Hong Kong Men better it’s last tourney position from 16 to 8 (losing 1-3 to Japan in QF)
Hong Kong Women again lost a place their spot to play in the S/F and was beaten 2-3 by Chinese Taipei in QF. Lee Ho Ching bore the blunt of the pressure and lost the final rubber 5th set to a much improved Cheng -I -Ching who will be a force to see in the 2016 & 2017 season. Lee lost to Isabel Lee of Singapore in the 5th set during the last tourney in QF.
England Men and Chinese Taipei Women are the two most improved teams in this team tournament of best of 5 in singles.
TV clips are available
Correction:
Hong Kong versus Chinese Taipei Women QF
It was Tie Yana that lost to Chinese Taipei Chen Szu -Yu in the 5th & deciding game. Lee Ho Ching beat Cheng Hsien-Tu_(9-11, 11-8, 6-11, 11-6, 11-9) to give Hong Kong the 2-1 lead in the 3rd game after Doo had won the first match against Chen Szu-Zu to give Hong Kong the lead.
Cheng I Ching won 2 points overall and Chen Szu-Yu finished off Tie in Match#5 to secure their place in the S/F. Tie lost both her matches. She was the vet and gate keeper. Lee Ho Ching was 1-0 and Doo Hoi Kem was even with a win and a loss.
Hong Kong beat Korea Republic 3-1 to emerge #1 in group to main draw. Japanese women (2015 World Team Cup S/F, lost to North Korea) lost to Germany 2-3 in their group. North Korea (2015 World Team finalist) beat Czech 3-2.
杜凱琹（Doo Hoi Kem，1996年11月27日 is another HK born, raised and trained player. She studied at Heep Yun School. Highest honour : 她曾和黃鎮廷搭檔獲得2015年世界乒乓球錦標賽混合雙打銅牌。
Tim did a semi loop, Aaron had a big smash. Wilfred reacted with a counter smash, not realising the ball hit by Aaron, ended in the net, during its flight. Everyone including Henry watched in awe. Umpire was watching the smash return and Edmund Kwong caught the moment on film.
Mike mentioned today ex China world champion Xi En Ting 郗恩庭 and his playing style, when we chat about blocks by Kenda.
I managed to find a B/W short clip for 1973 WTTC men’s single final between ” The Hammer” Johnaason (because of his hard forehand) and Xi. Xi emerged as World Champ. You can find more on side panel.
Xi played my style of serve, push, chop and block with only one side of the blade, but Xi plays at a pinnacle level. So some of us (who play penholder) still use the same technique as Xi. despite the rubber has much improved and penholders have to master reverse penholder backhand to battle shakehand players (Wilson Chan from YWC for example, has a strong RPB and he didn’t play in 2015 HKISAA tourney)
Xi used a 729 rubber on DHS PF4 blade but has his own brand of tt equipment. The Xi-EnTing (former World Champion) brand has more than 10 patents for designs of table tennis blades. The company has been developing blades in China for more than 20 years, and are very popular in China.
They have a huge range of blades, most virtually unknown to the western market, hence the cheaper price tags. They offer some very unique and innovative blade technologies
Sweden is team world champ in 1973 and China won silver with the following line up: (China won gold in 1971 with 李富榮 & 莊則棟 still in the line up.
Diao Wenyuan
Li Jingguang
Liang Geliang
Xi Enting
Xu Shaofa
Li is virtually unknown at that time but beat Word Champ Ito in straight sets (Ito scored less than 10 points in both set) and 2 other Japanese world champ. He was the key player (winning 3 points in a 5-2 win over Japan).
I recommend we play different opponents in our practice to get used to different scenario at real games. Captain Mike has a good read in the game and positioning players in the line up in a game.
Men’s team final, 1971 World Table Tennis Championships, Nagoya, Japan. China wins 5-2 and reclaims the title after having missed the 1967 and 1969 championships because of the Cultural Revolution. Liang Geliang, Zhuang Zedong, Li Jingguang vs Nobuhiko Hasegawa, Shigeo Itoh, Mitsuro Kohno. Zhuang Zedong was world champion in men’s singles in 1961, 1963, 1965. Hasegawa was champion in 1967, and Itoh in 1969. Kohno would win the title in 1977.
Order of matches:
Liang Geliang vs Hasegawa (Team score 0-1)
Zhuang Zedong vs Itoh (1-1)
Li Jingguang vs Kohno (2-1)
Liang Geliang vs Itoh (3-1)
Li Jingguang vs Hasegawa (4-1)
Zhuang Zedong vs Kohno (4-2)
Li Jingguang vs Itoh (5-2)
Happy swinging and let’s go 9/20 at Lion’s Charity TT tourney
