Senior British League

Ormesby teams enjoyed a very successful final weekend in the British Table Tennis League Division League competitions with the all junior second team finishing in fourth position of the Championship Division and the Clubs 5th team winning the Division C-3.

At Corby the Club’s second team won three of their final rounds of matches and drew one, beating Ravenscroft from the Channel Islands 6-2, Portsmouth 7-1, Wymondham of Norfolk 7-1 and drawing with leaders Whitworth Academy 4-4.

Josh Weatherby produced the best results winning all 8 of his sets.  Joe Cope, playing at Number 1, and Thomas Rayner won 7 from 8 and David Gofton, promoted to number 2 in the team won 2 from 8.

Having the all junior Under 18 team finishing 4th in the table is a very good performance particularly in the last weekend, playing a draw with the winners and beating the team in 3rd place in the table, Wymondham by 7-1.

Ormesby 3rd team, also enjoyed a successful weekend, at Derby, winning three of their fixtures and losing one in Division B1.  They beat Orsted Grimsby 8-1, Westfield from Northamptonshire 9-0, Huddersfield 9-0 before losing to Nottingham Sycamore II 5-4.  Ben Piggott, George Hill and Adam Webster all won 7 from 8, whilst Jack Cope won 6.

The team finished in 4th position in the National B-1 League Table.

In Division C-3, after a very narrow finish, Ormesby 4th team won the title and Ormesby 5th team finished second.

In the final match, Ormesby 4th team beat the All In Table Tennis Club from Sheffield by 5 sets to 4 after Ryan Nassau won the final match at 11-9 in the fifth against Liam Carson.

Dave Ashwell, playing at number 1, who was the star player in this fixture winning both of his singles. To win the title Ormesby’s 5th team had to win all four of their matches over the weekend.  They beat Derwent II 6-3, Cliffdale Chandlers from Graham 9-0 and Bishop Auckland 7-2 and in the final match All In Table Tennis 5-4.

Playing at number 1, Dave Ashwell was the star of the team winning 7 from 8, Ryan Nassau made a major contribution being unbeaten with 6 wins, while Adam Ridley won 7 from 8 and Michael Young won 4 from 8.

In the same Division, Ormesby 5th team, finished second with wins against Bishop Auckland 5-4, North Ayrshire 9-0 and Derwent II 6-3.  However, they lost ground in the title race by losing to All In Table Tennis team 6-3.

Luke Robinson won 6 from 8, Ben Savage won 5, Chris Edwards 2 from 4, Charlotte Weatherby 3 from 6, Rana Rassem 4 from 6

Alan Ransome OBE

Ormesby IV winners of Senior British League C-3

Ormesby IV

Left to right: David Ashwell, Michael Young, Gary Whyman, Adam Ridley, Ryan Nassau and Ormesby – Chairman Alan Ransome OBE

After a tense weekend at the Ormesby club in the British League C-3 the Ormesby IV team were crowned League Champions.

The team were presented with their medals by Ormesby Chairman Alan Ransome.

Carl White, who also plays for the IV team was away on holiday.

 In second place were the Ormesby V team.

All the V team are British Junior League players, Rana Rassem, Charlotte Weatherby, Luke Robinson, Chris Edwards and Ben Savage along with their Coach David Noutch. Quite an achievement for such a young squad.

It had remained very tight at the top of the division until the final match where the IV team beat ‘All in Table Tennis’.

Ormesby veteran David Ashwell had a marvelous win over Jie Fu Tham, who until his match against David had remained unbeaten all season.

 Well done to all the Ormesby Players.

National Cadet Cup

Two Ormesby youngsters excelled in the National Cadet Table Tennis Cup Competition for the best Under 15 players in England which took place at Corby over the weekend.

Left to Right: Louis Price, Rhys Davies, Tom Rayner and TTE Board Member Doug Livingstone

Thomas Rayner who was previously ranked number 7 finished in equal first position in the boy’s event with three other players, and as a result of the countback Rayner finished in third position.

Rayner beat several players ranked above him including number 2 Naphong Boonyaprapa, Nottinghamshire, number 3 Connor Green, Nottinghamshire and number 4 Jie Fu Tham, South Yorkshire and his Ormesby team mate, number 6, Ben Piggott.

Piggott also did well to finish in 5th position and his wins included victories over Green and Fu Tham.

These results are particularly important as they have significant effect on the National Rankings and are ahead of the England team selections for the European Youth Championships that take place in July.

Ormesby Premier team make it to the top

With an outstanding performance from Darius Knight, Ormesby go to the top of the table of the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League having visited and beaten the current Champions, Urban, 3-2 on Saturday in Barnet.

Man of the Match – Darius Knight

The match began with the doubles in which Knight and Tianming Zhao won a very narrow victory over the Urban pair of Szilard Gyorgy and Daniel Kosiba.  This set went to the wire with the Ormesby pair winning the first and third games and taking a 5-2 lead at the change in the decider.  The Urban pair pulled the game back to 10-9 before the Ormesby pair clinched the last point to give the Teesside Club a 1-0 lead.

Knight’s second win was even more spectacular when he beat the Urban number 1 player Daniel Schaffer 11-9, 13-11, 11-4 to take Ormesby into a 3-1 lead to clinch the victory.  Ormesby’s third point came from Tainyuan Liu who also beat Schaffer by 3 games to 1.

Urban came back into the match when Koshiba beat Zhao 3-1 and then Urban kept in the Championship race by pulling the scoreline back to 3-2 in the last set when Gyorgy beat Tainyuan also by 3-1.

Ormesby now lead the table with 25 points from 7 matches against Urban’s 24.  Ormesby also have a superior set average with 25 wins against 10 defeats compared with Urban’s 24 – 11.

The two other teams to go in to the final three play off matches are Ormeau Northern Ireland on 22 points and Drumchapel Glasgow on 20.

Ormesby will have home matches against Drumchapel on 6th April and the final match at home against Urban on 18th May.

Ormesby’s visit to Belfast is scheduled for 4th May.

British Premier League

Ormesby Table Tennis Club have been named 5 players in their squad to travel to London on Saturday for the vital championship match in the Premier Division title of the British Table Tennis League.

Ormesby are currently on level points with Urban at the top of the table.  The winner of Saturday’s match will lead the table and have a clear advantage going in to the second round of fixtures which begins in April.

Ormesby name three of England’s top 10 players; Captain Danny Reed, Darius Knight and Helshan Weerasinghe, plus Ormesby’s two non-English players Tianyuan Liu who played his first match against BATTS last month and won both his singles, and the Portuguese player Tianming Zhao.

Urban who won the title, pushing Ormesby into second place last season, have their squad of; Daniel Schaffer, Alim Hirji, Satoshi Aida, Szilard Gyorgy, Daniel Kosiba, Gergely Urban.

The match is being played at Barnet Table Tennis Centre starting at 3:00 pm

The League Table shows both Urban and Ormesby are unbeaten and both have 22 points.  It is likely the Championship this year will be decided between these two Clubs.

Darlington 1 Star

There were some really great results from the Ormesby Hopes children

at the Darlington 1 Star Tournament on Saturday 2 March 2019.

Seth Holland  – winner of the Under 10 Boys

Presented with his trophy by Kevin Wray

Ella Pashley – winner of the Under 11 Girls

Presented with her trophy by Brian Day

The youngest  Ormesby player, 9 year old Jack Hodgson – runner-up in both the Under 10 and Under 11 Boys

Jack Higgins – won the Under 13 Boys Plate

Ormesby v BATTS

Left to right: Tianyuan Liu, Darius Knight, Helshan Weerasinghe and Captain Danny Reed.

Ormesby Premier team  5 – 0  BATTS

With a 5-0 victory of the leading Essex club, BATTS, at home on Saturday, Ormesby are now on equal points with Urban of London at the top of the table of the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League.

The Ormesby victory was as comfortable as the score line suggests, with new signing, China’s Tianyuan Liu, winning both his singles against Jack Bennett and Ismalia Akindiya, whilst Darius Knight beat Joe Walker by 3-1 and Helshan Weerasinghe defeated Jack Bennett in straight games.

The doubles match was a straight games victory for Weerasinghe and Knight.

Meanwhile, the Ormesby rivals Urban visited the North Ayrshire Club, and achieved only a 4-1 victory but with this lost one valuable point.

The 5-0 victory for Ormesby and the Urban result gives Ormesby the one point advantage which secured the level point at the top of the table.  Both teams are on 22 points from 6 matches.

In the final match of the first half Ormesby visit Urban on the 9th March in London.

Three matches remain for the second half of the season when Ormesby have both fixtures against Drumchapel and Urban at home and an away fixture against Ormeau in Northern Ireland.

Report by Alan Ransome OBE

British League

Ormesby II – Liam McTiernan, Joshua Weatherby, Coach, Denis Neale, Darius Knight and Thomas Rayner

Ormesby 2nd team, moved out of the relegation zone of the British Table Tennis League at Corby over the weekend, with two important wins against Drumchapel Glasgow and the BATTS Club from Essex.

Darius Knight, Liam McTiernan and Josh Weatherby were all unbeaten for Ormesby, winning four sets each while Thomas Rayner won three which included a victory over Samuel Chesterman in the BATTS match.

Knight’s wins were all convincing in straight games, whilst McTiernan had a narrow victory over Gordon Cheng of BATTS.  Josh Weatherby also was taken close by Joe Walker in the BATTS match winning at 11-5 in the decider. These wins take Ormesby up to 6th place in the Division and 6 points clear of the relegation zone which includes Drumchapel Glasgow, Kingfisher Reading; and Ravenscroft.

With one weekend to go Ormesby appear to be in a safe position despite mathematically being vulnerable if all the results from that weekend went in the wrong direction.

Ormesby’s wins were without the services of Joe Cope who was playing for England in the Sweden Junior Open.

Ormesby’s third team however, slipped in the bid for honours in Division B-1 losing both of their fixtures to Derwent 7-2 and the league leaders Barrow Tornadoes 6-3

Against Derwent, Jack Cope and George Hill won one game each whilst against Barrow, Adam Webster and George Hill won two of the sets, plus the doubles with Hill and Webster.  These two results take Ormesby down to 4th place in the League table.

In the Division C-3, which was played at Ormesby, the two Ormesby teams won one set and lost another.

Ormesby 4th team who were top of the Division lost their first match against Pudsey by six sets to three with single wins from Gary Whyman and Ryan Nassau plus the doubles Michael Young and Nassau.

In their second match Ormesby 4th team defeated North Ayrshire, in a very tight match, by five sets to four with two wins from Ryan Nassau plus one each from Adam Ridley and Gary Whyman.  The doubles for Young and Nassau was Ormesby’s fifth win.

Ormesby 5th team go to the top of the table after beating Cliffdale Chandlers from Grantham 9-0 in the first match before losing to Pudsey 5-4 in the second.  Rana Rassem was the star of the Ormesby team winning all four of her singles while Chris Edwards and Luke Robinson won three and Ben Savage won two.

The League Table now stands with Ormesby 5th team at the top with 16 points.  Ormesby 4th team second also with 16 points but with the 5th team having a better games average.

The championship and promotion from this Division will all depend on the next matches on the 15th and 16th March 2019.

Alan Ransome OBE

Hopes Session times for Half Term

Monday 18 February  –  1.00pm to 4.00pm

Tuesday 19 February  –   5.30pm to 7.30pm

Wednesday 20 February  –   1.oopm to 4.oopm

Thursday 21 February  –  1.00pm to 4.00pm

Friday 22 February  –  5.30pm to 8.00pm

British Premier League – Ormesby v BATTS

The Premier Division of the British League is moving towards an exciting conclusion with our club very much involved in the title race.

On Saturday 23rd February, we have our next match which is against one of the mid table sides, the BATTS Club, from Essex.

Making his debut for Ormesby will be a new Chinese player, Tianyuan Liu, who was one of the Chinese Junior Squad.  He is currently studying at Nottingham University and won the University Championships beating one of the best Drumchapel players, David McBeath in the final.

The Ormesby Squad will be selected from Tianyuan Liu, Helshan Weerasinghe, Darius Knight and Danny Reed.

The visitors, BATTS, have named within their team;

Gordon Cheng, who was a member of the Hong Kong National Team for 6 years.
Jack Bennett who is currently ranked at 25 in England and comes from a well-known table tennis family from the Sussex area.
Ismaila Akindiya is a Nigerian national player who has had a wide range of International experience playing in Spain, Italy, Finland, Sweden, France and Poland as well as in his home country of Nigeria.

In the League Table, Ormeau from Northern Ireland currently lead the table with 19 points from 6 matches.  The current Champions, Urban, have 18 from 5, whilst Ormesby are third with 17 from 5.

A victory over BATTS followed by a win against Urban, when we visit London on the 9th March, would put us at the top of the table going into the play off section.

Please find attached a poster advertising the match.  There are more available at the Club.  Please advertise and promote the match as widely as possible.

The match against BATTS starts at 2:00 pm on the 23rd February.

Member and friends are welcome.

Best wishes,
Alan Ransome

Middlesbrough Town Hall 130th Celebrations

Ormesby Table Tennis Club helped in the Middlesbrough Town Hall 130th year Celebrations yesterday.

Five young players from the Hope Squad, Jack Millward, Finley Rozsas, Jack Hodgson, Jack Higgins and Arron Christie along with Malcolm, Gary and Brenda spent an afternoon in the newly refurbished Town Hall Crypt.

Photographer Julian Germain had visited Ormesby to take a picture of some players from the various groups who play at the club. The picture seen above will be given to the club with the stipulation that we have it framed and given a prominent place for people to see.

Many other clubs across the Middlesbrough area and covering a wide range of activities had also had there pictures taken and these too were displayed in the crypt.

One of the highlights of the afternoon  – a visit to one of the old prison cells.

Fortunately none of the boys were locked in  – so we will hopefully see them at their next training session.

Senior National Qualifications

Ormesby Juniors players had a very successful weekend at the qualification competition for the English Table Tennis Senior National Championships in Preston last weekend, with four of the youngsters qualifying for places in the Senior Championships.

Joe Cope left with Jack Burnett

Joe Cope excelled to win the main event, beating Jack Burnett of Sussex in the final and Joseph Langham-Ferreira from Surrey, in the semi-final.
This is Joe’s best tournament performance to date.

David Gofton also excelled to qualify by finishing sixth.  He won his opening group before losing to Joe Cope in the quarter-final.  Gofton also did well to beat team mate Josh Weatherby in the 5 to 8 play off section.

Josh Weatherby also qualified after winning his group, before losing to Israel Awolaja from Nottingham in the last sixteen, but by beating Ashley Facey-Thompson of Middlesex, he was able to finish in 7th position and win qualification.

Charlotte Weatherby

In the girl’s event, Charlotte Weatherby had an exceptional run against one of the current England youngsters Ruby Chan, and eventually went on to finish in seventh place with a victory over Gracie Edwards of Essex.

Alan Ransome OBE

British Premier League

With a 4-1 home victory over North Ayrshire on Sunday, Ormesby maintained their position as being in second place, just one point behind the current leaders and champions, Urban, in the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League.

Darius Knight was the star of the Ormesby team winning his singles against the Scottish No. 3, Colin Dalgleish by 3 games to 1 and by combining with Helshan Weerasinghe to win the doubles against Christopher Main and Martin Johnson by 3-1.

Weerasinghe won his singles against Martin Johnson in straight games while Danny Reed defeated Main in straight games.  Reed lost the first singles against Dalgleish after leading by 2 games to 0.  Dalgleish won the last three games at 11-9, 11-9, 12-10 to clinch the single victory for North Ayrshire.

In other matches the leaders Urban defeated Fusion in a London derby match by 4 sets to 1, whilst Drumchapel, Glasgow, Scotland’s leading club, scored a narrow victory against BATTS in Harlow by 3-2.

In the league table Urban are just ahead at the top with 18 points from 5 matches, while Ormesby are second with 17 points.  Drumchapel and the Northern Ireland team, Ormeau, are both third on 15 each.

Ormesby’s next match is against BATTS on the 23rd February and Ormesby play their final fixture of the first half when they visit Urban in London on the 9th March.

Alan Ransome OBE

British Premier League – Sunday 13 January 2019

Ormesby 1st Team are playing their next fixture in the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League at the Club on Sunday 13th January 2019 when they entertain one of Scotland’s leading Clubs, North Ayrshire, at 2:00pm.

Ormesby are currently in second place in the Premier Division, just one point behind the current leaders and Champions, Urban of London.

Under the new scoring system, Ormesby are looking for a 5-0 victory against North Ayrshire which would be rewarded with 5 points.

For Sunday’s match, Ormesby are feeling a strong team with three of England’s top 10 players; Helshan Weerasinghe, Darius Knight and Danny Reed.  The North Ayrshire Team are made up mainly of Scottish International players and have named; Colin Dalgleish, Chris Main, Zak Wilson and Martin Johnson in their squad.

Ormesby’s rivals, Urban have a derby match against South London Club, Fusion, on Saturday, and the two leading teams are due to clash in London on 9th March.

Spectators are welcome.

Alan Ransome OBE

Ormesby’s 2018 New Year Super 10

From the seeded 5th position David Gofton was the surprise winner of the Ormesby Super 10 which took place at the Clubs Headquarters on Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough on Sunday.

David Gofton

The Group 1 competition which consisted of 8 players of high British League standard was one of the strongest the Club has organised in recent years.  Gofton won the event with winning five of his seven matches and losing two, which included victories over Josh Weatherby, Karina Le Fevre and Thomas Rayner.  Gofton’s only two defeats were against top seed Graeme Barella and second seed Joe Cope.

Barella finished in second place with four wins and three losses.  His victories included Cope and Weatherby.  He was defeated by Le Fevre, Rayner and Adam Webster.  Joe Cope finished third, with four wins and three defeats.  His wins included Le Fevre and Gofton but having losses recorded against Barella, Weatherby and Webster.

The finishing positions: 1. David Gofton 5-2 – 2. Graham Borella 4-3 – 3. Joe Cope 4-3

Of the rest; Josh Weatherby, Karina Le Fevre, Thomas Rayner, Ben Piggott and Adam Webster all equal fourth with 3-4.

Left to right: Jimmy Scope, Alan Ransome – Ormesby TTC Chairman, Ben Piggott and Michael Young

The second category was won by Ben Savage who was unbeaten in all his seven matches.  Michael Young was second with six wins and only lost to Savage, although several of Young’s victories were by very close margins.

Five players finished with three wins and four losses.  Jimmy Scope had the best games average which took him into third position.

Left to right: Eve Witterick, Katie Bates, Alan Ransome and Rebecca Savage

In the third category, the winner was Katie Bates who won all of her eleven matches. Eve Witterick was second with ten wins and one loss, only to Bates.  Rebecca Savage was third with 9-2 with losses to Witterick and Bates.

Report by Alan Ransome OBE

Ormesby Table Tennis Club’s most improved players of 2018

Ormesby Table Tennis Club’s most improved Player of the Year awards have been announced.

11 year old Tim James for winning the Boys award and 13 year old Rebecca Savage the girls.

Tim from the Acklam Grange school in Middlesbrough, beat off a challenge from several top players.  Ormesby have 5 boys who are close to the top of the England rankings Joe Cope, Josh Weatherby, David Gofton, Thomas Rayner and Ben Pigott.  All of these would have been winners of the award in previous years, but Tim won the award because of the enormous improvement he has made since he started playing the game earlier this year.

Tim James and Alan Ransome

Tim is a member of the new Ormesby Hope Squad which trains regularly under the guidance of coaches Malcolm Muldoon, Carole Moore, and Ryan Nassau Tim is also a member of the Ormesby teams that play in the National Cadet and National Junior League as well as representing the club teams in the Cleveland & District Summer League and the Middlesbrough Leagues.

The new Ormesby Hopes Squad has several more prospects who are hoping to progress into the club’s top squad and up the England rankings in the not too distant future.

The girls award was won by Rebecca Savage, aged 13 from St Francis School in Richmond, who is already a member of the Ormesby Women’s team in the British League competition and the Junior team in the Junior British League, Rebecca also plays for the teams in the Summer League and the Middlesbrough League.

Rebecca Savage and Alan Ransome

Rebecca already participates in the England Youth Squad and has improved her England Junior ranking by more than 80 places in the last 12 months.

Ormesby has a squad of 8 girls who are making significant progress and ambitions of repeating a previous Ormesby Girls squad which included Carole Knight – Moore and Karina Lefevre who have both won the British League Championship several times in their era.

Report by Alan Ransome OBE

Ormesby Players compete for Durham County

Durham County Coach Chris Blake and Players

Left to right: Callum McRae, Chris Blake, Charlotte Weatherby, Rana Rassem, Peter Smallcombe and Tom Rayner

Three Ormesby Players who travelled to Wellingborough to play for the Durham County Junior team, had a very good weekend.

The team finished in 4th position in their League and may have been even higher has Josh Weatherby been well enough to play. Unfortunately Josh had to pull out Friday night.

Tom Rayner did exceptionally well winning 14 games out of 14.

Ormesby Super 10 – Sunday 30 December 2018

Ormesby TT Club is holding its annual Super 10 Tournament

Sunday 30 December 2018

Closing date for entry is Thursday 20 December.

The cost per entry is £10

Middlesbrough Primary School Team Competition

Ninety six children took part in the Middlesbrough Primary Schools Table Tennis Team competition at Ormesby Table Tennis Club on Friday 7 December.

Andrew Oliver, who does a wonderful job organising the event, and with the help of the teachers from each of the Primary Schools, it all adds up to a really great day of table tennis for the children.

Ormesby coach and Club Activator Malcolm Muldoon is seen presenting the Acklam Whin team with their winners shield and Medals

After several rounds of matches it came down to the final where the 8 players from Acklam Whin Primary School beat the team from Pallister Park. Primary.

Winners – Acklam Whin Primary

Runners up – Pallister Park Primary

4 – 1 win for Ormesby I at Fusion

Danny Reed

Ormesby Captain, Danny Reed, was the star of the victory over London’s Fusion Club.

Ormesby with a 4-1 win over Fusion in London on Saturday have risen to second position in the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League.

Danny Reed was the star of the Ormesby team winning both his singles with victories over Fusion’s Number 1, Joseph Hee, from Singapore and Veterans’ Champion Lorestas Trumpauskas.  The victory against Hee was by 3-2 with Reed winning the deciding game by 11-4.  Trumpauskas was beaten in straight games.

The match opened with a doubles win with Darius Knight and Liam McTiernan who beat Trumpauskas and James Smith 11-8 in the deciding game.  Knight put the Ormesby team 3-0 up with victory over England Junior Number 2, James Smith, by 3-1.  Fusion’s only win was when Joseph Hee beat Liam McTiernan in straight games.

Ormesby rivals at the top of the table, Urban, visited  the Ormeau Club in Northern Ireland and won by 3-2 whilst the team in third place, Drumchapel, beat Cardiff by 4-1.

Urban lead the table with 14 points from their 4 matches.  Ormesby are in second position with 13 while Drumchapel and Ormeau have 12 each.

Ormesby’s next match is on Sunday 13th January at home against North Ayrshire.