Bury St Edmunds
Table Tennis Club
Home About Venues Leagues Tournaments Members
Gallery News Archive Links Contact Us
|
|
Home |
| ISSUE NO 9 | NEWSLETTER | 5TH JANUARY 2003 |
I hope you all had a Merry Christmas and are looking forward to a Happy and Successful New Year.
I am opening this Newsletter with a plea for help. It is now just over 4 years since the Club was formed and we have made great progress in promoting Table Tennis in the area. Some of the main features being: -
| · | Providing venues to play the game at County Upper School and Culford School Sports Centre. |
| · | Obtaining Grants and Loans to supply tables, surrounds, bats, balls etc. |
| · | Entering teams in the local senior league giving our members a chance to play competitively. |
| · | Running a Junior League for teams from around the area. |
| · | Running a team in the National Junior League with the backing of the Bury League. |
| · | Coaching for junior club members. |
| · | Coaching in schools in the area. |
| · | Being recognised by the English Table Tennis Association as one of the Premier Clubs in the country. |
This is just part of what is organised and since the Club was formed most of the work has been done by 3 or 4 people, these same people also make all the decisions regarding the Club. I don't think this is good for either the Club or the individuals concerned, we urgently need more people to get involved if the Club is to continue to progress or indeed to continue to exist. I know a lot of you lead very busy lives but some of the jobs that need doing can take only 2 or 3 hours a month. I am listing below some of the work we need help with: -
| · | Help with coaching the juniors on a Tuesday evening, our current coaches also like to play in League matches, which quite often are on a Tuesday, so this means that very often there is only one coach present. So that he can get on with coaching, help in collecting money and helping out generally would make a great difference. You do not necessarily need to know anything about table tennis and may I suggest that parents might get involved say on a rota basis. |
| · | Help with coaching at Westley School, if anybody can spare an hour and a half on a Tuesday or Friday afternoon. Thanks to Maurice Fearn and John Horner for helping out in the past. |
| · | A co-ordinator for the League teams, this is a matter of liasing with the Team Secretaries, collecting the money from them and passing it on to the Club Treasurer. It would be probably be more practical to have two people, one at County and one at Culford. |
| · | Equipment monitor, keep an inventory of the equipment the Club owns and where it is kept. Check on equipment and do repairs if possible and advise committee of any new equipment needed. |
| · | Drinks monitor, arranging for drinks to be available at the venues, thanks to Neil Talbot and Janet Hobley who are doing this at present. |
| · | Press Officer, write articles for the local press and publish Newsletters like this. |
| · | Tournament Organiser, organise Club Tournaments, thanks to Steve Blackman who is doing it this year. |
| · | Booking Officer, arrange the bookings at the various venues, check the invoices and pass to Club Treasurer for payment. |
| · | Organiser for the two Notice Boards. |
| · | Junior League organiser, to organise and run the Junior League. |
| · | Manager of National Junior League team |
| · | Fashion advisor, to arrange supply of Club shirts, badges etc. |
| · | Social event organiser, to organise social events for the Club. |
| · | Run the Club website. |
| · | Fund Raiser, organise events to bolster Club funds. |
| · | Become committee members, help make the decisions, we have meetings about 5 times a year. |
These are some of the main jobs that need to be done, but there are many more. Don't feel that you can't do the job, as we will give you full training and support.
Now we are looking for more volunteers to become coaches, umpires, administrators' etc. but for these we can offer courses. I attach a brochure about ETTA courses at Stowupland on the 8th and 9th February, the Club has funds to help with the cost of the courses. Have you enjoyed playing table tennis, then become a coach and teach other people how to enjoy table tennis. Become an umpire and be loved by everyone! Or perhaps you would like to help people with disabilities play table tennis.
Now to other matters:-
SENIOR LEAGUE TEAMS
We have 3 teams in the First Division. The league website is down at the moment so I don't know the true positions but I believe the Vikings are about 3rd, The Crusaders mid table and the Romans are struggling at the moment near the bottom of the table.
In the Second Division the Saxons are mid table. In the 3rd we have 5 teams all jostling for places and the second half of the season should be interesting. The Cavaliers had 2 German lads playing for them but unfortunately they have now returned to Germany and we need two players to replace them for the second half of the season. Would 3rd Division team Secretaries please note that Thurston Tigers have withdrawn from the League.
BURY LEAGUE TOURNAMENT
May I remind League players that entry forms for the League Tournament on 23rd March must be in by 15th February. Entry forms can be found in the League Handbook.
SENIOR PRACTICE NIGHTS
These are going well and though we had to play at Culford over Christmas the County Upper School will be open again from Friday 10th January 2003.
JUNIOR LEAGUE TEAMS
We entered 3 teams in the Suffolk & Cambridge Border Junior Leagu e and at Christmas the Falcons team of Daniel Stebbings and Josh Bolt were lying 2nd in Section A. The Sparrowhawks with Ben Showell, Bill Kilner and Alex Printie are 3rd in Section B and the Kestrels team of Rosanna and Oliver Shilling are 4th.
JUNIOR PRACTICE NIGHTS
We have had a good attendance and some promising youngsters coming along, we now need to get down to some serious coaching to help them meet their potential. But as explained earlier we need more help.
WESTLEY SCHOOL
We have had another good response and introduced many children to Table Tennis, although only one has actually progressed to coming to Club Nights. Though even if most of them don' t take up table tennis immediately they may well do later in life. An interesting point was that we ran a course solely for girls and had great interest with some potentially good players, whether we can maintain this interest we will have to wait and see.
NATIONAL JUNIOR LEAGUE TEAM
In the first round of matches the Bury team was Aaron Self, Josh Taylor and Ed Spencer, and the matches were played at Gosfield in Essex. They had mixed fortunes winning 2 matches and losing 2. They beat Norwich 'B' 5 games to 1 and Kings Lynn 'A' 4-2, this was the only game Kings Lynn lost. Bury then went on to lose to Norwich 'A' 1-5 and Braintree NETTS 2-4, this was the only game NETTS won. Aaron and Josh both had an average of 63% whilst Ed playing for the first time at this level played well to average 25%.
CLUB KIT
May I please remind league players that the Club colours are red shirts and black shorts, please try to keep to these colours, we are looking into getting sew on Club badges.
CLUB COMPETITION
This will be run shortly and Steve Blackman is organising this.
CLUB WEBSITE
A Discussion Forum has been added to the Club website, current topic "What do you think about 11up". Please add your comments.
Peter Fordham
(Chairman)