On Top of the (South Bend) Table Tennis World

Last night, for the first time in my 3 years of playing at the South Bend Table Tennis Club, I finally got to play at the #1 table. I had won the #2 table the previous week, so I had earned the right to move up. There are some really good players at the club, and I had no illusions about actually winning a match against any of them, and I didn't.

However, I did win one game off each of them, which was what I set out to do, although I didn't know if it would happen with them. I just wanted to hang tough with them ("Yo, Adrian, if I can just go the distance . . .").

My USATT rating is 1310, and I won games against those with a rating of 1544, 1627, 1881, 2048, and 2230. The player with the 2230 rating is Dan Seemiller, Jr., the son of the 10-time US national champion. His dad kinda gave him a hard time, "Rick won a game off of YOU?!" It is fun playing against such top-notch players and also fun seeing their reaction when a hack such as myself steals a game from them. In the deciding game, Dan Seemiller, Jr. won quite decisively in a game that was his way of saying, "that last game was a mirage."

Next week, I'll be back down to a lower table and will have to fight my way back up. But it was nice on this one night to be playing against the big guns.