Two long-time rivals battled for the Mackay table tennis open women’s championship last week.
Emma Widdup and Anne Sheridan have been teammates and competitors since they were in their teens, both first winning Mackay Closed women’s titles as juniors in the 1990s. Between them have won an estimated 15 championships.
Emma repeated her feat of winning all her matches at the recent Queensland Veterans Championships in Mackay, taking out every event she contested at the closed titles.
She also won the mixed open doubles with Andrew McHugh, beating Mick Ruhl and Andrea Nicholson, but her most treasured win was in the women’s doubles with veteran Coral Morgan, over Anne Sheridan and Janice Kent.
“It was most special because last year in the final against the same pair we were down 9-10 and I served a fault,” she said.
“After that game last year I did a Kerry Saxby walk around the hall to process my disappointment - Coral cheekily said she’d play with me again this year only if I didn’t fault to lose the match.”
Perennial winner Mick Ruhl has taken out another Mackay Closed men’s championship at the Mackay Table Tennis Centre.
Mick defeated another former title winner Andrew McHugh, to bring his tally of titles to eight.
Emma Widdup kept up her good form to win the women’s open singles from Anne Sheridan, building on her form at the Queensland Veterans Championships in Mackay when she was unbeaten in singles.
Emma and Anne will play in the Australian Veterans Championships in Darwin next month. Nine Mackay players will compete at the titles.
Persistence paid off for Branko Vucurovic, who won the singles and doubles crowns at the Avril Hodges Memorial tournament at the Mackay Table Tennis Centre.
Branko won the singles final -11, 8, 9, 5 over Charlie Payne, and teamed with Donna Abbott to take out the doubles over Steve Mathieson and Coral Morgan.
Using a steady, defensive style, most players find it very hard to get on top of Branko.
David Butler won the B singles final over Noreen Fredericksen, and John Hamelink and Ian Dodds won the doubles over Robyn Bushell and Sharon Muller.
The tournament is played in memory of Avril Hodges, a popular figure who was one of the main organisers of the Tuesday morning fixtures during the 70s.
The fixtures will now break for the school holidays and resume on October 5. New players are welcome, contact Iris Grasso 0419 702 392.
