big tourneys..

[HarryBelafonte]

:taz: IS NT IT ABOUT TIME WE HAD A MAJOR TOURNAMENT BACK IN THE COUNTRY WHO INVENTED THE GAME...

I have attended most big events staged in england,all were class,well organised most with brilliant atmosphere.

Have ranked in order of enjoyment,from play
euro/asia 1988
worlds 97
euro94
top 12 83 I think
olympic qualifying think 95
english pro tour 98.

Also thornaby cleveland used to have amazing entries in the cleveland open, early january,think alan ransome had something to do with this, but they suddenly stopped a few years ago.
Was great as you got to mingle and actually play some great stars.
Remember playing chen,not at tt but at pool he was a right character..
What happened to this tournament.?
Any way when are we getting a big (proper ) event:thumbsup:

[DaveR]

Actually a great point i mentioned it in the Table Tennis Talk update HERE (http://tabletennistalk.co.uk/forum/showthread.php?p=3057#post3057)

[Jose]

The Cleveland Open, the Top 12 and the Euro Asia were all organised primarily by Alan and the team in Cleveland, together with some support from the ETTA, and in conjunction with Cleveland County Council who provided some of the organisation and the sponsorship. Cleveland County Council was abolished in the mid 90's in favour of four district councils. These councils did not have the same events team or budgets for competitions of this kind that were available from Cleveland CC.
Other events organised in Cleveland included two English Opens, the European Youth Championships in 1970 and the World Student Games in 1980, plus the Cleveland Junior Open which is still going, but supported by Stockton Council. This tournament started in 1968 and has been organised every year since.

In his period as being Chairman of the ETTA, Alan always wanted to bring important world events to England and this included several major English Opens, the Europeans in Birmingham in '94, the Olympic Qualifying in '96, the Worlds in '97 and the World Veterans in '98, the latter three all being in Manchester. The last major event under Alan's chairmanship was the Commonwealth Games table tennis competition in 2002.

[Mr Wilko]

cleveland open was class watching des chen and cooke taking on the best in world was brilliant (obviously i had been knocked out in early round by matsusheeta (excuse spelling)

:rocker::rocker:

[HarryBelafonte]

thanks jose,:happy:
the cleveland were sometimes like mini world championships,never forget when the new chinese appeared,won everything,chen, a tiny player called fan chang mao,highest serve ever,the japanese always seemed to appear,americans, played boggan once, the swedes with apple and erik,
the french and canadians...shame the money was pulled :tomato:was great for north area as we always seem to get left out now...