Hi.
We had 85 people enter as full time players for this spring season, which is 5 less than last year. As most of you know in order to make the competition work we need a number of players which is dividable by 6. So I have volunteered to play as a permanent reserve, you may even see me playing in some of the lower divisions where I will be trialling a long pimple rubber (which I have no idea how to play with).
Putting the competition together has proven to be quite a difficult task and we have had to come up with something new to make things work. We have managed to get the 18 highest ranked players all together on Wednesday night in division 1 which is great. We were then left with 26 players who could only play on Wednesday nights. This left us in a little bit of a bind as we were limited in how many more players from the remaining pool of 40 players we could bring into the Wednesday night competition. We trialled a lot of different things but in the end decided the best thing to do was make the other division on Wednesday night a 5 person team set up.
This left 36 players for Thursday night with three very distinctive groupings of ability. If we split these players into two divisions with 3 person teams things just did not work out for quite a few of the middle ranked players as the majority of their matches were going to be either to hard or easy. We really needed the middle ranked players to have the opportunity to all play against each other and not be split between two divisions. So for this season we are going to trial having a 6 person team set up. It is basically two 3 person teams combined where the top 3 players all play each other and the bottom 3 players all play each other. However the number 3 and 4 players get an extra singles game as they also play each other. Everybody plays 1 doubles match. The way the score sheet is set up and because we can play 3 matches at a time you should never have to play more than 2 matches in a row and you should never have to wait for more than 2 matches before you get to play. We are only able to do this because this is the only division playing on Thursday nights. I believe it should work out very well.
Also a reminder to check who your division coordinator is for this season as they do change. Record their phone number somewhere so you have it available when you need to let them know you cannot play.
Remember fees are due in the first week of competition and if you have not paid by the second round a $5 per week fee will apply. If you decide to pay online please forward a receipt of payment via email to stta2@southerntabletennis.org.au.
The banking details are - BSB: 805022, A/c No: 02204430, A/c Name: Southern Table Tennis Association Inc.
This is going to be another interesting season and we hope you all manage to play some great table tennis and have a lot of fun.
Marcel STORKEN
On behalf of the Competition Committee.