AUGUST 2011

Editorial

Last year we entered 4 teams in the Bury League. The Jaguars finished 4^th out of 7 in Division 1. The Leopard and Puma teams finished 5^th and 7^th respectively in Division 2 where there were 10 teams in total. The Tigers who play in the two player league finished 8^th out of 10.

 Carol Clarke and Terry Betts brought the 2010/11 Bury & District League season to an end winning the Saffrons’ Shield Handicap Tournament. In each of their final three hard fought matches they claimed victory in the last doubles legs.

The format of the competition is played under the “21 up” format – after Individual Handicaps have been adjusted. Two Singles of three games and then a final doubles tie of three games– a total of 15 games.

We also saw junior teams entered in both the National Cadet and Suffolk and Cambridge Border League Junior Leagues, however the competition here was very tough and I will comment on this elsewhere in the newsletter.

Also worthy of mention is that 4 of our youngsters represented Mid Suffolk in the Suffolk Youth games held at Bury. They tied for 3^rd place but lost out on a medal on count back.

The usual challenge existed last year as in previous, which has been to make sessions run at a profit rather than a loss. This season we will be running the Friday session from 7pm to 9pm and the intention is to make this into a proper Club night.

 We hope this will be well supported and it would be good to see more people taking advantage of the facilities and abilities of those present to help improve their game or just to help others progress. 

Please note our September starting dates shown on page 2. Our updated handbook for the season 2011-12 is being sent electronically to members on email but for others there will be a supply at Stowupland and at St Peter’s Hall so ask for one if you want a copy. Much of the information in it is as before but amended information is there of subscription rates, details of all sessions and important dates.

Nick Samson

Open Day in January 2011

The club ran a taster session of table tennis in partnership with Stowmarket Library in January. 20 – 30 people turned up and took the opportunity over a 4 hour period – most new to the club.

One lady commented that “her granddaughter in New Zealand plays table tennis and I want to be able to play her when I visit next!”.

We saw this as an opportunity to bring together the different sessions that we run out of two sets of premises as there is not too much interaction given the widely varying age groups and time that sessions are run, some during the day and others in the evening. This worked incredibly well and many thought that we should run a session like this from time to time in the future. It worked wonders for our club spirit!

The granddaughter of one of the early members of the Stowmarket Table Tennis League came in and donated the original minute books for the period from 1947 to the mid 1950s to add to our archive which is great.

The general response we got from members and visitors alike was that it was a very positive experience and we are looking to repeat the opportunity this September.

2011 Season - Start dates 

Membership Forms

 Membership Subscriptions & ETTA Individual Registration 

We are pleased to inform you that for the 5^th year running we are not increasing playing fees for sessions despite the rent being increased yet again for both of our venues. 

Your committee discussed this at length and decided that we should go all out this year to increase our membership rather than increase fees. If this does not work we will have to consider increasing playing fees next year. The membership fee has also been left the same as last year, but unlike last season, you will now be called upon to pay the ETTA Membership fee of £3, which we are collecting and passing on to the ETTA on your behalf. To try an avoid confusion this amount is already shown in the membership fees on the membership form e.g. Adult membership is £14.00 plus £3.00 for the ETTA giving an amount payable of £17.00.

 It is probable that league players have been contacted directly by the ETTA with guidance on how to make the payment, now £6.00 per player, for the coming season but if you are unsure please consult your team captain. Please note that you need to pay the ETTA before you can play any matches. If you are not properly registered you will not be selected to play until it has been done. If you do play and were not registered any matches you won would be void.

 In all cases if you have already paid the ETTA directly please see the basic membership fee as shown on the membership form and provide Ian Bridgeman with your ETTA registration number.

It is intended to charge the non-member rate to anyone attending playing sessions after this date which is £1.00 more than fully paid up members will pay. This extra will be non-refundable even if people become players subsequently.

 The membership form should be completed and returned by 30^th September 2011 to Ian Bridgeman, Membership Secretary. His address and contact details are shown on the form.

Everyone’s help in this area would be greatly appreciated, especially by the Treasurer!

 League Teams for Coming Season

The team squads for the forthcoming season are: 

 National Cadet League

We entered one team in the NCL this season. The squad for the season was: Jack Samson, Matt Ager, Jordan Redhead and Megan Bollen. 

The league was played over 4 Sundays with the team winning 3 and drew 2 out of their 10 matches. This meant they finished 4^th out of 6 teams.

Unfortunately as in previous years availability played a part and on 2 Sundays we were not able to field 3 players which had an obvious impact.

Jordan did particularly well winning 5 out of 7 matches.

One other noteworthy event: Megan won her ever first match at this standard. Well done Megan!

Suffolk and Cambridge Border League

 A team was entered in the above league for the 2010-11 season. Previously Stowmarket has had teams in Division Two so when we were put in Division One we knew we were in for some tough matches. The league and cup was played over 4 weekends and the squad for the season was: Jack Samson, Emma Baker and Megan Bollen.

This was Emma’s return to competitive table tennis after a 2 year break. 

One of the highlights of the season was the third weekend. There were only two matches, which both ended in defeats although the match against Effort saw both the doubles and Emma’s last singles go the 5 games, each time with the result going to Effort!

The team finished fifth out of six teams, which was great credit to them as this was their first experience in Division One especially as a number of teams above them had current Suffolk team players such as Max Boulter and Rhys Davies. 

On 5^th March, the individual tournaments took place. Megan Bollen was able to come along and take part, which was a good experience for her. There were a number of tournaments, from handicap to U13 and Jack reached the semi-final of the latter tournament.

Girls Sessions

 This session took place every Wednesday. The sessions were lead by Peter Avenell and Carol Clarke.

The aim is to introduction more girls to the sport and they work towards achieving the necessary Butterfly skills based on hand eye co-ordination combined with bat and ball skills.

 Publicity 

We have a new Publicity Officer in Ray Perry and he is endeavouring to get a regular column in all the local free papers and magazines. He has already been in touch with them and the signs are good that they will take copy from us. The aim is to attract new members and we can all help by recruiting anyone we think may be interested. As you will have read earlier in this newsletter we are hoping that by recruiting more members we can continue to keep practice fees at their current levels. Let’s see if we can all recruit one player each at least!