Worldwide Veterans’ Table Tennis Websites (and various Links)
25/11/2011
Keep up-to-date with World Veterans Table Tennis by logging on to
www.tt-veterans-international.com
for a special report of the 3rd International Team Championships of Veterans Societies 2011 inIstanbul. Also view the latest rubbers approved by the ITTF.
Veterans’ Table Tennis is becoming more popular all the time.
All over the globe the constant evolution of these websites is evidence of many of yesteryear players returning to the sport they enjoyed so much when much younger, and are organising their own affairs.
As it appears there is more leisure time for many of us these days and folk are living decidedly longer, returning to the sport we love is a natural progression.
Table Tennis is uniquely and physically suited to virtually any age group. As studies in Japan have born out, the hand-eye coordination of Table Tennis is conducive to much improved brain activity, so vital when one ages.
The competitive exercise gives us an additional focus in our lives and we get the opportunity to meet many new friends going around the various tournaments all over the world.
The consensus of a veteran’s age starts at forty, then proceeds to fifty, sixty, sixty five, seventy, seventy five and readily goes up into the eighties and nineties, as evidenced at the bi-annual Veterans World Table Tennis Championships.
Participating in our sport keeps us fitter and healthier in both mind and body and as a consequence much happier, in particular when one approaches retirement age.
No better commendation to playing competitive “ping pong” is when one starts to look forward to entering a new age-group, instead of fretting about getting older.
The editor
World Veterans Table Tennis Championships – Stockholm 2012 Have they shot themselves in the foot?
On 12 August 2011 the Swedish website www.wvc2012.com stated that over 500 entries have been received. By 18 August the entries passed the 600 mark. As I wrote earlier there is a maximum limit imposed by the organisers of 2800 players.
This seems to have upset many players in Germany, as I recently became aware of through e-mails with my good friend Gordon Lee fromFremantle WA. We have both played doubles together at Rioand in Hohhot and have played against the president of ‘Der Club’ (the German Veteran Table Tennis Association), Konrad Steinkamper.
Konrad is no slouch at the game. He has won the German Veterans championships before and was R/U in the 65 singles inYokohama. He made the semi-finals inRio, but forfeited after having a bad fall. He came back the next day however, to support his doubles partner with his nose in plaster. They promptly won the 70s doubles gold medal, no mean feat.
Steinkamper wrote the following to Gordon Lee:
“As far asStockholmis concerned, I will not take part in this event.
Last weekend (early August 2011) DER CLUB had its Annual Meeting close to Frankfurt/Main.
Because of the fact that the Organising Committee is not willing to guarantee a certain quota of players, we are not able to register our members of DER CLUB as per usual.
On the other hand many of us are not willing to accept the high player’s fee and the cancellation fees as well. So we have decided to no longer promote this event.”
Sweden undoubtedly is a very expensive country for tourists and many would be dissuaded from participating because of the high costs. Gordon Lee was disappointed when I told him I was going to play with my long-time partner Geoff Nesbitt in Stockholm. Geoff has been ill, but is in remission. So Gordon went looking for another partner and he hit the jackpot when he received this good news from Steinkamper:
“Dr. Peter Stolzenburg. Some months ago I had agreed to play doubles in Stockholmin Cat over 75 with him.
Then I had to tell him that I will not play inStockholmby reasons you already know. It was not easy for me to cancel this double. In this Email I have promised to look for a strong partner and I recommended him to play with you. Now he told me that he is willing to do so if you agree.”
Gordon asked me for my opinion and I told him Peter Stolzenburg is a much better player than I am, so go for it. Which of course Gordon did.
Now all this brings me to the question, have the Swedish organisers made the right decision to place this arbitrary ceiling on the number of contestants on the basis of first come first served? Remember that inYokohama(2004) the Japanese limited their own countrymen to 1000 and had qualifying tournaments to achieve this.
The membership of Der Club would be one of the largest in the world, if not the largest. In my experience of the 10 consecutive worlds veteran championships I played in, the German players have always featured prominently, not only in numbers but especially in performances.
Time will tell.
The editor
LATEST on WORLD VETERANS at STOCKHOLM SWEDEN – 25/30 June 2012
Notice to all prospective Australian veteran players. Enter as soon as possible.
.
A terse message appeared on the Swedish Website yesterday, www.wvc2012.com 2/7/2011, that the last date for Entry is March 2012. Maximum number of participants 2800. First come, first served.
It went on to report that between 20-25 June 2011, EVC was played inLiberec. WVC 2012 was present with a stand and the interest was enormous. Be ready on August 1st when the registrations start here on our webpage!
Registration start
By Emanuel | Published: 14 June, 2011
Registration for WVC 2012 will be possible from august 1st. All registration will be done digitally online. The registration is handled from our partner Congrex. Information about tournament, accommodation, tours, etc will be updated accordingly. Please be informed that the maximum amount of participants will be 2.800! (VEM inLiberec now 2450 players..)
The Editor
Just in case you never got the Today show down your way today (5/10/10), here’s the link to watch Dot De Low’s interview.
http://today.ninemsn.com.au/default.aspx
I received this message from Howard Middleton on http://www.freewebs.com/internationaltabletennisclub
also on http://www.costa-news.com/index.php?option&task=blogcategory&id
who wrote about the demise of English Table Tennis and outlined some of the problems associated in his opinion of the Management of the ETTA.
Nets and edges,
The inimitable Tony Herbert from Queensland, and a great lover of our sport, submits the following article. Please feel free to comment.
Australian Veterans Table Tennis Association.
The European Veterans Societies are in the Process of designing and implementing their own Web Page and have asked other countries to link their Web Pages to European Vets Web Page.
As for myself, I feel it would be advantageous to participate in this new venture for information we receive from Europe such as World Vets, European Tournaments and European Championships and articles from a number of European Veterans Societies can be readily perused.
My next article will be about a Vets event to be held in Sweden.
One quote I like, and might be attributed to TTA, when I visited the Ho-Chi-Ming Museum in Vietnam. It read “Lack of Communication Breeds Egos”
I believe TTA’s new constitution is being presented to Veterans in Melbourne at the 27th Annual Veterans Championships.
Some of the articles I envisage might be controversial, as Case and myself believe in serious and open debate with the view to improve the sport we all love.
Please forward your comments to us, particularly on whether Australia should spend time and money in holding the World Veterans in Australia.
Contents for Consideration and Comments.
I have studied data from previous World Vets and this data has been translated into Euro’s obviously. The conclusion I have drawn is only an approximation of the early days of WV’s events when a number of countries used their own currency for entrance fees.
Interpolating these figures and coupling them with previous number of entries, I estimate an entry of 1600 — 1800 participants. In addition, some 320 accompanying persons.
The SCI have advised TTA that the entry fee not exceed AUD200 .
For example: 1600 –1800 entries AUD320000—- AUD360000 minus 10% of entry fees to SCI.
Also the accommodation and hospitality costs for seven executive members of the SCI, ITTF president and ten previous world champions ( I estimate 18% of entry fees will cover all the costs of these gratuities. In total these add on costs can be 18% of entry fees. Another ratio I established is the total cost of equipment etc including 5% import tariff and 10% GST, wharfage and other port charges allow 48% of the FOB price.)
Since my initial talks with Ted Davis several months ago together with Paul and Ken, I noticed NSW have taken up the challenge and are pursuing my suggestion of holding the WVs event at Homebush.
The reason I suggested Homebush is because of the area. It is sufficient; internet quotes an area of 6000sqm. (Although I don’t know how much the skate park takes up and could reduce this area.) Lighting and flooring are a permanent fixture in the two halls. Except one of the halls has a sprung wooden floor which I believe would not be a problem. In short, not having to install flooring and lighting makes Homebush an ideal venue at a very competitive price.
Present day costs I estimate hiring the halls for six days would be in the vicinity of $25000 — $30000.plus cleaning, security etc. I contacted the manager of the venue and I asked for an approximate of present day prices. I did this because I have found in the past that one has to push an organisation to think laterally and not having some background information may discard any suggestions to bin thirteen. (Even if one presented a folio which was fully costed, it could also be destined to file thirteen.)
Note the SCI will insist on an arena with a capacity of approximately 2000 to watch the finals, whichever country holds the event and to have a minimum of 80 competition tables, plus practice tables.
The Olympic and Paralympics Table Tennis competition 2000 venue would be ideal venue to hold the finals of the WV’s (Obviously this would increase the costs.)
Pie in the Sky Ideas
Firstly: If a Pro Tour event was held at the Gold Coast (GC convention centre is far to expensive to hire, but alas as always no one is prepared to discuss problems such as this with people who know.) or in Sydney, finals of the World Vets which are held on the Saturday could be followed by three days of the Pro Tour event or as I have lobbied for years a FESPIC disabled championships in Australia.
Pro tour event could be played after the finals of the WV’s event and the FESPIC event could be played before the World Vets. The event would take roughly ten days.
Only one hall would be needed to accommodate the FESPIC event. There are three hotels at Olympic Park and obviously disabled facilities would need to be checked for suitability. If acceptable then no transport would be necessary from these hotels to the venue which is a distinct advantage.
( In Qld the board should consider and thought be given to holding a disabled event such as a 40 unit point event at Run-Away-Bay which incidentally I suggested as the venue for the Australian Juniors this year. I believe we have a wonderful chance of promoting both State and Federal Government’s policy by introducing a greater emphasis on the inclusion for the movement impaired, aged persons and the general members of the community, by having an Expo of Table Tennis at Homebush. What a wonderful opportunity!
My SLOGAN for promoting table tennis was, “Table tennis can be played by people 8 to 80 years of age,” but our wonderful Ambassador of table tennis Dot De Low proved me wrong. It should read 8 to 100.
After completing my feasibility study for the WV’s in 2008 to be held at the Gold Coast, which appeared viable. BUT translated into the financial climate of 2014 it was a big risk due to the costs of hiring the GC Convention Centre.( Exchange rate could be a killer for holding these events.)
Due to my conclusion that the event, if held at the GC, would not be viable I lobbied NSW for the event to be held at Homebush.
Having played at Homebush and I am familiar with the area necessary to accommodate 80 tables. 80 tables will easily suffice an entry of 1920 athletes: the total area available according to the internet is 6000sqm. My calculations from my previous study of holding the event in 2008 still holds good for today or in the future is 4000sqm for courts plus 40% for isles and temporary seating etc equals 5600sqm.
For your consideration.
Table Tennis Australia, Qld or NSW must decide whether the main reason for holding the WV’s w is purely to make a large profit or to promote the game of table tennis. Nationally!!!
We are all aware that our elite players will not win medals at major ITTF events unless we import top Chinese players and then perhaps Australia could be successful
The Commonwealth Games competition is not classed as a major event by world’s table tennis standards, so Australia could be successful in obtaining medals.
The Sport and Rec if they adopt the Crawford Report, which clearly indicate those sports which are most likely to win medals will therefore accordingly receive the bulk of the money.
The second phase suggested that sports that do not fall into this category and which have to obtain funding based upon participation rates, chances of increased funding from Sport and Rec would be minimised if a policy to achieve this requirement is not developed.
Remember the old Victorian saying “children should be seen but not heard” and this attitude appears to be when it concerns the Australians Veterans.
If one insists on a large profit for the above events, then being selected to hold these world events will be diminished, I believe it to be ultimately detrimental to TTA, in the long run particularly, when they are publicise that they develop table tennis from beginners to elite players( will be later quoting the exact wording.)
As you may be aware I received a letter from Diane Schoeler regarding another matter. It points out other countries that have seriously considered holding the 2014 World Vets Event.
With regard to volunteers, if the above suggestions are successful, then it could be a forerunner for Sydney’s World Expo in 2017. Remember Neil Harwood when he indicated that table tennis had 95% attendance of volunteers, which I believe is the highest of all sports. Of course mainly Vets.
Keep well,
Tony ( formerly, years ago, referred to as nets and edges).
Why have AusVet & VicVet?
Published 9/8/2010 at 8.30 am
This question is invariably asked by some. Sometimes it is asked in an enquiring manner because of genuine wonderment; at other times in a somewhat derogative fashion when it is immediately stated that, “We already have a Veterans Committee, so why create another one?”
In response to the former poser, it is clear that there is a great difference between an incorporated association and an appointed sub-committee.
One is autonomous, the other totally dependent on the organisation that has appointed it.
In other words, in the first instance, veterans are run by veterans for veterans.
In the latter instance an appointed committee may proffer proposals, but has no right or power to implement any of their wishes; they must first ask for permission. They’re there in an advisory capacity only, with no voting rights.
During the past four years many of these recommendations by sub-committees of both TTA and TTV were overturned or totally disregarded.
I have been personally involved in them, both as a player and as a veterans’ state selector.
So when decisions and requests are made by veterans and are ignored or denied by those who are in charge, then ‘spontaneous combustion’ takes place and independent associations are born.
It is no co-incidence that these denials and adverse decisions are mainly made by well meaning people, but by those who have little knowledge of veteran affairs.
Therefore it makes elegant sense that veteran affairs should be left for veterans to run.
The conception for the formation of AusVet and VicVet, though entirely new to our sport here in Australia, is not such a novel idea at all.
All major sports have their veteran arms, all are incorporated and operate independently of their peak sporting bodies; and with their wholehearted consent, may I add.
When in 2007 TTA declined to endorse our first national veteran teams selections to compete in Cottbus, everyone involved was disappointed by being disenfranchised. Regardless we went anyway, and our SA girls won the first world championships 50’s team gold medal.
When arbitrary levies were imposed on all veteran players competing in the nationals in 2007 by TTA, many players strenuously objected. Because of this furore they disappeared from the ‘menu’ the following year. However they were re-imposed in 2009, much to the chagrin of the national veterans committee and all the competitors.
In Victoria we had in the years 2008 and 2009 four different selected state teams rejected by TTV. The Board refused to stand by their own appointed selectors.
In 2010 they were summarily dismissed.
Not because the selectors had done an inadequate or shoddy job, but mainly because they were deemed to be disobedient to the Board’s selection criteria. This was not said in so many words of course.
No, they were thanked for their diligent duty (one of them for 25 continuous years), but told their services were no longer required.
Have matters now improved as far as Victorian team selections go?
It is very sad to report that in 25 years of veterans’ table tennis in Victoria, never have so many eligible players been overlooked and/or misplaced in state teams.
Victoria could have had a much stronger line up if due diligence had been exercised by TTV and for them to have allowed the veterans themselves to do the selecting of state teams according to their own criteria.
We have more than twelve instances in this year’s teams where players are incorrectly appointed and many others totally overlooked.
Victoria is so much stronger than it’s reflected in the present teams.
Because of all the above mentioned reasons, AusVet and VicVet will not go away, but they are all the more determined to rectify the present unsatisfactory arrangements.
The day will surely come that the peak bodies of our sport will have so much more time to spend on their own business and affairs, when the veterans will run their own competitions according to veteran rules.
So far we have managed to have one of our own, Dorothy Mary De Low elevated to the highest honour in the land and awarded an OAM for services rendered to our sport, on Australia Day 2010.
TTA was quite happy to delegate that job to AusVet.
Also see article in this week’s Womans Day.
We had another stalwart player in Bill Bates winning a world championship singles gold in Hohhot in 2010. See articles elsewhere on this site.
Veteran table tennis is here to stay and is bound to go on from strength to strength.
The editor
Gordon Lee supplied the following eulogy on the recent passing of Betty Jaggs.
Betty Jaggs was a Fremantle Club member in the 1940′s and 1950′s. She passed away suddenly on the 14th of July 2010.
Only 2 weeks away she was training and playing with the stronger club members in preparation for the National Vets.
With her cousin Joan Jackson they formed a formidable doubles pair, winning the State title in 1956.
Betty, under her maiden name of Betty Sergeant, won the State singles title in 1954 and after marrying won again in 1956. She represented Western Australia several times. Bill Bates was a senior member of Fremantle around this time and of course knew Betty well.
Another junior member of Fremantle at the time was Gordon Lee. Gordon after taking up the game again in 2002, rang around looking for former players to join him. Betty took up the offer and soon regained her former skills. She and Gordon’s wife Shirley and a third lady had their accommodation booked for the Melbourne Australian Veteran’s Championships in October. The 3 ladies were to form an over 70s side, all from the Fremantle Club. Betty would have acquitted herself very well, just look at what Bill Bates has achieved.
Gordon Lee and Betty’s brother Ron Sergeant were the nucleus, together with Colin Harburn of the Western Australian junior team which played in St. Kilda in 1956.
Betty will be sadly missed by all who knew her.
Gordon Lee
Short report on the Veteran World Table Tennis Championships in Hohhot, 2010.
(by Case de Bondt )
From Rags to Riches.
56 Australians arrived in China to do battle with the top veteran table tennis players in the world, Betty Bird played for England, Roy Leung and John Lau for Hong Kong, but for all intents and purposes are all Aussies. Having participated in every world championships, apart from Melbourne in 1994, this would have been one of the largest Australian representations.
Most of us arrived on Friday 4 June and found the conditions on the practice tables trying, to put it mildly. The balls were behaving strangely and were carrying long. The rarefied atmosphere in Hohhot, which is some 1,100 metres above sea level, increased the pace of the balls and it took some time to come to terms with the strange conditions.
The opening ceremony was out of this world and had to be seen to be believed. A DVD is available to those interested to view this unprecedented colourful display by hundreds of Chinese, including many school children and a massive choir. The show had everyone enthralled and on the edge of their seats.
Left handed William Bates, one time ranked third at table tennis in Australia, but never representing his country internationally, has excelled himself by winning the World Veterans Table Tennis Singles title in the over 80 age group.
To the best of my knowledge this feat has been achieved only on four previous occasions by Dorothy De Low, the late Una Fitzgerald and Stan Wynack, and Van Chat Mai. However since the last time an Australian Veteran won a world championship (Van Chat Mai, Melbourne in 1994), the standard of play and the number of entrants has greatly increased.
The 15th World Veterans Table Tennis Championships held in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China from 7 – 12 June 2010, with more than 2200 players from 57 countries, produced a worthy Australian champion in Bill Bates, against all the odds.
Here we had a world championship held on Chinese home soil, and Bill was victorious against players recognised as the very best in the world. What’s even more remarkable is that Bill, who was “never going to play eleven up” just qualified second in his group, to play in the championship draw proper, only on a three way count back (on points). All three players featuring in the count back had scored 2/1 and the chap who had beaten Bill finished up missing out!
But then Bates went from strength to strength and in a tense final before a packed Stadium beat the German Roessler in four glorious games. Roessler previously had disposed of the last remaining Chinese player in his semi in five close games.
The turning point in the final came in the third game at 1/1 and 6 -7 when Bill got an edge ball to make it 7 – 7. However Bill thought his ball had missed the end of the table and, ever the sportsman walked over and flipped the scores to 6 – 8 on the check umpire’s flip board.
The central umpire would not have a bar of it, flipped the scores back to 7 – 7 and after some delay, with Bill still not wanting the point, got the match under way again. Roessler had lost concentration with Bill running out the game at 11- 8.
The final game became a procession and was never in doubt. I have never seen Bill play so aggressively. In fact he lost the second by overdoing it and missing six hits. But he then became his very consistent self again, and if a back hand hit came back, started rallying all over again.
The quote of the tournament came from Bill. When I asked him how he felt after winning Gold, he answered, “I couldn’t handle his spin!” I wonder what Roessler felt…
Australia can be proud of its achievement at world level. We won one Gold, one Silver, Dot De Low in the 85 Doubles; and three Bronze, Betty Bird in the 75 Doubles and Ihn van Le/Igor Klaf in the 65 Doubles.
In contrast England, with its vast depth and experience only managed one Gold (in the Men’s 75 Doubles, Fred Lockwood/Merv Wood). The Veterans are outshining the Junior and Senior table tennis players in this country by lifting themselves to world standard, and what’s more at their own expense.
The future of our game is assured and will be revitalised when we look to the achievements of our veteran players in Australia.
I received the following correction from Tony Herbert:
The present Points System in Victoria and elsewhere.
Nothing has caused such controversy in table tennis ranks as the current Points System. This system is supposed to rank all players, so that we can compare the playing strengths of one player against the other.
In Victoria, and as a Veterans Selector the past two years, I was intimately involved with these points.
My experiences and understanding of the system are detailed below.
The seedings of a tournament are governed by these ranking points. In fact the selectors are supposed to (ordered to) use these rankings for seeding purposes. These Athletes’ Ranking Points are virtually set in stone and may only be deviated from in case of injury, or if athletes are within 50 points of each other and sometimes when the points of a player is unknown.
They “may only be adjusted on rare occasions and Victorians are to be seeded in sequence of the most recent TTV rankings.” Strong words indeed.
This is where the problem lies and the controversy rages.
Now don’t get me wrong. I believe in the system being a good idea in principle, but only with several provisos.
All players should be ranked as close as is reasonable to their playing ability and not hundreds of points wide of the mark. Secondly in the case of veteran players only matches within veteran ranks should be collated. Thirdly the system does not work, unless by far the majority of the members’ associations participate.
We all know that Juniors improve rapidly, especially when coached. They often are ranked far lower than their playing ability and therefore should only be collated within their own ranks.
Veterans are totally different players to Juniors and their style of play, often with ‘funny’ rubbers, cannot be compared to the way Juniors play and are coached.
So to be fair to all players these different age groups should not be in the same mix.
Some examples: In A2, my grade in Croydon, many of the players including a number of promising juniors, are rated far too low. They are on average by more than 200 points below my rating, presently at 1396.
Of 26 players who have all beaten me as often as I have gotten the better of them, the average rating is 1185 (I totted up their current points divided by 26).
Is this fair to me or my team mate Roy Cintolo?
Roy had 1550 points two years ago. Since playing at Croydon he has tumbled down to 1343.
Yet our contemporaries in the 70 age group, Chris Sykes (1500) and Peter Fischer (1430) are both ranked well above Roy and I.
For that reason they both received the # 3 & 4 seeds at the Geelong veterans tournament, behind Igor Klaf at #1 and Buddy Reid at #2.
Roy and I missed out.
STS Points (State Team Selection Points and these points are different) are awarded to the winner, R/u, semi finalists and quarter finalist at the rate of 36 (1st); 18 (2nd); 9 (semis) and 5 (quarters). This is in a ‘top four’ tournament and somewhat on a lesserscale in the others.
Ever since Roy and I have been selected in State Teams, each year from 1996 onwards, we have always got in ahead of both Chris and Peter, and at times both Chris and Peter were selected in the B Team.
It doesn’t take Einstein to work out that, unless one gets a top four seeding in a specific age group, chances of getting sufficient STS Points by the end of the season (mandatory for selection according to TTV) to make one of the top four places in a State team, are slim indeed.
What has all this to do with who deserves to be selected because he is the better player? It defeats the whole purpose of the system.
Peter has recently lost heaps in Bendigo because, among others, Ken Sands beat him. Ken came down from NSW to play (arguably he was ranked #3 in the land last year), yet Peter lost as many as 15 points to Ken when he was beaten in the 65’s. He also lost 13 points when beaten in the same tournament by Bruce Harmer.
Both Ken and Bruce are grossly underrated. On top of that Peter met Igor Klaf in the second round of the 70’s at Bendigo. He was not seeded there. Is it any wonder that Peter feels hard done by?
Now Chris Sykes plays pennant at Dandenong, where results are not sent in to TTV to be recorded and collated. I have beaten Chris the last two times, in Geelong and at Dandenong. I received a lot of points for Geelong, but none for Dandenong. Is that fair? Of course it isn’t, neither to Chris nor I.
The management in Dandenong (until very recently not affiliated with TTV) refuses to send in pennant results. As Brett Sonnet told me, “Some of our players would refuse to play pennant while the present ranking system is in place, so we have decided not to participate.”
One of the many reasons for AusVet and VicVet coming into existence is because of this iniquitous present system which the powers that be impose on us veteran players and they make it mandatory on the selectors to seed the players in veteran tournaments.
Just because the State body has the authority to make this imposition on veteran tournament players does not make it right.
We need to have our own veterans rating system, where we can compare veteran players with other veterans or apples with apples if you will.
And the sooner the better for all concerned.
I invite your comments.
The Editor
The first comment I received came from Jim Furness.
Hi Case, 14/5/2010
Seems good to me. I don’t know if you can fit it in, and off the top of my head I cant be specific, but at nearly every vets tournament in the divisional events, in one or more divisions the top seeds are knocked off in the first round and unknown or under-rated players are going through to the final and collecting money. This is grossly unfair to the genuinely ranked players of that division and deprives them of an opportunity to win or progress and have a satisfying day. The system as it stands is flawed. It needs manual intervention in many cases to bring it anywhere near correct.
As I understand it, an unknown player has to enter at least 3 or 4 tournaments before they are awarded points. They enter low grades and clean up while under a cloud. The system should limit such players to division one until they are qualified for points allocation, allowing their ability to be more accurately assessed, and maintaining the integrity of the divisions for established players.
Would you believe I mentioned this to Phil Davis a year or two ago and he said that was a good idea and he would put it to the next board meeting. If he did, which I have reservations about, nothing has come of it.
Cheers Jimbo.
PS: Further to the above it is pertinent to note that no less than six (6) volunteer veterans’ selectors have resigned since 2007 because of disenchantment with the system and the denial of their discretion in determining seedings for tournaments and selecting State Teams.
A further two selectors were dismissed by TTV at the end of January 2010; one of them after more than 20 years of continuous service and two more have indicated their retirement next year.
Volunteers are as scarce as hen’s teeth; in addition the other dismissed selector travelled 300 km from the country each time to attend meetings during the past two years. Is this the way to go forward? A fitting reward for services rendered? Hardly…
NEWS FLASH Friday 29/1/10
Highest Honour in Land for Dorothy De Low, OAM
This “News Flash” appeared on the Irish Website http://ittua.com on 26 January 2010.
“The Medal of the Order of Australia is the most prestigious honour in the land and Dorothy’s achievement has been recognised by Australia at last.”
For those of you who have not as yet heard the great news, ‘our Dorothy’ has indeed been honoured with the Order of Australia Medal for services rendered to our sport.
To me the above headline is reminiscent of ‘a prophet not being recognised in her own country’.
No recognition of this wonderful event has been shown on either the TTA Website or on the TTV Website, arguably the country’s strongest Table Tennis State.
Only her home State TTNSW Website carries a cursory notice, stating
“Congratulations to Dot De Low on receiving the OAM in the 2010 Honours List, awarded for services rendered to Table tennis. Dot will celebrate her 100th birthday in October.”
It would appear that the only Table Tennis player recipient in the world who has received her Country’s highest Honour means little or nothing at all to those in our fair land who are in charge of our sport.
As most know, in addition Dot is already published in the Guinness Book of World Records as the World’s Oldest competitive player.
Aren’t these startling events and the publicity that ought to go with it not the very opportunity our sport needs to attract more players?
Cannot TTA see that by encouraging folk to take up this ‘Sport For All Ages’ is a boon to our Government and a wonderful opportunity to attract sponsorship?
Why is this so?
But all the way at the other end of the world, Kiron Choudhury the Irish Secretary of the Table Tennis Umpires Union considers all this with the acclaim it deserves on his Website.
He goes on to say,
“What about recognising Dorothy’s achievement by Her Royal Highness The Queen. The Governor-General could be the right authority to instigate for recognition of Dorothy’s achievement in life.”
It puts us in Australia to shame.
It is to be hoped that those in authority of our beloved sport will see that this is too good an opportunity to let go begging and use Dorothy’s elevation to attract others to table tennis.
May I warmly congratulate our Dorothy on behalf of all the Veteran Table Tennis players in Australia on this remarkable milestone in her illustrious life and that you may represent us in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia at the World’s once again next June.
the editor
Being singled out by the president of TTV, but not for any praise.
I had no idea that I was so corrupt, a coward and a liar who misleads his fellow veteran players.
But this is what Phillip Carruthers told the whole table tennis world in Australia, stopping just short of naming me but making jolly well sure that by referring to the “originator” there is no doubt about who he is talking about.
He did not have the courage to initially sign the letter or name me, but chose instead to hide behind the TTV letter head and using their website.
He further had his cronies distribute this ‘blog posting’ to some select players during the nationals in Hurstville, to make sure those without a computer would also be informed.
The Public Officer and Secretary of both AusVet and VicVet is well known to all competitive veteran players as the “originator” of these two movements, which sprang up the past year or so.
Rather then asking the pertinent question:
“Why have these movements come into existence so readily?”
He chooses instead to shoot the messenger in a most despicable piece of diatribe full of suppositions.
Martin Solomons, a respected veteran player was concerned that the last paragraph of this ‘epistle’ was referring to him and demanded a full apology for the defamatory remarks.
This prompted Carruthers to repeat the article, but this time with a disclaimer that it was not Martin he was referring to.
Why are you so aggressive Phillip? Why do you invent these scurrilous ideas? Is it perhaps that the veterans are correct in recognising your unnecessary interference in their affairs?
Is that why you are being so aggro?
It does not behove the leader of the Victorian peak body to demonstrate his emotions and it does him no credit at all to lower himself to name calling.
We are all mature people whose only wish and desire is to have fun enjoying our great game to the full.
To that end Phillip, please be man enough to apologise to all the veterans for inferring they are being led by the nose.
The editor
Carruther’s article can be viewed on www.insports.com.au/ttv/
PS: As this article by Carruthers has been removed from the ‘insports’ Website I can supply a ‘signed’ and an ‘unsigned’ copy to all those interested. Just send me an e-mail at caseybul1@bigpond.com
The editor
