16th November-08
BATTS November-08 Bulletin

Neil Brierley reports on BATTS progress

Work on the centre started 6 weeks ago (it does seem a lot longer than that ! ) and is progressing well. The finish date is projected to be December 26th though it seems unlikely much will happen on that day ! We are pretty confident however that we will be open for Friday club night on 2nd January.

Essentially, two and a half years after moving into a fairly run down and tired building, we start again with a fresh and modern centre and a new 25 year lease.

Feedback indicates there is a demand to give table tennis all the space it needs. I think our aim should be to feature table tennis on 5 days out of 7. ( We have solid bookings for other sports on Tuesday and Thursday evenings). To do this we need a real team effort and I would urge anyone prepared to look after a session (however infrequently) to put their name forward and come along to a meeting to sort out the timetable.

We want to make Wednesdays a central part of our table tennis plans as we are privileged to have new Regional Coach Natalie Green available on this day over her 3 year contract. Natalie has been an England International at every level, representing her country all over the world. She is an inspired and popular coach and is bound to boost the popularity of the sport at our centre.

Natalie has proposed an ongoing programme that will run on every Wednesday from January 14th. We will start with an over 50 and retired session from 1.30-3; then a primary school session from 4-5; secondary schools from 5-6; beginner/improver session from 6.30-7.30; elite club session from 7.30-9 comprising top juniors from the area with space also for the top adult players.

Digger has suggested that all members prepared to offer some help at BATTS come along to a meeting to fix the weekly table tennis programme He also suggests that if we do that early evening we can finish up at a chinese restaurant ! So if you do want to be involved please reply and I'll organise a date that suits everybody.

Finally a reminder that Natalie is running sessions at Mark Hall School (the actual school and not the sports hall) every Wednesday finishing on December 10th. They run from 3.30-7 with club members welcome from 5.30...........and helpers welcome throughout !