Bath Street Marine Table Tennis Club
A Table Tennis England PremierClub
News Release - BSMTTC News 71
Dateline: 20 November 2017
Junior League
The Liverpool & District Table Tennis League, Junior Development Division (JDD) has resumed with the opening night being Monday 13 November at the Anfield Sports & Community Centre.
The Club is again involved, joining forces with Crosby High Table Tennis Club, to pool children from Crosby High, Marine and Anfield under a single banner for the purpose of participation in the JDD,
The format for the JDD has changed for this year, to try and ensure there are short sharp matches and to encourage more children to take part. Two divisions have been formed each with 10 teams and each team being just 2-a-side. So, by using all 10 tables at Anfield on the one night, a Monday, every team can play every week. The kids taking part seem to love it, and the short format also seems to be popular with parents!
Euan Mason tasted success in JDD last season as part of a 3-a-side team that won the U13 Division. This season he moves up to the top tier, but his first weeks of JDD have been blighted by the last minute non-availability of his teammate and having a week off unwell!
The Teams
With 20 teams in the event, you will be a little surprised to learn that 15 of them are all under the one combined Crosby High, Marine, Anfield banner! With so many teams it has given the team managers, Dave Graham, Graham Turner & Des Logan quite a headache! Just getting 30 children to Anfield every Monday is a problem in itself, thankfully there has been terrific cooperation from parents. And of course with teams of just 2-a-side if one child is missing it can have a serious impact on the match! Look at poor Euan Mason for example. In the first 3 weeks of JDD he had one week when he was unwell, and for each of the first 3 weeks his teammate failed to put in an appearance on the match night, withdrawing at the last moment for varying reasons! Hopefully a solution has now been found.
4 of the Club's juniors are now involved, Euan playing under the banner of Crosby High Marine A, Finn Mason & Hugh Frediani-Bellis both part of last seasons U13 division winning team, playing under the banner of Crosby High Marine B, and 8 year old Archie Mason, playing in JDD for the first time, playing under the banner of Crosby High J.
The clubs own juniors are joined by juniors from Crosby High club, and also juniors from junior coaching at Anfield. Matthew Brennon from Anfield will be pairing up with Euan, and James O'Dwyer and Dominic Birkbeck from Anfield will be participating under the banner of Crosby High Anfield A. This will be their first season in JDD and they have made a very positive start. Young Archie is joined by Carter Benbow from Anfield and they will be playing under the banner of Crosby High J. Both are newcomers to match play. Carter has only just started playing table tennis. Last, we have Joel Richardson and Shea McLoughlin from Anfield coaching playing under the banner of Crosby High Anfield B. Both are newcomers to table tennis and to match play. We wish all the teams well, and above all we really hope that all of the children taking part have an enjoyable experience. When 40 children are all in one hall playing table tennis at the same time, it is a really encouraging sight to see! Not to mention a little chaotic at times too!
Above - on the left Finn Mason & Hugh Frediani-Bellis playing as Crosby High Marine B and on the right James O'Dwyer and Dominic Birkbeck playing as Crosby High Anfield A. Both pairs playing in Division 1.
And below, Matthew Brennon and Joel Richardson playing as Crosby High Anfield B in Division 2. Matthew is moving up to play in Division 1 with Euan, and Joel will be joined by Shea McLoughlin.
