Betty Turns 90!!

On the 20th August, Wales' most famous table tennis player, Betty Gray will reach the grand age of 90 years old!

Everyone wishes her well....

Team Championships of Wales 2010/2011

Entry forms are on the TTAW site
www.ttaw.co.uk

Get your entries in by the 3rd September

Thanks

News from Istanbul

Last match of the tournament

Wales beat Armenia 3-1

See www.ttaw.co.uk for the full report....

Wales win again in Istanbul

Wales beat both Norway (3-0) and Bulgaria (3-1) today at the EYC in Turkey. With the match tomorrow against Armenia being for 32/33 position it is not what we hoped for but there was a real chance against Italy in the first match of the competition who are now playing for a significantly higher position than we are.
Very close between all teams involved...

Lee Morgan

Player of the Month for July is Lee Morgan

Please see article on left hand side of the page

EYC - Turkey

Full reports on www.ttaw.co.uk





Wales 1 - Italy 3
Wales 0 - Lithuania 3
Wales 3 - Bulgaria 0
Wales 2 - Switzerland 3
Wales 3 - Norway 0
Wales 3 - Bulgaria 1
Wales 3 - Armenia 1
As of Tuesday 20th July...

New website for Ael

For all the latest news on Ael y Bryn table tennis club visit their new site:

www.aelybryntt.co.uk

Liverpool GP form is out

Use the following link to access the 1st GP of the 2010/2011 season

http://etta.tv/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/liverpool_gp_entry_21-08-10.pdf

UK Hardbat Rankings

After another successful tournament in Harlow, Nick Brown is now 13th in the UK rankings.
Well Done Browny....

Ael Y Bryn Open

...was played on Sunday 12th July

Chris Griffiths won the boys singles beating homeboy Ash Perry in the final. Beth Roberts won the girls singles beating Bridgend's Sharlene Williams. Caitlin Williams, Rachel Cuss and Shelby Short were 3rd, 4th and 5th respectively. The consolation singles winner was Liam Winder who beat Greenhouse team mate Sam Griffiths in their final

CWG Team in press!

Steve Jenkins is in today's South Wales Echo [13/7/2010]

Great coverage of our team on ITV last night and BBC - which is coming soon...

Angharad and Megan is on S4C Thursday at 7.30pm

Development Squad Day

Saturday 10th July

After 2 hours of training at the centre in Pontypridd, there was a tournament which was played...
Final Placings were:

1 Thomas Heydon 2 Laura Edwards 3 Caitlin Williams 4 Sam Parry 5 Callum Evans
6 Dylan Lewis 7 Jac Jenkins 8 Kate Roberts 9 Jonathan Bisp 10 Jess Neck
11 Charlotte Slye 12 Soffi Jenkins 13 James Clayton 14 Harry Langley
15 Lewis Owen (ill)

The next Welsh Development squad will be in August

Greenhouse - Team of the Year at Awards

At the Tonyrefail awards last Friday night, the table tennis academy at Tonyrefail were awarded with 'Team of the Year' for the season.

Nicole Hall also received a special merit award for her achievements

Wales youngsters win in Bristol

Ryan Oyler, Liam Winder and Jac Jenkins played extremely well tonight in Bristol to beat a young Thornbury team 7-2 in a friendly match.

Ryan Oyler won all 3 of his matches with Jac and Liam winning 2 each. Both players lost to Thornbury talent Harry Gwilliam.

New Blog on the left -

..Who will win the Welsh Men's Top 12 title this season
The 10 best Welsh players plus 2 'wild cards'
8th August in Cardiff.....

Pic: Last years winner - Paddy Thomas

Pontypridd Open

Pontypridd Summer Table Tennis Festival – Full Report

The Pontypridd Summer TT Festival took place today at Pontypridd High School and was well attended with over 30 players competing from all areas of South Wales. There were players represented from The Rhondda, Cardiff, Ael-y-Bryn, Abertillery, and of course Pontypridd. There were three events making up the day which were the Beginners/Improvers Band, Band 1, and a Pairs Team Handicap Event. All events were well contested and every player gave everything in their bid to become the Pontypridd Champion in their respected events.

In the beginners/improvers the format was the taken from the popular dragon series, with the initial group positions playing a final group against players of the same position. There were 18 entrants for the event and they were split into four groups. After the initial group the top 4 seeds all progressed to make the top group, playing for positions 1-4. These were Callum Evans (Tonyrefail), Dylan Lewis (Ferndale), Jonathan Bisp and Kyle Adams (both of Pontypridd). It was Callum Evans who came through to take the winners prize beating all three players only dropping 1 set. Jon Bisp caused the biggest upset beating team mate Kyle Adams for the first time, by a 3-0 score line. Kyle nearly bounced back to beat Dylan, but Dylan came through a tight match to claim 2nd place, with Kyle having to settle for 4th, and Jon taking a very respectable 3rd. Final standings are shown below.

The most hotly contested event of the day was the band 1 singles, with 9 Welsh Internationals in attendance. With such a strong entry, even progressing through the group stage was to prove very difficult. Number 1 seed Cameron Thomas had to win two five set matches in order to progress through his group, beating youngsters Beth Roberts and Ryan Oyler. Beth played great table tennis in beating both Ryan Oyler and Steven Fawkes to join Cameron in the final 8. Groups 2 and 3 went with seeding with Connor Edwards and Benjy Gregory safely through, Ashley Perry also progressed as runner-up from group 2, and Stefan Jeczalik was made to work very hard for his place in the final 8, after being pushed all the way by Liam Winder. The final group had a big match-up between Welsh under 13s Champion Chris Griffiths and Welsh Doubles Junior Champion Alex Prosser, after having both beat Laura Edwards. This was a great match and it went right to the wire, but Chris found that extra push and came through 3-2 to top the group. Alex settled for runner-up, booking the final place in the last 8.

In the final 8 there was great table tennis all around with all players fighting it out for a semi-final place. Connor Edwards was the first through, bringing Beth’s good run to an end with a 3-0 victory, however, the other 3 matches were much tighter affairs. Benjy came through a five set dual with Alex Prosser, and was then joined by Chris Griffiths who beat Stefan Jeczalik by the same score line. It was young Ashley Perry who was attracting the attention matching up to Cameron Thomas, taking the match with the biggest upset of the day.
The semi-final line-up was Ashley Perry against Chris Griffiths and Connor Edwards against Benjy Gregory. Chris ended Ashley’s run with a 3-1 victory, but it was the other match that everyone had their eyes on. With Connor looping well from both wings and Benjy chopping away, it made for a great spectacle that entertained the spectators. It was Connor who came through in the end winning a very tightly fought 5th set.

The Final was another great match with both boys hitting top form. It was Chris who took the first set, only for Connor to square it all up winning the second. Chris then took the 3rd to take a 2-1 lead, Connor then responded brilliantly to take the 4th and then went on to take the 5th set and deservedly the Pontypridd Band 1 Title.
The Pairs Team Handicap Event was contested by 8 teams, with each team playing for their final position. Number 1 seeds Benjy Gregory and Alex Prosser progressed to the final with good wins over Ponty duo Kyle Adams and Jon Bisp and then the inform Ashley Perry and Beth Roberts. In the other half of the draw it was 2nd seeds Connor Edwards and Stefan Jeczalik who progressed through, with a win over experienced duo Rob Hatherly and Mark Morgans in the quarters, followed by a hard fought victory over Ferndale pairing Chris Griffiths and Liam Winder.

The final was once again a very tight affair with Stefan coming through a five set battle against Alex Prosser, which meant Benjy had to beat Connor to keep the tie alive. This again was a great match that went the full 5 sets, unfortunately for Benjy, it was once again victory for Connor to give himself and Stefan the Team Title. Final standings are below.

Beginners/Improvers Final Standings:
1. Callum Evans – Tonyrefail TTk
2. Dylan Lewis – Ferndale TTk
3. Jonathan Bisp – Pontypridd CC
4. Kyle Adams – Pontypridd CC
5. Jaymz Tutton – Ferndale TTk
6. Soffi Jenkins– Tonyrefail TTk
7. Charlotte Slye – Ferndale TTk
8. Callum Westcott – Ferndale TTk
9. Ben Griffiths – Pontypridd CC
10. James Dean– Tonyrefail TTk
11. Ben Evans– Tonyrefail TTk
12. Peter Briscombe – Pontypridd CC
13. Callum Griffiths – Pontypridd CC
14. Jack Parry – Tonypandy CC
15. Connor Priest – Pontypridd CC
16. George Slater – Pontypridd CC
- Liam Govier couldn’t play the second Stage but was in the 3rd group (positions 9-12)



Team Pairs Handicap Final Standings:
1. Connor Edwards/Stefan Jeczalik
2. Benjy Gregory/Alex Prosser
3. Chris Griffiths/Liam Winder
4. Ashley Perry/Beth Roberts
5. Laura Edwards/Ryan Oyler
6. Rob Hatherly/Mark Morgans
7. Kyle Adams/Jonathan Bisp
8. Steven Fawkes/Sam Griffiths

Ryan & Stephen Honoured by British League

Ryan Jenkins and Steve Gertsen were honoured by the British league committee in Birmingham late last month.

Ryan got 'player of the year' for the Premier division

Steve got 'player of the year' for Div 1

Ryan then got the British League Player of the Year for all division as he only lost 1 match all season.

TTAW Awards - The results

The awards were deemed a great success on Friday 2nd July 2010

Awards:
TTAW coach of the Year - Stephen Jenkins

TTAW Community Club of the Year - Greenhouse Ferndale

TTAW Volunteer of the Year - Dave Treharne

TTAW Player of the Year - Charlotte Carey

TTAW Lifetime achievement award - Ron & Marian Davies

TTAW Dragon Awards (As selected by Neil O'Connell - Dragon Coordinator)
U11 Jac Jenkins, U13 Ethan Lewis and U15 Max Clews

TTAW Regional Awards
South East - Caitlin Williams; South West - Lee Morgan; North - Megan Phillips

Awards were made to the winners of the Welsh Championships and Team Championships of Wales

There was music from young singing sensation Anwen Dean, a lovely buffet from Browning caterers and a disco from 'Loony Tunes' all held at Beaufort Ballroom near Ebbw Vale.

European Welsh Players Rankings

Junior Boys
Dan O’Connell – 338

Junior Girls
Charlotte Carey – 254
Chloe Thomas – 291
Megan Phillips – 307
Angharad Phillips - 314

Cadet Boys
Lewis Williams - 120
Lee Morgan – 193

Cadet Girls
Charlotte Carey – 108
Nicole Hall - 191

Welsh Squad Tournament

On the last Tuesday training session of the season in Cardiff a competition was held as 'an end of season treat'

Final Placings:

1 Ryan Jenkins
2 Ceri James
3 Nathan Thomas
4 Conor Edwards
5 Patrick Thomas
6 Nick Brown
7 Paul Karabardak
8 Lee Morgan
9 Cameron Thomas
10 Josh Jenkins
11 Stevie Grech
12 Charlotte Carey
13 Simon Oyler
14 Chloe Thomas
15 Nicole Hall