Secretary's Report 2013/14

Theoretically, only two of our eight teams remain in the same division for next season. The other six teams will be on the move – three down and three up. I say theoretically because there will be changes in the makeup of the teams, to be discussed in the meeting following this AGM. Three members will not be playing next year, Dominic James is off to university, Paul Russom has work commitments in the evenings and Trevor Seymour, after playing at Rudford for several years, is retiring from League play. Trevor has started a social table tennis club based in May Hill Village Hall so will be able to pass on his experience to them.

In the League Rudford A achieved their aim and finished top in Division One, one place better than last year. Unfortunately the B and C teams occupied the relegation places. In Division Two our D team finished second and are promoted and, for the second year running, the E team clung on to their place. The F team, our single representative in Division 3, were relegated, to be replaced by our G team who were winners of Division 4. The H team also took the top spot in Division 5. For the club to have three divisional champions and one runner up out of eight teams can’t be bad!

On Finals Night in the City Closed Championships Darren Griffin partnered by Gordon Shaw lost the Open Doubles to Bill Dawe and Olly Tyndall in five sets.

In the Ladies Singles Final Ann Barnes lost to Kim Selfe, in the 5th. In the Veteran Singles, Darren played Bill with Darren winning three straight. In the Open Singles Gordon Shaw was beaten by ex Rudford Junior player Olly Tyndall who was a surprise finalist having beaten Darren in the Semi-final.

In the events played previously Ollie Bailey was Runner-up in the Boys Under 13 Singles to Ben Tyndall. Owen Berry was Runner-up to Olly Tyndall in the Boys Under 15 Singles but managed to get his revenge in the Boys Under 18 Singles. Margaret Pang won the Girls Under 18 Singles title beating Rachel Johnson in the Final. Three of the four players in the Mixed Doubles final were from our club with Christine Williams and Darren Griffin beating Ann Barnes and her partner Olly Tyndall. In the Division 4 Singles final Liam James was runner up to Malcolm Deering, as was Michael Pang in the Division 5 Singles who just lost out to Ed Birt.

In the County Juniors Margaret Pang played consistently well. One notable game was against Buckinghamshire, who at one stage were 4 - 2 ahead. Emily Philp & Olly Tindall levelled the score. Margaret then played exceptionally well to win the next game 13 -11 in the 5th before Billy Shilton won the last game making the final score 6-4 to Gloucestershire.

Margaret also won 5 out of 7 matches in the County Junior league.

Darren Griffin had double success in the Veteran Western Masters where he won the Over 40's category when, in the Final, with the match delicately poised, his opponent, who was the number one seed, crashed out with a dislocated knee. He also won the Over 40's Doubles partnered with Adrian Pilgrim.

Gordon Shaw was pulled into the Gloucestershire over 60 team, for their second weekend, as a replacement for Rob Wilshire. Captain Dave Adamson said he did an excellent job. In their first season the team won their division and was promoted to the Premier league for next year. Dave is in need of more players to choose from so if any of you would like to put yourself forward he would be very pleased.

The big winner in the Gloucestershire Closed from our club was Ann Barnes who picked up three trophies, the Ladies Doubles, partnered by Lesley Slack, where the Runners up were Christine Williams and Jane Leigh, the Mixed Doubles with William Dawe where, in a close match, they beat Lesley Slack and Dave Harvey 11-7 in the fifth game. The third win was an all Rudford affair where Ann beat Christine in the Final of the Ladies Singles.

The Club’s 60th Finals Night was a great success judging by the complimentary comments made by many people, including our guest of honour Desmond Douglas. My thanks to all those who helped make it such a memorable evening from the compilation of the booklet by Stewart Jones with contributions from Sten Salisbury’s collection, Lee Bruton as MC to the help provided by Sylvia Oastler in the kitchen. Congratulations must go to Ann for all of her efforts in organizing the event. Please look at the Club’s website www.rhttc.org.uk for her excellent write-up.

Alan Welsh has been a great help with the Saturday training sessions, so my thanks to him and also to Sheila for her invaluable assistance!

Pete Humble, General Secretary