Low turnout adds to town table tennis woes

Just 14 players, of which only Adam Keen and Rose Rainton were non-veterans (ie under the age of 40), appeared at the Bexhill Youth & Community Centre, a decrease of around half a dozen on last year.

And with the Bexhill Table Tennis League now down to just seven two player teams and operating under a handicap format, it is uncertain as to whether the Bexhill Table Tennis Association will make it through to its diamond jubilee anniversary in two years' time.

"Overall we do have a high standard of play," said tournament organiser and Bexhill Table Tennis Association secretary Sue Clarke. "But unless we get some new players fairly soon, I think the league is in its last year or two.

"I know that when I first joined in the late '60s or early '70s, there were two divisions. It's never been as big as Hastings, but I would have said at one stage we would have had a couple of dozen or perhaps 30 players.

"I think we've got 16 players and that's just about enough to keep going, but I think it's quite possible it could decrease because several of the players are already over 70. It's a sad decline and I think it's due to the fact we don't get the youngsters."

BTTA president Roger Gillett, a Bexhill Tournament singles champion in 1960, '61 and '97, added: "It's just a general decline at the present moment with table tennis. Our recruitment areas over the last 50 years have been from youth clubs and church clubs especially, but they're not there anymore. I have been involved with running table tennis in the area since I came out of the forces in about 1960 and we shall try to do something so we have that anniversary. The league might not make it, but the association will make it, I'm sure. We will keep it running and run the tournament."

Anybody wishing to play competitive table tennis in Bexhill, should contact Roger on 216977 or turn up to a session at the Bexhill Youth & Community Centre from 2-4pm on Wednesdays, 6-7.30pm on Thursdays (juniors) and 7.30-10pm on Thursdays (adults).

Bexhill-on-Sea & District Table Tennis Association's annual tournament, winners and runners-up: open singles - winner Rose Rainton, runner-up Chris Rainton; veterans' singles - Chris Rainton, r-up Brian Beaney; handicap singles - Roger Gillett, r-up Dianne Cox; consolation singles - Adam Keen, r-up Phillip Andrews; open doubles - Rose & Chris Rainton, r-up Pete Lambert & Keen; mixed doubles - Rose & Chris Rainton, r-up Dianne & Terry Cox.