hitting won her a lot of points to keep her in with a chance in all three games she just couldn’t win the crucial plays towards the conclusion of each and Stewart’s strong all-round plays won out.

The finalists didn’t get it all their own way during the draw and Stewart had to dig deep when pitted against Linda O’Sullivan where she won over five sets after being down by two games to one. Deeth had an even closer battle with Pam Clarke when she won 13-11 in the deciding fifth game after being down match point a few times in a clash where the combatants went game for game.

Whilst the veteran’s events produced similar results to those of the past few years the standard of play was quite impressive. In a repeat of the last two instalments of the singles James O’Sullivan and Ann-Louise Stewart faced off in the final of the singles and O’Sullivan looked to be in the box seat to make it two years in a row when he comfortably won the opening two sets. However, Stewart was determined to repeat the results of two years ago and she stormed back into contention when she put together two high quality games. In the decider plenty of fine rallies unfolded with both players holding slight leads at various times. In an absolute cliff-hanger the score went to deuce before O’Sullivan fell over the line at 14-12.

In the semis O’Sullivan prevailed over Monica Deeth in a straight sets encounter and this was after his challenger survived a scare provided by Allan Clarke 13-11 in the decider. Deeth also had to overcome the solid game of Linda O’Sullivan who was playing well enough on the night to outlast Dave Milverton 11-9 in the fifth game of a very close encounter. On the other side of the draw Stewart beat Geoff Geddes in four tight sets in the semis after Geddes bundled out the third-seeded Joel Gifford in another very close contest.

Top seeds James and Linda O’Sullivan combined to win the doubles and this time their victims were Stewart and Deeth, who they lost to in last year’s gold medal match. The reliability of this pairs combination and experience shone through as they won each game relatively untroubled. In the semis the victors had too much in store for Geoff Geddes and Chris Leitner while on the other side of the draw the Stewart and Deeth pairing overpowered Pam Clarke and Helga Leitner after they had outed the more fancied match-up of Joel Gifford and Dave Milverton.

There were some great matches in the early rounds of the men’s singles draw and one to obtain plenty of attention was when Geoff Geddes scrapped in over Sajan Baral 9-11,
11-8, 11-8, 6-11, 15-13. Geddes then engaged in another marathon encounter when pitted against Cooper Bulow. This hard-hitting pair went game for game before the younger Bulow took control in the decider to book his place in the play-offs for the major title this week.

Jakob Baker also qualified for the major draw when he outlasted Glen McDonald in another five-set classic that McDonald had his chances to win when leading two games to one after dropping the opening set 16-14. Nick Green also reserved a place in the main event but had to survive a challenge provided by Julien Wright over five lengthy sets.

As always, you can read our full collection of articles at the following link:
https://www.rockhamptontabletennis.com/post/thrills-spills-week-1-of-2026-closed-championships-delivers

Flashback 🏓

In this week’s Flashback, we jump back to 2010, where RTTA hosted the 2010 Queensland Junior Table Tennis Championship, quite the feat at the time given Rocky’s humble hall size!

Have a great weekend!

Weekly Recap 10 - 16 August 🏓

With the Closed Championships now underway, recent fixture results gave clues as to how it was all going to play out. Continue reading for the full article!

Fixtures in open grade are taking a break for two weeks to make way for the Rockhampton Table Tennis Association’s annual closed championships that will wind up at the Leichhardt Park playing centre next Tuesday night.

In the top-grade fixtures the team lead by Matthew Pettett is out in front and whilst he and his team mates, Joel Gifford, Linda O’Sullivan and Dave Milverton are enjoying the seven-point cushion the outfit has benefitted from a few lucky breaks during the first five rounds of the comp which has four-player teams participating in two separate sections with their positive results aggregated.

Pettett will start as favourite in the prestigious men’s open singles at the closed titles even though in the last fixture bout he went down to the solid game provided by Rayden Smith 12-10, 11-8, 12-10. This result came on top of the win over Pettett by Smith at the premier event of the recent Rocky Open Championships and whilst Smith will start the city’s closed as second seed in the major event these results demonstrate that if this pair make it to the gold medal match a great clash could easily unfold.

With a couple of the city’s ‘leading ladies’ in Kelsey Pettett and Erica Clarke, who have both won the women’s open singles in the past, not currently participating in local weekly activities due to family commitments it appears that the best chances to impress in the women’s open singles rests with Ann-Louise Stewart and Monica Deeth. However, with multiple previous winner of this event Pam Clarke in the draw one should never say never and Linda O’Sullivan has been hitting the ball quite well lately and in with a chance to impress.

Both Stewart and Deeth failed to register wins in the last fixture outing but that is quite understandable considering the on-table power difference between the better male players and the leading females. For many years the city’s club has included better female players in the male dominated top grade weekly fixtures and this has proven very successful in keeping many participants’ games competitive against their counterparts in inter-city clashes including open tournaments.

In last week’s fixture Stewart lost to improving junior Cooper Bulow over four good quality sets before going down to James O’Sullivan across five competitive games where she had an opportunity after enjoying a two-one lead. Deeth played quite well when pitted against a very strong opponent in Dane Coughlan and won the open set before her Coughlan won the next three including the fourth at 13-11. In another entertaining clash Deeth narrowly failed to upstage Jakob Baker and bowed out 9-11, 10-12, 14-12, 9-11.

The event that will no doubt attract plenty of interest at the city’s annual closed titles
will be the veteran’s singles with recent victors in James O’Sullivan and Ann-Louise Stewart pretty much sharing favouritism for the gold medal going by the last few years outcomes where they have taken it in turns in winning. Whilst there are a few other strong contenders in the frame, including Monica Deeth and Joel Gifford who are occupying the other seeded spots, any good effort by others on the night may secure a victory.

As always, our full suite of articles is available at the following link:
https://www.rockhamptontabletennis.com/blog