29 June 2013

Mike Watts Award for Hockley Table Tennis Club

At their club night on Thursday 27 June, Hockley TTC were presented with the Mike Watts Award for development in Table Tennis.  This is an award presented to an individual or club that has developed TT within the Southend League. 
The Hockley TTC has grown over the past few years to a 6 team club with three club nights and have ambitions to find a way of having a dedicated TT centre within their area.  With their determination, I would think that they will achieve this.  The club ranges in ages and standards and it was good to see juniors from this club entering the SDTTL Junior Tournament this season.
Well done Trevor Vincent and the Hockley TTC
 

03 June 2013

2013 Southend Table Tennis League Junior Tournament

Southend Table Tennis League Junior Tournament
 
This weekend saw the annual Southend Junior Table Tennis Tournament take place at Hullbridge Sports and Leisure venue, in Hullbridge, where youngsters competed in 8 different events.
An early start was the order of the day, as an extra event was added  to cope with the fantastic influx of new youngsters wanting to play the sport this year, an influx that has seen Junior coaching increase in the local area to meet demand. The Southend league is fast becoming one of the best attended junior Table Tennis leagues in the county, seeing many of it's Juniors go onto represent Essex in matches all over the country.
The players were split into different age groups, where groups of 4 would play each other to determine the winner and runner up, they would then move on to the knock out rounds reaching the final, to then see who would take this years honours.
 The under 11 final was between Canvey's Ryan Williams and Hullbridge's Dan Zeffie, the boys showed many good touches during the game, with Ryan's experience telling in the end ,giving the title to the Canvey player, this will be the first of many meetings between these two in years to come.
The Under 13 title was won by Hullbridge's Zoe Davis who beat fellow team mate Emily Smith in the final, both girls showing the boys how its done. The same pair met in the final of the Girls event, with the same outcome, these two look on course to be future Essex stars, as they both get better every time they play.
The under 15 event was taken by Hullbridge's Sid Dorn who met ever improving Rawreth player Adam Hill, who has increased his weekly training with great effect, County player Sid was eventually too strong for Adam, and he promised to use more hairspray in future as he went on to win in 4.
The Under 18's saw rivals Ben Matthews and Kieran Skeggs come together, Rawreths Ben was the victor in this match, but was pushed all the way with fantastic table tennis skills from both players.
The Open was Kieran Skegg's event, getting his own back on Ben Matthews in the final, the rivalry continues.
The Boys was the final event, pitting Thorpe Bay's Kieran Skeggs against Sam Lowman, players who have known each other for years, with once again Kieran coming out on top, proving too strong and skillfull for Runnymead's Sam.
A great day was had by all, showing that the Southend Table Tennis League is the place to be if your a Junior Table Tennis player!
Karl Dorn, SDTTL Press Officer