75th Anniversary Press Report

                                                 Guildford Table Tennis Association 75^th Anniversary Weekend

The weekend of the 20^th and 21^st March saw the Guildford Table Tennis Association celebrate its 75^th anniversary by hosting a series of events. The weekend, which had been two years in the planning, started with an International Team Event held on the Saturday, followed by a Dinner and Dance on the Saturday evening, and finally an Open Singles event on the Sunday.

The team event saw eight teams invited to compete from other clubs with which the Guildford association has formed strong bonds with over the years. Competing alongside three Guildford sides were two teams from Germany (one from Anhausen the other from Deggingen), a Jersey team, a Guernsey team and a team from the Bat and Ball club.

The three Guildford sides demonstrated three different aspects of the Association, A Guildford Youth side, representing the future of the league. A Guildford Socialites team consisting of seasoned campaigners within the Association who although accomplished players demonstrate the social and fun side of the game. And lastly a Guildford Senior side representing the current elite players within the Association.

Each Team competed in a series of three matches, with each match being comprised of nine games (eight singles and one doubles).

The first round of matches saw relatively comfortable victories for Guildford Seniors over Anhausen (9-0), Bat and Ball beat Guildford Youth (8-1), Jersey saw off the Guildford Socialites (8-1) and Guernsey defeated TV Deggingen (9-0). These score lines however hid a couple of very good individual performances. Feifei Pei of Guildford Youth took out Paul Amos from Bat and Ball in a tight five setter and in the same match the Youths Scott Gotham just lost out 11-8 in the deciding leg against former England top ten lady Helen Amos. Richard Seymour of the Socialites also notched up a good win against Jersey’s Max Tupper, Richard’s lightning fast reactions and aggressive counter hitting seeing him over the line.

The second series of matches saw some closer fought ties. In an intriguing contest Guildford Seniors took out Jersey 7-2, however the score line flattered Guildford and for a long while the match hung in the balance. Jerseys Josh Band had a very impressive win over Guildford’s Marc Burman and at the half way stage of the singles; the match was tied at 2-2. Three of the next four singles were extremely tight but crucially Guildford won them all to claim their place in the final.

In the other matches of the second series Guildford Youth lost out to TV Deggingen 3-6 (Deggingens Andreas Pusch and Martin Muhl picking up braces), Guernsey showed their intentions by whitewashing what looked like a strong Bat and Ball team, and the Guildford Socialites defeated Anhausen 8-1, although once again on a different day the final score could of been very different with five of the nine games going to a deciding set.

The final series of matches saw the teams play off for 1^st/2^nd, 3^rd/4th, 5^th/6^th and 7/8^th places respectively.

The play off for 7^th/8^th saw the closest contest, Guildford Youth just getting the better of Anhausen 5-4, the match being decided by a tight five set doubles, won deuce in the fifth by the Youth. Anhausen’s Conny Miller being on the losing side despite winning both her singles.

The 5^th/6^th play off also went down to the final game, TV Deggingen just edging out the Guildford Socialites 5-4. The Socialites Maria Taylor Woodward and Deggingen’s Manuel Schweizer both being undefeated. In the 3^rd/4^th play off Jersey proved too strong for the Bat and Ball club, running out 7-2 winners.

In the play off for Winner and Runners up Guildford Seniors nudged out Guernsey 6-2. The match providing some excellent quality table tennis, none more so than the Seniors Marc Burman victory over Phil Ogier which produced some extraordinarily long rallies of attacking table tennis as Ogier stood back and absorbed the hard hitting of Burman. The game took its toll on Marc though as he lost out in his second singles to the impressive Gary Dodd.

The winning Guildford side being comprised of the squad of John Robinson(4/4), Michael Hill(4/4), Richard Tanner(5/1), Marc Burman(4/2) and Ramesh Bhalla(3/1). Michael Hill and John Robinson both being undefeated on the day.

A few hours later the players had swapped their tracksuits for formal suits as the spectacular Wotton House hosted the GTTA Anniversary Dinner Dance attended by two hundred people including the distinguished guests the Mayor of Guildford, Councillor Pauline Searle and her consort and husband Victor, together with the chairman of the English Table Tennis Association Alex Murdoch and his wife Val Murdoch, and Micky Kercher, the President of the Surrey Table Tennis Association.

Also present were a number of past and present players and officers of the Association including Eric Grabiec who won the Open Doubles championship a staggering ten times, Linda Jarvis and Sue Henderson, sisters who at their peak represented England, and the President of the Association, Jack Harrington, himself a many time winner of the Open Singles championship.

Included in the evenings entertainment was a surprise exhibition by the legendary John Hilton and Brian Kean. John Hilton is arguably the biggest name in English Table Tennis history pulling off one of the greatest ever sporting shocks by picking up the 1980 European Championship at odds of over 1000/1. Brian Kean also a famous table tennis name who can boast as having represented Scotland at the Commonwealth games as well as having been the Scottish National champion.

The exhibition began with our own local legend Dave Phelps competing and holding his own with Hilton before being replaced by Kean. The two exhibitionists then proceeded to entertain the crowd by demonstrating their range of skills, including Kean swapping his bat for a saucepan!

During the speeches a number of significant presentations were made. John Diggens, the league archivist who spent hundreds of hours compiling the GTTA 75^th History book received a specially covered edition of the book. Dave Brown received the “Trevor Channing award” in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the association over the years which have included spells as many of the different officers which form the Associations committee.

Our guests and friends from Anhausen also presented the Association with a framed picture, the artwork being made of painted metal, which congratulated the Association on its 75^th milestone.

The final presentation was to the league chairman, John Callcut, in recognition of his achievement in organising the Associations 75^th celebrations.  The modest chairman has worked tirelessly over the last two years to bring these events together, and although supported by a dedicated and hard working committee there is no doubt that without his drive and enthusiasm these events would not have taken place.

The Open tournament began at 09:00 on Sunday morning with a few sore and tired heads. The event began with groups of three, the top two from each group progressing to the Open Event and the third placed player entering the draw for the Plate Event.

The preliminary rounds of the open saw some quality matches. Standing out from these was the tussle between Jerseys Josh Band and Guildford’s Koray Ozcan. Ozcan’s defensive style of play always good to watch especially when confronted with adventurous attackers such as Band. The Guildford player eventually won through in five sets.

The semi final line up saw Jerseys Eugene Ellis (who by this time had played off his hangover) take on ex-Guildford player Hari Gehlot. Ellis fought hard and dug in but ultimately came up short against the impressive Gehlot, losing in four legs.

The other semi saw Koray Ozcan face Matt Pernet. For large parts of the game Ozcan had Pernet struggling for his usual fluency and the match looked gone as Koray led 10-7 in the fourth leg and by two legs to one. However Pernet fought back to save the three match points and take the leg on deuce. The final leg saw Pernet make a strong start and although Koray fought back he ultimately lost the decider 11-7.

The final saw Gehlot play a storming first leg leaving Pernet looking bewildered, however Pernet fought his way back to take a tight second leg and it was evenly balanced at one leg a piece. Gehlot however was unable to maintain his stunning start and Pernet took the next two legs to claim the crown.

The Plate event was just as keenly contested. The first semi-final was an all German affair with Bernhard Lehmeyer seeing off Willi Mohr in straight sets. The other semi saw the ex- Guildford player Dave Lloyd win through to the final, defeating Val Murdoch in four sets.

The final was keenly contested and went to a final set, Lloyd just edging out Lehmeyer, 11-8 in the final set. This match, like the whole weekend, being competed in a competitive but friendly atmosphere.  The tournaments were held at Christ’s College, Guildford, and we are grateful to the College for allowing us to use their impressive facilities to host these memorable events.