Health in Activities

A newly formed group with the aim of attracting men to take part in various activities across the local area have paid their first visit to Ormesby Table Tennis Club,

Following on from the ‘Health in Activity Groups’ which are regular visiters to the club with women outnumbering the men by about 10 to 1, this new group has been formed for men only.

It is hoped that taking part in the various activities will encourage more men to get together in order to keep them active.

The men can be seen in the picture taking a well earned rest after playing table tennis for an hour.

Middlesbrough Primary Schools Tournament

The Middlesbough School’s Primary Schools Team Championships took place at Ormesby Table Tennis Club on Friday 23 May with 12 Primary Schools taking part.

Each team had to include 4 boy and 4 girls with the winning team going forward to represent Middlesbrough in the Tees Valley School Games.

The tournament winners were Pallister Park Primary School who played some really good table tennis and will now go forward to the finals where they will play teams from Darlington, Hartlepool, Redcar and Cleveland and Stockton.

Green Lane Primary Academy finished in second place with Berwick Hills Primary School third.

Great weekend for Josh Harland

Josh Harland wins four titles in two days.

Saturday May 10 Josh played in the Halifax 2* and won both the Cadet and Junior Singles.

Sunday May 11 Josh played in the Bishop Auckland 2* where he once again won both the Cadet and Junior Singles.

Well done Josh

‘New Link’ on Ormesby TTC website

A ‘New Link’ has been added to the Ormesby website whereby pictures taken by John Upham at various table tennis events dring the past twelve months can be viewed.

2014 Cleveland Closed Table Tennis Tournament

Ormesby players dominated the Cleveland Closed Table Tennis Championships that took place at Ormesby last week with Martin Rutter retaining the open Singles title that he won 12 months ago.

Rutter was a comfortable winner in the final group.  He beat Michael Young and Dave Ashwell both in straight sets. Young beat Ashwell to take the runner up position.

The Junior singles was won by a new player into the area Nouradin Muktar from Somalia who defeated Kaine Macdonald to win the title. The match with Macdonald was close with Muktar winning 12-10, 8-11, 11-6 and 11-5.

Macdonald’s turn came in the Cadet Boys Singles where he was a comfortable winner against Michael Jones by 3-0 in the final.

The Mini Cadet Singles was won by Kieran Wardell who beat David Gofton by 3 games to one in the final.

Dave Ashwell’s claim for honours came in the Veteran’s singles when he won a good final against Peter Wilkinson in 3 straight games.

Michael Jones success came in the Handicap Singles when he won a very close final against Michael Young by 18 -21, 21-19 and 21-13. Jones also reached the final of the Banded Singles only to lose to Bruce Lowther in straight games.

The Wheelchair Singles was won by Brain Holloway who beat Noel Thomas 12-10, 11-7 and 11-7 to take the title.

RESULTS

OPEN SINGLES – Martin Rutter bt Michael Young 11-8, 11-4, 11-8

JUNIOR SINGLES – Nouradin Muktar bt Kaine Macdonald 12-10, 8-11, 11-6, 11-5

CADET SINGLES – Kaine Macdonald  bt Michael Jones 11-6, 11-5, 11-4,

MINI CADET SINGLES – Keiran Wardell bt David Goften 11-4, 8-11, 11-9, 11-6

VETERANS SINGLES – David Ashwell bt Peter Wilkinson 12-10, 11-7, 11-6

HANDICAP SINGLES – Michael Jones bt Michael Young 18-21, 21-19, 21-13

BANDED SINGLES – Bruce Lowther bt Michael Jones 11-6, 11-4, 11-6

WHEELCHAIR SINGLES – Brian Holloway bt Noel Thomas 12-10, 11-7, 11-

Ormesby’s 50 plus Hull Trip

Brenda and Richard can be seen taking a well earned rest with Alan Heppell and Malcolm Muldoon. (more pictures can be found on the Photo Gallery page – 50+ Visit to Hull April 2014).

Watch the youtube video    http://youtu.be/StbITwtO_Kw

Nineteen players from the Ormesby ’50 Plus’ squad paid their third visit to Hull for some competive but at the same time friendly matches on Monday 28 April.

Brenda and Richard Hudson and over twenty of their 50 Plus players once again gave a wonderful welsome to all the Ormesby players.

Quite a bond has grown between the two clubs and it planned that some of the Hull players will once again come to the Ormesby Club later in the year.

Middlesbrough Championships 2014

14 year old Josh Harland became the youngest player for many years to dominate the Middlesbrough League Table Tennis Championships which took place at the Ormesby Club on Sunday, winning a total of 5 titles.

To win the Senior titles as well as the Junior, Harland, who plays for Ormesby and lives in Redcar, demonstrated a great deal of improvement in his play over the last few months and if this progress continues, has the possibility of being a top player in the future.

The main event, the Open Singles, was won by Harland by defeating the holder, Martin Rutter, by 3 games to 1 in the semi final and another Ormesby player, Dave Ashwell, in straight games in the final.

Harland scored his second victory over Rutter in the Division 1 Singles.  This time the match went to 5 sets.  Rutter led by 2 games to 1 after winning the third at 11-9.  Harland took command in the final two games to win at 11-8 and 11-7.  Harland joined with Rutter to win the doubles, winning a 4 set final against Peter Wilkinson and Michael Young.

Harland’s other two victories came in the Junior (Under 18) Singles where he beat Calum White in straight games in the final and the Cadet (Under 15) Singles where Michael Jones reached the final, only to be beaten in 3 straight games.

The Veteran Singles (Over 40) was a hard fought event which was won by Peter Wilkinson.  In the final group Wilkinson defeated Michael Young and Dave Ashwell.  Young came into his own in the Handicap Singles where he scored a very narrow victory over Ryan Nassau by 21-19 in the third and deciding game.

The Division 2 winner was Bruce Lowther of Travel Hub who beat Michael Jones in 3 straight games in the final.  Kieran Wardell won an epic Under 12 title, beating his Ormesby team mate James Dale.  Wardell won the first 2 games comfortably but Dale won the next 2 with Wardell taking the decider by the narrowest margin of 15-13.

The Wheelchair Singles was won by Brian Hollaway who beat Noel Thomas in the final whilst the Hardbat Singles competition, played with bats that were popular in decades past, was won by Young who had a very narrow victory over Rutter by 31-30.

RESULTS

Open Singles – Josh Harland (Ormesby) beat Dave Ashwell (Ormesby) 12-10, 11-5, 11-8

Cadet Singles – Josh Harland (Ormesby) beat Michael Jones (Ormesby) 11-8, 11-7, 11-6

Veteran Singles – Peter Wilkinson (Ormesby) beat Dave Ashwell (Ormesby) 10-12, 11-4, 11-8, 13-11

Junior Singles – Josh Harland (Ormesby) beat Calum White (Ormesby) 11-1, 11-4, 13-11

Under 12’s – Kieran Wardell (Ormesby) beat James Dale (Ormesby), 11-9, 11-6, 6-11, 9-11, 15-13

Handicap Singles – Michael Young (Ormesby) beat Ryan Nassau (Ormesby) 21-17, 20-21, 21-19

Wheelchair Singles – Brian Hollaway (Ormesby) beat Noel Thomas (Ormesby) 11-6, 9-11, 11-3, 11-9

Division 1 Singles – Josh Harland (Ormesby) beat Martin Rutter (Ormesby) 10-12, 11-1, 9-11, 11-8, 11-7

Division 2 Singles – Bruce Lowther (Travel Hub) beat Michael Jones (Ormesby) 11-8, 11-3, 11-9

Open Doubles – Martin Rutter and Josh Harland (both of Ormesby) beat Peter Wilkinson and Michael Young (both of Ormesby) 11-5, 12-10, 4-11, 11-7

Hardbat – Michael Young (Ormesby) beat Martin Rutter (Ormesby) 31-30

Alan Ransome OB

Bishop Auckland 2star

Well done to Kaine Macdonald who won both the Junior and Cadet boys singles at the Bishop Auckland 2star on Sunday 30 March.

Josh Weatherby also had a good tournament winning the Under 11 boys.

British Premier League – final weekend

A strong performance from the Ormesby 1st team secured 3rd position in the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League when the final matches were played at Ormesby last weekend.

Welsh No 1 player Ryan Jenkins led the Ormesby attack, winning 6 of his 7 sets throughout the weekend and being awarded the British League Player of the Year for his performances throughout the season, with 24 out of 27 matches (89%).

Tom Jarvis, on debut for the Ormesby 1st team, performed well in the No 4 position, winning 6 of his 8 sets whilst Mike Marsden and Richard Andrews played their part, winning 4 from 6 and 3 from 8 respectively.  Martin Rutter played in one of the matches and won 1 of his 2 sets.

Ormesby played 4 matches this weekend, winning 2 against Barrow and Wymondham by 7-1 and 6-2.  Against the Champions, Sycamore of Nottingham, Ormesby played a 4 all draw with Jenkins winning both of his sets in the No 1 position.  Against the team in second place, Urban TTC of London which consisting mainly of Hungarian internationals, Ormesby were beaten 5-3, with wins from Jenkins, Marsden and Jarvis.

The main match for deciding the Championship was the first played on Saturday morning when Sycamore and Urban played a 4 all draw.  As Sycamore were at the top of the table at the start of the weekend, they were destined to win the Championship unless they dropped 2 points in the rest of the fixtures.  They only dropped one in their Sunday morning match with Ormesby.

Jenkins’ best performance came in the match against Sycamore where he beat their No 1 player, Chris Dorran, and new signing at No 2, Alex Perry.  His only defeat was in the match against Urban when he lost 3-1 to Adam Pattantyus, their No 1 player who carries a high World ranking.

Alan Ransome OBE

National Cadet League winners

Continuing on from their success in winning the National Junior League title, the Ormesby A team of Michael Jones, Joshua Weatherby and James Dale went on to win the 2013/14 National Cadet League title

British Premier League

ORMESBY entertain the top seven table tennis clubs in the UK for the final matches in the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League this weekend, 22 and 23 March, at the club’s headquarters on Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough TS3 8PB.

Ormesby are currently third in the table going into the final weekend with four matches to play.  Ormesby have 11 points from 10 matches, whilst the top two teams, Sycamore from Nottingham and Urban TTC from London,  have 18 and 17 respectively.  Ormesby have selected a five-man squad consisting of the Welsh Champion, Ryan Jenkins, Richard Andrews, Michael Marsden, Tom Jarvis the England Under 15 Champion, and Martin Rutter.

Ormesby’s first match is against the former champions, Barrow Tornadoes whose team includes the English Women’s Champion, Joanne Parker Drinkhall.  On Saturday afternoon Ormesby will play the team in second place, Urban TTC whose squad includes three Hungarian international players, Adam Pattantyus, Peter Musko and Daniel Schaffer.

On Sunday morning Ormesby play the current leaders, Sycamore whose squad includes the English No. 6, Chris Doran, Ireland’s top player Paul McCreery, and the former English Women’s Champion, Kelly Sibley.  The Teesside’s club final match is at 2.00 pm on Sunday afternoon against Wymondham.

The match which is likely to have a big influence on the eventual championship is to be played in the first session at 11.00 am on Saturday morning when the leaders, Urban TTC play the team in second place, Sycamore.  Other teams taking part this weekend include Fusion 1 and Greenhouse 1 from London and Drumchapel from Glasgow.

The Ormesby club will be open from 9.00 am each morning and spectators are welcome.

Alan Ransome OBE

Women’s British League Presentation for Jose

We at Ormesby Table Tennis Club would also like to offer our appreciation to Jose who has worked extremely hard for many years for women table tennis players. One of Jose’s passions is that women be awarded equal opportunities and equal prize money with the men. It is a fitting tribute that the Ormesby Team won this years Women’s British Premier League title in Doncaster on the 25th Anniversary ot the Wonen’s British League.

Jose Ransome, in her capacity as Chairman of the ETTA Women’s Committee, was responsible for getting the Women’s British League started, ten years after the Men’s British League was established.
This came as a result of a Women in Table Tennis Campaign with two major conferences held to promote the cause. The Women’s British League was the first team event to be held over a weekend in a central venue. Mike and Christine Lewis (pictured) organised the event as part of the ETTA Development Department for 17 years and later started the Junior and Veterans British Leagues using the same format, all of which have proved to be very successful over the years.

Women’s British League 2013-14

With an outstanding performance from Karina Le Fevre, Ormesby won the Women’s British Table Tennis League for the second successive year in Doncaster on Sunday, beating all 5 of the other top clubs in the Premier Division by convincing margins.

Karina, playing at No 1, produced her best ever performance for the Ormesby Club, winning all her 10 sets in straight games, a feat which is rarely at this level of competition.  She beat a number of leading British players, including Emma Vickers and Alice Loveridge of the Draycott Club from Derby, the Scottish No 1 Gillian Edwards from the Halton Cub of Merseyside and Abbie Milwain from the Burton Uxbridge team.

Karina was supported by Chloe Whyte and Maria Tsaptsinos, both of whom won 8 of their 10 matches.  Maria in particular, playing at No 2, produced exceptional victories over ~Vickers and Milwain.

Ormesby opened their campaign for the final weekend with a 6-0 victory over the Kent Club Byng Hall.  This was followed by 5-1 wins over the Topspin Sports Club from London and Halton from Merseyside.  The Championship was already secured by the end of play on Saturday as Ormesby led the table by 5 points with only 4 remaining on the last day.  Ormesby continued their impressive run with 2 more 5-1 victories over their main rivals, Burton Uxbridge and Draycott of Derby.

This is the third time that Ormesby has won the British Championship but never before in such a convincing manner.  Over the season Ormesby finished with 19 points from their 10 matches whilst the team in second place, Draycott, had 12.

In the player averages, Le Fevre was top with 90% and 18 wins from 20 matches while Whyte and Tsaptsinos were equal second with 15 wins from their 18 matches with 83%.

Alan Ransome

Women’s British League 2013-14

CONGRATULATIONS TO THE THE ORMESBY WOMEN’S BRITISH PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM.

Karina Lefevre, Chloe Whyte and Maria Tsaptsinos won all their three matches today and although they still have two matches to play tomorrow are in an unbeatable position at the top of the Premier Division.

Congratulations to Alan Ransome too. Alan coaches the Ormesby women’s team and they have now won the Premier League title three times in the last four years.

Full report to follow

Women’s British League

The Ormesby Women’s table tennis team is heading to Doncaster this weekend with the objective of retaining the British League title for the third time in 4 years.

With a team consisting of Karina Le Fevre, Chloe Whyte and Maria Tsaptsinos, Ormesby lead the table after the first round of matches with 9 points from 5 matches with Draycott East Midlands in second position with 7 points.  Ormesby also have a better sets average with 24 and 6 against 20 and 10.

Draycott is the team in the division which is most likely to trouble Ormesby.  In the first round of matches the two teams played a 3 all draw and the fixtures between the 2 sides will be the final one of the weekend on which the title could be decided.   The Draycott team includes 2 of Britain’s best players, Alice Loveridge and Emma Vickers.

The third team in contention is Burton Uxbridge whose squad includes Abbie Milwain.

Alan Ransome OBE

British Vets League – second weekend

Gary Whyman

British Premier League

With 2 good performances in London on Sunday 25 January, Ormesby are now equal top of the Premier Division of the British Table Tennis League..

Ormesby opened with a 7-1 victory against the strong London Club, Fusion.  Darius Knight, Tom Jarvis and Helshan Weerasinghe all won 2 sets each for Ormesby whilst Enio Mendes won 1, losing only to the former Ormesby player, Michael O’Driscoll.

In the second match Ormesby beat Barrow Tornadoes by 8-2 with 2 each from Knight, Mendes, Weerasinghe and Jarvis.  The match was closer than the scoreline suggests with Knight needing 5 games to beat Gavin Evans, Weerasinghe 5 to beat Craig Bryant and Jarvis to beat both Danny Lawrence and Niall Campbell.

Ormesby’s rivals for the title, the holders Sycamore of Nottingham, won both their matches beating Kingfisher of Reading 5-3 and Bournemouth 6-2.  Sycamore and Ormesby are now both locked on 19 points each and level sets average from the 10 fixtures played so far.  The final weekend of matches will be hosted by Ormesby over the weekend of 14/15 March.

Ormesby are in the remarkable position of being in with a chance of 3 British League top titles as both the women’s team and the junior team are top of their Premier Divisions at the halfway stage.

Alan Ransome OBE

Ormesby’s New Coach – Hong Peebles

Ormesby Table Tennis Club, which has a reputation for being one of the best in the UK for producing international players, has received a major boost in its quest to find the next group of stars following an agreement with the English Table Tennis Association.

The ETTA, in conjunction with Sport England, has selected Ormesby as one of only 4 clubs nationwide to become an official Talent Development Centre.  This partnership with the club will include the employment of a top Chinese coach, Hong Peebles, who will coach at the club tull time from the beginning of February.

The launch of the project will take place at 2.00 pm on 2 February at the club’s headquarters in Cargo Fleet Lane, Middlesbrough with an open day and talent search opportunity.

In addition to the partnership with the ETTA, the club will be further strengthened with the return of 6 times English Champion and a member of the Ormesby team that were European champions in the 1970’s, Denis Neale, who is also one of Britain’s top coaches.  Denis will work at the club 2 or 3 days each week.

Hong, who was a former player in the Chinese Academy in her earlier days, has recently produced 2 England No 1’s from her former base in Lincolnshire – Emily Bates and Tom Jarvis.

Hong says:

“Coming to Ormesby gives me a great opportunity to achieve my ambition to produce a squad of England players.  The set up at Ormesby is already the best in England and with a great tradition in the club and a strong team of coaches, I am confident that we will be very successful.”

Hong will concentrate on the Under 14 level and look for youngsters starting the sport from the age of 7 upwards.

As part of the agreement with the ETTA the club will be entering into partnership with 3 or 4 primary schools in the local area with the aim of establishing them as top table tennis schools.

Denis Neale is also excited about the new challenge.  “I am really looking forward to coming back to Ormesby.  We now have 3 of the most successful coaches in Butterfly working together and I am confident that we will be able to produce a new stream of players to help England to become a stronger international team.”

Another part of the programme will be the already established Premier League 4 Sport project in conjunction with Middlesbrough Football Club, Sport England and the ETTA in which 4 secondary schools will operate in conjunction with the Ormesby Club where the club’s community coach, Malcolm Muldoon, is providing the tuition.

The person in charge of the Talent Development Programme from the ETTA perspective is their top National Coach, Nicky Jarvis, who originally comes from Redcar and was a member of the same record breaking Ormesby team as Denis Neale.  Nicky Jarvis said:

“The ETTA are delighted to have the opportunity to work together with Ormesby in this new exciting programme.  The club has a tremendous tradition of producing top quality players.  Its culture and policy has always been based around performance and achievement and I am sure with the personnel at Ormesby and the full support of the ETTA we will help England to be a top Table Tennis Nation on the world stage.”

Players and parents interested in enrolling their youngsters for the programme are welcome to attend the open session on 2 February from 2.00 pm to 7.00 pm.  A coaching session will be held at that time and full information regarding the programme provided.

Alan Ransome

Ormesby’s 50+ sessions

2014 got off to an amazing start for the Ormesby 50+ players with numbers increasing to an all time high on Thursday 16 January .

The sessions are run on a Monday and Thursday morning from 10.00am to 12.noon.

There is also a session on a Tuesday afternoon for the more experienced 50+ players from 1.00pm to 4.00pm.

Ormesby collections

Ormesby continues to support the North East Air Ambulance and Teesside Hospice with collection boxes available on the ‘Cafe Ormesby’ counter. Thank you to all who generously donate to these two worthy causes. The letter in the picture opposite shows that over £88 was collected for the Air Ambulance in the past few months.

Two of our members Kirsty White and Dave Lax are connected with the charities.

Kirsty is the manager of the Teesside Hospice shop in Yarm and Dave covers a wide area in the North East of England giving talks, collecting cheques and selling various items to raise money for the North East Air Ambulance.