I've just come  home from the Townsville Open, which was played over the Queen's birthday long weekend, and what a lovely trip it was. It was a bit of a shock that you are a allowed to call 25 degrees and clear blue skies winter and apparently every day will be very similar for the next 5 months.

 The Townsville Association put an enormous effort in to make the event a spectacle. A group of players was flown in, most notably Miao Miao and Jan Fang Lay for the women's events and David Powell and myself for the men's. It was really, really good to see and hear so many can-do attitudes at the club and I think everyone was pleased with the result.

 The club owns its clubrooms which fit 7 good sized courts, seating, admin area, canteen, toilets and change rooms. There is Taraflex flooring, brand new Stiga tables and air conditioning (which I'm told is worth its weight in gold during summer). The front section of the building, which is quite separate from the table tennis area, is leased out to a martial arts club. In other words it's a fantastic set-up.

 Miao and I won the mixed doubles and local star (and Aussie TT sponsored) David Fielding and I won the men's doubles. David Powell and I battled out the final of the men's singles. I've had a good run against Powell in our last few matches and carried this through in Townsville too. I was really happy with the consistency of my play which you may recall was in serious doubt in Russia at the recent World Championships. I made very few unforced errors for the whole 4 sets of the final and I'm usually hard to be beat when I manage to do that. The opponent is forced to take a few more risks in their play and this is when my variation and ability to restrict their weapons is most useful. Why bother outgunning the other player with big strokes if you can stop them playing them to start with?

 My partner Danni came with me up to Townsville and we had a ball. We spent yesterday on Magnetic Island zooming around on our hot pink moke taking in the fine scenery and beautiful little coves. Anywhere where you can comfortably swim in winter is alright in my book. A special mention to Peta Mayston and Brian Guthrie for their hospitality during our stay and amazing view!