As my first year as Social Secretary, I feel the year, on the social side of the club, has gone well, although due to personal commitments I was unable to organise as many events as I had wanted to. To date I have organised two Club tournaments and one Quiz night.

The first Club tournament, Back in 2003, was a great success with record numbers of members turning pout—which was great to see. There were a total of 42 entries and all matches ‘appeared’ to be played in great spirit!

The results were:

Ted Harris: -

The second and more recent tournament was a little harder to organise with the change in venue and subsequently less time to fit more players in to the actual tournament.

That said, the entries peaked at 46, which was another record attendance.

The results were:

Ted Harris: -

I received some comments regarding the tournament and will be able to implement changes for next year’s competition.

Finally the quiz night held just before Christmas, which was a successful evening. Regrettably not as many members turned up as I expected, so this year I will endeavour to change the date of the night and give you all more notice.

All in all a very profitable year and I look forward to acting as Social Secretary for 2004/5.

The Club entered 8 senior and 3 junior teams into the Chelmsford & District League for the 2003/04 season, the same number as last year, and also 2 junior teams in the Introductory League, CLICK. It was at times a job fitting them all into the new hall!

Having been tipped for demotion from the outset, all our efforts were channelled into disproving this. With only 8 other teams in the Division, we knew this would be tough.

Our team saw the comeback, to competitive league play of Julie Vansertima and the ‘new blood’ of John Patman.

Julie with her stylish attacking play saw many an interesting encounter, with a number of her games going to 5 sets. Being the ladies singles winner, she was a marked ‘man’.

John soon came to realise that this Division wasn’t going to be easy but he knuckled down and managed a 1:3 win rate. Along with Alastair, he didn’t like the ‘dodgy’ bats!

Alastair, a regular Division 2 player, didn’t quite live up to his results of last year, but still returned a creditable 1:2 win rate. Once his exams are over and no more revising at matches, I’m sure he will be more relaxed next season.

As for myself, I had a very enjoyable season and as always, I’m looking forward to the next season.

A disappointing, but enjoyable season. The start of season saw Bill Wall retire and a bit later on Nick Wool moved away to Durham.

We were strengthen by the signing of classy Ray Lawrence. A good Division Two player, but unfortunately work commitments meant we lost his services for too many games.

Even with the regular support of Graham Turner, from November onwards and a various number of substitutes (many thanks for all who turned out for us) we were unable to hold on to our place in Division 3.

Perhaps we may have avoided regulation if the Team captain had won a few more games!

Barry..........Played 15 fixtures, including walkovers scored 26 out of 45, = 57%. His 1^st season in Chelmsford, rarely struggled at this level, beat Eric Green twice, can only improve next year.

Alistair...Played 10 fixtures, including walkovers scored 13 out of 30, = 43%. Beat Richard Hiskey and Robbie Burton but often plucked defeat from the jaws of victory.

Duncan...Played 7 fixtures, including walkovers scored 12 out of 21, = 57%. Commenced playing again 2^nd half of season, still improving back to his old form, if health stays good will not lose too many next season.

Robin... Played 13 fixtures, including walkovers scored 15 out of 39, = 38%. No consistency, standard ranged from 2^nd division to 5^th division, too many games lost by risky shot selection.

Graham (4/6) plus 1 w/o, Andy (2/6), Stuart (2/3) plus 1w/o, and Ryan (1w/o) all were kind enough to stand in for the D team on a few occasions to enable us to continue. Many thanks to all the players who helped our team out.

A total of 7 games including the last 3 of the season were 5-5 draws, 4 games were wins (versus Baddow C & O.C.’s A,) 4 games were losses (versus Bocking & Excalibur,) 1 game was lost (versus Hatfield Peverel,) and 1 game was conceded (to Danbury.)

A very, very close division.

Well, what can I say? The “A” Team maybe TV-history. Although we failed to register Mr T. and B.A. Barracus in time our super tough “E” team produced consistent and occasionally awesome results in what proved a very tight division. Pre-season thoughts were that the front runners would include Writtle, captained by the 4-Down Singles Champion Matthew Brown, and Excalibur C with Steve Cheesman and Michael Rostoft, with Elmtree Graphics B led by Tony Vassallo the favourites.

Bursting with the experience of Andy Skues, Steve Back, and Graham Turner, but complimented by a trio of division four “virgins” [Stuart Skippings, Ryan Pitt and myself], we had potential but knew it could end in mid-table obscurity.

However, at the end of October we were hanging on the coat-tails of the leaders in a tightly grouped division. In fact only 6 points separated the top nine teams. Our position was in no small way due to the feats of Graham in his four matches (11 wins from 12) but because his coaching wasn’t working on us he arranged a free transfer to work his magic upon Frank Neill’s team in division three!

Rather surprisingly though, the team’s consistency continued through November in Graham’s absence, and the strong individual performances from Stuart, Steve, and Ryan enabled us to hit the top spot. By December we had accumulated 5-points breathing space from the tightly-knit chasing pack.

However the season was made much more interesting in 2004 when we were stopped in our tracks by a Matt Brown treble which proved to be our only loss of the season [a 6-4 win for Writtle]. This was followed immediately by a 5-5 draw devised by a full-house from Danbury G’s Alan Dadswell.

With Baddow “on the ropes” and second-placed Excalibur collecting 4-point wins as though they were going out of fashion we found ourselves level on points with them with three matches to play. With Writtle also battling hard for a promotion spot and our last match against Excalibur, the title run-in demanded strong performances from us. But our brawny “E” team displayed the required mental toughness running out with 9-1, 7-3, and 7-3 victories, including giving Excalibur a sound beating.

Player performances were very solid to strong, which was impressive when considering that by February only 9 players in the division had scrambled over the 70% mark.

ه Steve Back, despite being hampered by a back injury for most of the season, achieved a very creditable 43% including the scalp of Steve Cheesman.

ه Stuart recovered from a nightmarish 4 wins from 9 in October to end on a massive 72% season’s average. Stuart carved out superb wins over most of the people that I couldn’t beat such as Malcolm Jacobs and Matt Brown, plus another over Steve Cheesman.

ه Ryan started well with 2 wins from 3 including a victory over Bryan Speller but suffered a little as the season progressed.

ه Graham’s early season achievements (92%, 11 wins from 12) was blotted by a solitary loss against the indestructible Tony Vassallo.

ه Andy secured our promotion and top ranking with an 83% title run-in average (10 from 12). One of Andy’s only 2-losses was against Martin Knights of Danbury. He later noted that playing with reading glasses wasn’t the best decision he’d ever made!

ه The ‘must do better’ teacher’s mantra dominated my contribution, including notable doubles over Tony Vassallo and Steve Cheesman but some odd losses to Dave Fillery, Ken Sheard, Chris Hibbitt, and Keith Cullen alongside the not too unexpected defeats by Matt Brown and Malcolm Jacobs.

As team cappo it was a pleasure to lead this excellent team and expect us all to be tested more vigorously in “three”. We are relishing the challenge that next season will bring. We hope you are too.

I really thought Baddow F could go up to Division 4 this year. We started with a great team. Bill Chester had proved himself by winning the 6 down trophy the previous season, as I had the season before that. Mike Robinson and I were experienced in Div 5 and had posted good averages in 2002-2003. Finally, we had been assigned Mike Johnston who I was reliably informed was good enough for Division 3 or 4 but a little rusty. We started pretty well losing by a narrow margin to Writtle C, thrashing Writtle D and then beating OC’s. We put our initial loss down to being a new team and cemented our belief that this division was ours for the taking. Bill Chester was doing especially well with 75%, Mike Johnston and I were on about 60% each. Then, in November tragedy struck. Bill suffered a bad arm injury that put him out for the rest of the season. Also Mike Robinson was in a position whereby he could no longer make our home nights. So we were in a zero reserves position with only 2 players on home nights. The rest of the season we relied on 6th Division reserves almost every match. The Division 6 guys tried their best for us and I think they got some good experience, especially Martin Chattey and Steve Clift, but ultimately they won very few matches. We drifted down the table from 3rd position to 4th bottom despite excellent performances from Mike Johnston every night. Mike generally won at least two matches and on one occasion won 5 games in one night whilst playing up in Division 4 as well as for our team. That was pretty impressive stuff.

In general, I found this season to be a depressing experience, especially given our early optimism. This is the second season in a row I’ve ended up captaining a side with less than a full complement of players. Hopefully next season the Division 5 team will have plenty of players registered to it. To date, Bill Chester is still injured and Baddow’s “F” Team wishes him all the best in recovering from this injury in time for next season. He will always be welcomed back to the fold!

The core team comprised Bob, Mark & Diane with Colin and Richard making ‘guest appearances’ when available and on paper although none of us thought we might win division 5, we were optimistic we could hold our own. This however was not to be! We were struck a pre season blow with Bob suffering a badly broken arm putting him out of action until the end of October. However this meant we had a genuine reason for calling Colin out of retirement and he duly obliged winning all his singles in our first match against Hatfield Peverel. Even Diane managed to scrape a couple of games in this match which we won 6-4.

Things went rather downhill from then on and we didn’t win another match until the last game of the season against a rather surprised ECC team. Once again Colin was called in and his 2 wins contributed to the team’s success.

Mark started the season slowly but soon began picking up some good wins e.g. against the in-form Hector Rogers, John Skuse, Ken Sheard and Roger Wilson. Unfortunately his success was rather erratic but was considerably better than Diane’s who proved that after her initial good performance, she was better at making the tea and scoring doubles games than actually playing table tennis!

Richard only played in 2 matches due to work commitments, but did beat Wayne Campbell Harvey.

Bob as mentioned before, was out of action until the end of October and the lack of practise initially did show.

However, being quite a determined person his play soon improved and his never give up attitude paid off on many occasions. By the 2^nd half of the season he was winning 2-3 singles a match and proved an excellent No.1 beating Colin Barham, Paul Triggs, Norman Hayes, Ken Sheard, Calvin Wright, Ian Rogers to name but a few.

Although we had some close run matches we did unfortunately finish 2^nd from bottom of the division, but with Mark in the team we did have a few laughs along the way !!

The team consisted of five players, Ron Arthur, Chris High, Eric Clift (the youngster), Peter Revell (club chairman) and Fred Henwood as captain.

Ron was the mainstay, only missing one match and gained good results throughout the season. He was assisted by Chris, when available, by Peter or Eric (who was the most improved player in the team) and if really necessary to make up a team, by Fred. In addition, support was also garnered from some of our younger players from our lower teams.

The division consisted of three strong teams, two not quite so strong and our own four teams plus an ECC team somewhere in between. We were hard pushed to obtain any good results, in particular against some of our own teams! Must be a tribute to our coaching fraternity!

Overall not a bad season, considering the average age of the team, with a creditable sixth position in the table.

It was always going to be a big jump from Click into Division 6 and this proved to be the case with the boys getting their first taste of regular competition against adults. The varying style of play of the adults is not something they are used to, and this often frustrated their natural attacking game.

There were nevertheless some very good performances from them all at various stages, and overall they gave a good account of themselves. In the second half of the season, they generally improved against the adult teams, demonstrating their continuing progress.

Quite a few matches went to 4 or 5 legs, and next season should see further improvement as they become more able to adapt their game during matches.

They will be increasingly able to turn defensive rallies into attack with fewer unforced errors, whilst continuing to improve their serve and return of serve.

A good effort by the chaps, and to their credit they kept their heads up all the time despite some heavy defeats.

One of the three junior teams to move up from CLICK to the dizzy heights of Division 6 was the ‘K’ team with only one season in CLICK for Laura and Steve and the welcome addition of last season’s rivals John Mutch and Rob Abel (formerly the Boswells team). Nobody knew (least of all me) what lay ahead for these ‘rookie’ teenagers in Div 6. Would they sink or swim? Well, they managed to win 4 matches, drew 1 and lost 13, but most importantly, they have picked up at least 1 point from almost every match they have played and have surprised quite a few people with their ability to cope at this level. They finished up in 8^th position in the division, and above the other two Baddow junior teams.

From their somewhat nervous debut match against Maldon Borough where they gained their first point, all of them have ‘grown’ immensely over the course of the season as players. They have really enjoyed all the battles and risen to the occasion so many times. Particularly impressive when you consider how high the standard has been in Division 6 this season. All four of these youngsters have achieved some fine results. Matches that spring to mind are John’s 5th-end hard fought victory over Roy Cole of Maldon, Laura’s gripping 5th-enders over Andy Simmonds of Hatfield Peverel and Chris High of BVTTC ‘H’, Rob’s win over Ivor Cooper of Writtle and Steve’s 3-straight wins over OC’s Nigel Parmenter and ECC’s Tom Hill and his 5th-end scalp of Tony Reece-Ford of Maldon. These wins signify the vast improvement made against good experienced players.

Outside of the C&DTTL, Laura and Steve now both represent Chelmsford in the National Junior League where they have come up against some superb opposition. Steve, who has joined forces with fellow Chelmsford League rivals from the BVTTC ‘J’ team, Sam Pitt, Haydn Upson, Rykki Vansertima and Phil Twite to form the Chelmsford ‘B’ squad, has experienced match play of the highest order in a strong National League. Laura, along with team-mates Lorna Staff, Holly Stubbings and Hannah Pitt stormed ahead in the Girls league and won the Eastern Region by a massive margin at the last round of matches held at Stowupland on 3^rd April. This is indeed a tremendous achievement in their first season at National level. Well done girls!

Individually, they have excelled too. They have come away with numerous trophies this season with Laura winning the U17 Girls Singles event and Steve making history by becoming the first person to win both the Singles and Doubles Handicap events during the same tournament, (with the help of fellow club-mate Bob Francis) at the League’s Individual Championships in January. These achievements are a direct result of the master class coaching sessions attended and Steve and Laura wish to take this opportunity of thanking everyone concerned for their time and efforts.

In conclusion, we will look forward to next season where we will draw on the experience gained this season. We will look on it as a learning curve and I am sure the ‘K’ team will go on to enjoy bigger success in the future. They certainly deserve to.

With a squad of three, experienced players, who had all performed well last year, there was always an expectation that they could perform well and possibly even emulate last year’s K team by winning the title.

Well ….. It was so close, with a final 5-0 victory over Ingatestone C, the guys finished in 3rd place, one point behind the N team and only a couple adrift of the leaders—Ingatestone A who they beat first time round.

How can I sum up this season— the bouncing energy of my daughter, the hard hitting forehand of Adam or the determined and level headed approach of the veteran of the team Matthew.

There were many, many close games and the finger nails of all parents were severely tested both on and off the table!! Memorable encounters that spring to mind are the second half defeat against the N team 1-4 and the defeat against the League winners 2-3.

My thanks to the support from Mick and Shirley and Andy and Lesley in getting Adam and Matthew to the matches and also for managing on occasions.

The kids have done really well this year with a creditable third place -with a bit more concentration there is no doubt in my mind that they can win the league next year if they carry on improving in the way that they have—well done.

N Team (CLICK)

Members: Bradley Hudgell, Mark & Shaun Hurrell and Richard Napper
                 [Manager: Graham Turner]  

An 11:9 in the fifth victory in the last doubles of the final match of the season typifies the fight, effort, determination and commitment that these four boys have given to table tennis in their first season of competitive play. Indeed their first year of table tennis. And it has been an absolute joy to be associated with them.

All four boys have shown an excellent attitude, have been totally reliable and have really worked well for each other. I can only think of one instance of slight pique – when in a moment of frustration Shaun hit the ball rather aggressively at his Father! But all credit to Shaun, how many 15 year olds (or he will be by the time you read this) do you get that immediately realize they are in the wrong and apologise!

Having four members in the team we have effectively functioned as two teams. Richard and Bradley and brothers Shaun & Mark, with both pairs having played 9 matches. And there have been some excellent performances from both pairs. In the second half Richard & Bradley have taken on all 3 of their fellow top teams, beaten two reversing first half defeats, and lost only to Ingatestone A, the eventual winners of CLICK, 2:3.

Shaun and Mark have equally put in some splendid performances, perhaps none more so than the two games against OC’s at the end of each half. The first resulting in a decisive 5:0 win, in a very open game that could have gone either way. The second a 4:1 victory with that tremendous final doubles win I opened this report with setting up the chance of honours. 

And the icing on the cake? The team finished 2nd in CLICK. An excellent achievement, far beyond expectations, particularly for the first season of table tennis.

Well done boys!

MELBOURNE COACHING