The 2014-5 Committee of the Southend & District Table Tennis League
Wish all our Members A Very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year
For some Members, Christmas brings with it sadness, thinking of lost ones and those with serious illnesses and we also think of you at this time
For those Members, who don’t know all of what our Committee do, I will run through their contribution that they, as Volunteers, make for you and we would ask you all to raise a glass to them as we see in 2015
Our 22 strong Committee has representation from 12 of our 17 Clubs; 44 of our 53 Teams; covering every Division, Age Group and all aspects of our near 400 Membership
Our President is Stuart Gibbs (Hullbridge). Stuart is also President of the Essex County. A former top ranked England Player at Junior, Senior and Vets Levels. For the past 3 Seasons, Stuart has led the Essex Junior Coaching Programme, aided by Simon Lowman and various Essex Junior Coaches. Stuart has forged a superb platform for our aspiring Juniors. Stuart is always available to give our Committee the benefit of his vast International experience, spanning over 50 years.
Our Vice President is Gordon Swan (RESSC). Gordon has battled with fitness for a few Seasons now. How great it was to see Gordon return to the Table this Season. Despite his problems, Gordon always supports whatever we do and this Season, he celebrated 50 years in the Southend League and his original 1964 ‘Estric’ team of himself, Mike Worship and Frank Hooper were present at our Presentation Day at the Rawreth Table Tennis Club this July to share a commemorative photo: they all still play in our League, as does Gordon’s supportive wife Pam and their daughter Sarah.
Our General Secretary is Jayne Johnson (Hullbridge). Jayne is also the Essex County General Secretary and the Chairperson of the Hullbridge Sports Association’s Table Tennis Section. Jayne works tirelessly for her County, Local League and her Club and our League owes much to her. Jayne is also the Co-Organiser of the Southend Closed Championships and helps with all Competitions run by our League & her Club and is responsible for the Registrations of all Members. Our Championships, with 140 Entrants last Season, is one of the largest Local League Championships in the UK
Our Treasurer is Lou Hopkins (RESSC). Lou has had various Roles for our League over many, many years and also runs the Setts Table Tennis Club in Basildon every Friday. Not a Computer Boffin, Lou produces hand written Financial Accounts that are a joy to look at. Over the years, Lou has run our Closed Championships, the Summer League, the former Rosebowl Handicap Competition and is always ready to help wherever required.
Our Web Guru is Berti Makolli (Warehouse). Berti does so much for us with our Web Site. It is without doubt one of the best Table Tennis Web Sites in the UK and this year he has produced the very impressive App for our Smart phones. Berti is another Member who is always looking to help out wherever he can and with Jayne Johnson played a big part in setting up the 365 System: this year also with the help of Barrie Delf.
Next our 365 Divisional Results Secretaries, who maintain such an up-to-date record of the Season as it progresses and write entertaining and informative Reports each week
Duncan Taylor (Rayleigh Mill) (Premier Division DRS)
Barrie Delf (Castle Point) (1st Division DRS)
David Barnes (Invicta) (2nd Division DRS)
Paul Strutt (Hockley) (3rd Division DRS).
Berti Makolli (Warehouse) Publishes the Reports and Results on our Web Site,
Karl Dorn (Hullbridge) Sends in a collation of these Reports to the Evening Echo each Week
Jayne Johnson (Hullbridge) Is responsible for all Registrations
What a superb job they have done this Season.
In addition to the Weekly Results, Barrie Delf and Chris Jacob (both Castle Point) run our Summer League. Chris writes ‘Witty Reports’ and Barrie controls the Results on our 365 System. Chris has been involved with our League for over 50 Years and is still as enthusiastic as ever.
Bill Smith (Hullbridge) runs our Hard Bat Championships, named after Bill for his dedicated work on this Event for many years. Bill does so much more, our Quizzes, the Hullbridge Closed Championships; the Hullbridge weekly Over 60s / 70s; another key Member of the Hullbridge Table Tennis Club. Anything Bill is involved in, he works so hard to ensure its success.
Kevin Read (Rawreth) runs our Inter League Teams that play against other Essex Local Leagues. Last year Kevin married Melissa and this year they became the proud Parents of Toby. Our congratulations. Kevin is also part of our Seeding’s Committee for our Closed Championships.
Our League are fortunate to have as our Child Welfare Officer, Jim Stait (Warehouse), who is very experienced in this field and keeps a watchful eye on the Welfare of the Juniors in our League. Jim also was last Season’s Junior Closed Championships Organiser.
This Season, Jim stepped down from running the Junior Closed and our new Junior Closed Championships Organiser is Mel Jones (Rawreth Juniors) who, with Andy Nunn, runs the successful Rawreth Junior Table Tennis Club.
A Sub-Committee that fortunately is rarely called upon is that of our Disciplinary Committee and its Chairman is John Poysden (Thorpe Bay). John is always ready to help out wherever needed and runs the successful Club Thorpe Bay (last year’s Premier Division Champions). John is also Chairman of our Seeding’s Committee for our Closed Championships.
Other Committee Members are:-
Ray Farmer (Lentern), Secretary of the Lentern Table Tennis Club. Ray started and runs, with Bill Smith, the very popular Wednesday and Thursday mornings Club for the Over 70s (at least it started that way, but has now dropped down to the 60s area) held at the Hullbridge Sports Association. Ray has always looked to help out our League and has run various Hard Bat events that are very popular.
Charles Sweeny (Rawreth). Charles has agreed to take over a Sub Committee to put our League Rules on our Web Site and again is always eager to support our activities.
George Reeves (Rawreth). A qualified Table Tennis England UKCC Level 2 Coach, George is again always looking to help out and is part of our Seeding’s Committee for our Closed Championships.
Paul Reed (Lentern). Paul, another qualified Table Tennis England UKCC Level 2 Coach. Paul offered over the past few Seasons to run Raffles at our Presentation Day and Quizzes and has raised a considerable amount of money for our League and various Charities. What Paul also runs is a large event for Table Tennis for Handicap players as part of the White Lions Charity Organisation’ Sports Day at Deanes School, Benfleet: such a popular Event. Paul has always supported everything we run.
Anthon Ranjit-Singh (Hadleigh Forum). The newest Member of our Committee. Anthon has over the past few Seasons been a great help at our Closed Championships, helping set up the Hall and clear up after. Anthon is clearly going to be a great acquisition for our Committee.
One Member, who is not on our Committee, deserves a special mention. That is Glenn Johnson (Hullbridge). Glenn has been there to setup, do the catering and a lot more at all functions our League holds at the Hullbridge Sports Association. Last weekend, Glenn ran our new ‘Sandpaper Bat Championships’ at Hullbridge and those who entered had a great time.
Every successful League has to have a good Auditor and Southend certainly have, Norman Rolfe (Hullbridge) has done this so well for us for many years.
And, that just leaves me, Ken Field, your Chairman (Rawreth). I am also Chairman of the Essex County and the Rawreth TTC. As you can see from the above Committee commitment, I have a job to edge my way in to run anything with this great team: but I join in wherever I can and they all make it so enjoyable.
So that’s your Committee. When you see events we run, think about all the work they put in and try and support us: Winter & Summer Leagues; Closed Championships, Junior Championships, Hard Bat Championships, Sand Paper Bat Championships; Over 70s Mornings, Presentation Day, Quizzes; Inter League.
Of course there are many other Volunteers in our League. Our Club Secretaries and Captains & other Volunteers: all so enthusiastic.
A further Great success for Southend are our Junior Clubs. We currently have the largest crop of young players seen in our League for many years and their Clubs are to be congratulated. A lot of work is put in by their Organisers, Coaches, other volunteers and the Parents. Well done all of you.
- The Rawreth Junior Club run by Andy Nunn & Mel Jones, with Coach Jason Clark and several volunteers.
- The Hullbridge Sports Association’s Table Tennis Club’s Junior Section run by Howard Grant& Matt Rolfe and other volunteers.
- The Hockley Table Tennis Club’s Junior Section run by Tim Pang and Brian Bissenden and other volunteers.
- The Canvey Table Tennis Club, who have 6 juniors playing in their Club. Their Club Secretary, Geoff Banthorpe commented that coaching is given by Linda Attridge, (Hullbridge) at her Basildon Junior Club ‘Lee Chapel Pingers’
A massive thank you, to all those in our League, who volunteer to help in any way, to enable us to enjoy ourselves and be part of a League that we are all so proud of
Ken Field, on behalf of The Southend & District Table Tennis League’s 2014-5 Committee
