Recently, the 2008 Port Lincoln Table Tennis Open Championships were held at the Coronation Place Stadium, with State Champion Scott Houston taking out the marquee event, outclassing Huey Rosalia from Whyalla in the final. In the Women’s event Port Lincoln claimed a local winner with Sally Kunze defeating Whyalla’s Pauline Stanley in a tight match.

Held over two days, the event attracted over seventy entries this year with players travelling from Adelaide, Whyalla, Ceduna and the Great Flinders region to compete. The over 40’s events were to be the first decided of the weekend and after a long layoff due to travelling, Barry Sederstrom proved he had lost none of his spark when defeating Robert Genahl from Whyalla, before pairing up with Peter Southam to defeat Bob Morris and Olly Rosalia in the men’s doubles event. The Women’s over 40’s were dominated by Sally Kunze, where she won both the singles and then the doubles with Sue Barnett.

In what turned out to be a preview of the following day’s final, Scott Houston claimed victory over Huey Rosalia in the restricted singles final, and then paired with Mike Van Doorn from Port Lincoln to defeat Huey Rosalia and Someek Basu in the doubles. In the final event of the Saturday, Jason Regan and Ellen Challinger caused an upset to defeat Colin Peacock and Sue Barnett in the mixed doubles.

On the Sunday, the real work had to be done, and after Mark Strycharski and Sylvia Steny won the handicap events, the graded events began. Whyalla’s Matthew Hill showed his improvement by taking out both the men’s B singles and combined C singles comfortably. The women’s B singles was won in a dour battle by Ellen Challinger over Bev Atkins. The final of the B/C doubles then turned into an encounter between Whyalla and Port Lincoln, with Whyalla finishing on top through Robert McAlister and Andrew Grant over young pairing Tom Holland and Scott Forrest.

The prize everyone was after for the weekend though were the open events, especially with the EP Championship on the line. Firstly it was the women’s turn with Port Lincoln pairing Sally Kunze and Ellen Challinger overcoming Anita Howard and Anne Greenbank in the final of the women’s doubles. Sally then backed it up in the singles to defeat Pauline Stanley, making the tournament one of her most successful to date!

In the men’s doubles final, a few sparks flew as a fiercely competitive final saw Scott Houston and Rhys Popovic, in his first open final, come out victors over last year’s champions Daniel Challinger and Darren Atkins in four sets. In the final result of the weekend, Scott Houston made it the double to claim his second EP Championship of his career when defeating Huey Rosalia in the Open Singles final in straight sets.

In what was an extremely entertaining weekend, the PLTTA would like to thank everyone that attended the tournament this year and also a big thank you to the generous support of our sponsors throughout the tournament weekend. With out everyone’s combined effort the weekend would not be possible!