In what was probably the final table tennis tournament to be played in Dylan’s lounge room, Dave Lee was once again the dominant performer. Destroying walls and egos alike with an approach bordering on brutality, Lee stretched his unbeaten run out to an impressive 15 games and, in the process, more than likely sent Darren Southwell home a distraught, withered, shell of a man.
While Lee’s continued dominance is a tremendous story—one the crowd respectfully acknowledged—the emerging North Watto rivalry between Dylan Shepherdson and Craig Tuck was the true story to emerge from last night’s competition. Clashing in eight gruelling contests throughout the evening, the two fierce rivals produced some of the finest table tennis ever seen on the hallowed floors of the North Watto Table Tennis Arena. The tragedy of the night was that this contest was continually interrupted by the ‘rotating contender’ policy, which allowed even the likes of Southwell equal time at the table. Thankfully Southwell exited the arena soon after his desperate plea of ‘Josh, come back!’ was heard echoing through the halls; this exit resulted in arguably the biggest cheer of the night from the capacity crowd (who were more than aware that this would allow for the recommencement of the Shepherdson-Tuck showdown).
Punching and counter-punching, much like falsely-imprisoned boxing icon Rubin ’Hurricane’ Carter, Shepherdson and Tuck drove each other to the point of exhaustion in an enthralling contest that spanned three consecutive games. The victorious Tuck, whose forehand was ‘on fire’, according to undefeated champion Lee (who stayed on to watch the battle), spoke to Table Tennis Weekly after the game.
‘Yep, I’m no. 2 now,’ Tuck said. ‘I’m heaps better than Southwell, which we established weeks ago, but am also now clearly better than ‘Shepho’.
‘Lee is my new target,’ he continued, ‘then…retirement.’
While the crowd groaned each time ‘punch drunk’ Southwell took to the table, the brilliant table tennis provided by each of the other athletes made the night a complete success, and ensured there will be many more in the future (though perhaps with more stringent entry requirements).
Tags: table tennis, watson
