By Jonty Ralphsmith
Danny Semmler will have to find the puff to extinguish 50 birthday candles later this year.
But, if his endurance with paddle in hand is anything to go by, he’ll blow them out easily and have plenty of reserves in the tank for his upcoming 500th game.
Semmler has been a staple of the South-East table tennis scene for more than three decades, a star performer in the Greater Dandenong Table Tennis Association.
Since starting out as a casual player in 1991, Semmler has won 50 leading player awards for Dandenong, bringing up the milestone late last year.
A leading player award is granted to the player with the greatest number of home-and-away singles wins in a season.
No-one has come close to that mark.
To put it in perspective, across his 32-year career, there have been three or four seasons per year.
Throw in a brief retirement for a couple of years leading into the pandemic, and then the pandemic-ruined seasons, plus occasional seasons missed along the journey for personal reasons, his class becomes apparent.
When eligible for the leading player award, he’s won it far more often than he’s lost it.
“That’s the achievement I hold dearest,” Semmler said ahead of game 500.
His response is telling of how much the club means to him.
Also in the proverbial pool room is a senior nationals title and eight nationals veterans titles.
His best win came in 2005 over Brett Clarke, who won silver for Australia at the 2002 Commonwealth Games, while Semmler also hit frequently with another Australian representative, Heming Hu.
During that time, Semmler was a top-five Victorian ranked player.
At his prime, Semmler was on the table for up to 25 hours per week, but that has whittled down to about eight recently as his age catches up with him, ‘only’ at the club for four days per week instead of up to six.
Nowadays, he enjoys playing with team members John Salem, a long-time Dandenong player, and Sam Palmer, also a coach at the club, while Semmler also assists the next generation of players.
“They stick together and they’re generally our top team,” Association secretary Terry Saundry said of the trio.
“Danny comes week-in week-out and as good a player as he is, that’s probably why he wins best player award as much as anything.
“He’s a heavy topspin (player) and his game is based around that.
“He’s not like modern players who attack from both wings, but he’s so good at it, if you look at him play you’d think he’d be hampered (because of his preference for his forehand).
“He’d rather win the point than protect himself,” Saundry added, referencing a thumb injury that knocked him about in 2022.
And that competitive streak coupled with the class of his teammates has him primed to continue performing.
The first season of 2023 just kicked off for Dandenong, with Semmler’s team, called the ‘Hitmen’ taking a 9-2 win over La Otra – Brian Alvos, Cristian Cosea and Chris Dobrovic.
Ping Kombat – David Segal, Rafael Lay and Tom Tomasevic also won, defeating Medical Engineers – Paul Roy and Sergey Voronov 9-2.
Phoenix – Herman Pekel, Greg Robbins and Vay Yip defeated Sour Power – Parleen Kour, Connie Psihogios and Winuk Rathnasinghe, 7-4 in the other fixture.
Each player has three singles matches and the team plays in two doubles matches per tie.
