Watfordttblog

Watford's William Maybanks on fire at Div. 1 playoffs!

Watford's first professional Table Tennis player, William Maybanks was 'on fire' this weekend (23/24th May) at the British League Div. 1 play-offs in Derby.

William who was playing at number 2 for Urban Progress TTPro won all his games convincingly to help the team finish in 2nd place overall. The first two teams gained promotion to the British League Premier division and are eligible to play in the top flight league of the UK next season. 

You can catch up with more on this story and all about William Maybanks - www.WillMeOn.com as he pursues his goal to reach the London 2012 Olympic games.

A bit of Table Tennis History!

I visited my mother today and was handed a small scrap of paper which was a cutting from the Watford Observer Newspaper many moons ago. I believe this was the first time I was in print and it was historic enough for someone (I think my gran actually) to cut it out and keep. What ever happened to Martin Dempsey, Lisa Barnwell and Karen Cox? Does anyone have any idea ?

If you have an old clip of yourself in the newspapers or magazines, involving Table Tennis, scan them in and let us have a copy, they deserve another outing and where better to put this kind of thing than on our very own Watford Table tennis Blog !! Just send the image to us with your story and we'll get them posted up here for everyone to enjoy....

Watford Boys Grammar School to host new Table Tennis Academy!!!

Watford is to have a new centre of excellence for Table Tennis. Watford Boys Grammar school have teamed up with Urban Progress TTPro to develop Table Tennis at the school. The Table Tennis Academy will be up and running from September 2009 and will be open not only to students from the school but in addition local primary schools and the community too!

Martin Post (the headmaster) continues the school's excellent record in providing a varied choice of activities for the Students whilst developing closer relationships with primary schools and enhancing links with the local community.

"The combination of a first class school and a complete table tennis pathway from beginner to International standard is a winning combination" says Chris Ogle representing Urban Progress TTPro, "Watford Boys Grammar school are dedicated to excellence and have a passion for sport and we can expect something really special to emerge from this partnership".

 

William Maybanks who is back in England briefly and an ex-Watford Boys Grammar school pupil himself, took some time out from his busy training schedule for the 2012 Olympics to visit the school today (20th May). William and Tibor Kadar (Urban Progress lead coach) provided an exhibition for the younger students who had a rare opportunity to see international quality table tennis right in their own assembly hall!

This is great news for Table Tennis in Watford, only the other day at the Watford & District Table Tennis league AGM it was agreed that the future is to work hand-in-hand with schools. This not only introduces the sport early to children but also makes good use of the excellent facilities that schools have available today. Here is one fantastic example of a forward looking school working together with a professional Table Tennis club to create our players of the future.

To read further details and see more pictures please visit :www.willmeon.com

Pictures by Eddie Dillon of Promedia Limited www.promedia.ltd.uk

Sally & Geof Bax at the National Vetts Championships!!

The National Vetts Championships were held at the Thornbury Leisure Centre, Gloucestershire, over the weekend of 16th & 17th of May.

Sally and Geof Bax both took part with about 250 others from all over the British Isles and some from mainland Europe.

Sally still recovering from her accident did not do as well as she would expect. She qualified for the main event in both the over fifties and over sixties. She lost in the second round in both events, but did better in the over sixties doubles, losing in the quarter final to the eventual winners, 9-11, 10-12, 9-11.

Geof had an eventful time, winning his over seventies group, and was runner up in the sixties group losing to a strong player from Sweden. In the 70’s he lost in the quarter final to the holder 10-12, 9-11, 11-4, 9-11. He went out in the third round of the sixties. The O/70 doubles, with Terry Wilson another Hertfordshire player, went rather well, and they only lost in the semi-final after a tense match, 12-14, 11-13, 11-7, 9-11. Geof will be playing in the O/75 doubles with Terry in Porec, Croatia, in the Vets European Championships in June 2009.

Watford Table Tennis AGM

The Watford & District Table Tennis AGM slipped quietly by for another year. Actually this is the first AGM I have attended in some years Howard Davis our captain normally attends for our team, so I can't be too hard on those that couldn't be bothered.

There were 14 people at this years meeting... yes 14 and 5 of these are committee members !! Now I do not criticise our league, I would suggest it is very similar to most other leagues around the country representing sports that are in general decline. This post is not intended to be the minutes of the meeting or a diatribe running through the Agenda, for those who have attended AGM's of any type before I will at least spare you this.

But a bit like the recession and the infamous 'green shoots' of recovery there were signs of some 'green shoots' of our own here in the Watford Table Tennis league.

Firstly we have our very own Table Tennis blog site for the Watford & District Table Tennis League. The Blog has a number of really useful functions (1) it is a great place to keep the whole table tennis community of Watford bang up to date with what we are all up to, (2) It is a place where people can find out about Table Tennis in our area and contact us to participate, (3) It will enable us to raise finance through advertising for youth development of Table Tennis, and finally (4) it will improve the communication between the committee, teams and players reducing administration and save money.

Secondly... Watford Boys Grammar School is to become a Table Tennis Academy working in conjunction with Urban Progress TTPro. This is excellent news for all the students at the school and local primary schools who will be invited to participate in all the action. But this is also superb for the local community and Table Tennis in the local Watford Area as evening sessions will also be available for adults and potentially league matches! Could this be the start of a club to rival that of Queens?

Thirdly... William Maybanks was runner up in the Junior Masters competition over the weekend winning 13 of his 14 games. He has narrowly missed selection for England in Poland at the end of the month and his Junior Table Tennis has now come to an end. William is a fantastic ambassador for our sport and a local lad from Bushey. His campaign to play in the 2012 olympics and all the promotional work going into this can only be great news for our own Table Tennis here in Watford and we look forward to watching Will's progress over the coming years. Don't forget to check out his blog WillMeOn.com as Will updates the blog himself from his Mobile phone every day! Come on support our local lad !!!

So you can see Table Tennis is coming alive in Watford... get active with us, join in the fun, the more the merrier, send in your news stories and pictures and let's show everyone what they are missing out on!

Annual General Meeting (AGM) reminder

The Watford & District Table Tennis league AGM will be held 8pm tomorrow evening (18th May 2009) at Queens school. Please ensure that each team registered in the league has a representative at the meeting. There are a few rule amendments proposed but nothing earth shattering or so it would seem.

If there is anything you would like to bring up at the meeting then be sure to come along and let you voice be heard. Personally I think that if the Watford League is to be taken seriously, grow and be successful we will have to revert to a more common format for our matches. I favour 9 straight singles or 10 if we add a doubles match into the mix, with a point for each set. I do understand the rationale behind amending the format with the limitations on match length at Queens and junior participation in the game... however these are not unassailable obstacles in my opinion.

Let the battle commence, 8pm - 18th May, Queens School... come along and make a difference !!

Watford's Table Tennis Hero back in town!

William Maybanks is back in town! Only for two weeks though... Will is back to participate over the next two weekends in some important competitions and if he does well he could be flying out to play for England at the end of the month in Poland!

Catch up with further details on the WillMeOn Blog. Next week apart from Training and a trip to the Dentist, Will is going to be at Watford Grammar School exhibiting his Table Tennis with Tibor Kadar from Urban Progress TTPro Premier Club. The headmaster has invited William back to help inspire the students to take up Table Tennis... more on this story in the near future!

If you would like to help William get to the 2012 Olympics and help our Table Tennis Superstar represent our Town and our League at the highest level, then get over to the WillMeOn Blog and make a contribution to his training. Lets have someone we all know to cheer on when the Olympics come to town and make London 2012 really special for us all ! 

Thanks to Martin Blake for his Team photo!

Well done to Martin Blake from 3rd Division Jets team "NEWTS". Martin took us up on his offer to promote Table Tennis at whatever level and sent through his teams picture to post up on the site here.

Just click on the image to go through to the larger version of this picture. This has been placed in the Teams and Players section of the Blog accessible via the navigation bar at the top of the page or clicking on the link above.

So you see it is possible, we want EVERYONE'S Table Tennis news, don't think this is the domain of the best players in the league!! We all play Table Tennis we all enjoy it and we all live in the area, these are the criteria for being on this website and if you can say YES to these then get on with it and send us your stuff !!

Your Table Tennis League needs your Profile !

Talking to Stuart Seaholme at the presentation evening about Table Tennis in Watford it struck me how much knowledge and history we have wrapped up in some of our longer serving players !!

Stuart remembers some of the old masters of the game and was part of the hugely successful YMCA club many many years ago. I've written a short profile about my Table Tennis past but I reckon Stuart Seaholme and Geof Bax have a much more colourful set of stories to tell !! I tried to pursuade Stuart to write a profile of his playing history which would be a great addition to the site. Why don't some of you join me in getting Stuart and Geof to tell us more about their table tennis background I'm sure it would give us a great insight into the games development in Watford.

If enough of us comment on this post and ask them to do it I'm sure they will contribute, so come on and get commenting !!

By the way I was trying to coerce Geof Seaholme back into the game as well. He was complaining that now the rules don't allow Blue rubber he would have to change both sides of his Bat. Well he could use a tin of paint !! although he'd have to be careful to use a water based one in these days of non ethenol based glues and things! Come on Geof come on back, Roger was out of the game 23 years so your 25 years doesn't seem too bad !

Not just Stuart and Geof though, we need YOUR profile too! Visit the Teams and Players section of the website take a look at those we have done for West Watford Conservative Club (Chris Ogle, Howard Davies, Roger Pyle) as examples and get your details on the site too!! 

So come on there is no excuse, most of you like Trafford Coker and Ken Stonebridge have already hung their bats up until the start of next season, so plenty of time to get a few words jotted down and sent in for your profiles!! The last thing you want is me hounding you all through the summer, get it over with now and send your details before the dreaded phone calls start!

Old Website redirected to Watford Table Tennis Blog

Alan Thomas, Chris and Otis Ogle have been integrating the resullts pages from the old watfordtt.co.uk website today!

This means that very soon all the results, fixtures, news and everything Table Tennis in Watford will be available through the one site !!

We have already redirected the old web address to point to the new blog... this is all part of the grand plan for Table Tennis in the Watford and District area!