top of page

Open Sandpaper Tournament 2023, St Neots

Join us in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, England on 1st July 2023 for fun and Sandpaper Table Tennis.  See the "UK Open Tournament" page for details.

Open Sandpaper Tournament 2022, St Neots

Report below. Videos of selected matches can be seen on YouTube. 

Exciting Day of Ping Pong at the 2022 UK Open
Players from across the UK and the Czech Republic gathered at St Neots Table Tennis Centre on Sunday 22nd May for a great day of fun and competitive Sandpaper Table Tennis. With a strong field including recent Master’s player Ethan Walsh, current Scottish Champion Ian Johnston along with 2 other recent World Championship of Ping Pong (WCPP) qualifiers it was always going to be a tight 
competition. This proved to be the case with no player completing the day undefeated.


Sandpaper Table Tennis, also known as Ping Pong, is a fun variation on the game that returns to old fashioned equipment, using sandpaper instead of the modern sponge and rubber on bats. The players must rely on their ability without the assistance of their sponge / rubber combinations.  This was the first Open inter-national Sandpaper tournament held in the UK since before Covid, giving the enthusiastic Sandpaper community the opportunity to get back together and meet up with old – and make some new - friends and rivals, for the first time in over 2 years. 


The day started with round-robin groups.
Popular St Neots’ coach Mark Mitchell had a flying start in Group 1, winning his first 2 matches against No 1 seed Ethan Walsh then Adam Wilson, before unfortunately retiring with an injury.  Ethan from BATTs won the rest of his matches, only dropping one more set against Czech Antonín Zavadil, the Group runner-up. The remainder of the group was hard-fought. Wayne Shaw of Britannia TTC was 3rd, losing out to Antonin on countback. Craig Henton, from Penlan TTC in Swansea came in 4th, also by countback, against Adam Wilson of Smash Kettering. Valerie Langham of Rainton TTC, the only woman in the draw and on her Sandpaper debut, put in an excellent performance.


Group 2 was won by Craig Feargrieve of Nottingham Sycamore TTC, an experienced Sandpaper player who has narrowly missed out on qualifying for the WCPP at Alexandra Palace several times. Craig defeated all his opponents including the top seed for his group, Ian Johnston of St Neots TTC.  Junior Luke Davies-Stokes of Britannia TTC beat some older and more experienced players to gain 3rd, while 4th place went to veteran Rik James of Rowhedge TTC. Peter Chvojka of the Czech Republic and Mick Borshell from BATTs came in 5th and 6th respectively. Shout-out to young Prithvi Menon of Smash Kettering, who impressed everyone with his shots and enthusiasm at his first sandpaper event.


In Group 3, Czech Marek Záškodný defeated Luke Walsh of BATTs, winning the group. 3rd place went to Chris Chistoforou of Boston TTC, with Alan Calzari of Tempsford TTC coming 4th. Steve Goodale, Wisbech TTC, was 5th and the group was completed by Andy Logan of Smash Kettering. 


An exciting Group 4 ended up with a 3-way countback for 1st, taken by Dave Tiplady of St Neots TTC. 2nd place went to Jimmy Walsh (BATTs) and 3rd to Nick Branch from Bristol. Graham Lacey of Lodgers TTC took the 4th spot in the main draw knockout.

 

After a break for lunch, the main knockout event began, involving the top 4 players from each of the morning’s groups. The top half of the draw was led by No.1 seed Ethan Walsh who reached the last 16 of the World Championship of Ping Pong (WCPP) in 2020 and competed in the 2021 World Ping Pong Masters (WPPM). The top half also included Ian Johnston – 3x Scottish Ping Pong Champion and a regular at the WCPP; Marek Záškodný – past quarter finalist at the European Ping Pong Championships; and Ethan’s big brother, Luke. Ethan and Luke met in the quarter-final and it was a humdinger. Ethan took the first. The second set went down the wire to a sudden death point at 14-14, which was a match point for Ethan. However, Luke held on to take the second set, and then the third. This set up a semi-final meeting 
with Ian Johnston who had beaten Marek in the second quarter-fina. When you are on YouTube make sure to watch some of Marek’s matches.


The bottom half of the draw also contained two high level Sandpaper players in Jimmy Walsh (Ethan and Luke’s Dad), a former WCPP player himself; and Craig Feargrieve. Jimmy and Craig met in the quarter-final where youth overcame experience as Craig progressed to meet Dave Tiplady in the semi-final. Dave took Craig to sudden death in the first set, but ultimately lost the semi-final in straight sets. 

 

Meanwhile, Ian defeated Luke in the other semi-final, setting up a final of Ian vs Craig – a repeat of the morning’s Group 4 match. 
Going into the final Craig was unbeaten, showing skill and nerve having not lost a set all day including wining 3 out of 3 sudden death points, and Ian had dropped only 2 sets – in losing to Craig in the group!
The final was the best of 5 sets. With both players tired and hot after a full day’s play, Ian out for revenge and Craig looking to maintain his unbeaten record, expectations were high. The players did not disappoint, their natural open attacking games making excellent viewing. In the end Ian’s cross court driven forehands proved to be decisive and he took the match 15-9, 15-11, 15-13.


The Plate event, for players outside the top 4 in their groups, consisted of two groups of four. The two group winners – Peter Chvojka and Bill Draper – faced each other in the hard-fought Plate Final, which was taken by Peter 15-11, 14-15, 15-12.The day ended with a social Pizza session in the comfortable St Neots TTC. Many thanks to Jo, Di and Mark who tirelessly worked in the background helping run the event, supporting the players and making sure that drinks and snacks were on tap throughout the day. Many thanks to Liz who came 
along to support her boyfriend, and never stopped working all day. It is thanks to Liz that we have such a good set of Videos up on YouTube (Search for “Sandpaper Table Tennis” or “Derek Johnston Sandpaper”).  The organisers would like to thank all the players, parents, coaches and clubs who helped support the event by advertising, supporting and playing in the event. Hope you all had fun.


Ian, Marek and Antonín are all travelling to Houston, Texas in August to compete in the Classic Hardbat World Championships. Good luck to them.

Scottish Championships of Ping Pong 2021

The Scottish Championships of Ping Pong are back in Dundee on Saturday 18th December 2021.  See the "Scottish Tournament" page for details.

World Championships of Ping Pong 2020

Gavin WCPP 2020.jpg
Ian vs Flash 2020.jpg

Our Scottish players performed outstandingly at the WCPP at Alexandra Palace on 25th and 26th January 2020.

Gavin Rumgay surpassed himself by reaching the semi-finals, though not without giving us a few anxious moments en route.  In his Group, Gavin defeated Hong Kong's Mak King Ho and Aljay Vilena from the Philippines, both in straight sets.  Gavin then had a close match against Tomas Sadilek (CZE) - a quarter-finalist in 2018 - losing the first set by sudden death, and then winning the match on another sudden death point to triumph 14-15, 15-11, 15-14.  Next up against Benjamin Sorensen of Denmark in the last 16, Gavin won by sudden death again, 13-15, 15-6, 15-14, to match his previous best of a quarter-final appearance.

Paul McCreery of Norther Ireland pushed Gavin in the quarter final, but Gavin held on to take the match 15-13, 11-15, 15-11.   In the semi-final Gavin, running out of steam and unable to match the power and angles of "The Flash" Alexander Flemming (GER), went down 4-15, 9-15.  However, he was delighted to be going home with a World Championship Bronze medal and $5,000 to show for his weekend's work.

 

 

 

Photographs from the "World Championships of Ping Pong" Facebook Page.

Ian Johnston also played amazingly, qualifying out of his Group with an impressive win over the winner of the 2019 European Championship of Ping Pong, Csaba Varga of Hungary.  Ian then met "The Flash" in the last 32 and, put on an excellent performance to finish with an  8-15, 7-15 scoreline.  Although meeting the eventual runner-up at this stage meant that Ian had little hope of continuing on through the knockout, he did achieve his aim of playing on the TV Table - and of pressing the "big gold button" to request his double point ball.  Ian was also one of the few players in the hall who managed to hit a ball past "The Flash" - no mean feat.  Ian's employer and sponsor, Partner Electronics of Silverstone came along to the Ally Pally to support him.

The bane of both our players this year went to have a thrilling 5 set final against defending Champion, Andrew Baggaley.  The standard of play in the final was incredible, keeping the crowd on the edges of our seats throughout and including three sudden death sets.  "The Flash" won those in sets 1 and 3, before agonisingly losing the set 5 sudden death point and hence the match.  This makes the 3rd time that Flemming has been runner-up at the WCPP, and a record 4th time as Champion for Baggaley.

Overall, it was a tremendous event and I would thoroughly recommend anyone going down to London to watch it live.  Even better, Gavin automatically qualifies for WCPP 2021 so, provided that we achieve 64 players again in 2020 events, we will have 3 Scottish players at the Ally Pally. 

 

Report by Juliet Johnston, 5/2/2020

Scottish Championships 2019

The Scottish Ping Pong Championships 2019 were held on Saturday 21st December  in Dundee.  Gavin Rumgay won the event, with Ian Johnston as runner-up. 

 

Results of the main knockout may be seen here.

A video of the semi-final between Calum Morrison and Ian Johnston is available here.

For the final between Gavin Rumgay and Ian Johnston, see here.

(If anyone has a video of the great semi-final between Gavin Rumgay and John Hannah, please let us know so we can put it up.)

A full report and Group results will be published when we've recovered from Christmas!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Ian Johnston, Mark Turnbull (son of Ronnie Turnbull, after whom the Quaich is named) and Gavin Rumgay with the prizes.

Many thanks to Gregor Ksiazek of Ciro Art Studios for allowing us to use his great photographs.

CAS_WCPP Dundee 2019_trophies_009.jpg

Dundee University try Sandpaper TT

Students from the Dundee University Table Tennis Club were unable to make the main Dundee Sandpaper Regional qualifier for the Scottish Ping Pong championships (Friday nights not being attractive to them, perhaps).  However, the club, albeit with reduced numbers because of exams, election and trips home for Christmas, held a competitive but fun tournament offering a place at the Scottish Championships on Saturday 21st December 2019.

On the night victory went to Emma Goux in a closely fought final with Stephen Rubery. With Emma about to travel home for holidays, semi finalist Jehangir Chaudhry was deputised, offered and accepted entry into the Scottish Event. Though all the students were novices at the sandpaper format they quickly adapted and the standard rapidly improved on the night.

Continuing with fun aspect of the evening the students asked that local coach Calum Riddoch’s “large table” set-up be left up so that they could play on it.

12th December 2019

Dundee Ping Pong Championships

On Friday 29th November 2019 the second annual Dundee Sandpaper championships were held at Ward Road Gym. With a few late call offs the 14 remaining players split into 4 groups.

Many of the players had never played Sandpaper table tennis before and it was great to see such a good atmosphere and the standard improving so quickly during the night. The often expressed concern that the sandpaper game might adversely affect the form of the players were quickly dispelled by excellent results in the Scottish Edinburgh Banded Table Tennis event on the following day, and again in the Edinburgh closed on the Sunday.

Dundee PP 2019.jpg

In Group 1, top seed John Hannah was given good games by both Ian Hunter and Peter Yearworth before winning the group undefeated. After a close match with Ian, Peter grabbed the runner up spot.

Group 2 saw Paul Monteith, who was rushing to get off to work, lose 3 sets 15-14. Chung Yaun Gao had a comfortable 2 set win over group runner up Howard Lee.

In Group 3, Andrew Nimmo and Iain Martin both showed fine form culminating in their head to head match, Andrew took the first set 15-14 giving him the confidence to go on and win. Bill Beattre, improving as the night went on took a comfortable win over organiser Juliet Johnston.

Group 4 Gregor Ksaizek, from Aberdeen won the group after a very close 3 set Match with Jacob. Gregor’s recent run out in the Aberdeen event giving him the edge on the night. Derek Johnston came third in the group. Claiming injury, he played his last match so slowly that opponent Fiona Kinloch, the umpire and the organiser gave up all hope of the match ever finishing.

Dundee award PP 2019.jpg

By the first round of the knock out John Hannah was really in his stride though the match with Howard was closer than the 15-4, 15-6 score-line might suggest. Andrew and Jacob played what appeared to be the most relaxed game of the night with Jacob running out the winner. Gregor’s experience showed once again against Peter and Gao defeated Iain Martin.

John and Gregor won their respective Semi Finals overcoming stiff resistance from Jacob and Gao respectively before John went on to win, not dropping a set all night.

Aberdeen Sandpaper Bat Tournament

Aberdeen and District Table Tennis Association held their 2nd sandpaper bat competition at Aberdeen Sports Village. Unhappily, with space only for four groups of 4 players, not all those wishing to enter could be accommodated,  However the atmosphere was great, attracting considerable interest from the ASV staff.

There were a number of close-fought matches, with 6 sudden death point situations throughout the night and lots of very close matches between players representing different ADTTA divisions, with various strategies being noticed when it came to using the double point ball

In the first semi-final, Dennis Oon used his penhold grip to good effect, but lost out to Charlie Matthew who very quickly got the most from the sandpaper bat, .  

In the other semi-final, Umesh Samo Mako played the experienced Gregor Kiazek. It was Umesh's'first appearance in sandpaper tournament with no prior preparation, but it seems his regular table tennis playing style, especially forehand smash, made for an easy switch between modern and sandpaper bats., and Umesh ran out the winner.

Charlile went on to win the final in fine style.

Many thanks to Alison Woods who did an excellent job at the top table, managing information flow and time keeping.  And thanks also to Juliet Johnston for providing competition bats and balls, and to Derek for explaining rules of the game for us and presenting trophies to our winners.

All in all, it seems playing with sandpaper bat is not that difficult at all and there's plenty fun in doing it. 

Organiser: Gregor Ksiazek, 18th November 2019

Aberdeen qual 2019.jpg

Murrayfield Hard-bat Tournament

Great night at the 9th Annual Murrayfield hard-bat tournament. A big thumbs up 👍 to John Hannah winning the event for the 3rd time. A good time was had by all, rounded off by a good curry from the Delta.

4th January 2019

Murrayfield 2018 event_edited.jpg

Sandpaper bats at Ward Road Gym

SAM_0517.JPG

With thanks to experienced Sandpaper player John Hannah for providing a couple of sandpaper bats and to Mylnefield Table Tennis club for allowing her to gatecrash their match night, Juliet was able to start attracting players for the forthcoming tournaments.

 

With teams from all 3 divisions representing clubs from throughout Fife and the Dundee areas, it was an ideal opportunity to advertise the Sandpaper game in preparation for a Dundee and District Table Tennis Association area tournament (date to be agreed once we have bats!!) and the Scottish Tournament on the 22nd December 2018.

 

From Rising Stars to Top players from young to young at heart not forgetting DDTTA's head coach, 

Several of the top local players were in attendance, including the Scottish Women's number one Gillian Edwards who, we are delighted to say, indicated her intention to enter. The more observant of you will notice that Gillian is holding a standard Table Tennis bat - when the sandpaper bats arrived, Gillian was playing and we were to scared to interrupt (only kidding!)

Gillian.JPG
SAM_0522.JPG

David  Goddard shows how it's done

SAM_0519.JPG

When we asked if Rising Star Jacob Munro would enter, his Dad suggested that we'd have trouble stopping him :)

St Andrews Legacy Shield

hardbat-2018.jpg

On April Fools' Day, 1st April 2019, St Andrews hosted their annual "Hardbat" Table tennis Tournament. With 12 players taking part, it was good fun but very competitive at the ame time.  As usual, the 4 top placed players have been offered automatic qualification to the Scottish Ping Pong Championships.

The competition was played in a great atmosphere, with the serious competitors joined by those looking for the enjoyment of playing a different version of their sport. This is something we hope to emulate throughout Scotland and then at the Ronnie Turnbull Quaich Scottish Championships

Full details of the competition can be found on their Website

Congratulations to Winner Chris Wroniecki, shown here being presented the Trophy by head Coach Howard Lee. Chris, along with Runner up Michael Hahn, David Beveridge and Ian Brumwell, will shortly be receiving invites to the Ronnie Turnbull Quaich.

 

legacy-shield-2019.jpg
bottom of page