Cheltenham Table Tennis Association Website

Welcome To The CTTA Website

Welcome to the Cheltenham Table Tennis League website. We have lots of information on the site, including our history, weekly league results, team/player averages and match reports and instructional videos on how to perfect your game. We are proud to be one of the UK's longest running leagues, having been established in 1923 - long before even the ETTA or the ITTF were formed.

From humble beginnings our little league has developed into a force to be reckoned with. Some of our best players have represented England and our County teams continue to raise the bar in tournaments nationwide. The CTTA is renowned for its junior training schemes and providing the venue and equipment for major events , such as the Gloucestershire TTA 4* Cheltenham Cotswold Junior Open Tournament, which attracts the best junior players from all over the UK and Ireland, the English Schools Zone and Regional Team Finals, the Gloucestershire Senior and Junior Closed Championships, and the Cheltenham Senior and Junior Closed Championships. The ETTA (English Table Tennis Association) selected Cheltenham to host two international table tennis matches in 2003 where England played Russia and Romania.

We are known as a very friendly league that caters for all table tennis abilities. New players are always welcome - whether your a veteran looking to join a league team or somebody that is new to the sport, looking for a game of 'ping pong'. During the season, training and practice nights are held at the Cheltenham Sports College on Tuesday and Thursday evenings from 6.30pm - 9.30pm from September to July. If you would like to join our league, or just feel like a casual knock around within a friendly atmosphere, head on over to the 'Contact' page for more details.

If you have any comments regarding the website, or would like any local table tennis news publicised, Please write to Dave Cosnette, the webmaster and CTTA Press Officer at netandedge@hotmail.com

Annual General Meeting

The Annual General Meeting for 2009 will be held at Cheltenham Civil Service Club, Tewkesbury Road on Monday 18th of May 2009, commencing at 7.30pm.

The following positions are still vacant:

Vice-Chairman

General Secretary

Development Officer

Division 2 Secretary

Juniors Secretary

Coaching Officer

Welfare Officer

Your attention is drawn to Rule 5.8 governing the AGM

Any Club not represented throughout the entire meeting by its Secretary or one of its registered players shall be fined £10.

NB: Club Secretaries are requested to encourage their members to attend this important meeting and to try and find volunteers to fill the vacant posts. In particular, the Management Committee cannot operate without a General Secretary.

PROPOSED CHANGES TO THE RULES OF THE ASSOCIATION
AGM 2009
The following rule changes will be discussed and voted upon at this years AGM.

	A) Late Finishes at time restricted venues.	Proposer: Dave Harvey
	1) Scrap in entirety the doubles game.	This will save upwards of 15 minutes.
	(Note the senior county teams do not include any doubles so obviously they support scrapping this event)

	2) After the first initial knock up periods for the first match played by everyone, no more knocking up.
	This is, in my opinion, a total waste of time and as I have witnessed on many occasions, is often abused. I estimate that this will save between 15 and 20 minutes.

	3) Limit all games to the best of three sets instead of five.
	I estimate that this could save approximately 45 minutes to 1 hour.

	4) Adopt 2 people teams.
	Comments: I would like each of the preceding four changes to be discussed and voted on independently. If all of the first three changes above were adopted and matches started on time, we could aim to finish all matches within 2 hrs, thereby finishing by 9 to 9-15 latest, which I believe would be beneficial to all and would also attract more juniors into our "dying sport" From the analysis of age of players that I conducted in Cheltenham some months ago 70% are Veteran players. This is not an unusual statistic and I believe all towns in the county would show similar stats. If we are to encourage youngsters to join the leagues and reverse this very worrying trend, we must do something radical here. We cannot afford to stand still and continue with the current way of playing matches, otherwise in my opinion we will eventually "wither on the vine." This way you could keep the existing format and still include the doubles and the match would then certainly finish before 9 p.m. Personally I am not in favour of proposal 4, but I have witnessed this in the summer league at Cirencester and can testify that it has clear advantages. I hope my suggestions are considered seriously, Dave Harvey
	B) U17 Teams – Adult Supervision	Proposer: Management Committee
	1) Any team consisting of players all aged under 17 years MUST be accompanied by a responsible adult at all times during matches.
	“Proposal relates to a complaint made to the full committee meeting held on 9 March 2009”

	C) Rules 8.3 - Associate Member Fee.	Proposer: Management Committee
	1) Clubs or individuals wishing to become associate members shall apply in writing to the General Secretary and pay an annual subscription of £5.00.
	"Increase in associate membership fee from £1 to £5".

	D) Rule 2.5 – President & Vice-Presidents	Proposer: Management Committee
	1) Rule 2.5 be amended to read: “A President and Vice-Presidents will be elected at the AGM to serve for a minimum period of one year but for not more than a maximum of three consecutive years”

	E) Rule 13.1 – Approved Balls	Proposer: Management Committee
	1) Rule 13.1 be amended to read: “Matches shall be played under ETTA rules and with 3-star balls as approved by the ETTA and supplied by the home team.” “Removal of reference to 2-star balls”

Gloucestershire County Veterans Win Premiership Promotion

The Vets 1st Table Tennis Team gained promotion to the Premier Division following the last two games played on Sunday 18th of April, 2009, at Cirencester Deer Park against Berkshire's 1^st team and Kent 2^nd team.

Going into the last two matches the County side were unbeaten, as they had won their last five encounters. As a result of this, promotion appeared to be a certainty, however in reality, this was far from the truth.

The first match against Berkshire 1st team was a tense affair which Gloucestershire needed to win, as the second placed side (Dorset, who had been well beaten by the County in an earlier round of matches), had now gained a superior sets advantage, which meant that another drawn game would not be enough for promotion.

At 4-3 down, the prognosis did not look good, however the County rallied and went into the last game with a 5 4 lead and needed to win the last game, which was a mixed doubles, contested by the home sides Dave Adamson & Julie Taylor.

In a real nail biting,cliff hangar of a match, the score was level at 2 games all and 8 all in the final game. Gloucestershire went 10 - 8 up and then 10-9 before they eventually won 11-9 much to the relief of the whole side. The coolness of Dave & Julie under the most strenuous of pressures, was unbelievable.

The second match played against Kent 2nd resulted in a 5 - 5 drawn encounter which was marred by the fact of two sustained injuries to the Kent team, forcing one person to withdraw from the last singles (having previously sustained a head injury by falling headlong into a brick wall) and the second injury was sustained by the Kent no 1 player who suffered a very bad bruise to his hand when he smashed same accidentally on the corner of the table whist playing Dave Harvey.

Representing Gloucestershire were Dave Harvey, Darren Griffin, Dave Adamson, Julie Taylor & Jacque Carver who all contributed well to the success of the team. Judy Morley (the county Vets no 1 who had previously won a lot of key games) and Bill Dawe (who again won several important matches), were the other players who helped secure promotion for the first side.

Darren was distinguished as winning all 14 singles and Dave Harvey lost just the one from 14 games.

Veterans Division 1B
County	P	W	D	L	F	A	PTS
Gloucestershire 1	7	6	1	0	49	21	13
Dorset	7	6	0	1	49	21	12
Essex 1	7	3	1	3	34	36	7
Worcestershire 1	7	3	1	3	31	39	7
Oxfordshire 1	7	2	2	3	37	33	6
Kent 2	7	3	0	4	36	34	6
Berkshire 1	7	2	1	4	35	35	5
Essex 4	7	0	0	7	9	61	0

Thanks to Lesley Dewick for this report.

National Cadet League 2009

The A team really played very well to finish Champions of Division 1 and won all their matches. Dominic James was outstanding as expected, and Simon James and Jack Collings supported Dominic with many fine wins and helped to make a very good team.

The B team finished 4^th out of 8 in Division 2, but most of the boys were very young and have 2 to 4 years more in this U15 league.

Joe Ansley,aged 10, made a great debut in his matches, beating 3 of his 7 opponents.

Peter Cruwys
Coaching Administrator
Cheltenham Table Tennis Club

DIVISION 1
Top half	P	W	L	F	A	Pts
Cheltenham A CHAMPIONS	10	10	0	72	18	72
Evesham A Runners-Up	10	8	2	63	27	63
West Wilts A	10	6	4	59	31	59
Southampton West A	10	4	6	40	50	40
Bottom half
Rollercoaster A	10	5	5	41	49	41
Radyr A	10	3	7	37	53	37
Swindon Link	10	2	8	32	58	32
Radyr B	7	2	5	16	47	16
Radyr B matches forfeited			3	0	27
DIVISION 2
Top half	P	W	L	F	A	Pts
Southampton West B CHAMPIONS	9	8	1	59	22	59
Rollercoaster B Runners-Up	9	7	2	58	23	58
Evesham B	9	5	4	44	37	44
Cheltenham B	9	4	5	37	44	37
Bottom half
Cirencester	8	3	5	31	41	31
West Wilts B	8	3	5	25	47	25
Stroud	8	0	8	16	56	16
Full Circle	0	0	0	0	0	0

National Cadet League - Averages 2008/9
Division 1		P	W	%
Jack Gillard	Rollercoaster A	9	9	100.00
Jaspreet Singh	Evesham A	37	36	97.30
Dominic James	Cheltenham A	27	25	92.59
Alex MacClachlan	West Wilts A	39	33	84.62
Jack Davis	Evesham A	37	30	81.08
Simon James	Cheltenham A	27	19	70.37
Jack Collings	Cheltenham A	37	26	70.27
Lee Phillips	West Wilts A	39	27	69.23
Gabriel Lloyd	Radyr B	6	4	66.67
Kevin Vandabona	Southampton West A	10	6	60.00
Tim Webb	Rollercoaster A	36	21	58.33
Tom Allen	Radyr A	19	11	57.89
Will Allen	Radyr A	26	15	57.69
Rajath Sathyaprakash	Radyr A	25	14	56.00
Matthew Jones	Radyr A	20	11	55.00
Dominic Ford	Southampton West A	6	3	50.00
Kate Ha	Southampton West A	27	13	48.15
Patrick Seed	Swindon Link	29	12	41.38
Ben Edwards	West Wilts A	39	16	41.03
Harry White	Southampton West A	37	15	40.54
Gina Stedman	Rollercoaster A	15	6	40.00
Ryan James	Radyr A	26	10	38.46
William King	Rollercoaster A	16	6	37.50
Thomas Penfold	Swindon Link	28	10	35.71
Ryan Scobie	Rollercoaster A	23	7	30.43
Lucy Mander	Evesham A	37	10	27.03
James Fuller	Southampton West A	12	3	25.00
Ryan Marvell	Swindon Link	29	6	20.69
Joshua Li-Saw-Hee	Radyr B	18	3	16.67
Sam Cross	Rollercoaster A	18	1	5.56
Michael Treeby	Radyr B	27	1	3.70
Kim Benson-Bunch	Cheltenham A	4	0	0.00
Laurence Jordan	Southampton West A	9	0	0.00
Tom Warner	Cheltenham A	10	0	0.00
Richard White	Southampton West A	10	0	0.00
		814	409
guest	Cheltenham	6	1
		820	410

And The Winners Are...
Which teams were this years winners and who was relegated? Read on to find out...

Another successful CTTA season has finally come to an end and you can now have a well-earned Summer break. Judging by the reports, there were some surprising results, with top averages falling to surprise opponents. But the big question is... which teams were crowned champions of their division, and which teams were relegated to play in a lower division next season?

Although the final matches from Division One have not yet been played, it is clear who the top two finishers will be. Cheltenham A will be lifting the trophy this year after a very successful season with only one loss. With 151 points so far, no other team can catch them. Dave Harvey's young protégé's proved a force to be reckoned with right from the start of the season. The A side, comprising of Dave Harvey and his sons Michael and Robert, were joined this year by young Chris Hewitt, who settled in well and has so far only dropped 6 games all season with a 96% average.

Dave has once again proved his dominance in the division, despite having to play many up and coming players who are less than half his age.

Winchcombe Roamers will unless by some sheer fluke, take second place. They presently lie 26 points above Cirencester A, their nearest rivals.

A special mention must go to Dominic James who played table tennis in Division One for the first time this season. Although he is only a youngster, he has shown great determination and has beaten some very good opponents over the last few months. If he continues to improve he will no doubt be one of Cheltenham's stars in the not too distant future!

Division One
*Team*	*Played*	*Won*	*Drawn*	*Lost*	*Points*
Cheltenham A	19	18	0	1	151
Winchcombe Roamers	19	13	0	6	124
Cirencester A	18	8	3	7	98
Winchcombe Cavaliers	17	9	3	5	94
Cheltenham B	20	6	5	9	82
Cirencester B	19	4	4	11	77
Lakeside A	18	1	2	15	58
Chelsea Building Society	15	5	1	9	46

In Division Two, the honours went to Winchcombe Wizards who appear to have dominated proceedings with a fantastic record of remaining unbeaten and drawing only one game. Keith Ferguson and Nick Davidson both came joint top of the averages by only losing 3 games during the season and a 93% average, which is no mean feat. Nick Davidson must have been a little disappointed however to have lost to Tewkesbury's Simon Lockley in one of the last games of the campaign, especially as Simon has been on the injured list for most of the season and has only won 4 games.

The Wizard's Keith Ferguson has had a magic season with success in the recent Closed Championships where he won the Minor Doubles with fellow team mate, Stewart Ratcliffe, the Mixed Doubles with Choi Sze To, and the Consolation Singles. And all with an old style pimpled bat too. Well done to Keith, Nick, Stewart, Chris Lane and Jacqui Carver on your promotion!

Division Two runners up were Lakeside B, who leapfrogged Cheltenham C in the last game of the season to take second place. Andy Richards, Andy East and Ken Smith are always hard players to beat and deserve to be playing in Division One once again next season.

Anand Keshav, who came 3rd in the averages played exceptionally well this season and only lost 5 out of an incredible 59 games for Cheltenham C. He stepped down for just two matches throughout the season. Well done Anand!

At the other end of the table, Cleeve Saracens B just managed to climb out of the relegation zone in the last but one game of the season, with an important 7-3 win over Cheltenham D. Tewkesbury B join Cheltenham D in their demotion to Division Three next season.

Division Two
*Team*	*Played*	*Won*	*Drawn*	*Lost*	*Points*
Winchcombe Wizards	22	21	1	0	183
Lakeside B	22	15	3	4	151
Cheltenham C	22	17	0	5	145
Cleeve Saracens A	22	11	3	8	117
Lakeside D	22	11	2	9	116
Lakeside C	22	10	2	10	108
Tewkesbury A	22	7	3	12	101
Winchcombe Warriors	22	8	4	10	97
Civil Service A	22	5	5	12	88
Cleeve Saracens B	22	5	1	16	77
Cheltenham D	22	6	1	15	73
Tewkesbury B	22	2	3	17	64

Division Three favourites Tirley Tigers didn't disappoint as they easily claimed the top spot by a clear 28 point margin over their nearest rivals, Cleeve Old Saracens. The Tiger's Pete Humble dominated this season by coming top of the averages with an impressive 98% record, having played 46 and only dropped one game to Old Saracens Pete McGeough. He was ably assisted by team mates Elaine Evans, who maintained a good 95% average, Janie Kirby, Lesley Dewick, Tony Saxton and Len Agg.

Cleeve Old Saracens finished as expected, in second place, under the leadership of Tony Child. Tony, together with teammates, Sheila Matthews, John Adcock and Pete McGeough, can look forward to life in the fast lane again next season as they gained promotion.

The young Cheltenham F and H teams should not feel too disheartened by finishing bottom of the division as their opposition in Division Three this year was very strong, with some veteran opponents having probably played in the league for more years than the age of their parents.

Division Three
*Team*	*Played*	*Won*	*Drawn*	*Lost*	*Points*
Tirley Tigers	21	17	4	0	167
Old Saracens	21	15	2	4	139
Cheltenham E	21	10	3	8	122
Cleeve Eagles	21	9	6	6	121
Civil Service B	21	9	2	10	100
Cheltenham G	21	8	2	11	97
Cheltenham F	21	6	1	14	74
Cheltenham H	20	0	0	20	20

Report by Dave Cosnette
CTTA Press Officer

SALE OF TABLE TENNIS TABLES

Rowanfield Junior School in Cheltenham have 4 old tables for sale, which are in
reasonable condition and suitable for home use.

3 Jacques Tables with Tubular Metal legs, each half on two wheels

1 Butterfly Table with metal legs, no wheels, but have some which could be fitted

£25 each. Buyer arranges transport

Apply to Peter Cruwys, CTTA Coaching Administrator, who can provide further information, and liaise with school.

Tel 01242 527563 email: pcruwys@sky.com

The New Season Is Now Underway.
Click Here For Latest League Reports

Check out the C.T.T.A. Calendar for upcoming events(click on red dates for information)

Table Tennis Video Guide
	Check out the newly added video guide section that will help you strengthen your game. British and Irish Champion Jason Sugrue shows you how to play table tennis and explains simple rules and regulations about scoring, serving, and rallies. Also learn how to do a backhand drive, forehand drive and other general techniques to improve your table tennis technique.

Free Table Tennis News

A new table tennis publication called 'Free Table Tennis' is now available to download for all readers. This new online magazine is edited by Howard Middleton and addresses issues regarding table tennis from all over the British Isles. Each issue is packed with readers views and concerns regarding the latest happenings in the table tennis world. If you would like to join the debate, click the link below to download the latest edition.

Look out for weekly table tennis reports in the Echo and Citizen newspapers every Thursday

Latest league reports, averages and tables are posted on this website every week during the season

Veterans Division 1B