Bristol Grand Prix 2014

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Got back from playing today (not playing tomorrow) and it was an eye opening experience. Playing in band 6 and 5 had some quality opponents and I was outclassed. The annoying thing was the only reason I was outclassed was because I couldn't play my open game as I was losing because of their serves. During my second game of the morning in game 4 at 5-5 I chased a short ball and hit the edge of the table hard on my hand, causing what looked to be a nasty cut, but thankfully it was just a slicing of the top skin on my thumb.

One thing I didn't know (or more I didn't check) was the GP was using poly balls. For someone who's league isn't using them meant it was a change. I hate to sound like I have an ego but I recon I could of won a game if I was using the old balls. My band 5 match (which I actually found easier than band 6, but due to the number of players without a rank, you can expect that and its probably due to luck of the draw who you play) that I lost was mainly due to the fact my opponent took the speed off the ball and I was left with nothing to hit caus of the poly ball. I did learn that maybe its time to get rid of my calibra sound on my backhand though.

My biggest issue with the GP was the groups. I played in two groups of 3, whereas some people had groups of 4 (and in some cases in the ladies, 5 in a group), so when you realise that people like me turned up to play 4 games, kinda feels pointless in me going again. Then because of people scratching, two of my league buddies had a group of 2 in band 5, as there were multiple cases like this, felt like the groups could of been merged to come up with a better solution

Just thought I'd get my 2 cents out. I will say that the table tennis I did see was amazing. And hats off to a young girl from Wales that we watched played, I think she was 8 but she took out her opponents with little issue, one to watch!
 
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Got back from playing today (not playing tomorrow) and it was an eye opening experience. Playing in band 6 and 5 had some quality opponents and I was outclassed. The annoying thing was the only reason I was outclassed was because I couldn't play my open game as I was losing because of their serves. During my second game of the morning in game 4 at 5-5 I chased a short ball and hit the edge of the table hard on my hand, causing what looked to be a nasty cut, but thankfully it was just a slicing of the top skin on my thumb.

One thing I didn't know (or more I didn't check) was the GP was using poly balls. For someone who's league isn't using them meant it was a change. I hate to sound like I have an ego but I recon I could of won a game if I was using the old balls. My band 5 match (which I actually found easier than band 6, but due to the number of players without a rank, you can expect that and its probably due to luck of the draw who you play) that I lost was mainly due to the fact my opponent took the speed off the ball and I was left with nothing to hit caus of the poly ball. I did learn that maybe its time to get rid of my calibra sound on my backhand though.

My biggest issue with the GP was the groups. I played in two groups of 3, whereas some people had groups of 4 (and in some cases in the ladies, 5 in a group), so when you realise that people like me turned up to play 4 games, kinda feels pointless in me going again. Then because of people scratching, two of my league buddies had a group of 2 in band 5, as there were multiple cases like this, felt like the groups could of been merged to come up with a better solution

Just thought I'd get my 2 cents out. I will say that the table tennis I did see was amazing. And hats off to a young girl from Wales that we watched played, I think she was 8 but she took out her opponents with little issue, one to watch!

Hey Skully,

That's a shame to her about your experience. I think this is one of the biggest issues with the new plastic ball. It needs to be consistent in that every tournament/league uses the plastic ball, so that everyone is on the same playing field. I have heard that in January the ITTF are trying to make everything use plastic ball, but I don't think the league in the UK will change till July.

I think British League will start using the plastic ball this January, that is what I have been told.

Nice to see you on TTD btw! :)

Here are some TTD players in action at Bristol GP today.

Garth Kinlocke won band 2.

garth.jpg


garth2.jpg


Tom Maynard and Andy Smith on the TableTennisDaily team bench!

tomnmully.jpg
 
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Hey Skully,

That's a shame to her about your experience. I think this is one of the biggest issues with the new plastic ball. It needs to be consistent in that every tournament/league players use it so everyone is on the same playing field. I have heard that in January the ITTF are trying to make everything use plastic ball, but I don't think the league in the UK will change till July.

Nice to see you on TTD btw! :)

Here are some TTD players in action at Bristol GP today.

Garth Kinlocke won band 2.

I saw those guys at the event, didn't get a chance to watch their games sadly as I was keeping an eye on my league buddies, but it was nice to see a huge span of regions turning up to little old Bristol, last time I played at that venue was like 6 years ago in a college tournament I believe, got to see a guy from Jersey play and win!

With the poly ball, you hit the nail on the hammer. When we first got news of what TTE wanted to do, all signs pointed to using the old ball until July, and both leagues I play in went with that on the basis of lack of stock of poly balls. Despite I have a dozen balls, no one hits with them in our area because we don't have a need to use them yet until our season ends in April. But the issue with trying to keep it consistent is exactly like I just pointed out: we're small league players, so we don't need to use the ball, but people in the higher bands who play national leagues need to use that poly ball, so where do we draw the line? TTE kind forced themself into a corner with that decision, but at the time, their had no information from ITTF if I remember correctly.
 
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What makes you say you need to get Rid of the Calibra LT Sound rubber on your handhand?

Maybe its me not adapting to the poly ball quickly enough but when I went back off the table I felt like I had no more "kick" with the calibra, I was only getting the punch I wanted when closer to the table. It could just be the mind, since I've gone to a double inverted setup I felt like my backhand was weak, despite it doing what I need which is setting the point up for me, if that makes sense
 
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Way to go, son!

Hey Skully,

That's a shame to her about your experience. I think this is one of the biggest issues with the new plastic ball. It needs to be consistent in that every tournament/league uses the plastic ball, so that everyone is on the same playing field. I have heard that in January the ITTF are trying to make everything use plastic ball, but I don't think the league in the UK will change till July.

I think British League will start using the plastic ball this January, that is what I have been told.

Nice to see you on TTD btw! :)

Here are some TTD players in action at Bristol GP today.

Garth Kinlocke won band 2.

garth.jpg


garth2.jpg

Hometown boy did well :)
BTW, look at the bottom right hand corner of the picture and note the person featured on the poster>
My only comment is, what a devastatingly handsome umpire :)
 
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By the way, I umpired my last match at 10:30pm. That's a record late night for me. The band 1 final was still being played. It probably finished about 11:00pm.

I know it was going to be a long day but to finish by 11pm seems like it was too long no? I not sure what caused it to run on so late, most of the groups were over quickly which resulted in just waiting for tables for the knockout matches
 
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I know it was going to be a long day but to finish by 11pm seems like it was too long no? I not sure what caused it to run on so late, most of the groups were over quickly which resulted in just waiting for tables for the knockout matches

The groups did not finish quickly as per the calculations re time per match. It could be that the strokes and rallies were just that bit longer as compared to using the celluloid ball. Plus the constant ball changes due to breakages and malformations didn't help.
I guess organisers will have to re-think their match time calculations.
 
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This was my first GP in about 10 years, I had to play in bands 5 & 6 as I had lost my ranking.
By 2.45pm I had won my group in band 5 and didn't play my round 1 match till 8pm!
It seemed that they had allocated 45 mins for each group which is unrealistic, so it didn't take long for events to get delayed.

I wish I had known about the new balls too, it felt at times that I was re learning a new sport altogether.
 
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This was my first GP in about 10 years, I had to play in bands 5 & 6 as I had lost my ranking.
By 2.45pm I had won my group in band 5 and didn't play my round 1 match till 8pm!
It seemed that they had allocated 45 mins for each group which is unrealistic, so it didn't take long for events to get delayed.

I wish I had known about the new balls too, it felt at times that I was re learning a new sport altogether.

Thats exactly how me and my league mates felt. I can take that lack of any warm up before pre game knockups, but to go into an event with no feeling of a poly ball, so having to relearn as you said. It felt weird. But I never knew that about having 45 mins for each group, that's a little crazy being a long game could go to 30 mins
 
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