Bedford & District Table Tennis League -

As you are aware ETTA Individual Membership comes into operation from the beginning of the season so it is necessary that you have completed Membership Application AND paid the registration fee BEFORE you play your first match. You can sign up directly at the ETTA web site by clicking on ETTA Registration or by downloading the membership application form and sending the completed form and fee to the member of your club responsible for this registration process. Failure to complete this process may result in any matches you play being rendered ineligible.

New Rules

In this season's handbook you will find some new ETTA rules that you should be aware of: only racket coverings that are currently authorised by the ITTF can be used; a point is not scored against a player for an accidental double hit; a racket cannot be changed during the course of an individual match unless it becomes accidentally damaged so badly that it is unusable. I will post a list of ITTF approved racket coverings on the web site shortly.

Website Update

This season the Results page has been updated to provide upcoming matches as well as the traditional match results service in an easy to read format compared with the Fixtures page. As a result the Fixtures page will eventually be superceded and replaced entirely by the Results page.

BMS First TT Success of New Season

Bedford Modern School’s new Table Tennis season only started at the beginning of August, but it has not taken long for the first major success to be achieved.

Pictured is Bedford Modern School’s rising star, 15 year old Josh Robinson, who now has to play in U18 events. In the Burton-On-Trent Open Tournament that took place on Saturday 7th August, Josh won the U18 event in some style.

Paul Birch, BMS Table Tennis Coach said: “Josh has worked hard in pre-season training and this Tournament was an ideal time to see how much he has improved. In his group matches he was a little match rusty, but got better as the day went on.

“In the Semi-Final, Josh beat club mate and fellow Bedford Modern School student, Nishanth Narayanan, three sets to one and then disposed of the Number 2 seed in the Final, 3-0.”

Pictured (L to R) John Robinson, Jim Kenny - Tournament Referee

Maggie Celebrates Gold Medal Success

Maggie Gambrill from the St Neots club in Cambridgeshire recently returned from the European Heart & Lung Games. Here in her own words she describes how she came to be taking part in such an event and the key support received from St Neots TTC and Club Coaching Officer Mark Mitchell.

End of an Era - Doug Ayres

Spanning 29 years as President of the Bedford & District Table Tennis League and 60 years as a member of the Management Committee the retiring President, Doug Ayres, was presented with a crystal ship's decanter by the Chairman of the English Table Tennis Association, Alex Murdoch, at the £390,000 newly refurbished St Neots Table Tennis Club on Monday evening. His honorary post of President will be taken over by Bedford local property agent Russell Beard who has had a keen interest in table tennis since his school days. Click on this article's header to read more.

What Do David Cameron, Nigella Lawson, George Clooney and Wayne Rooney have in common?

Read about how table tennis is taking off both in the UK and worldwide. The Daily Telegraph has an interesting article that can be seen by clicking on the link below.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/active/7800960/Table-tennis-takes-off.html

Acknowledgement to Dave Beddall for this link.

Bedford Tournament - Silk Cruises To Treble

The Veteran's tournament took place on Wednesday evening at Bedford Modern School and Steve Silk, who had earlier this year taken the Men's singles title, completed his double by winning the Veteran title beating last year's winner John Alsop in the final 3-0. He then combined with John to make it a treble by taking the Veteran doubles title beating Dave Forde and Dave Beddall 3-0 in the final.

Thanks to Bedford Modern School and Paul Birch for hosting and organising the tournament.

How To Generate A Dozen Table Tennis Stars

Matthew Syed, former England Table Tennis No. 1 player and currently sports reporter for the Times newspaper, has recently launched a best seller called Bounce. In the following extract from his book he describes how in the back streets of Reading twelve future table tennis stars were created. Click on the following link to read a fascinating insight into what makes a sporting super star
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/sport/columnists/matthew_syed/article7105379.ece

Acknowledgement to Dave Beddall for this link.

Bedford Tournament - Division 2 Results

The Division 2 tournament took place on Monday evening at Bedford Modern School and the final positions were:
1. Harpreet Rupal
2. Alex Meade
3. Malcolm Carr

(Pictured: winner Harpreet Rupal)

Although a small entry, all the games were fought competitively.

Smith Cup & Plate Finals

The finals of the Smith Cup & Plate handicap competitions took place on Tuesday evening at Bedford Modern school. The Smith Cup was won by the Modern A team of John Alsop, Ben Gardner and Andy Trott who defeated the Elstow C team consisting of John Rodger, Tony Tiffen and Mike Copperwheat.

Modern A pictured (L to R): John Alsop, Ben Gardner, Andy Trott

The Plate final was a closer event where Civil Service B just nudged ahead in the final match beating St Neots E by just 2 points. Thanks go to Bedford Modern School for providing their gym and to Richard Lake and Paul Birch for organising the event.

Elstow C pictured (L to R): John Rodger, Tony Tiffen, Mike Copperwheat

Brian Copperwheat Charity Tournament

The Brian Copperwheat Charity Tournament took place on Wednesday night and was very well attended raising £146 for local charities. Mark White (Elstow) defeated Graham Green (Civil Service) in the final of the Cup and Geoff Bell (Civil Service) beat Tony Tiffin (Elstow) in the final of the Plate competition. Thanks go to Bedford Modern School for providing their sports hall and to Sandy Cordon for organising the event. Prizes were presented by Anita Copperwheat in memory of her husband Brian who is a well remembered former league player.

Pictured (L to R): Tony Tiffin and Anita Copperwheat.

County Junior Team - Grantham Report

The Beds County Junior team consisting of Zoe Gardner, Caroline Hall, Ben Gardner, Nathan Forbes and Josh Robinson competed in the last weekend of Division 1A at Grantham this weekend only losing one of their four matches.

World Schools Games Report

Between 25th and 31st March, 4 teams competed in the ISF World Schools Championships in the Czech Republic.

Find out how Bedford Modern School Boy's team got on representing English Schools.

Report by Nishanth Narayanan.

Annual Memorial Competition

March 28th saw the annual memorial competition between Elstow TTC and Mursley and Swanbourne TTC.

Celebrities Who Play Table Tennis

You'd be surprised at who has been caught with a racquet in their hand over the last 60 years. Click here to see 983 photographs of actors, actresses, musicians, politicians and royalty among others.