Annual Report 12/13 - The English Table Tennis Association

Departmental Reports
Keith Ponting at the helm. The
committee wish to pay tribute to
his colossal effort over his long
tenure; it is only in his absence
that his true effort can be
understood. He was a true giant
of English Table Tennis and will be
sorely missed.
4.15.3 This season the league has seen
a huge improvement in terms of
its press and publicity. A new
press team was formed at the
conference last year and this
season the standard of reporting
has increased exponentially,
with the introduction of video
interviews, regular professional
photography, increased reporting
and social media.
4.15.4 BBAT TTC won the Premier
Division closely followed by
Sycamore TTC in second place.
Kingfisher and Barrow were
relegated.
4.15.5 A special one day seminar was
held on 28th April to discuss the
future of the league. Many views
and ideas were expressed and
these will help shape the future of
the league. The committee wish
to thank the administrators of the
Tom Blunn Fund for their financial
support, without which the event
could not have taken place.
4.15.6 This season saw the appointment
of Chris Dangerfield as Chairman.
Chris had been involved with the
British League Committee for
the previous two years and was
instrumental in the introduction of
the new results service and press
activities. Gary Wood also joined
the committee as Secretary.
4.15.7 After many years Steve Kerns
is retiring as Press Officer and
Aubrey Drapkin is retiring from the
committee, as is Tony Meredith.
The British League committee
wish to thank each of them for
their many years of support.
4.15.8 A number of new committee
members have been recruited
and the team looks forward to
bringing about positive change
and innovation to the league over
the coming years.
4.16 Bribar Junior British League
(JBL)
4.16.1 Twenty years ago, the
Development Department of
the ETTA introduced a new
competition to the Events
Calendar. That event was to
include the innovation of the
then sponsored Woolwich Junior
League and the Woolwich Junior
British League (JBL), the idea
being that this would complement
the well-established British
Leagues already in existence with
junior teams. The organisers who
were given the honour of putting
it into practice were the husband
and wife team, Mike and Christine
Lewis. How the competition has
progressed since that “humble”
beginning. From scouring the
British Isles to recruit 36 teams
to make up the first season of
competitors, the event has now
grown with 108 applications
received for last season. The
event gradually expanded to
72 teams in the early days and
remains at that number today for
the main competition. Due to the
demand a qualification knockout
phase was introduced around
10 years ago. This system even
today is regarded as a key stage
of the JBL.
4.16.2 As in life, there is good news and
not so good. The good news is
that a new venue (to table tennis)
was found by members of the JBL
committee and used throughout
last season. There was massive
support and praise for the venue,
Tipton Sports Academy, though
there was a concern over the
eventual seating arrangements,
due to a lack of chairs. The newly
developed IT system was put into
the event and although there were
some teething problems, generally
the new initiative was welcomed.
However, there was some delay in
getting the end-of-round results
published, which resulted in just a
single public display of the league
tables and individual averages
being produced. In general, the
competition proved to be very
competitive throughout and was
well-run by the JBL Organising
Committee, supported by the staff
at Tipton and in Hastings, as well
as the sponsors, Bribar. The team
was completed by the excellent
squad of umpires at the main
event in October and February
respectively. Sincere thanks are
extended to all those who made
the event a pleasure to be a part
of, including all officials, players,
parents and coaches.
4.16.3 As we are all aware, our
President, Keith Ponting, sadly
passed away last year. Keith was
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