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Elliot and Lance

Successful Academy Closed Championships!
This year we combined the Academy Closed Championships with the end of Term 4 tournament at Belgian Gardens School - and it worked finely.
The two junior events were played in a round robin format - so everybody had plenty matches. There were many exciting and good matches, but the ones that have played the longest showed their strength: Aiesha went through the U11 event without a loss and so did Lance in the U9 event. Thanks to the parents, who did a good job umpiring the matches!
We played the Open event in Terry's house. The winner from last year, Paul Jones, is in Korea and Olav showed that he still is way too good for the other juniors.
An end-of-the year party with medal ceremony and awards were held in Terry's house, with finger food and a social doubles event.
Thanks for 2012 - and welcome when the school starts in the New Year!
Results
Open Singles: Winner: Olav Dahl. Runner Up: Lance Howell
Junior U11 Boys/Girls: Winner: Aiesha Forrest. Runner Up: Elliot Cummins
Junior U9 Boys/Girls: Winner: Lance Howell. Runner Up: Alden English
Social Doubles: Winner: Philip Goodwin/Lance Howell. Runner Up: Olav Dahl/Isaac English
Encouragement award: Matthew Friend
Special thanks: Kaye Howell.

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Olav won gold in New Zealand
Olav played in the New Zealand Open for seniors 10-13 October and did very well.
He was meant to play in a President's team but it was changed to Auckland 8 and Olav had to use an Auckland shirt. The team was placed in D-grade category but since they only had Open, B, C and D grade it was the same as B-grade in Australia. Olav's team played five team-matches and managed to secure gold medals. Olav won all his matches.
Only New Zealand players were allowed to play in other graded events. The men's open and U21 men's singles with many national squad players was a bit tough for Olav. In U21 doubles Olav played with a good player, Mitchell Barker, and they made it to the semi-finals. In Open doubles Olav and Oliver Scarlett almost made it to the second round but lost 10-12 in deciding set.
It was two days of Hot Spot training camp in Auckland before the championships and on the way back home he played for several hours in Cairns.
A very useful trip for Olav!

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Aiesha won Term 3 competition
We had a very successful end of our Term 3 course at Belgian Gardens School on Tuesday 18 September. Aiesha won the tournament with Lance as runner-up, and all players had fun and played well. Lance was handed a Bronze Award for completing Level 2 in our skills tests program and Aiesha, Lance, Elliot, Seth and Jasmine received their Level 1 awards. All players got awards for successfully completing the course.
The successful event was rounded off with drinks and biscuits during the awards ceremony.

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Mackay Open: Olav won five titles!
Olav won five events at the Mackay Open in the weekend 8-9 September - and it was an article in Bulletin Sports Junior on Tuesday 11 September:
Ping pong kid cleans up
TOWNSVILLE teenager Olav Dahl swept the pool at the Mackay Open table tennis championships last weekend, winning the under 15. under 18 and under 21 singles titles.
The 14-year old was too good for the opposition from Rockhampton, Mackay, Townsville and Cairns in the junior categories.
Olav also won the B-grade singles and joined forces with Rockhampton's Enoch Pun to claim the B-grade doubles title.

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Cairns Open: Olav runner up in U18
Olav was runner up in U18 boy's singles at the Cairns Open in the weekend, 11-12 August. He lost to top seed David Fielding in the finals. Olav won the U1300 Rating singles and also U1500 Rating doubles, with Ersin Akar. He also played well in Mens Open where he won his pool but lost to Max Wellington in the quarter finals. Olav got to the semifinals in Open Doubles with Brendan Cahill, where they lost to Paul Jones (on visit from Korea) and the German top seed.

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Queensland Juniors 2012:
Olav rated number 6 in order of merit

Rayden and Olav with their doubles bronze

One bronze medal and number 6 in order of merit was the final result for Olav in this year's Queensland juniors. His goal as his first year in U15 was to be rated among the 6 best so he achieved his goal. In U15 boys singles Olav lost in the quarter finals to Ned Freeman who was seeded as number four. Olav took the first set and seemed to be in control in the second but the victory slowly slipped away. The tall Bundaberg boy, who also narrowly beat Olav in the team-matches, later won the semi-finals but lost to Jake Duffy in the finals. Matt turned up sick at the day of his U15-maches and had to withdraw and head back home for the bed. Jack lost his first match to one of the top U13 players and even if he put up a good fight in his next math he lost again and did not progress into the knock-out. Olav also played U18 and won the first match in his pool. Olav gave seeded Ben Haughton him a run for his money but he was a bit too strong. Ben later got the bronze medal.
Queensland Table Tennis selected four players to the U15 team to the Australia Juniors in Perth later this year and Olav did not make it into the team. Hopefully they will later select a B-team or select players to a Presidents team, and Olav should be a strong contender for a position.

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Queensland Juniors: Olav bronze in

Dillon, Jack, coach Terry, Matt, Olav and Lance

doubles but too tough in the team matches
The Queensland Junior Championships 2012 have started and the team events and doubles are completed when this is written early Thursday morning 28 June.
Olav is the only one of our players that has participated in a major championship before and our two teams were seeded last. The U15 boys team of Olav, Matt and Jack had a very tough start against the seeded number one team Bundaberg - and we lost 0-9. Not even Olav managed to get a win even if he had close matches. Our U13 team of Angus, Dillon and Lance also were up against Bundaberg, and unfortunately Angus and his sister Astrid withdrew from the championships just before it started. Young Sam Freeman from Bundaberg was allowed to fill in but naturally the team was weaker with our best U13 player missing. It was a tough start to the days of team matches, since the weakest meet the best in the first rounds, but our boys tried their very best all the time. The results improved when we got to the weaker teams with Dillon and Jack winning matches but 4-5 against Cairns for the U15 team was the closest we got to a win.
Olav and Rayden Smith from Rockhampton were seeded number two in the U15 boys doubles and they had no trouble reaching the semi-finals. Here they met two of the gold winners from the team matches: Brett Fourro and Blake Webster. Olav and Raydon did not manage to sparkle 110 percent and the Bundy-boys took home the win in five sets. They also later won the finals against favourites Jake Duffy and Ben Gould. Matt and Jake tried their best in the U15 doubles but they did not manage to get through from their three-pair pool. The same went for Dillon and Lance in U13 boys doubles. Olav was supposed to play U15 mixed doubles with Astrid but lost by default since Astrid did not turn up. Lance and Dillon have also finished their U13 singles events and even if they did a very good effort they did not manage to progress from their pools.
The championships will continue with the singles events so another report will follow!

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Olav and the Academy in the Bulletin
It was another article about Olav and our Academy in the Sports Junior section of the Bulletin on June 19:
Junior table tennis champs represent Academy
THE Table Tennis Academy Townsville will have a small contingent playing in this weekend's Queensland Junior Championships.
Coach Terry Dahl said he would have seven players across three divisions under-13s, under-15s and the junior females - a contingent including son Olay.
Olav is coming off the back of a win in the under-15 and being runner-up in the under-18 singles events at the Townsville Open tournament earlier this month. Terry said Olav had been practising daily for the junior championships and was targeting a spot in the Queensland under-15 team.
He is seeded fifth for the under-15 singles with a top-three finishes earning him a spot in the state side to compete at the Australian Championships in Perth in late September.
Terry said the other players were beginners and had been racusing hard and were enjoying their table tennis ahead of the championships.

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Townsville Open: Olav won U15
Olav won U15 boys singles and was runner up in U18 singles at the Townsville Open in the weekend, 9-10 June. He also played well in the senior grades and almost took out a few of the "hot shots" of the tournament. Matthew and Lance played in their first open tournament and did a good effort against much more experienced players.

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Silver at the Queensland School Championships

Lance and Astrid

Our players did not manage to repeat the gold medals at the Queensland School Championships on Saturday 2 June: Silver this time.
It was a big disappointment that Jack and Dillon did not turn up. Olav had to play up in Grade 10-12 (instead of 8-9) with an unexperienced player, and Astrid was moved to the A-team to play with Lance in the primary school category.

Jonathan and Olav

Olav did not loose any matches throughout the tournament but his partner from William Ross High School was a bit too weak. But silver medals was a good result. They made it to the finals and lost in the deciding doubles. Lance and Astrid met a combined team of two older club-players and secured the silver medals even if they lost. Good effort, guys!
Angus played in what was supposed to be the Pimlico B team (with Olav and Jack in the A-team), and even if Angus showed great fighting spirit they just missed out on a medal.

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Fixtures mowing place
We are moving our Fixtures from the Senior Citizen Centre to Terry's house (1 Howitt Street) from 10 May. We will try to find a time (and day?) that suits everybody but for the first Thursdays it will from 3.30 to 6 pm. Note that we are starting one hour earlier so that some kids can come straight from school (the players do no necessary have to be there from 3.30 to 6 - just tell Terry the hours(s) that fit best. We will also have extra fixtures and traing on other days - so ask Terry!)

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Olav's in the Bulletin again
- from the New Zealand Junior Open
Yet another article where Olav is mentioned: The Sports Junior section of the Bulletin on May 1:
"Putting the ping in ping-pong"
"Table tennis players David Fielding, Eliza Forster and Olav Dahl returned to Townsville recently after representing Australia in the Oceania Junior Tournament in New Zealand.
All three players produced excellent performances which saw Fielding reach the quarter finals in under-18 singles, the best result of any of the Australians in the singles event.
Forster and her partner reached the finals of the under-18 doubles, a fantastic effort and the best Australian result of the tournament.
Dahl made it to the semi-finals in the cadet singles but lost to the eventual winner, while he doubles partner Jay Ong made it to the quarter finals."
Well, it is always good to see table tennis in the newpaper even if the article could have been far more accurate - and the words "ping-pong" changed to something more serious!

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Olav's trip to South-Korea in the Bulletin
It was another article about Olav in the Sports Junior section of the Bulletin on April 24:
TOWNSVILLE table tennis player Olav Dahl has spent the past two weeks in South Korea touring schools and playing in a variety of tournaments. Dahl visited two schools where he played against some very good table tennis players. He also played against senior players twice a day. Dahl had originately set off to compete in in a variety of tournaments but they were unfortunately posponed. He did, though, manage to find three different senior tournaments to play in, getting to one quarter-final. Dahl said he had a great time. "We enjoyed playing table tennis, eating the Korean food and made a lot of great friends," he said.

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Olav played in the New Zealand Junior & Cadet Open: Some good results but not 100 percent happy The tournament was an ITTF Global Junior Circuit event and had attracted players from 11 countries. Olav played a bit up and down and was not happy with all his games. Here are Olav's results: Cadet teams: Olav's Norway-Malaysia team won the Consulation Cup (for the ones that does not make it through the initial pools). Cadet Singles: Olav lost to the winner of the Consulation Cup in the semi-finals. Cadet Doubles: Olav and Jay Ong made it to the querterfinals. Junior Singles: Olav lost to the winner of the Consulation Cup. Junior doubles: Olav and Max Poungsri lost to the winners in the quarter-finals. To see all the results: The ITTF results page - click here The updates from the tournament in New Zealand: Olav lost in the consolation semi-finals (22/4/2012) Olav did not do as well as he had hoped in the singles events. In the cadet single pools he lost to a top seeded player and also to a young boy from New Zealand. So Olav had to play consolation cup and here he made it to the semifinals where he lost in a close game to the later winner from New Zealand. Olav played with his team partner Jay Ong also in cadet doubles and they lost in the quarterfinals. In junior doubles Olav played with the top seed from Thailand and they did a exciting and good match against the top Australian players in the quarter finals - with Olav playing very well. In junior singles Olav played very well against a very good New Zealand junior and also a ranked Australia junior but also lost both and did not progress to the main draw. In the consolation cup Olav lost to the later winner. The ITTF result page - click here Olav's Norway/Malaysia team won the consolation cup (20/4/2012) Olav and his team partner Jay Ong first beat Cook Islands A 3-0 in the consolation cup and went on to win the finals 3-1 over a combined New Caldedonia/Kiribati team. Congratulations! The ITTF result page - click here Beat Cook Islands but lost to Australia and New Zealand (19/4/2012) Olav is playing for Norway but since he is the only player from the country where he was born he is playing in a composite team with a boy representing Malaysia in the cadet (U15) team matches. They lost 0-3 to Australia A in their first match, but beat Cook Islands B 3-0 in their second. They were aiming to give New Zealand B a fight in the next, and they did. Olav took a set from the seeded Dean Shu in the first match and his partner Jay Ong beat Michael Zhang 3-0 in his. Unfortunately the boys did not get their doubles match going as well as they had hoped and lost 0-3. Jay Ong then lost 0-3 to Dean Shu and the team match was over. 3-1 to New Zealand B and the Norway/Malaysia team will have to play in the consolation cup tomorrow morning. The ITTF result page - click here Olav to New Zealand to play in an international tournament Olav Dahl has now left South Korea to play for Norway in an ITTF Global Junior Circuit event. The 2012 KVB Kunlun TTNZ New Zealand Junior & Cadet Open will be held at the Cathay Pacific Auckland table tennis stadium from 19th - 22nd April, 2012. Olav still has a Norwegian passport and will play for Norway, with dad Terry as the coach for the Norwegian one-man team! Olav will play in a composite team with a boy from another country but we still do not know it will be. I will update later! The ITTF page - click here (17/4/2012) Olav's travel to Korea in the Bulletin: It was an article about Olav in the Sports Junior section of the Bulletin on March 27: Ping pong power Olav Dahl will be putting his table tennis skills up against some of the best, when he competes in South Korea over the Easter holidays. The 14-year old will be in South Korea for two weeks where he will play in a tournament in the city of Daegu: Dahl said: "I will be practising with semi-professional players durng the day time and play league matches of a night." "I will then play in a large tournament in the city of Daegu." After snatching four gold medals during a competition in Fiji resently, Dahl was not sure he was going to be able to repeat it: "Their juniors are just too good," he said. "They are world class." South Korea is ranked No.3 country in the world in table tennis behind China and Germany. Junior table tennis champion Olav Dahl with his trophies The latest updates from Korea: Back in shape at last fixtures (15/4/2012) Olav was really out of shape last night but after a good nights rest we decided that he should try to play the last Sunday fixtures/tournament. A new venue, only four tables this time. Olav lost his first match to a lady who used to be a profesionel, but then he won the other four matches in his pool. In the winners knock/out he lost to another good lady, with pimples on forehand. Olav played very promising in his last fixtures! Tomorrow we are heading for Brisbane and then directly to Auckland. Two fixtures the same day (15/4/2012) After noon-practising on Friday then Yang Young Sook took us back to the same school we visited on Thursday. Again Olav played matches against the kids and again they showed how good they were. Olav had close matches with very good rallies but they showed skills most Australian players would envy them. In the evening we went to the club where Olav had some social matches with our new friends. On Saturday Olav had a warming up hitting with me and coach Chang Rae before we travelled to fixtures-tournament that started at 2pm. Olav was number two his pool and went to the winners knock-out where he lost in his first match. At 7pm we took taxi back to the club venue, were Paul Jones, Hong and his wife were warming up before the next fixture/tournament. Taxi with Paul to another venue. Olav's warming up with Paul was good but then the trouble started. Olav was totally out of form - all the practising and matches had finally taken its toll. Not unexpected, but we are sure that after a good rest the promising development will continue! Paul did very well, he won the event! Another primary school visit (12/4/2012) Today we visited another primary school where they had table tennis, Daemyung Elementary School. Yang Young Sook again drove us. Nine tables in the school gym this time. Olav was told to play matches against some of the nine kids that did table tennis. They were a bit older than at the other school, mostly 13 years old. And good. Olav won only one match and lost five. Many of the matches were really good and close. They played modern table tennis with loop/topspin, the best even had a good backhand loop. They practised from 3 to 7.30 every weekday and from 9 to 6.30 on Saturdays. On Sundays they often had school tournaments. They had one coach and a "trainer". The latter, Lim Yoon Chul, was a former professional player who obviously functioned as a sparring partner for the kids. They asked if Olav wanted to stay for a training session after all the matches but Young wanted to go home and Olav was tired and sore, so we drove back home. No evening session for Olav at the club either, he needed some rest. Olav played well in fixtures (12/4/2012) Olav did well in the club-fixtures last night. He lost 1-3 to Daegu number one amateur player in the semi-finals, coach Chang Rae, in an close and entertaining match. Olav started at 6-0 but this player usually beats everybody in Daegu no matter their handicap! The fixtures stared at 2 pm since it was election day and people did not have to go to work, and had also attracted players from other clubs. After the fixtures it was traditional Korean dinner at a restaurant, followed by karaoke at a "noraebong" ("singing rom"). To a primary school (10/4/2012) Today we went to visit a primary school where they had table tennis. Yang Young Sook drove us about half an hour after picking up another coach. Eight tables set up in the school gym, some kids, a teacher and a coach. Olav was told to play a match against a little fellow - and lost 2-3. He was 11 years old, had been playing for four years and was as far as I understood number 2 in Korea for his age group. Olav then had to play a defensive boy, also 11, and won 3-1. Then a girl of the same age, and Olav just managed a 13-11 win in the last set. Then to the tables for training, and the girl gave Olav some multi-ball practising. I was told that the kids practised four hours every day. The coach came to give Olav some advice and he wanted Olav to hit the ball early in his forehand - hitting instead of looping. Well. Olav's style is looping so I tried to explain that in Europe many players used loop (and so do many Chinese these days). He also said that the Europeans did not know how to play on short balls (well, I have seen some that are quite good at it, like Timo Boill). They tried to give Olav some hard work on his forehand with multi-ball but after a short break we had to call it quits. Olav had been sick last night and he did not feel well. I explained that I was very happy to see how they did their practising and that it was a pity we could not stay longer. We drove back home and Olav went early to bed. It might have been some of the food that we ate yesterday that was the problem because I was not feeling very well myself. Busy weekend for Olav (9/4/2012) Olav played in two different club fixtures in the weekend, and did well. Saturday: Olav and a few of the other players from "our" club travelled by car to another venue in the big city of Daegu. The venue had more space behind the tables compared to where Olav had been practicing during the week, and the playing style of many of the players where different; they were not as close to the tables. Olav, as a new and unexperienced player here, is a rated as Level 6. The fixtures started at 7.30 pm (people are working late in Korea) and there were no junior players at all. There weres three players in Olav's round robin pool, and Olav managed to win all his matches - some of them were very tough. So Olav progressed to the knock-out but here he met the later winner of the event and lost 1-3. Sunday: By car to another venue and start at 1 pm. Again; only senior players and all kind of styles. It was six players in Olav's pool this time. Olav was in trouble several times in the first two matches but managed to win. In the third match Olav had a senior lobbing most of the time, and Olav lost 2/3, 11-13 in the deciding set on some exiting rallies (where Olav also was injured, hitting a corner sticking out into the playing area)! Olav beat the number one rated player in the pool in his last match (Olav starting on 4-0, so he was Level 3) and went thought to the winners knock-out as number two. Olav then won his first match but all the tough matches had taken its toll; he ran out of power and lost in the quarter finals. A box of balls as trophy. Our club coach won the event, and he shouted dinner with his prize money. The club fixtures here in Daegu are open for players for all the associations and there are several of them on the same day: Some players from our club played at another venue/club on Sunday. Olav runner-up in the club fixtures (7/4/2012) Olav played in the club-fixtures last night and made it all the way to the finals. Here he lost 1-3 to his practising partner Yang Young Sook. The Level 1 female player is a left-handed counter-hitter with pimples on backhand. The club-fixtures is a social weekly event where they use the handicap-system, and Olav started at 3-0 in the finals. The event was played with round robin pools leading to knock-out. Olav and Terry have arrived Korea (3/4/2012) - We arrived Daegu in South Korea in the evening on Saturday 31 March. We were met by Paul Jones and a member of the club, and they took us to the motel where we stay. Daegu is a large city with 2.5 million people, and April is springtime. It is a bit could for us used to Townsville, about 10-15 degrees Celsius daytime, but we brought warm clothes. The club is practising in a rather small venue with 5 tables, but it is open from about 11 o'clock every day. Olav has practised to 4 pm every day, and then in the evening from 7 to 9.30. It has been mostly matches but he also has a very good female practising partner one hour every day. The women are playing shakehand with pimples on backhand while the men are playing penholder. They are all very quick at the table, counterhitting with powerful strokes. On Sunday we watched a tournament played on 33 tables, and Olav will be playing himself in a tournament this weekend - after what we have heard. Tomorrow night, Friday, he will be playing in club fixtures.

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Schools: In the Bulletin!
The picture of our two teams in the school championships for Grade 4-7 was published in the Bulletin Tuesday March 6, the Junior Sports section. "But the grade four to seven division saw Belgian Gardens one side come up against Belgian Gardens second side; with the first team winning". The picture caption: "Dillon Navin, Lance Howell, Astrid Mussap and Louis Strike at the Townsville School team table tennis championships at the weekend".

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Two gold at the Townsville school championships!
Jack and Olav won the Grade 8-9 team event for Pimlico, and Dillon and Lance won the Grade 4-7 event for Belgian Gardens! Congratulations!
   Olav showed everybody why he is ranked number 9 in Australia in U13 by winning all his matches with ease, and Jack followed up with a promising game. They did not loose any matches in singles or doubles so their gold medals were well deserved!
   Dillon showed strong form in the primary school team matches, and he and his team partner Lance received their gold medals after winning 3-0 in their finals. Well done boys, congratulations! Guess who they met in the finals: Our other Belgian Gardens team of Louis and Astrid! They did a fantastic effort by beating the two girls from Calvary school 3-2 in an exiting team match!
   Angus and Matt played in a composite team Pimlico/Kirwan and they had really close matches but could not reach the finals. Angus' fighting spirit was an example for everybody and so was his sister Astrid's happiness in her singles matches against Calvary! The championship was held on Sunday 26 February.
   Congratulations to all our Academy players for a fantastic effort!
Grade 8-9: Gold: Jack Navin and Olav Dahl, Pimlico
Grade 4-7: Gold: Lance Howell and Dillon Navin, Belgian Gardens. Runner up: Louis Strike and Astrid Mussap, Belgian Gardens.

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We have started to prepare for the

Olav with four medals last year

Queensland Junior Championships 2012
The Queensland Junior Championships will be held in Townsville this year. It will be held during the school holidays in June, five days from Sunday 24 to Friday 29. An important part of the popular championships are the team events. Last year Olav had to play in a composite team with a boy from Bundaberg but we are of course planning to have teams that can play for the Academy this time! There are many single and double events as well, and all the kids always have great fun throughout the championships. The competition is very tough with many good players from all over the state and we have to be well prepared to do our best. So we have already at this stage started planning for the championships. We have looked at the results and interest shown from the players last year and this and made a preliminary selection to the teams. This selection is just an indication how the situation is at the moment, and there might very well be additions and changes!
U15 Boys Teams: A-team; Olav Dahl, Jack Navin, Angus Mussap.
B-team; Robert Bryan-Crawford, Thomas Coyne, Matthew Friend, Michael Jones
U13 Boys team; Dillon Navin, Lance Howell, Louis Strike.
U13 Girls team: Aiesha Forrest, Astrid Mussap.
The team matches in the Queensland Junior Championships are played with three-member teams for U18 and U15, where all the players on every team in the state will play against each other. For the U13 boys’ teams it is usually two players in a team. Last year all the U13 girls were playing a round robin pool but hopefully it will be team events this year!
Terry will be our over-all team manager and coach, and later we will have to select team captains and managers for each team. We will also have a meeting fairly soon where we can look at our uniforms and decide the design for this season. First of all we will have to get confirmation from the players and their parents that they will be able to play for the Academy in this year’s Queensland Junior Championships – and we have to look into our training days and fixtures so that we get a useful and fun preparations for all our squad members! We hope to play team matches against Townsville Table Tennis Association as a preparation towards the championships and may be also Mackay. We also hope that the players will be able to take part in weekend tournaments in and out of the city as a part of the preparations.
More information or confirmation: Terry Dahl, 47723486, 0431099274

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Olav in the Bulletin
The Sports Junior section in the Bulletin had an article about Olav Dahls "gold-winning" in the Fiji Open Championships. The article was on page 22 and 23 on Tuesday the 31 January. We have earlier written about Olavs fantasic efforts by winning four gold. To read the story; scroll down or click here.

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More table tennis holiday fun in Terry's house
Our Christmas table tennis in Terry's house was so fun that we repeated the event. Wednesday 18 January was the day and we started 9.30 in the morning. Luckily we did not get 36 degrees Celsius this time but a water-fight after the matches cooled down again! Olav, who won the handicap event last time started on minus 7 points this time and was beaten by Louis starting on eight plus. Louis made it to the finals but here Angus starting on 5 points was too strong. Angus, who celebrated his 13th birthday, was teamed up with another birthday boy, Dillon of nine. They celebrated by winning the doubles event with Jack and Louis in second place and Olav and Astrid number three.

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Top table tennis trip to Atherton and Cairns
Chris Pang Way invited us to come to Atherton for some table tennis with him and his friend Safi. And; In the morning Saturday the 14th of January Olav, Paul Jones and Terry headed towards the tablelands. So did also Paul Uttley and Thomas Woltmann of Cairns and soon they were all playing friendly matches at one table in a shed with concrete floor (well, not Terry; he was doing the scoring). We the Townsville-visitors slept over in a shop in the same building and next morning we played a team-match against Atherton. Paul beat Chris, while Olav lost 11-13 in deciding set to Safi. Olav and Paul the won the doubles and finished the team-match by winning their last singles. 4-1 to us! We then jumped in the car and drove to Cairns where Olav and Paul practised and played matches against Paul U and Thomas again. Cairn's number one player Holger Knublauch also turned up, and Olav registered his best win so far by beating him 3-2. We just made it back to Townsville just before the roads were flooded. We had a nice and useful trip with lots of table tennis!

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Christmas fun in Terry's house
Eight players turned up for some Christmas table tennis fun in Terry's house at North Ward on Tuesday 27 December at 10 o'clock in the morning (and 36 degrees plus!). It was a knock-out competition with consolation and handicap. Olav started on minus 3 while the others started on plus 5 to 9 points but he still managed to win the event. A fun knock-out doubles was won by Jack and Lance.
The parents also had short meeting where Terry presented the President's report for 2011, and they gave feedback on how they thought the Academy should start the activities in the New Year.

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Olav ranked 9 in Australia
Olav Dahl is now for the first time on the Australian national ranking list. He is ranked number 9 in the U/13 boy's category. Congratulations to Olav!
For the Australian ranking 2011 - click here.

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Olav won four gold at the Fiji Open Championships!
Our 13 year old Olav Dahl won the boy's junior singles title (U18) in the Fiji Open Championships held in Nadi 8-11 December. The youngster beat the Pacific number one rated cadet player, Rob Dorovolomo from the Solomon Islands 3-2 (11/8,5/11, 11/5, 5/11, 11/6) in the finals.
   Olav also won boy's cadet singles U15 plus boy's doubles both in U18 (with Chris Guttersberger, Fiji) and U15 (with Vincent Wu, Fiji). In the Men Open singles he lost in the quarter finals to a Chinese veteran that was seeded as number four. The championships had attracted players from New Zealand, Vanuatu, Solomon Islands, New Caledonia, Australia and Fiji.
   Terry Dahl, our coach, president and also Olav's dad conducted 2 1/2 days of international training before the championships.
Article in Fiji Times - click here.

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Successful Academy Closed Championships!
Our first closed championships were a great success. The kids had heaps of matches in the junior events and the finals for the men between veteran Paul Jones and young Olav Dahl showed the parents what table tennis is like on a top competitive level!
   It was a problem for the school to let us use the mu ltipurpose hall in the weekend so we had to use our last Thursday of the year to hold our championships. Luckily it worked fine and we managed to get finished just at 6.30! Terry worked hard at the control table to get all the matches started but with good help of the kids and parents to do the scoring everything run quite smooth.    
   Unfortunately no parents got their courage up to enter in a Parents event but then they had better time to look at their kids fantastic efforts!    
   After the last finals everybody jumped in their cars and headed for Terry's house at North Ward. Ian helped out at the barbie while the kids could test Olav's electronic drums and games. After sausages and cordial it was time for a trophy ceremony, and the winners got their gold medals and the runners up their awards.

Results
Men Singles: Winner: Paul Jones. Runner Up: Olav Dahl
Junior U13 Boys: Winner: Olav Dahl. Runner Up: Jack Navin
Junior U13 Girls: Winner: Aiesha Forrest. Runner Up: Astrid Mussap
Junior U11 Boys: Winner: Dillon Navin. Runner Up: Lance Howell
Junior U11 Girls: Winner: Aiesha Forrest. Runner Up: Astrid Mussap
Junior U9 Boys/Girls: Winner: Dillon Navin. Runner Up: Lance Howell
Doubles (Social) : Winner: Olav Dahl/Lance Howell. Runner Up: Angus Mussap/Michael Jones
U13 Boys Consolation: Winner: Robert Bryan-Crawford. Runner Up: Michael Jones

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End of Term 3 tournament
- The players are improving all the time, and they all showed good effort in our end of term 3 tournament, president and head-coach Terry Dahl said.
   Unfortunately some of the players at Belgian Gardens School were sick on the day but everybody did their best and there were many tight and exciting matches.
After fighting it out then it was time for biscuits and cordial - and a trophy ceremony.
Grade 2-3: Winner; Lance Howell
Grade 4-5: Winner; Dillon Navin, Runner Up; Aiesha Forrest
Grade 6-7: Winner; Angus Mussap, Runner Up; Sophie Woodford
Award for the best effort and most positive attitude during the Table Tennis Course Term 3 2011 at Belgian Gardens School was given to Lance Howell.