IDTTL Closed Championships 2023. Feb 2023

The Championships are back! Save the date; Saturday 15th April at Ipswich Sports Club on Henley Road.

Further details to follow.

New Committee Member. Jan 2023

Please join us in welcoming Trevor Elmy to the committee. We are grateful for his support.

Premier Division Update. Oct 2022

An important update for Premier Division Teams, Britanna Gulls have withdrawn with immediate effect. Please remove this fixture from your diary. The fixtures have been updated if you wish to reprint.

Now that we have returned to pre Covid procedures clubs are reminded to provide refreshments with squash as a minimum requirement to extend courtesy and good sportsmanship to the away team.🥤

KO Handicap Shield!. Oct 2022

It’s time to enter the KO Handicap Shield!

Teams that are interested in entering please contact our Handicap Cup Secretary:

Brian Blagden

bjb-serta@talktalk.net

Fixtures 22/23. Sep 2022

🚨 The fixtures are out!! 🚨

Teams have 2 weeks to report any errors/changes to Our Fixtures Secretary, Martin Taylor.

idttlfixtures@hotmail.com

http://www.idttl.net/contents/ fixturespassword.php

22/23 Season start date. Sep 2022

The 22/23 Season will start week commencing 26th September!

2022 IDTLL AGM notes. Aug 2022

Rule Changes:
A rule change was suggested that would mean a team only need pay a set fee for player membership, so any numbers of players can play (avoids players only playing a couple of games all season from having to pay the full player registration amount). This change was defeated.

A rule change for deciding league positions at the end of the season, where relegation/promotion is to be decided, was passed.
Rule was:
11.g. League positions shall be decided by the number of sets won or, in the case of a tie, the number of matches won, then by number of matches lost. If a tie still remains a play-off match will be arranged, if required if promotion or relegation are involved.
Rule is now:
11.g. League positions shall be decided by the number of sets won. If there is a tie a play-off match will be arranged, if required if promotion or relegation are involved.

A rule change was passed that involves changing the start time for some matches, to as early as 6:30. This is to accommodate situations such as:
- Venues not being available late (e.g. they close earlier than matches finish).
- Young players playing in the league need to be home early for School the next day and so parents want matches to start/finish earlier.
- some people playing in teams wish to finish playing earlier (maybe they work nights and need to be at work before a match ends, for instance).

With this one it’s up to the team wanting to start early to talk to the other teams (on each occasion) to agree this. For the requesting team’s home match they can insist that it will be a 6:30 start time (or some other time with latest 7:30) but they must communicate that to the visiting team.

Rule was:
10.a.5. Match to commence at 19:30, but allowing away team prior access to a table for a 15 minutes practice. All participating players must be present by 19.45 hours to play in the scheduled order unless mutually agreed at least 24 hours prior to the match.
If there are less than five participating players present, a match shall be declared void and the offending team/s may have the maximum points available deducted and may be fined.

Rule is now:
10.a.5. Match to commence No earlier than 18:30 and no later than 19:30 (home team to advise if not 19:30), but allowing away team prior access to a table for a 15 minutes practice. All participating players must be present within 15 minutes of arranged start time to play in the scheduled order unless mutually agreed at least 24 hours prior to the match start.
If there are less than five participating players present, a match shall be declared void and the offending team/s may have the maximum points available deducted and may be fined.

The last rule change was to do with dividing the league up into 4 smaller divisions playing each other 3 times.
The committee made it plain that they could force this through anyway without clubs having to vote on it, because the league was originally set up to have 14 teams in each division - so that’s 13 matches x 2 = 26 matches per year which is what was intended/specified, so they can take action to restore that as per that originally agreed format.

A question was asked about whether promotions/relegations would be applied before the cut into 4 divisions was made — the answer was that the committee would decide on placements, so they will decide & recognise who should be in which division.
For the new 4 divisions, it would be the rule that 2 teams from each division get relegated & 2 promoted. Obviously there’s no relegation in the bottom division. For the Premier there will only be 1 relegation and so only 1 promotion from the first.

The number of teams entered will decide the cut & size of divisions. If there are exactly 32 teams then that will give 8 teams in each division. It’s looking like there will be at least 32.

AGM and Awards Evening. Jul 2022

Thank you to everyone that came to the AGM and Awards evening on Tuesday! Aircon, chips and a bar - thank you Ipswich Sports Club!

Our winners:

Players player of Premier - Isaac Kingham
Players player of Division 1 - Daniel Farrow
Players player of Division 2 - Des Hindle

Premier Division Winners 21/22 - St Margaret’s Aces
Richard Goodhand, Richard Hanbury Hutchinson, Andrew Dosher & Alex Attew

Division 1 Winners 21/22 - BT Gladiators
Sam Broadbent, Daniel Farrow & James Fulker

Division 2 Winners 21/22 - Britannia Petrels
Quinton Lu, Steve Trimmer, Clive French, Zhen Lu & Vladimir Muizcuks

Handicap Shield Winners - Pickwicks C
Johnny Clougherty, Mark Beaumont, Michael Chenery, Ray Perry & Terry Betts

Jim Kenworthy Award - Joseph Fortnum-Adams & Alex Attew

Players Player of the division voting. Jun 2022

Dear All,

The Players Player of the division voting is open! And you can vote on our website.

A reminder of what this is for:

Players Player of the Division Voting
Each League registered player can vote for another player in their division for this award. This can be a vote for a player that has played well against you, the most improved, a recognition of consistent performance over the season or even just a great win!
The trophies for these awards will be given out at the annual AGM at the end of the Season.

The winners will be announced at this year's AGM.
Further details for the AGM to follow, in the next few days!

Best wishes,

IDTTL COMMITTEE

Handicap Cup Winners. May 2022

Match Report:

This year the final of the Handicap Shield could not have been closer. The final between Pickwicks ‘B' Mark Thorpe, Mark Cook/Michael Chenery and Graham Goodwin and Pickwicks ‘C' Mark Beaumont, Johnny Clougherty and Ray Perry went down to the last game with 1 point separating the 2 teams at the end, Pickwicks ‘C' winning 341 to 340.

Tragedy struck the ‘B' team in game 2 when Mark Cook suffered a hamstring injury. He carried on in pain, managing to draw that game, but in game 5, Marks second visit to the table, he went down21-15 which switched the lead in favour of the ‘C' team.

At this point Mark could not continue and it was decided by discussions between the 2 teams and organiser that Michael Chenery would substitute for Mark Cook. From this point on it was nip and tuck with the lead changing hands between the teams. After the 3 doubles games however, Pickwicks ‘C' established the lead and extended it to 8 points after the 3rd game of the second half. This was hauled in during the next 2 games and Pickwicks ‘B' took the lead only for it to be reversed, so that by the last game Pickwicks ‘C' led by 2 points. Despite a valiant effort by Graham Goodwin in the last game Johnny Clougherty hung on to only give away 1 point.

Brian Blagden
IDTTL Handicap Organiser

Rumour Mill

• The following waiver of ETTA Rule (2003/4) 57.1 is to allow the staging of handicap competitions, hard bat tournaments etc. The waiver is not intended to cover the normal league competition, only an "additional competition". Under ETTA Rule (2003/4) 57.1 all Competitive Table Tennis must, subject to any waiver granted, be played under the ETTA Approved Laws of Table Tennis, which are at present as set out in this leaflet.

  National Council resolution dated 9th July 1994 under Rule (1994/5) 42.7.1, to remain in force until further resolution, states: "Any County Association, Local League or club may, without specific permission, organise and conduct an additional competition or competitions solely among its own members and players on a knock-out basis , wherein the normal provisions of the Approved Laws are varied in one or more of the following ways:

  (1) by reducing or increasing the number of points required to win a game, either for all players or differentially under a system of handicaps

  (2) by restricting the type of racket covering or by otherwise diverging from the normal requirements as to equipment."
  
  To answer Adrian Clarke's suggestion of finding a method to allow people to play 21pt matches without breaching the ETTA regulations, we find the above WAIVER quite restrictive:
  We cannot run a 'league' type event, it must be knock-out.
  The event must come second to the main 11 pt league - this effectively means that players must be registered and involved in the main league.

• Being a regular cleaner of his bat, the Registration Sec' was challenged the other night for cleaning his bat between games of a match. In such a situation there's only one person to ask... Chairman Bert with his umpire blazer on. Bert ruled that there is no regulation against cleaning your bat. Footnote: The magic cleaning fluid was none other than good old Suffolk tap water bor.
• The three week grace afforded teams to play outstanding matches at the end of the season will be enforced so that matches played after that date will not count for the final league table.
• The Ipswich league is currently trying to increase the number of people playing the league, especially those of a younger age group. Players usually enter the lower divisions of the league at an age of 13 - 14, however, by that time they will have been playing non-league Table Tennis for a couple of years and the earlier they start the easier it is to improve. Having said that, the league welcomes players of all ages.
• In the summer of 2000, the ETTA decided to follow the ITTF ruling on using a larger 40mm ball, as opposed to the existing 38mm ball. If you are just starting or about to get into playing again after a break, you might want to check you're using the right size. The larger ball is easier to see and is slightly slower. Great for the old'ns!.
• Another rule change of note for those who haven't played for a while, is the one concerning bats and the rubbers. Without getting into the finer points, it basically means those playing league and competition games have to play with a Red rubber on one side and Black on the other of the bat. If you are a pimple rubber user, you will need to check the current legal pimple types, (the old grass type pimple is out!).
• Still trying to perfect that ultimate serve that no one can return? Watch out because the ball has to be visible to the opponent for the whole of the serve. No dangling the free arm in front of the ball!
• Think the 40mm ball is big?. In Japan 44mm balls are making an impact - will we see the same?
• Do you keep your tracksuit on until you are properly warmed up, i.e about the middle of the first game. Soon you may have to start the warm up clothed in the manner you wish to complete the whole game.