Table tennis games aren’t played to 21 anymore, but don’t tell that to Don Boettcher and John McGee.
Don and opponent John McGee had the rare experience of playing out a 21-19 result in the 5th game of their match in Tuesday morning Mackay table tennis fixtures.
The result gave the match to Don and the overall win for the day 7-5 against the Dalia team, which included Val Austin and Kim Challender.
Matches used to be played to 21, but a rule change in 2001 reduced that to 11, with a player having to get two points ahead to take the win if it got to 10-all. Previously if games got to 20-all, it was play on until someone got two points ahead.
It was a morning of close matches, with John also just being edged out by Roy Murray 11-9 in the 5th game.
In other close fifth-game results Iris Grasso beat Bryan Marshall 16-14 and Fred Saliba edged out Noreen Fredericksen 15-13.
By Charlie Payne
Don Boettcher knows what it’s like to play table tennis matches to 21. Photo: Charlie Payne
