north/south divide

[Robstar]

Are TT players in the north Yorkshire included at a disadvantage compared to the rest of the country ?????
Andy and Barry Forster were both very good juniors but didn't play very many junior internationals even though their ranking and results indicated otherwise

playing the veteran circuit i looked forward to the eastern at Grimsby short journey 4 a change when The North eastern was introduced the eastern was moved to Norwich over the weekend 16 hours in car cost of petrol 2/3 nights at a hotel its cheaper for a 7 day holiday in spain
The north eastern is not very well supported Venue organisation excellent
but it appears it is 2 far to travel for many
was selected to play in division 1a North venue Hereford we couldn't get a team in the end

What happened to all the local tournaments Cumbria, Durham open and the scotish tournaments Meadowbank etc

the players from devon may also b in the same boat

[FantasyCheeseBasin]

totally agree rob thier arent enough competitive tournaments around,a tournament needs to be organised here with good money on offer to attract people, maybe it could start the ball rolling .

firstly we need the money

sponsership deals
donations

then its organisation of events and venue
staff (umpires etc)
equipment (tables etc)

its a canny job to do would love to give it a go however its a lot of commitment.
for a possible failure inside 2 weeks or so when nobody gives you the cash.


just my thoughts,it would be nice for a big tournament to arrive up north.
or maybe 2 or 3 biggish ones as additions to what is now.

something like that anyway

[Belisar]

I spend alot of time coaching kids and also spend a lot of time driving around the country taking some of them to ranking events. On the whole London is not bad for events but we do end up on 250 mile round trips which is not ideal when we are dealing with juniors. So I thought I could help if I could run the odd 1* myself.

I took a level 2 organsors badge. But it seems I also need a county umpires badge and a tournament referees badge before I can organise anything that the ETTA will recognise. Having already got coaching and development officer badges it seems to be able to do things from start to finish you need more badges than a cub scout.

Given the lack of colunteers I sure wish the process could be made easier.

[DaveR]

Volunteers are hard to find in walk of life Belisar and Table Tennis is certainly no different with litigation being so prominant in many peoples eyes its no wonder they wont do anything for fear of prosecution. I applaud anyone doing their bit in the sport as we need more to do likewise.

I think the local tournament demise has been a common vein running through the country with regional events getting less and less, which Jose pointed out in earlier thread. I feel there is still a place for them but how we would go about reinstalling the regional set up is quite difficult as we neeed the word volunteers once again !

[Robstar]

every month at snooker a pro am takes place at gateshead snooker club it is a handicap event it cost 7£ to enter and the winneer gets about £200 it is well supported if leisure centres and the people who supply the tables reduced their cost then this could be well worth trying in table tennis i know you need permission by the etta to run these tournaments but this would b a start

[Mr Wilko]

good idea robstar !!!!!