Katie, Amy and Artur will represent Waterside TTC in the English National Championship in June

Our young players continue to make good progress and now three of them will be representing Waterside TTC and ETTA South Region in the English National Championship Finals, to be played in Walsall on 9th and 10th June 2012.

Amy Blagbrough, a veteran in these competitions, was already pre-qualified for the girls competition in the U12 and U13 categories through her national ranking. She will be joined now by young Katie Holt and Artur Caltabiano who guaranteed their participation after playing the Region South Qualification tournament, in Cippenham, on Saturday 14th April.

Katie will play in the girls U11 competition after finishing as a runner up in a round robin competition with four other girls. She is also qualified to play in the girls U12. Artur had a long day, battling his way in the boys U12 and U13. In both categories, Artur finished top in his group and went straight to the semi-finals, winning both. In the U12s final, he could not compete with the fast game of Jonny McMullan, also from Hampshire. In the U13s final, he came against a more experienced Joshua Gallen, from Berkshire. Even after playing a good match, Artur finished the competition also as a runner up.

Katie and Artur will have the chance this weekend, 21st April, to get used with National tournaments. They head to Doncaster to play the Butterfly Schools’ Individual Championships. Both will be representing Hampshire after winning the County competition.

The table tennis season has finished and it is time to start with our own Summer League, which will run on Mondays, from 30th April until 30th July.

If you want to register your team, just download the registration form. Alternatively, you can get a form at the club.

Although the entry for this year’s annual club tournament, which happened on 3rd March, was a little disappointing it proved to be a great success and was thoroughly enjoyed by all who took part. The format that John used ensured that everyone got plenty of games, and most importantly no one was knocked out at any stage.

Sue Zanelotti, Ladies Winner, receive her trophy from Colin French, Club Chairman

With only two ladies taking part it was a straight final between Sue Zanelotti and Xiangjun Wang. Sue started very well winning the first two sets 11-7 and 11-8 and was all set for a three set win, but then Xiangjun took the third set 9-11 after coming from behind. Xiangjun then continued her good form eventually taking the fourth set 17-15 levelling the match. Sue recaptured her form in the final set winning 11-4.

Waterside TTC Closed - Mens

Next up was the men’s singles, with the ladies and the juniors joining in the second round. Players were in either groups of three or four, and after each round players either moved up or down into new groups. The top group in the final round provided us with two thrilling semi finals.

The first semi final was between Brian Hayes and Jason Lockyer, Brian winning 14-12, 11-2, & 12-10. In the second semi final it was an all Polish affair, Wojciech Pacek beat Piotr Deryniowski 11-8, 12-14, 11-1, 11-8.  In the final Brian comfortably took the first set 11-3, but Wojciech played well to win the second set 11-5. Brian took the third set 11-4 and was the eventual winner taking the last set 11-9.

Waterside TTC - Juniors

In the Junior event there were only four boys, but never the less it was a good competition. Josh Lockyer took third place beating James Muirhead 7-11, 11-8, 11-7 & 12-10. William Stevens had an excellent afternoon and was the undefeated winner. William had a very tough match with Artur Veeck . He lost the first set 9-11, but after going to deuce in the second set he took it 12-10 and then won the third set 11-8.The fourth set was another close won, but William eventually took it 12-10, a worthy winner.

James Stevens and Wojciech Pacek - doubles winners

The doubles event was what our club championships is all about, friendly rivalry. It began with a draw for partners. Players were in four ability groups, so there were some interesting partnerships! Third place went to William Stevens and Nico Caltabiano beating Piotr and Josh Lockyer 11-9, 11-8, & 11-6. The final was an excellent match. Could the dynamic duo of James Gorridge and Peter (‘Dave’) Hinxman be a match for the lightning fast Wojciech and his new apprentice James Stevens?  James G and Peter won the first set 11-4, Peter’s unconventional spin was obviously too difficult to read. Then Wojciech and James S  took the second set 11-5. The third set was very close and James G and Peter eventually won it 14-12. With Wojiech and James winning the fourth set  11-7 it was all set up for a fifth and final set. In the end class showed through and James Stevens, ably supported by the odd good shot from Wojiech, won the last two sets and 11-9.

Waterside Table Tennis Club staged this year’s Hampshire Schools Individual Championships on Friday 10^th February. Six competitions were held during the day Under 11 Boys and Girls, Under 13 Boys and Girls and Under 16 Boys and Girls.

Katie Holt, winner of U11 girls

In the under 11 girl’s competition, young Katie Holt from Waterside TTC and representing Brockenhurst Primary in the New Forest won all of her games and will now represent Hampshire in the National Finals in Doncaster, in April.

The boy’s under 11 competition proved to be the strongest o the day. The winner, Mathew Daish from New Milton beat Sonny Brooks from Meon Junior in Portsmouth in the semi final and met Jonathan McMullan from Whitely Junior School, Fareham, in the final. This was a very close match of a high standard. Matthew won the first set 11-8, Jonathan won the next two sets 11-2 and 11-5, and then Matthew won the next set 11-9. With the match at two sets all it went into the deciding fifth set and although Jonathan was 10- 6 up Matthew somehow won 6 points in a row to win 12-10.

The Under 13 boys competition saw two worthy finalists in Artur Veeck, also from Waterside TTC, and representing the Mountbatten School in Romsey, and Tellog Singh from Mayfield School in Portsmouth. In the semis Artur beat Felix Goule of Bitterne Park in Southampton and Tellog beat Adrian Cole of Aldworth Science College in Basingstoke. Artur proved to be too strong for Tellog beating him in the final 11-6, 13-11, 11-4, 11-3. Artur now will also join Katie as Waterside players in the National finals.

Artur Veeck, winner of U13 boys

The Under 13 girls also had a Waterside player: Amy Blagbrough of Aldworth Science College in Basingstoke, finished as runner up, being defeated only by Letitia McMullan from Henry Cort School in Fareham.

There was a strong field of players in the Under 16 boys. In the semi finals Jimmy Yeung of Priory School Portsmouth beat Morgan Smith of Westgate School Winchester and Josh Green, a former Waterside TTC player, from Hounsdown in the New Forest beat Oliver Hack from Upper Shirley High in Southampton. Josh and Jimmy played out a very exciting final which went to the fifth and final set. After Jimmy clawed his way back to win the fourth set 12-10, Josh was a convincing winner winning the final set 11-3.

There were just 5 girls in the Under 16 girls group. Chrissie Slot, also a former Waterside TTC player, from Greggs School in Southampton won all of her matches easily and far too strong for the rest of the players. The runner up was Holly Edwards from Challenor RC School in Basingstoke.

Next year, the competition also promises to have very interesting matches and hopefully will have more players taking part!

The Waterside Closed Tournament will happen next month, on the 3rd March.

The Championships are open to all registered and paid up members of Waterside Table Tennis Club. Players must be under 18 years of age on the 1^st January 2012 to play in the Juniors.

Entry is free and entry forms must be received by1st March 2012

Forms for the tournament can be download from here: Waterside Closed.

January started with great competitions at Waterside TTC! Following the successful Waterside 1-star, the now famous Young Players Tournament was held again on 21st January. Several of the our young players who now attend coaching sessions of Friday played for the first time and enjoyed a very good afternoon of table tennis.

Winners of the Young Players consolation group

The consolation competition was won by Calvin Barlow, followed by Waterside’s Josh Lockyer and, in third place, Mats Colling.

In the main group, two Waterside Players finished in the podium: Artur Veeck was the competition’s runner up and Matt Moody finished in third place. Both were edged by Alan Dawson, a very good player who has been in the podium other times.

Keep an eye in our calendar of events for the next tournament!

Winners of the Young Players main group

There was a strong presence of former Waterside players at the inaugural event (Hungarian Open) of the ITTF World Tour  the rebranded name of the ITTF Pro Tour.

In the beautiful but cold Hungarian city of Budapest Ken Macleod, David McBeath, Matej Hamran and Hannah Hicks met a long way from where they had first met in Southampton. Hannah and David were there as players competing on the biggest stage of world table tennis while Ken was there as coach and Matej as umpire.

From top left, clockwise: Matej Hamran, (ITTF.com), Ken Macleod (photo: Sara Caddeo), David McBeath (Hantsweb), Hannah Hicks (Hantsweb)

Hannah played Tamara Boros in her opening group which is an indication of just how far she has come since the early days and her first appearances in Hampshire tournaments. Hannah now trains with England in Sheffield and prior to that with Rowden Fullen at Bournemouth. No wins for Hannah in the Women’s singles but more good experience and later a win against Nagypal of Hungary in the U21 girls.

David also faced strong opposition in his Men’s Singles group in the form of France’s talented Simon Gauzy and Frane Kojic of Croatia. David started the group with an impressive win over Kojic and then raised many eyebrows by taking on Simon Gauzy over the table and taking the first 2 ends. Gauzy fought back and was just that bit more comfortable in the deep where he has great strengths at defence and switching to strong attack. Gauzy eventually beat David 4-2 but a strong performance by David against one of Europe’s rising stars.

Ken was the coach in David’s corner for the event and also advising Naomi Owen of Wales and Alice Loveridge of Guernsey.

Matej took centre stage on the televised show court on the saturday where he was the umpire for the Men’s Singles Semi-Final between Ma Long and Xu Xin of China. Ma Long emerged as winner as he continued his spectacular run undefeated on the Pro Tour and now World Tour.

All have now moved on from Waterside although still maintaining links, David and Ken visited in summer of 2011 for a training camp. There is also a strong possibility these 4 travellers will meet again at Waterside this summer for a training camp. The message to the new generation of players and indeed any aspiring umpires is clear if you have the quality you can follow in these footsteps!

By Ken Macleod

It is time to get away from the tables and enjoy a fun evening with table tennis friends and family. Waterside Table Tennis club is inviting all members, families and friends to test their abilities in a great Skittles Evening, on Thursday 23rd February, at 7.30pm, in the Ship Inn Pub (Old Redbridge Lane, Southampton).

Tickets cost £9.00, and include a Basket Meal. Choose from 1/4 Roast Chicken, 10oz Cumberland Sausage, Whole Tail Scampi, Spicy Vegetable Samosa, 1⁄4lb Vegetable Burger, Cod Fillet.

The Junior and Senior Hampshire County Closed Tournament will happen in the next couple of months, both at Waterside TT Centre. The Junior Closed will be held on 19th February, with U13, U15 and U18 (boys and girls) plus U15 and U18 open doubles. The Senior Closed will be held on 11th March.

The Championships are open to all registered members of League and Clubs affiliated to Hampshire. Members ranked by other counties during the current season are not allowed to play, unless they are currently ranked below 10 in their County, and have not yet played for their County.

Forms for the tournament can be download from here: Junior Closed and Senior Closed.