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.

Congratulations to James Meyers for representing Great Britain at the European Deaf Championships in Czestochowa in Poland!

James is getting fantastic experience of travelling the world and playing the very best international players, he has moved up again in the world rankings breaking into the top 80!

The squad comprised of front row L to R, Alireza Kamrani-Masooleh, Nasim Khakbaznejad, and James Meyers. back row Nicholas Gilmour, David Evans (coach), and Andrew Calloway.

Hollingbury TTC are all proud of James ‘Boom Boom’ Meyers achievements and are looking forward to seeing him at the Sussex Grand Prix. (James is studying at Filton College and training at the Bristol Table Tennis Academy).

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/BristolTableTennisAcademy

Mark Scutts has been selected to play for England Schools U/19 side following his fantastic play in coming runner-up in the National Schools Finals. After some great wins in the quarters and semis, England Junior International Lewis Gray proved just too strong and experienced in the final.

Mark with the other 3 semi-finalists

Mark now has a great weekend of Home International Schools matches to look forward to at the National Sports Centre at Lilleshall, Shropshire.

Over the Easter School break our new Professional Club Coach, Adam Proszko delivered three days of coaching for young people with special needs. Every one had a good time, with some great feedback from the parents and kids about how much fun they had and that they wanted more sessions! It was nice to see all the club players mixing in and helping out whilst getting some extra coaching and practise in too.. watch this space for more sessions.

Good news at Hollingbury TTC - new lighting has been installed at Bevendean Junior School!  The new fixtures were put in over the Easter break and with much anticipation we came back to a brighter hall - sincere thanks go to the school for their on-going support and for making the investment to upgrade the hall lighting.

Danger, exposure to Ade’s shirts under the new lights can damage your health…

Why not come and see for yourself, we are continung the junior coaching and sunday night sessions but have added a Thursday open practise session for any players in the area to come down and get some Ping in! Starts at 7pm and costs £3 for the night. (Sunglasses optional!).

Hollingbury A came away triumphant at the prestigious National Junior League event. They won Div 3, which means that they gain promotion to Div 2.

A special mention to Emma Sheen, who won all her games and is going off to represent East Sussex at the English Schools Table Tennis Association Championships and take part in the NATIONAL U13 CHAMPIONSHIPS (both events at Doncaster). This was the final match for both teams which took place on 26 MARCH 2011 at Fareham (Neville Lovett School). A very well organised event by Charlie Childs and his merry gang. This was the first appearance and début of Sona Kanji & George Taylor. Despite people signing up at the beginning to say they were available for all the matches, events as always intervened and we drafted in players that had made an impression during our coaching sessions. In Team A (div 3), we had Emma Sheen, Viral Kanji & Khem Rogaly. They made a brilliant start, beating at least 3 team 6-0. There was a knife –edge match against Porchester B, but luckily results elsewhere favoured us. In Team B (div 3) we had Hai Dwong (2nd year at this event), George Taylor and Sona Kanji. They played exceptionally well against established players in that division and came away with some good performances, which can only spur them on. A special mention goes to Sonar Kanji, who stepped in at the last minute and performed brilliantly. I want to mention the other players who did not play on the day but their previous performances helped the team. Harry Carter & Bart Rayson. A special thanks to Prakash Varsani & Christine Wicks for their motivating behind the doors. And to Adam our new coach for the 1-2-1 with some of the players which definitely improved their overall game.

Click on the link to check on final tables and player averages-  http://www.gen2tt.com/NJL%20Results.htm

Ade Akinboyewa.. Hollingbury Club TT Coach