2012 Victorian Novuss Championships

The championships were held on 31 of March and 1 April at the Latvian Retirement Village in Melbourne. There were 33 participants in the singles competition and 30 in the doubles competition. Twelve players traveled from NSW to take part, 7 from Sydney and 5 from the Central Coast. The large number of participants from NSW did not achieve the results expected and departed with only four trophies from the available fifteen. One interesting feature was that three generations of the Pesudovs family participated in the competition.

Janis Brakovskis from Adelaide ASK club became the 2012 Victorian Novuss champion with a score of 15 points and 25 sets followed by Roberts Karklins and Evalds Paeglis sharing second and third place with 12 points and 21 sets. NSW players did not achieve brilliant results: 6th place Edvins Kaufmanis 9/20. 7th place Richards Puisens 8/16, 8th place Dimis Pesudovs 7/16, 10th place Rudi Nemme 3/10, 12th place Guntis Kaufmanis, 15th place Selga Pesudovs, 17th place Andris Rungis, 19th place Arnolds Jumikis, 21st place Edgars Nemme, 25th place Linda Pesudovs, 26th place Stuart Pesudovs.

Ladies singles was won by Dzidra Cekulina from Melbourne with 10 points and 20 sets in second place was Selga Pesudovs from CKN with 10 points and 16 sets followed by Ausma Puce from Ballarat Venta, Regina Berkis from ASK, Linda Pesudovs from CKN, and Irena Ellis from Geelong.

Brothers Guntis and Edvins Kaufmanis from SNK won the doubles with 23 points followed by Evalds Paeglis and Ivars Mirovics from Melbourne with 20 points leaving Janis Brakovskis and Peteris Dancis from ASK in third place with 19 point. NSW players achieved fourth place Richards Puisens and Dimis Pesudovs , fifth place Rudis and Edgars Nemme, seventh place Andris Rungis and Selga Pesudovs, eighth place Arnolds Jumikis and Imants Graudins, and fifteenth place Linda and Stuart Pesudovs.

Dimi Pesudovs

NSW players at the 2012 Victorian Novuss Championships: from left: Richards Puisens, Arnolds Jumikis, Stuart Pesudovs, Dimis Pesudovs, Rudis Nemme, Linda Pesudovs, Selga Pesudovs, Guntis Kaufmanis, Andris Rungis, Edvins Kaufmanis, Imants Graudins, Edgars Nemme. View larger>>

NSW Players with their awards: from left: Edvins Kaufmanis, first place in doubles, Selga Pesudovs, second place in ladies singles, and Guntis Kaufmanis first place in doubles. View larger >>

2011 Australian Latvian Novus Championship

The championship took place on 14 - 15 January, 2012 at the Sydney Latvian House, 32 Parnell St, Strathfield.

Twenty Sydney and Central Coast players took part in the Championships with outstanding results. Sydney players Berin Delforcce (SNK) won gold and Rudis Nemme (SNK) silver in the singles leaving the bronze medal to Zigis Andersons (MDVNK).

Selga Pešudovs (CKN) won the gold medal and the Janis Tilibs Trophy in the womens singles leaving the silver medal to Anita Misiņš (ASK) and bronze medal to Gundega Zariņš (SNK).

The doubles were won by the team from Melbourne of Ivars Mirovics (MDVNK) and Ēvalds Paeglis (MDVNK0, but the silver medals were taken out by local team of Richards Puisēns (SNK) and Dimi Pešudovs (CKN) with the bronze medals also going to a local team of Edvīns Kaufmanis SNK) and Imants Graudiņš.

The group photo at right shows the players who won awards. Sitting, from left womens singles place getters Anita Misiņa (2nd, ASK) ,Selga Pešudovs (1st, CKN), Gundega Zariņa (3rd, SNK). Standing, from left Richards Puisēns (SNK) 2nd in doubles, Zigis Andersons (MDVNK) 3rd in singles, Dimis Pešudovs (CKN) 2nd in doubles, Ivars Mirovics (MDVNK) 1st in doubles, Edvīns Kaufmanis (SNK) 3rd in doubles, Imants Graudiņš (SNK) 3rd in doubles, Rūdis Nemme (SNK) 2nd in singles. In third row, "Encouragement award" winners Ben Shallcross (CKN) and Stuart Pešudovs (CKN). Absent from photo are Berin Delforce (SNK) 1st in singles and Ēvalds Paeglis (MDVNK) 1st in doubles.

Dimis Pešūdovs

Winners at the 2011 Australian Latvian Novus Championship. View larger>>

Andris Ruņģis, president of the Central Coast Novus Club presents encouragement awards to fourteen year old players Stuart Pesudovs (CKN) and Ben Shallcross (CKN) participating in their first novus tournament. View larger >>

Imants Graudiņš wins DV novus championship
Fourteen novus players - 9 from Sydney and 5 from the Central Coast - met on 9 December, 2011 at the Bankstown Daugavas Vanagi (DV) club to compete for the Daugavas Vanagi 60th Anniversary novus championship. The Sydney branch of the DV club was officially founded on 9 December 1951.

The singles tournament was organised according to an unusual, but interesting, system. Each player could invite an opponent to play a game of 3 sets. Each player continued to play until they lost 3 games, at which point they dropped out of the tournament.

Games were played all afternoon until three players remained - Imants Graudiņš with one loss and Andris Ruņģis and Arturs Ernšteins each with two losses. As all three had already played each other, Ruņģis and Ernšteins played each other for the right to challenge Graudiņš for first place. Ruņģis overcame his previous loss to Ernšteins and won the game in 3 sets.

In the final game, extended to 5 sets, both players started nervously and made simple errors. Ruņģis took the first 2 sets and it looked like victory was in his hands, but Graudiņš rallied and fought back to take the next 3 sets and emrge winner of the Daugavas Vanagi Sydney branch 60th Anniversary novus trophy.

Dimis Pešūdovs

Elmars Vanagas Trophy, May 2011

Central Coast novuss players excelled in the Sydney Novuss Club organised tournament in May 2011 to play for the Elmars Vanags donated perpetual trophy.

Dimis Pešudovs won the tournament and Arturs Ernšteins came third. Second place was won by Sydney player Edgars Nemme.

Twenty players registered and commenced the tounament (17 men and 3 ladies), but only fifteen completed all the games. Under the rules of the tournament, the competition was run in a round robin format where every player had to play a seven set match against every player in the competition. The players that completed the tournament played a total of 98 sets.

As the results below indicate the competition was very close and third place had to be decided on countback. In the round robin matches Arturs Ernšteins defeated Jānis Veiss and hence was placed third.

Elmars Vanags tournament winners: from left, Dimis Pešudovs (1st), Edgars Nemme (2nd), Arturs Ernšteins (3rd)

Australian Latvian 2011 Novus Championships

The Australian Latvian 2011 Novus Championships (ALNC) took place in February in Melbourne. Due to unforseen circumstances, the dates for the ALNC were changed and for this reason only three players from each of the Sydney Novus Club and Central Coast Novus Club were able to participate.

The singles was contested by 31 players and was won by A. Vālodze from Adelaide, with 2nd place to R. Kārkliņš from Melbourne and 3rd to Sydney player Dimis Pešudovs. R. Puisēns took 4th place, A. Ernšteins 8th, R. Nemme 13th and A. Ruņģis and E. Nemme shared 16th/17th place.

Fourteen pairs took part in the doubles, which was won by R. Kārkliņš and S. Andersons from Melbourne, beating the Nemme brothers from Sydney. Sixth place went to D. Pešudovs un R. Puisēns, with A. Ernšteins and A. Ruņģis in 9th place.

Our results were not as good as we had hoped for, but we were not in last place!

The Sydney Novuss Club meets every Friday evening from 4-8 pm at the Sydney Latvian Relief Society premises (Daugavas Vanagu Nams), 49 Stanley St. Bankstown, ph. 02 9790 1140.

Various kinds of tournaments are held, both singles and doubles, with and without handicaps, and also friendly competitions. Games are played in a very friendly atmosphere, assisted by liquid refreshments. The Daugavas Vanagu premises are just a 5 minute walk from Bankstown railway station.

New players are always welcome, whether they are beginners or experienced players. Novuss is a very appropriate sport for those former sportspersons who cannot or no longer wish to kick a football, throw a basketball or volleyball. Parents can also bring their children to teach them this old Latvian sport.

Club members take part in Open tournaments in Sydney, Melbourne and Adelaide. The Sydney Open Championship took place 19-20 June, 2010, together with competitors from Melbourne. The Sydney club members had good success, with brothers Edvīns and Guntis Kaufmanis winning first and second place, and Melbourne player Ēvalds Paeglis taking third place.

The first internal club tournament for 2010-2011 will be the Elmārs Vanags Trophy, which involves each player playing against each other in 7-set matches. The player who wins the most sets over the tournament will win first place and the trophy. This tournament is used to calculate members handicaps.

The Central Coast Novuss (CKN) group plays every Tuesday morning.

See the table below for a list of all the tournaments scheduled for the year 2010-2011.

Click here to watch the Sydney 2010 Open Novuss Championship on YouTube.

Novuss at the Latvian Relief Society.

Location of the Latvian Relief Society (Daugavas Vanagu nams).

Winners of the Sydney Open Novuss championship held 19-20 June, 2010. From left: Ēvalds Paeglis (3rd), Guntis Kaufmanis (2nd), Edvīns Kaufmanis (1st).

Central Coast Novuss (CKN) members, from left: Arturs Ernšteins, Andris Ruņģis, Ojārs Dancis, Selga Pešudovs, Dimis Pešudovs, Richards Puisēns, Juris Zemītis