News

The NJTTC had a terrific turnout at its venue, with over 80 SMG Festival attendees trying their hand at Table Tennis. We captured the contact information for most of them. We are very gratified for the the NJTTC volunteers who made this a great event. Howard D. and Oscar took some photos, Iuliana, Chris and Will managed the Tables Tennis Tables & Robot and Jack and Ray commandeered the outside table for signups and crowd management. Santhosh was instrumental in developing some forms that we used. Ed, Doug and a few others showed up as well. Of course our own David Zhuang was the charismatic draw and put on a scintillating show.

To generate a little buzz we had a raffle for 10 free table tennis racquets which will be picked up at the NJTTC. There were many highlights to the day. Among them were the table tennis demonstrations we made for the key executives at SMG, including the CEO, Dr. Samaha. But the apex was the fun table tennis match we arranged with Ken Danyenko - the 3 time Stanley Cup Hockey star for the NJ Devils - and David Zhuang. Ken is a big table tennis buff, but he was huffing and puffing after David Z. pulled out a few of his table tennis tricks. You can see several photos of the event on the NJTTC website. Some video was taken by SMG as well, which we hope to share when it is edited. Again, thanks for all the help.

The NJTTC Board of Trustees has announced that the club will be sponsoring teams to represent the NJTTC at this year's North American Teams tournament in Baltimore, which will take place on November 26-27, 2011.

1. Five teams will be sponsored as follows:

• NJTTC1 and NJTTC2: Rating 2000~2300. NJTTC will sponsor $150 to each team.
• NJTTC3: Rating 1500~1999. NJTTC will sponsor $100.
• NJTTC4: Rating 1000~1499. NJTTC will sponsor $100.
• NJTTC5: Rating below 1000. Players must be less than 14 yrs old. NJTTC will sponsor $100.

NJTTC will also provide each player a free NJTTC T-shirt to be worn at the tournament.

2. To qualify for the sponsorship, all players of a team must possess valid 2011-2012 NJTTC membership.

3. To apply for a sponsorship, send an email to training@njttc.org no later than August 12, 2011. The email should include the names and ratings of all team members, and the sponsorship rating category.If there are more than 2 teams in the rating category 2000-2300, or more than 1 each of other categories, team trials using the NA Teams tournament format will be conducted to determine which teams will receive the club sponsorship.

4. If you have any questions about this progam, please contact the club by email at training@njttc.org

The recent Maccabi Tournament at the NJTTC was a great success. This was the second time it was held at the NJTTC and we had over 30 participants. The play was spirited and very competitive. Our venerable tournament director Larry Bavly kept things running smoothly and Chris Lehman assisted in the proceedings. We even added a handicap section, which added to the fun. The section winners are listed in the table below.

With great sadness I must announce that my father Harry passed away early Wednesday morning (April 27, 2011) after a superhuman three-and-a-half year battle with pancreatic cancer.

As many of you know, my father was one of the founding members of NJTTC. He was one of several to loan money to the Club to help get it off the ground at its current location. He did all of the electrical work in the Club, providing us with the terrific lighting we still enjoy to this day. As a matter of fact, the electrical work my father did for the Club earned him a place in table tennis history. Tim Boggan, in his History of U.S. Table Tennis Vol VI, recalls the emergence of NJTTC in Chapter 32:

My father also was a member of the Tuesday league for countless years, and his team always seemed to finish at or near the top.

Dad cherished everything about NJTTC - all of his friends, all of the good times, the comaraderie, the competition, and so on. Playing table tennis - particularly at NJTTC - was one of the great passions of his life.

His obituary can be found at this link.

On Saturday afternoon, April 23, the club hosted a special team competition between the students of the Advanced Training Program and a group of senior, 2200-level NJTTC players. The competition was intended to evaluate the progress of each student and their match strategies after 7 advanced training sessions under head coach David Zhuang. After the competition, coach Zhuang commended the students for their progress and for several outstanding performances resulting in major wins. He also expressed his gratitude to all the seniors for their support of the Advanced Training Program.

The bi-annual NJTTC Advanced Training program is a highly competitive training program, specially designed for motivated, advanced-level NJTTC members who want to raise their game to the elite level. To inquire about the Advanced Training Program, or other NJTTC training programs, please email training@njttc.org.

Ed Gutman, long time NJTTC Member and former President, died recently at the age of 91. His son, Harvey Gutman, offered the following remembrance of his father:

My Dad loved table tennis, having started playing on the playgrounds of Irvington, New Jersey, at the age of 9 or 10. He later became one of the first members of the NJ Table Tennis Club which then played over a Chinese restaurant somewhere in Newark. In the mid-fifties he served as President of the club and in 1958, along with my Mom, ran the US Nationals in Asbury Park, NJ. Although not quite up to the caliber of the state’s top players of the time - Bill Cross and Johnny Kilpatrick - he was a battler with a good defense and a great backhand pick. His best personal achievements in table tennis were a state singles runner-up in 1946, a state doubles championship (with me) in the early 70’s, and a number of State Senior Doubles championships (with me) in the mid 80’s.

But, he clearly was most proud of the achievements that daughter Bonnie (National Under 13 Champion and many times State Mixed Doubles Champion with me), nephew Jeff Swersky (6 times NJ State Singles Champion, 5 time NJ State Doubles Champion with me), and I achieved at table tennis. He taught (and sometimes retaught) us in the basement of our modest home in Union, NJ. I still remember the torture I put him through losing the NJ State Under 15 Championship. After winning the first two games, I was leading 19-11 but lost the third game; I then was up 20-17 but blew the fourth game and then trailing 19-16 in the fifth game, I won four straight to arrive at match point only to lose that final game and the match! He still managed some encouraging words on the long trip home.

Ed was also an accomplished bridge player (Life Master), had a great sense of humor, and coached Little League Baseball for 15 years. He enjoyed life, lived to be almost 92, played tennis and table tennis until age 89, and played bridge until a month before his passing – not a bad run for someone with a weak forehand!

On April 4, 2011, the NJTTC successfully launched a new Monday Round Robin Tournament.  The 16 available slots were quickly filled up by talented players, looking to test themselves against their fellow club members. The tournament was exciting and friendly. 

After over 2 hours of challenging competition, Wesley Fan emerged as the club's first Monday RR Tournament winner, weathering several close deuce games against Adam Formal. The 2nd to 4th place finishers were Adam Formal, Howard Do, and Andrew Chen.  Congratulations to the winners and to all the players for their accomplishments and their support of our club!

The Monday Round Robin Tournament is a new NJTTC initiative with the goal of promoting greater player participation across skill levels in a friendly, competitive environment.  The plan is that further Monday RR tournaments will be held held on every other Monday, alternating with the established Monday League. The initial feedback from NJTTC members regarding the new tournament was quite positive.  The overwhelming response to the first tournament prompted a suggestion to increase the maximum number of entries to 24. The Monday Tournament Committee is considering this, and welcomes any further suggestions to improve the event.

The next Monday RR Tournament is scheduled for April 25, and will be an Under-1800 level event. All NJTTC members with USATT rating less than 1800 are eligible to play.  Online registration for this and the following tournaments are available on the Monday Tournament page. Additional details on Monday RR Tournament policy can also be found there. If there are questions, please email to mondaytournament@njttc.org  

On January 28, 2011, our club lost a longtime member and a wonderful friend, Leslie Podpalka. Some of us have known Leslie for over 50 years, since he came to United States from Hungary. A former Hungarian Air Force member (with many interesting war stories to tell, especially the U2 incident), Leslie was also one of best table tennis players in the NJTTC A-League division in the 70's. Leslie continued to play and enjoyed watching the sport evolve. He has been a great fan and spectator at our club tournaments. We will all miss you!

Contributed by Howard Do