The Horsham Table Tennis clubrooms were abuzz at the weekend as players from Hamilton, Mt Gambier and Warrnambool joined local players to compete for the Donahue Shield.

With the exception of the COVID-19 pandemic, the event has been contested annually since 1964 and sees some of western Victoria and South Australia’s best players battle for the trophy.

As it had done in 2025, the Hamilton team dominated in all categories – men, women and juniors – followed by Warrnambool, which had an 11-year run of success broken by Hamilton last year.

Warrnambool’s Simon Johnson continued his dominant winning streak in the men’s competition, narrowly nudging out Hamilton’s Nathan Combes as leading player.

In the past 26 outings, Johnson has been part of the winning men’s side 25 times, losing his only match against Horsham champion Leon Forrest and also missing one year of competition in 1991 while playing cricket for Victoria.

Ranked 56 in Australia, Johnson had success in the veteran, over-30 and over-40 divisions in 2024 and 2025, but now combines his love of sport with spending time with his family and young son.

In the women’s division, Hamilton was too strong, convincingly beating Mt Gambier.

Hamilton young gun Katie Woodbridge claimed the honour of leading player over teammate Arlene Wagner.

Ruby Rankin is just short of 12 years of age, but played an exciting and aggressive game to go undefeated in the junior division. Billy Fitzpatrick, also from Hamilton, was runner-up.

Horsham’s men’s team consisting of Leon Forrest, Rhys Hermans and Trevor Niblett played several close games, including some five-set contests that could have gone either way.

Jodie Morrow, Emmalee Anton and Kerry Hepburn were also challenged in many close games in the women’s section.

Forrest, the club president, said all Horsham players would benefit from the experience of playing stronger opponents.

The tournament culminated with a lunch in the club rooms catered by Horsham Table Tennis Club members.

Results: juniors – Hamilton, Mt Gambier, Warrnambool, no Horsham team; women – Hamilton, Mt Gambier, Warrnambool, Horsham; men – Hamilton, Warrnambool, Horsham, Mt Gambier; aggregate – Hamilton, Warrnambool, Mt Gambier, Horsham.

The 2027 Donahue Shield competition will be in Warrnambool.

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