Bedford & District Table Tennis League -

Modern F left the Division 3 runner up spot still wide open when they fielded only two players against division leaders Marston. Nishanth Narayanan for Modern gained a hat trick whilst Alex Meade beat John Hughes but lost to Nick Warton in four sets and narrowly lost to Mo Duncan 12-10 in the fifth set despite leading 10-6 in the final set.

Trott In Fine Form At National Championships

Bedford Modern's Andy Trott went one step closer to achieving his ambition of being ranked England No. 1 Veteran when in the National Championships at Sheffield on Friday he beat the current England ranked No. 1 Lawrence Trumpauskas 11-9 5-11 11-9 6-11 12-10 in the Qtr finals. He then faced current National Veteran title holder Keith Williams from Lancashire in the semi-finals but unfortunately lost 11-13 11-9 7-11 3-11. Williams then went on to win the title once again comfortably beating Chris Bartram 11-3 11-6 11-6. Trott then joined forces with Trumpauskas as No. 1 seeds in the Veteran Doubles but were beaten in the final by Williams and ex-European champion John Hilton 7-11 11-3 10-12 8-11.

National Finals Once Again

Congratulations to the U19 team of BEN GARDNER, JOSH ROBINSON, JAMES COLEMAN and DOM WILSON on reaching the National Final of the English Schools team championships.

At the weekend, they had comfortable victories of 6-2 against Rotherham College and 8-0 against Manchester Grammar to achieve their place in the finals, which means that they are in the top 4 teams in England. They are now the 30th team from Bedford Modern School to reach the national finals, a record that stretches back to 1980!

Clean Sweep for Bedfordshire Veteran 2nd Team

At the weekend, held at the newly refurbished St Neots TTC, Bedfordshire Veteran 2nd team wrapped up Division 4B of the County Championship retaining their 100% record.

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.

St Neots Official Opening

The Champagne corks were flying on the 6th Feb-10 when 100 members and guests attended the official re-opening of St Neots Table Tennis Club. The event was to mark the completion of a major refurbishment programme which saw the club premises updated with a new build social and clubroom area, showers and toilets, and last but not least a completely refurbished Table Tennis hall.

Stevington D v Elstow A - Match Report

I know, I know you have missed me and all of my miserable whitterings. I am back for one night only just to report on the significant grudge match between the hugely competitive Stevington D and the mildly intimidating Elstow A.

Bedford Modern Represent England

Bedford Modern School has been selected by the English Schools' Table Tennis Association to represent ESTTA boy's table tennis at the International School Sport Federation (ISF) World Schools' Table Tennis Championships to be held in the Czech Republic from 25th - 31st March 2010. Bedford Modern School's team will be - Joshua Robinson, Nishanth Narayanan, Alex Farmer, Harpreet Rupal with Paul Birch as non-playing captain.

Players from 22 countries have shown an interest in taking part in the event. They include Belgium Flanders, China PR, Chinese Taipei, France, Germany, Greece, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Slovakia .... together with the hosts from the Czech Republic .... and England.

Ellen Degeneres Show - Amazing 7 Year Old

7-year-old Xin-Xue Feng from China shows her amazing talent against top U.S. table tennis player Barney Reed. For the table tennis exhibition click on demonstration and for the full interview and exhibition click on full interview

County Veteran's 1st Team Mixed Results

The Bedfordshire Veteran 1st team consisting of Sandra Harper, Julie Snowdon, Keith McConnell, Steve Dobbins and John Alsop commenced their County Championship campaign at the excellent Draycott & Long Eaton Table Tennis Centre over the weekend in what proved to be an extremely strong Division 3A. In their first match they lost 8-2 to South Yorkshire, won their second match 6-4 against the Cheshire 3rd team, won their third match 8-2 against the Yorkshire 5th team and lost their fourth match 8-2 to Warwickshire.

Modern F turn the tables on Marston

The young Modern F team of Alex Meade, Nishanth Narayanan and Sahad Ahmed reversed their start of season 3-7 loss to Marston by winning 6-4 on Monday night at Marston. The result could have been even better for the fast improving side with several games won in close fifth ends. Alex won 1, Nish 2 and Sahad 2 whilst the star for Marston was Nick Warton with a hat trick helped by John Hughes with an 11-7 in the fifth set single win against Alex. Nick will consider himself fortunate having come back from 2 sets down against Nish to take the fifth end 16-14 and Mo Duncan from Marston will consider himself unfortunate to lose 12-10 in the fifth set to Alex Meade after being 2-1 up.

Did Table Tennis Miss Out On Anna Kournikova?

Kempston Player Hits Form

Despite his team lying bottom of the Division One table, Kempston Boy's Brigade's 1st team player Mark Brinklow, with only 3 wins so far this season, hit a purple patch these last two weeks beating top of the table Bedford Modern A team's John Alsop and Bedford Modern B team's Paul Birch and just missed out on a hat trick by closely losing to County Junior No. 1 and County Senior No. 3 Ben Gardner.

Bedford Rising Stars

The latest ETTA ratings list identifies Bedford's Junior players as making progress through the England ranking list. After his recent tournament successes Alex Meade (pictured right) has advanced a further 10 places to be ranked at No. 29 in the Under 13 Boys category. Scott Neave has also advanced 16 places to No. 96. For the full list of Bedford Junior ETTA rankings, click on this topic's heading.

County Senior Team Win Division 2C

The Bedfordshire Senior team consisting of Sandra Harper, Sarah Hudson, Val Murdoch, Hamish Yeung, John Alsop and Kieran Smith competed at Westfield TTC, Wellingborough, over the weekend of 24/25th Oct in the Senior Division 2C match competition. There were celebrations all-round as they won the Division and promotion by just one point from a strong Suffolk 1st team. Click on this article's title for full details.

County Veteran 2nd Team Strong Start

On Saturday, 17th October, the County Veteran 2nd team consisting of Julie Snowdon, Colin Luscombe, Paul Birch and Dave Forde travelled to Kingfisher TTC at Reading to open the season's Division 4B competition. A 100% win performance by Julie and Colin and a 50% win record by Paul and Dave helped secure a well earned 8-2 win against Middlesex and a 7-3 win against the Northants 3rd team which places them second in the Division table.

Peter Clarke Receives Maurice Goldstein Merit Award

At a practice session at the St Christopher Club, Leighton Buzzard, Peter Clarke (pictured centre) was surprised when the County President, Michael Williams (pictured right), County Chairman, Brian Mayfield, County General Secretary & Treasurer Alex Murdoch (pictured left) and two other Committee Members arrived. Peter was presented with the ETTA Maurice Goldstein Merit Award by Alex (also ETTA Chairman) and by Michael an inscribed Crystal Tankard from the County. These Awards were to honour 27 years of service to table tennis at League and County.

1982-2000, St Christopher Club Secretary.
1986-1991, Leighton Buzzard League Treasurer.
1989, Joined Bedfordshire County Committee.
1995, Qualified as a County Umpire.
1997-2009, Bedfordshire County Chairman.
2002-2009, Bedfordshire County Umpires Secretary.

Second Open Success

Alex Meade (pictured) has reason to look pleased! Having won the Burton-on-Trent Open U13 title last month, he has now added the Grantham U13 Open title which was held recently. He had a relatively easy passage to the final, where he faced local Grantham boy Matthew Leete, who is ranked 13 in England U13’s. However, he was not fazed by Matthew’s higher ranking nor the vociferous local support and produced a very convincing 3-1 victory to take the title.

According to Paul Birch, Bedford Modern table tennis coach, "last month, Alex’s national ranking rose an incredible 21 places from 60 to 39 and with results such as this will be climbing even higher when the next ranking list appears at the end of the month".

ITTF Approved Racquet Coverings

The January 2010 approved ITTF racquet coverings list can be downloaded by clicking on this article's heading. Please note, however, that new racquet coverings highlighted in this list are effective immediately. Please also note the restrictions regarding dark sponge underneath a red translucent top sheet.

New Rules

At last year's AGM two new rules were proposed and agreed. For those team captains that are not aware of these new rules, please find a summary below:

Rule 38 states that a team may only, on at most 3 occasions in the current season, request a postponement where the request is agreed between both teams.

Rule 44 now allows a player to play up three times for a higher team before becoming automatically re-registered for the next higher team.

Rising Table Tennis Stars at BMS

Bedford Modern School's Table Tennis players recently took part in the Burton-on-Trent Open Tournament, which consists of three rounds of competition, concluding on Saturday 19th September. The final positions are decided by totalling the points scored over the three events, in a similar, cumulative way to F1 motor racing. Pictured are two of Bedford Modern School's rising Table Tennis stars, Year 8 student, Alex Meade and Year 9 student, Nishanth Narayanan.

By winning once and finishing third on the other two occasions, Nishanth was the overall winner of the U15 event. With one first, one second and one third place, Alex comfortably took the U13 title.

"To perform consistently over three separate days of competition is an extremely good performance. This reflects the on-table practice and fitness work put in by both players pre-season and should give them both a great confidence for the rest of the season," commented Paul Birch, BMS Table Tennis Coach.

BMS Table Tennis stars shine at Open Tournament

Four of Bedford Modern School's young Table Tennis stars all performed extremely well in the first of this season's Ranking Tournaments, the Burton-on-Trent Open.

Photo: BMS student Alex Meade who won the U13 Singles, his first Open Tournament success.

For more information please contact:
Frances Billington, Marketing and Communications Manager, Bedford Modern School