Dear Valued Albert Park Members & Albert Park Friends,
Wow! A lot has occurred in 2019! Ever since our humble revitalisation in 2018, we have grown in leaps and bounds to be a massive force to be reckoned with. The Committee is thankful for your support in us this year and we look forward to providing more value for your membership in 2020. Ideas such as a Club Championship & Family Day, Entry Level Participation Program Initiatives to attract new members and of course continued presence at the TTV Premier League are all initiatives we are continuing to look at :)
However please read the below for some snippets!
Membership Numbers Broken!
Albert Park Table Tennis Inc has exceeded its membership numbers for 2019! From 67 members in 2018, we have grown to 94 members which is a 40% increase! In addition to our Primary Club Members, we are also fortunate to have among us 22 Secondary Club Members as they have played pennant with us in the TTV Premier League in 2019 so we have 116 primary and secondary members!
Let's see if we can break 100 Primary Members next year ;)
TTV Premier League Domination
Albert Park was the dominate club in the TTV Premier League in 2019, check out the below stats to see how we did!
Also congratulations to the following Leading Players:
- Season 1 - Anthony Tran, Andrew Kane, Ben Sadler
- Season 2 - Parth Phansekar, Yang (Monash) Shen, Eric Luk (Dandenong - in an Albert Park team), Hugo Canny-Smith
- Season 3 - Parth Phansekar, Frank Riha, Ben Yuan (Coburg - in an Albert Park team), Anthony Tran, Tim Major, Ali Mirza (St Kilda - in an Albert Park team)
Tournament Player Representation
Jian Fang Lay continues to represent Albert Park at high level events with participation in the 2019 Australian Open, 2019 ITTF World Women's Cup and 2019 Table Tennis Australia National Seniors Championships. She is currently the 2nd highest ranked player in Australia. She is also part of the 2019 Victorian Senior State Team which are currently finalists the 2019 Victorian Sports Awards which was managed by our Public Officer, Claire Montgomery - wish them luck!
Avid veterans player, Warren Woolcock, also managed to rank 7th in the Order of Merit at the 2019 Table Tennis Australia Veterans Championships in the Over 65 Men's despite only recovering from injury! Hopefully Warren has an injury free year in 2020 as he has much potential in his bag of funky rubber tricks!
Also congratulations to Gabby Osvath (Juniors) and Anthony Majtlis (Para) for representing Albert Park Table Tennis and Table Tennis Victoria in their respective State Teams.
And finally, the recent 2019 TTV Annual Top 10 was announced and so a special congratulations to Jian Fang Lay, Thomas Wong, Gabby Osvath, Warren Woolcock and Jim de Saint-Ferjeux as being part the state's best in representative table tennis! Congratulations also to our friends who were a recognised in the Top 10.
Official Representations
But playing table tennis isn't the only way to gain Albert Park exposure. We are fortunate to have among us some of Victoria's leading officials and personalities as members.
Fanny Ho continues to lead the charge with various Referee appointments in the 2019 ITTF World Junior & Cadet Challenge, 2019 ITTF Oceania Para Championships, 2019 Oceania Cup and 2019 ITTF Seamaster Platinum Australian Open alongside many local and State events. Even more impressively, she has been selected as an Umpire for the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games!
https://www.revolutionise.com.au/aptt/news/congratulations-fanny-ho/
Veteran official Angelo Tabone continues to contribute at a state level, refereeing at many Victorian events and was also a Deputy Referee at the 2019 Table Tennis Australia National Junior Championships.
In addition, up and coming young official, Kameron Chan, (our Treasurer) was awarded the "2019 TTA Young Official of the Year" award for his officiating commitments in 2019 at all levels. He was accredited as a State Referee in March and, as you would know, was the incumbent Competition Manager of the TTV Premier League in 2019. Unfortunately, increased study commitments means he will not be involved in management of the Premier League but we hope he visits every now and again (maybe as a fill in if you're lucky!).
And finally, Frank Riha and Joyce Wu has successfully completed the requirements to be a State Umpire so we hope to see him at some local events in the near future :)
New Shirt Partner!
Extremely keen table tennis enthusiast,
Douglas Tsoi, has kindly entered a partnership with Albert Park Table Tennis Inc to provide us with beautiful club shirts. These are available for purchase NOW and we require a minimum order so if you haven't purchased your shirt, PLEASE DO SO NOW! We would love to see a flood of Black and Silver at all Victorian Tournaments! Just a quick note on Name Printing -
Please email albertparktabletennis@gmail.com with your desired name on the back of the shirt. Otherwise, you will get the default option.
Conclusion
That's all for now! We hope to see many of you playing table tennis more often, be it social, pennant or tournaments. We will release information regarding membership fees for 2020 as well as information regarding Season 1 of the 2020 TTV Premier League once finalised.
For now, there are two Grading/Practise Nights on Wednesday 5th and 12th February before Round 1 starts on Wednesday 19th February. But there are a few Victorian tournaments before that begins so sign up now!
https://www.tabletennisvic.org.au/tournaments/
That's a wrap! Have a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!
