News Archive - March 2011
Summer Training Camp Opportunities
Table tennis players will have no shortage of opportunities to improve in the August school holiday period.
West Chiltington Table Tennis Club is hosting a 3-day camp in afternoons at its well equipped village hall venue. Head Coach will be Rory Scott supported by assistant Amila Thilakaratne on a course that will accommodate players of all ages and abilities. Further details and a booking form available by clicking here
Following a very successful camp last summer Horsham Table Tennis Club will be hosting another Nicky Jarvis Summer Week for players of Sussex Elite Centre and top division local league standard in the week commencing 15th August. Contact Ian Ford on email or 07764-146338
Midhurst in the Money
Midhurst Table Tennis Club is delighted to announce that they have been awarded a Sport England Small Grants fund of £10,000. The money will be used to develop this new table tennis club and develop a network in the Midhurst Rother area to increase participation levels and improve standards of performance.
The club will be developing a range of extra-curricular activities and is set to work with eight feeder primary schools which will create additional interest into the new set up.
The operation is going promote intra school competition and look to host an inter school competition in the near future. With this in mind the club will be looking to train more volunteers and young leaders and run a series of teacher training workshops in order to develop sustainable delivery.
This is a very exciting opportunity for the young people in this area and if anyone would like to get involved please contact Natalie Jagota (Midhurst Rother Valley School Sport Coordinator) on 07809501559.
Olympic TT Legacy Planning for Sussex 
Sussex is increasingly being mentioned as an up and coming TT county. It has got some excellent juniors coming through and performing well for the county and in participation development terms activity has never been higher. Plans are afoot in the build up to London 2012 to build on this progress by securing funds in different areas of the county for clubs and club consortiums to pursue various development objectives.
The West Area group has secured funding already and clubs such as Angmering, Horsham and St Michael's (Lewes) have also been successful in gaining development grants. Table tennis is a high profile Olympic sport and the ETTA is also trying to exploit this advantage through projects like Ping London. It is testament to the Alliance's vision and foresight that it is determined not to miss out on this once in a lifetime opportunity.
Triangle Project a Big Success!
18 months have elapsed since the SCTTA, supported by the Sussex Alliance, secured £15,000 of funding from Sport England and the Foundation for Sport and Arts (FSA) to purchase tournament equipment to be based at the Triangle Leisure Centre in Burgess Hill. The project has been a resounding success, although more constrained availability at the Triangle than expected, has led to pragmatic decisions to share the tables across other major venues - K2 in Crawley and Imberhorne School in East Grinstead - to maximise the value of these assets.
Usage has included talent development, league play, development and graded tournaments, 50+ programmes, disability programmes, a County Cadet premier Weekend, ETTA Regional Qualification events and Olympic promotions. Further plans are in motion to use the equipment for Grand Prix, 4-star and county fixtures so the end of project report to Sport England and the FSA will be ultra-positive in showing their investment decisions as good ones.
Indeed the FSA sent a representative to see the tables in use at the Sussex Elite Centre recently and was really impressed with what he saw and photographed. His only complaint was that the players hit the ball so consistently fast he struggled to react appropriately with his photo finger!
All Change in Crawley/Horsham 
The Crawley/Horsham League grasped some important nettles in the 2010-11 season . With its Premier Division already successfully transformed into a central venue operation in the impressive surroundings of the K2 Leisure Centre decisions were taken to further extend there with second and third tiers. The expanded operation utilised 14 tables over a five badminton court area and put the sport in better profile. £2500 was also awarded by the Sussex Community Foundation to purchase more equipment in support of the modernisation plan.
The Crawley/Horsham League also took over the running of Crawley's Holy Trinity School facility just down the road from K2. Tuesday nights, 7.30-9.30pm, has been an open club night for players of all levels and beforehand (6-7.30pm) Joe Comper, has been building a junior set-up for the town with the support of Change 4 Life funding.
Billy Building!
Under the direction of club leader Gill Harding Billingshurst TTC is building. Launched three years ago the club boasts an expanding junior section at its Billingshurst Leisure Centre base that is fed by good school links at Billingshurst and Wisborough Green Junior School. These two schools compete at an annual festival. Additionally the club has developed a thriving 50+ section based at the village hall after gaining some initial coaching support from Horsham District Council
Horsham Thrilled at Thorpe Park
Horsham TTC took a contingent of junior players, parents and coaches to enjoy a day away from 
the tables at Thorpe Park recently. Rory Scott organised the trip and Ian Ford drove the minibus. Dan Pound was perhaps the most intrepid person in the party always being the first in the queue and dragging his dad Steve on to the rides with him!
Storrington Looking Good
Storrington is a village club that has certainly come a long way in a short time under the leader
ship of Ian Talmadge. The club's junior section is bearing fruit with youngsters feeding into local league teams, has good school links and has recently started an adult section which has developed to the point of seeking an adult coach for its Monday night session.
Saints Above!
St Michael's TTC (Lewes) have been successful in securing £600 from the Sussex Community Foundation's Grassroots scheme to fund the professional coaching input of Marc Burman. Club leader Rob Hoy is delighted with the success which will support the continued improvement of standards within his set-up which has no trouble in securing good attendances. SCTTA Development Officer Ian Ford provided guidance and advice to help Rob get the money and said "St Michael's is a good club and I'm sure this money is being invested well to the benefit of table tennis." - http://updates.etta.tv/southeast/2010/08/19/congratulations-st-michaels-ttc/
Denman in Demand
UKCC L2 coach Steve Denman is forging a career in sports coaching and Sussex table tennis is benefitting big time. 19 year old Steve, one time Sussex Junior Champion, has just finished a 6-month government funded Future Job contract with Horsham District Council's Leisure Link sports development team. He's qualified and gained delivery experience in a variety of sports including fitness, tennis, rounders, athletics, badminton and urban rebounding but now his contract's finished he's in big demand from community table tennis providers and is set to be running about 20 sessions per week.
Horsham TTC On The Up
See Article on ETTA website: http://updates.etta.tv/southeast/2010/08/25/horsham-ttc-on-the-up/
North Mundham Re-equip
Peter Baldwin at North Mundham has done great work in securing a £3,000+ grant from the Sussex Community Foundation which has enabled his club to purchase four fantastic Butterfly Centrefold tables to replace ones nearing the end of their useful lives.
