CLUBMARK - All the Clubmark documents were approved by Chris Brown ETTA Regional Development Manager and are now at ETTA HQ awaiting verification. We should get official confirmation of our Clubmark status in the next week or so. The ETTA would like to present the award at our Club night with the local press in attendance, further details to follow.
VENUE - Still no further progress on the move from Newton Abbot Leisure Centre to Teign School for the Saturday morning slot. This is out of our hands, as opening Teign School on a Saturday requires the School Governors’ approval.
FITNESS CENTRE - Teign School are offering very good value introductory membership of just £35 for 3 months at their fitness centre for table tennis club members.
TEIGN AFTER SCHOOL TABLE TENNIS CLUB - Both Nick & Tony Halse joined in with the after school club giving demonstrations, coaching and playing and were very impressed with the set up. Following this session we now have 9 Teign School students regularly attending Friday night sessions.
JUNIOR UMPIRE AWARDS - As part of our Clubmark commitment we have introduced the ETTA Junior Umpire Award into the Friday night sessions. 7 Teign School students have now successfully completed the test paper & their practical and have been awarded their Junior Umpire Certificates. Well done to:
· Luke Robins
· Andrei Constantin
· Lewis Fardon
· Josh Abrahams
· Joe Strickland
· Lewis Short
· Travis Graham
COACHES - We are still waiting for a local ETTA Level One coaching course to be announced. It is unlikely to be before the summer as ETTA are in a bit of turmoil with major structural changes in their organisation and an office relocation to Milton Keynes. We are, however, pursuing the ancillary courses necessary for the coaches and all those involved in coaching have been CRB / DBS checked. Nick Halse & Dennis Gibbs attended a St John’s Ambulance Emergency First Aid Course and Andy Tyrrell attended an Equity in Coaching Course.
NEWTON ABBOT BATMEN - Well done to Newton Abbot Batmen (Dennis Gibbs, Mike Dummett, Iain Dummett & Shaun Gibbs) who are back at the top of the First Division of the South Devon & Torbay Table Tennis League, although it is likely to be short lived as they have played extra games. Champions for the last 6 years, a 7th title in succession is still possible but there are two excellent sides in Torbay Table Tennis Academy I & Brixham Sharks who are poised to strike!
Dennis & Shaun Gibbs are also members of The Denbury Demons team, who, along with Kevin Nichols currently lead the Exeter & District Table Tennis League First Division by an incredible 53 points.
SUPER SINGLES - Well done again to Dennis Gibbs who leads the Ranking list at the halfway stage of the Super Singles taking place at Brixham, although he has yet to face Stam Kioufis who was injured for Round One and had to play in Division 2 in Round 2.
MEMBERSHIP - To encourage people to join the Club we have agreed that there would be no fee to join. However as an ETTA Premier Club you are expected to be a member of the ETTA (£4/yr Associate member, £8/yr League player). The majority of those that play at our venues are existing ETTA members, so there is no charge for you to join our Club. Please log on to www.tabletennis365.com/etta/membership using your ETTA membership number and password, you will then be able to add Newton Abbot TTC from a drop down box of organisations you belong to. This will boost our membership numbers and give the club an official record of all members. Alternatively, ring 0845 0500 388 and say you would like Newton Abbot TTC added to your list of organisations you belong to.
Those of you who are not league players and are regular attendees can become members of the ETTA for a fee of £4 by contacting the ETTA as above or by seeing Tony.
SPRING / SUMMER TABLE TENNIS? - We have always stopped our sessions once the League programme has finished and Easter is upon us. There is a chance that we might try to keep the sessions at Teign School going if enough members are interested, that could be on a Friday night or a Saturday morning. Please see Tony if you would be interested in keeping it going. It would probably be less coaching and more fun sessions with perhaps some mini tournaments or a ladder.
WEBSITE - Our website www.tabletennis365.com/newtonabbot is a bit sparse at the moment; if anyone has any ideas for articles / items or would like to contribute anything then please contact tonyhalse@hotmail.com
