Utah Summer Games: Table Tennis

Last weekend, Heather and I went to Southern Utah so we could be with family and so I could play table tennis in the Utah Summer Games. I figured that I would just go down and get clobbered, and then have fun watching the good players duke it out for the medals. Well, the night before tournament started, I checked the rules and noticed there would be divisions based on skill. This made me happy, because at least I would get a chance to play people with whom I would be competitive. In the tournament we first played a preliminary ladder to determine your division and then we played a round robin with everyone in our division. Each match was best 3 out of 5 games I started the tournament out playing a middle aged guy whom I had seen at the "Club" before. When I had watched him previously, he seemed pretty good, and I figured my initial impression of agonizing defeat were going to be made apparent after all. I lost the first game, but felt I had a fighting chance. The next game went my way, and created some confidence for me. I built on that confidence and won the next 2 games. Next, I played another middle aged gentlemen who, I knew after warming up, was much more skilled than my first opponent. I fought hard but ended up losing 3 games to none, though I did make the last game close. I ended up in the "B" division, with there being Open, A, B, and C divisions played. I ended up playing a young but very skilled kid named Austin Gridley. I defeated Austin the last time I played him, but only by a narrow margin. He put the pressure on me early by winning the first game. I think this set me off though because I won the next three games and the match. I lost to a skilled player named Matt Pugmire, I wasn't even close to winning. I was surprised to find out later, however, that Matt lost to Austin. Because I lost another match in the division besides my loss to Matt, I ended up taking 3rd place. This really seemed odd to me because I was the only one to defeat Austin, but both Austin and Matt only had 1 loss, so they finished a head of me. All in all it was a good experience and I plan on playing again next year.