These Championships again took place at the Bevendean County Primary School on Sunday, 24th March.

48 players entered the competition including 5 ladies and 8 juniors. A Handicap event, with 20 entries, was played before the main Championships. This is the highest entry for many years – and very pleasing, considering that several Sussex leagues have been unable to stage a Championship through lack of support. It was good to catch up with some “old” players who turned up to support the event – and help with some umpiring.

Both events were very well organised by Pam Miles and I hope that everybody had a good day’s table tennis – we have received several complimentary calls and emails. Special thanks to Pam for all her hard work in administering the tournament.

Peter Bartram won the Men’s Singles title, for the seventh time, beating Andy Walker in the final.
Sally Hughes won the Ladies title, for the fifth time, beating Alina Schaer, Nina Gausmann and Annie Brotherston in a round robin event.

Thanks to Christine and Tony Wicks, together with all the members from Hollingbury Club who helped in setting up the venue and all their hard work on the day.

Special thanks to our Chairman Peter Croxford who was there to open and close the event as well as helping with the umpiring, ably supported by Brian Pettitt. Thanks also to all the committee members who turned up on the day to support the event and help with the umpiring.

Full results were as follows:
Winner(s) Runner(s) Up
Men’s Singles Peter BARTRAM Andy WALKER
Women’s Singles Sally HUGHES Alina SCHAER
Veteran Singles Peter BARTRAM Andy WALKER
Junior Singles George TESTER David PRINGUER
Men’s Doubles Peter BARTRAM and Jan COLLADO and
Andy WALKER Jens WEIGEL
Mixed Doubles Alina SCHAER and Nina GAUSMANN and
Jan COLLADO David STEEL
Division 1 Ade AKINBOYEWA Bob HOARE
Division 2 Ashley EDWARDS Terry HOLLAND
Division 3 Jonathan THEODORIDI Ian PEGGS
Handicap Singles Ian FOWLDS Derek CLARK
Handicap Doubles Annie BROTHERSTON and Jan COLLADO and
Tony SEAMAN Jens WEIGEL

The best performance award went to Taylor DAVIS.

Hollingbury TTC HQ has had to close for three days – Sunday 20th, Monday 21st and Tuesday 22nd January. We are back in business from Thursday 24th again – see you at Sunday practice to warm up! For all the latest going ons, gossip and match reports check the Hollingbury Facebook page daily http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/groups/Hollingburyttc/

The annual Christmas meal at the Indian Summer restaurant was well attended and proved to be a fun evening of banter and gentle micky taking! Great work by Ade our social supremo to organise the ‘do’ and to get everyone there – we forgive him for eating twice as much as everyone else!

The club is now closed for the festive period and will open again on Sunday 13th January (the perfect way to work off the Turkey/Mince Pies etc)

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to everyone!

Emma was introduced to Table Tennis at an after-school club at Fairlight Primary School run by our very own Christine Wicks! After going for a couple of weeks on a Friday, Emma decided she really liked it and having been given a leaflet to go to Hollingbury Table Tennis club (pestering her parents no doubt) started going to Hollingbury TTC once a week.

Emma then started to improve by playing twice a week at Hollingbury and through coaching from Christine Wicks, Wesley Bush-Harris, Alex Green, Ade Akinboyewa, Matt Shorter, Carole Grey and Adam Proszko. The first taste of competition for Emma was to play in the Brighton Junior league and having played in that for a couple of years, coming 2nd in 2011 and making some good new friends – it’s safe to say that Emma was hooked.

Now starting to get serious, Emma started to play in stronger events and bigger tournaments. She was selected at an early age to play for the Sussex County, which was a surprise to her, (ever modest) which she never thought would happen! (Cue big smile on her face.)

Having played for a couple of seasons in the National Junior League in Fareham, Emma now plays in the tough Junior British league, held in Wolverhampton over a couple of weekends each year.
Emma now also trains and competes for the South East Squad and also represents her school BACA, and has National competitions coming up in Doncaster.

Currently, she is training 3-5 times a week. Mondays at Hollingbury TTC with Wesley Bush-Harris and on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s she trains with the South East squad run by Craig Bryant.

Emma says ‘I’ve been to a lot of tournaments, some been easy, some been hard. I like a good challenge. Since I have been doing table tennis, my fitness has improved loads and I now have 17 trophies! In the Sussex Cadet Girls I am ranked 1st, and in the Sussex Junior Girls I am 3rd and in Cadet Girls for England I am 16th and for Junior Girls in England I am 49th.’

Keep up the good work Emma!

BREAKING NEWS: THURSDAY PRACTICE HAS ENDED… BUT we have now a TUESDAY PRACTICE SESSION INSTEAD.. FROM 6:30PM TO 8:30PM.. We are looking to mix it up with some valuable experience for the more keen junior player ( beginners and advanced..£3.50 for members. £4.50 non-members).. starts 2/10/2012

For those of you that will be playing in the Brighton League this season, please note that matches will start week commencing 24th September. Further information should be avaiable when we reopen on Sunday 16th. If you do not know which team you have been allocated to, please contact Minesh directly.

Over the past few weeks we have been contacted by a number of new players who are interested in joining our club when we reopen on Sunday 16th September – we look forward to meeting them! If you know of any other players who would be interested in playing, please invite them along..

Thanks,

Christine

If you are interested in getting involved in Ping! Brighton & Hove please contact lwilliams@etta.co.uk We are looking for 3 types of volunteers- coaches, leaders and general helpers. We are looking for enthusiastic volunteers to help make make Ping! Brighton & Hove a success by helping to run social events; coaching events and to help encourage the city of Brighton & Hove to pick up a bat and play!

I am delighted to advise that we have recently received a grant of £250 from Brighton & Hove council. We plan to use this money to offer free taster coaching sessions (one per player), enabling youngsters to come along to the club and see if they enjoy playing table tennis. In doing so, we hope to encourage more young players to start/continue to play table tennis and attend our regular coaching sessions. This is a great opportunity for our junior players to invite their friends along.

Please help us by asking your coach for some flyers and distributing them to any young players who you feel may be interested in coming along – they can come along to either our Monday (6.30pm-8,30pm) or Friday session (6pm-8pm). You can invite someone along to one of the sessions without a flyer too – just tell them to come along and tell the coach that they are here for the free taster session.

Thanks very much,
Christine

On Saturday 20^th August Brighton Seafront played host to ‘Ping Pong by the Sea!’- A Table Tennis Come and Try event open to the public. Blessed with perfect sunny weather, the six Table Tennis tables were in action from 11am to 5pm.

Organised by Brighton and Hove City Council in partnership with Freedom Leisure and the Local Table Tennis Community, the day started with a Junior Competition for promising young players and continued with open practice and coaching plus some fantastic exhibition Table Tennis from Top players Adam Proszko and Craig Bryant.

Katie pips Emma in the Junior final!

Overall, 350 people took part in a little Ping Pong, WiffWaff or just plain Table Tennis, from families, to Local Community Police Officers, some golden oldie ‘Ping’ers and even a newly wed couple fresh from their ceremony took part!

‘Ping Pong by the Sea was a great event giving lots of people the opportunity to play. We hope to bring it back next year to celebrate the Olympics in many different locations across the City.  Jan Sutherland, Brighton and Hove City Council, Sport and Physical Activity Manager.