The Olympics whetted your appetite? – Want to see some more great standard table tennis on your own doorstep?

Bournemouth Sports TTC are holding what organiser Mike Auchterlonie calls “An Evening With The Stars” on WEDNESDAY 15th AUGUST at 7:30 pm; the idea being to hold an evening of high quality table tennis and to have a great social evening – I understand that there might even be some Chinese food available too….

Matt Ware, George Downing, David McBeath, Hannah Hicks, Tressa Armitage, Chloe Thomas and others will compete for a prize fund. Any surplus will be retained for awards for these players to gain valuable training experience, possibly abroad.

Have a look at the Bournemouth Sports TTC website – Shaun Newcomb has some tickets available – call for details.

http://bournemouthsportstabletennisclub.co.uk/content/evening-stars

First proposed by Coun. Goff Beck, as reported in the “A&T” (13.09.08), as the big day grew ever closer, the long planned New Milton Pageant of Sport looked as if it could have been a washout, as probably “The wettest drought on record” seemed as though it would never end….Friday remained nervously dry….. and the sun came out properly on Saturday, rewarding the faithful with a beautiful day on the New Milton Memorial Recreation Ground.
New Milton TTC had a stall (ably staffed by Sybil Bartlett all morning) in front of which the two “PING” tables were in constant use, often with a queue forming for space on the tables! Our two slots in the “Indoor Arena” between 11:15 and 12:30 and 2:45 and 4:30 were also hugely popular; we had two tables there, upon which one had the robot – queues again – and the other featuring demonstration “matches” and casual coaches sessions. Brian Vibert and Steve Hemmings’ displays wowed the crowds; as usual, Brian attacking and Steve “digging” the ball back from yards back (I think the longest one was half way down Old Milton road).
Julie Smillie’s hands on coaching at the robot taught the eager youngsters how to do it right and pretty soon, with improved technique, they were looking light future stars (enough to make anyone improve – and a commemorative medal too!!).
Our club information leaflets had to be replenished, such was the demand and as usual, Bev saved the day with fresh supplies which Sylvia gave to the enthusiastic converts.
John Parkhouse knocked up with the suitably impressed young players, every now and again putting them in their place with one of his trademark smashes, just when they thought they might be able to outplay him.
It was great to see Bob and Sandy – and while Sandy chatted and looked at the good array of other sports on offer, Bob, Shaun, Brian and Steve took an early opportunity to sample the too-tempting range of home made cakes at the WI stand.
The central arena had fabulous displays of dance, junior girls’ football, junior tag rugby and other sporting disciplines constantly running, while the stalls surrounding this had further information from fishing to paragliding to Tai Chi available.
Malcolm Floyd helped by bringing in the robot and other equipment and he and wife Helen made a couple of visits – Helen looking most impressive on the robot (you should start playing again Helen!).
The young helpers from the local ACF were brilliant – looking after our equipment when necessary, helping us move the PING tables and enthusiastically helping and encouraging the youngsters get to grips with the game; one of these very pleasant young chaps suggested that it would be a great idea if we had outdoor tables permanently available of the “rec.” as he and his pals “were up here playing on them all the time”. I will speak with the town councilors at the “Wash up” meeting this Tuesday 24th at the Town Hall.
All in all a fantastic day – a great opportunity to promote our local sports clubs and to get people feeling better through sport. One couple I spoke to who were just in the process of moving to the area commented “What a brilliant idea – it’s made us feel instantly part of a lovely community and shown us where we can go to resume our sporting interests and to make new friends. Is this an annual event?” I for one would back a move for it to take place regularly, if not every year, at least every two years.
Thanks again to all those club members who helped out on the day – I’m sure we’ll pick up several new members as a direct result.
Look out for stories and pictures from former member and A&T sports reporter Dee Flannagan in their next edition.

Some fantastic table tennis was on display down at the Mudeford Wood Community Centre as the New Milton Club held their annual Tournament Finals Night. During the proceedings, the A team’s Phil Handy deprived Premier team mate Steve Hemmings of two of the three titles that he won last year.

Before the finals got underway however there were some of the semi-finals to get out of the way first. Peter Daish saw off younger brother Matthew in the Under 40s (Handicap) and Zac Dowling got the better of Bobo Jiang. In the Over 40s (Handicap) Steve Hemmings disposed of Max De Kment in two straight sets and Julie Smillie did likewise to Roy Hobbs to go through to the final. The Handicap Singles semis saw Peter Daish go through to his second final by beating Shaun Newcomb, and Phil Handy disposed of last year’s winner Hemmings. Handy also booked his place in the Open Singles final by beating Premier team mate Brian Bickell, and Hemmings beat De Kment for the second time that evening.

The Finals kicked-off with Matthew Daish successfully defending his Junior title by beating Zac Dowling. Dowling didn’t get any satisfaction either in the Under 40s (Handicap) as he fell victim to Peter Daish. The Over 40s (Handicap) final saw Julie Smillie give a very good account of herself against last year’s winner Steve Hemmings, but his defensive play was far too dogged for her. Read the rest of this entry →

Well folks, when Julie asked if I would help at a presentation at New Milton Junior School’s assembly about the early days of “Whiff Waff”, I didn’t know I was going to have to dress up…I think we all look rather fetching actually……..

Last Wednesday, 30th May, Shaun Newcomb, James Lewis and Julie Smillie went into New Milton Junior School to give a Table Tennis Assembly; this was linked to the School’s Olympic week.
The assembly started with a playlet set in 1880, where ‘Hugo’ (Shaun), ‘Marmeduke'(James) and ‘Reggie'(Julie) were in the Officers’ Mess supping champagne after dinner. The play went on to use the champagne cork as a ball, a cigar case as a bat and then Hugo suggested that the game might be played on a table, with books used as a net. This was to show the children watching that table tennis was indeed first played in this way and was called ‘Wiff Waff’, which echoed the sound of the cigar box wafting, and wiffing and waffing through the air!
It was quite a sight to see all three wearing authentic army uniform over their New Milton TT shirts, but the fake moustaches were quite difficult to keep on!
The assembly then fast forwarded to the present day, showing the children how the bat has developed. The coaches were pretty sneaky and chose an unsuspecting member of staff to try and return sidespin serves, thankfully his returns went everywhere apart from the table!
After a short demonstration of various shots and a competition involving some of the chidren Shaun then told the assembly about GB’s Olympic hopes and of course he then talked about the Paralympic competition.
At the end it was great to be able to advertise our club and give the children details about the new website.
I (Julie) would like to say a huge thank you to both Shaun and James who gave up their valuable time and who were superb in the playlet.
We are hoping to repear the performance at Hordle School in early July.