Guildford Table Tennis News October 2023

Published on: 22 Oct, 2023
Updated on: 22 Oct, 2023

By Steve Day

The new season got under way during the week commencing September 18 with matches across all five divisions.

We are still running our girls’ and women’s only sessions at Loseley Fields Primary School every Sunday.

The Surrey County Senior Closed Tournament is on October 28 and 29.

This season’s Surrey Closed for Seniors is being held at the Graham Spicer Institute in New Malden over the weekend of October 28 and 29. Full details and the entry form are available to download from https://guildford.ttleagues.com/article/surreyseniorclosed2023entryform Deadline, October 26.

League round-up

Premier Division. If the first two weeks are anything to go by, it’s going to be a tight race for honours this season.

After every team had played two matches, just two points separated the top five clubs. Amazingly, though, only two clubs remain unbeaten, those being last year’s champions and runners up, Merrow A and Merrow B.

Top of the table is College Hill A followed by Merrow C. Godalming A and B prop up the table after losing both their opening matches.

Jake Buckley.

In terms of individual performance, Daniel Heo of Burymead A, John Robinson of Merrow A and Jake Buckley of College Hill A remain unbeaten with 6 wins out of 6 games.

Division One had a familiar look with Challoner A at the top, followed closely by Abinger A and, newly promoted, Ash.

Great to see a couple of familiar names back playing: Kinga Oryl for Godalming C and Ben Fereday for Ash. Also welcome back to Challoner’s Maria Hilsdon who spent most of last season on the injury list.

Maria Hilsdon.

College Hill C leads Division Two with two wins out of two. They are followed by Merrow E and Woking A.

Paul Tanton leads the averages with 6 wins from 6. Last year’s Bramley C, winners of Division 3 by a country mile, are now Bramley B and are finding life a bit more challenging in this division.

Peter Palmer.

The inclusion of our chairman, Peter Palmer, in their squad, should ensure survival. It’s early days but Godalming E may struggle this season.

There was less activity in Division Three, where Godalming F and College Hill D lead with 7 points apiece. As at the end of the month, Merrow G had yet to play.

Shula Laws.

Five players remain unbeaten, Caden Wilson, David Barraclough, James Clement, Oscar Snelling and Shula Laws.

In Division Four, Merrow J head up the table closely followed by Aftermath C.

Merrow H are in last position, having not yet played a match.

As with Division Three, five players are unbeaten, namely, Andrew Bramwell, Robert Warren, Sik Ki Lai, Slavco Ivanovic and Sumit Kumar.

Coaching tips and rules

This is a new feature which I will include from time to time to help new players (and some older ones, too) with coaching tips and also to understand the rules.

Firstly, serving. Here’s the rules which have been extracted directly from the TTE website and applies to singles. There are some variations for doubles.

The ball must first bounce on your side and then on your opponent’s side of the table.

If the ball touches the net and goes over, it’s a ‘let’ – retake the serve.

If the ball hits the net and doesn’t go over, or flies off the table without bouncing on your opponent’s side, you lose the point.

There are no second serves.

The ball should rest freely on the open palm of the server, above the level of the table.

The ball should be projected vertically (at least 16cm).

In singles you can serve from anywhere and to anywhere on the table.

Change servers every 2 points.

If the score reaches 10-10 change server every point.

There is, of course, more to serving than just knowing the rules but it is something we could all understand better.

I remember playing in my first grand prix event and we had an official umpire, who incidentally was a friend. He called out my two favourite serves as illegal! I couldn’t believe it as I had been using them in local league matches for years.

After the match I had a chat with umpire and he explained, in great detail, what I was doing wrong. They were only minor things but it made my serves illegal.

Are your serves totally legal? This is one of the most hotly debated subjects in our sport and we owe it to each other to make sure we are playing the right way.

More on serving next month but in the meantime check out this website: https://www.tabletennisengland.co.uk/play/rules-and-how-to-play/

Website of the Guildford Table Tennis League.