News & Events

Britannia accepting new members as from 7/8/20

Since re-opening in July, the cautious procedures we have been operating have worked as planned well enough to now accept new members. Our renewal date is September 1st for membership, but any new members will have the remaining weeks of this August added to the normal year's tenure.

To make sure all newcomers (and returnees) settle in with these procedures, there are some simple criteria should you want to join:
- your application must be supported by an existing member (an email will suffice)
- make an appointment to meet Colin Watts, Sean Gridley or Martin Tomes at the Dome, so they can take payment and ensure your understanding of and compliance with the current procedures. They are available at many sessions during the day, evening and weekend, see session details below
- email Martin via britanniattcipswich@gmail.com if you are unsure, he can put you in touch with the right person
You will then be able to book into appropriate sessions, effective immediately, you will not have to wait until September to play.

Relevant documents, so you know what is going on (click to download): 2020/21 Membership Form; Dome entry criteria; Covid procedures

Membership renewals are also being taken now

The Committee recognises that 2019/20 members lost about a third of their normal playing time due to events outside the control of anybody. Those full members renewing for next season (we hope you all do) can claim a proportionate reduction in the fee in recognition of this. Please see the new Form for details and renew by 1st September to continue playing. Forms on table in Dome in addition to the downloads on this site.

Britannia are a TTE Premier Club, one requirement being that all our members are also members of Table Tennis England. This is odd because only private club practice is currently permitted, but we ask you to all register in any case. Details and TTE link on Membership page

Coronavirus statement (updated 7/8/20 by Martin Tomes, club chair)

Since the club re-opened on 25/7, there are times allocated to different groups of players, along the lines of our "normal" sessions. This is intended to give all members a fair chance to practice, within familiar groups, age groups and standards. All players will be subject to the temporary Covid procedures designed by TTE to minimise risk of indoor play; organisers will communicate directly with their players, applying additional steps as appropriate and agreed with the Committee. Click on the CURRENT SCHEDULE of practice sessions

These time slots are:
- Veterans - their normal playing session days and times, but singles only. Colin Watts will organise.
- Sparrowhawks - normal Saturday morning slot, organised by Sean Gridley with Colin Watts.
- Advanced Junior Coaching - to start with, Aad will be organising coaching sessions Mon - Fri when the Dome is not already in use by Veterans etc. These sessions will end by 18:00 in order to allow general practice to take place. 
- All members - the remaining time at the Dome will be allocated to general practice in 2 hour slots. For each we will require a Session Leader, who must be a keyholder. They will take bookings from members only, up to the maximum number of players permitted; they will ensure the procedures are followed by all present, will record names and emergency contact details for all attendees and make sure the Dome is vacated before the next session. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED PLEASE. Unless as part of a supervised session it is not permitted to play for the time being.

General play sessions are:
Saturday and Sunday each week: 14:00-15:50; 16:00-17:50; 18:00-19:50; 20:00-22:00
Monday to Friday each week: 18:00-19:50; 20:00-22:00

Let Martin know via club email address if you can run one or more of these sessions, a list of who to contact for which will be published in due course.

In the meantime, thank you for your patience and thank you in advance for helping the club re-open safely, stage-by-stage.

New Club in Woodbridge?

We have been contacted by a chap looking to start a new club at Woodbridge Community Hall. Still quite a few details to iron out, but in the meantime if anyone knows of a reasonable table that is available for donation, can they let Martin know via the club email address, so details can be passed on?

Once the club is functioning we will post info about it here.

Openings to Sponsor Britannia

For various sensible reasons, Britannia have never needed generous, powerful and numerous sponsors so much. Any ideas whatsoever please contact Martin or Colin. We actually have a lot to offer, with the number of members and visitors to the Dome, and our fine website (you are reading it, several hundred others do every month).

 

Preparation for re-opening the Club 18/7/20

The Dome has had a deep clean, ready for play to recommence. Dirty, unpleasant work, sincere thanks in no particular order to Sean Gridley (who managed to clean the ceiling), Rachel Fortnum-Adams, Sara Stroet, Andrew Dosher, Colin Watts, Lavinia Dodd and Paul Kingham. 

Lockdown 2020

You will notice a lack of normal club activity and results during the Coronavirus lockdown. More than 4 months of playing time was lost until the club re-opened on Sat 25th July. Let's hope we never have to do that again.

Suffolk Senior Champs 9/2/20

A very busy and exciting championships held at Stowupland. Full results are here, featuring many of your favourite Britannia and IDTTL stars.

Suffolk County Juniors 8/12/19

Click here for the report on the Championships

Suffolk Veterans Champs Nov 21st 2019

Some quality stuff at the championships as usual but a surprise winner of the main event - all details in this report

East Anglian Top 16 event 20/10/19

An exciting event with many skillful and hard-fought matches. Full report is here

Summer League 2019 - Finals

After an excellent summer league, all the final positions were hammered out this week. As the only match that really counted was the final between Gladiators and Big D, we'll dismiss the others as friendly sporting contests played in the best spirit of a too-hot evening, and concentrate on this.

Gladiators, comprising the formidable trio of Rob Wood, Bernie Ulph and John Seabrook (combined ages approx 290 years) played their normal fluid attacking table tennis (i.e. not fluid or attacking at all) to overcome their Premier opponents Andrew Dosher, Clair Westlake and Rosemary Curtis. In a nail-biting match it came down to an edge on the final point of the last game to squeak it 5-4 overall. Having lost in the previous 4 finals it was a popular result for the lads, and combined with promotion for Britannia Eagles and Petrels, all team members are laden with trophies.

Many thanks to Sean Gridley for his relaxed and carefree running of the league. In his own words the whole event was made by magnificently accurate handicapping. Well done to all teams involved, see you all next year.

Cerebral Palsy SportStart event 2/8/19

Britannia and the IDTTL were invited to coach the table tennis element of this - short report here.
Official report on the day is here, from which images can also be accessed

Britannia On Tour - trip to France 2019

4 intrepid club members went to France 14-16 June, to meet up with 2 more who recently moved back there (Sylvain and Loic), and play 17 hours over two tournaments. The short report is here.

Pics from the weekend: (1) Head Hankie (2) Sean and Chris (3) Dodgy Headband (4) Brits on Tour (5) Petit Dejeuner (6) Avrille Party (7) Prizewinners

Isaac Kingham - National U11 runner up!

Hugely successful trip to the National U10-U13 championships in Wolverhampton for Isaac, bagging a runner-up spot at U11 and getting to the last 16 at U12.
Write up from the Ipswich Star is here, and click here for a pic of the lively lad himself. Report on TTE website is here.

BTTC AGM May 2nd

Held at the Dome - nothing controversial happened, minutes will be posted in the Dome when ready.

BTTC Championships at the Dome April 27/28th 2019

Junior events were hotly contested on Saturday, despite missing some players for National Schools champs - full results report here

Senior events took place on Sunday, with a few big names missing but 4 Juniors played who contributed greatly to the proceedings. Report to follow, and in the meantime some pics:
- Andy and Andrew, who sorted the Mens and Veterans between themselves
- Chris and Joe, who took part in the first all double-barreled final, the Restricted
- Jack and Joe, from the Handicap event

Super Series April 2019

The last event of the season saw 19 entrants and a hard fought contest - report is here

End of IDTTL Season Round-up April 2019

It has been a quieter season for Britannis teams in the league this season, with a few odd fixtures outstanding it looks as if the only movement up or down of any of them is the Petrels promotion up to Div 2.

One other positive is that the Swifts won the Handicap Cup, beating a determined Pickwicks A side in efficient fashion. With the scores level into the second half of the fixture, Swifts trio of Sylvain, Martin and Kelly (with Tomasz watching) made their experience pay over the handicaps to win with a little to spare at the end.

IDTTL Championships 16th/17th March 2019

Attendances may have been down (particularly in the Junior sections) but competition was still fierce.

Credit went to several Britannia league players for fine performances, and bagging trophies, led by Henry Shaw, who murdered the Junior events and went on in much the same vein in the adult ones as well, taking some notable scalps and the performance award. Father Wayne Shaw picked up a doubles title as well.

One player Henry failed to trouble was the enigmatic Sylvain Floury, who mopped up the Div 1 and Restricted titles. The Premier singles went to our own Sean Gridley, a popular winner.

Some action shots of competitors are currently gracing the IDTTL home page, where full results are posted.

New BTTC Club Sponsor for 2019

We have bagged the Hundreds of Years Consultancy (Hoycon) as a sponsor for the whole of 2019. This is a network of experienced professionals whose knowledge crosses into many spheres. For a better description of what assistance they might offer you or your business, why not visit their website www.hundredsofyears.co.uk or contact them via hoyconsultancy@gmail.com.

More details are on our Home page - you may also notice the new banner on display at the Dome.

The club values any sponsorship and asks its members to actively consider supporting sponsors, so we keep them!

Super Series 10th March 2019

16 entrants and another hard fought event - full report here

Suffolk County Veterans - The Dome 17/2/19

A disappointing turnout for a short notice event still saw some hard competition on the day.
Full report is here

Super Series 27th Jan 2019

Another action packed event - full report here

IDTTL EGM - Weds 23rd Jan - 7:30pm - ISC Henley Rd

2 radically different league formats were voted on for the 2019/20 season, plus the option of not changing the current league format.. See Proposal 1 here, and Proposal 2 here.

In the end, proposal 2 was narrowly defeated by "no change". 

Super Series 2nd December 2018

Very high standard field saw some very competitive games, with Sam Wilson victorious. For full report click here

East Anglian Top 16 2018

Held at the Dome Sunday Nov 25th - report is here

Table Tennis at the Town Hall

Ipswich Borough Council have installed a table in the Giles Room at the Town Hall. Access is via the main entrance on Cornhill, opening hours are 10:00 to 16:00 weekdays.

See the Council's Facebook post here:  https://www.facebook.com/IpswichTownHallCornExhange/posts/2086794988059329
Please like and share!

Anyone can pre-book an hour slot by calling 01473 432374. There is a £5 refundable deposit for anyone requiring loan of bat and balls.

In addition, the Council have put new tables into Bourne Park and St Augustine's Rec, to add to the tables already in Christchurch Park.

Not a bad return from the recent club / IDTTL event, when we took tables to IBC to raise awareness, well done to all concerned.

Juniors Round-up 22nd October

Busy weekend for Britannia youngsters (writes Aad)

Over the weekend we had players competing in three different events. On Saturday we had Lucy N., Isobel, Luke, McKenzie and Henry representing Suffolk in the Cadets team. After a slow start with a loss to Middlesex I, the players stepped it up and had a draw against Essex and a win against Middlesex II. Matches were played at the venue of NETTS in Earls Colne, Essex.

On Sunday there were seven Britannia players at the St Neots one-star. With McKenzie (winner Juniors, RU Cadets), Isobel (winner Cadet girls, RU Junior girls and RU Junior boys plate) and Tarun (RU U11’s plate) winning trophies, it turned out to be a very good day. No trophies but equally good performances from Alexander, Isaac, Joseph and Loïc. It was good to see the players supporting and coaching each other. Unfortunately Sylvain had some car trouble on the way home, but Loic didn't mind, having nailed runner's up spot in the U13 plate.

To finish it off James played in the Britannia Super Series event. He came third at the end of the day.

Super Series 22 October 2018

13 contestants and a good contest - report is here, winner Adam Jepson is here

Suffolk Top 12 2018

Two late withdrawals reduced the field to 10 players, but a lively tournament ensued, including 4 of the county's top juniors. Click here for report.

Super Series 2 Sept 2018

Hotly contested with 20 entrants - report is here

2018 Summer League - They think it's all over... It is now

A tremendously hard fought final between Ducking Ping Pong and Gladiators saw Ducking prevail 6-3, but several games were desperately close.
For everyone else, it was holiday table tennis, but good fun. Thanks to Sean for taking over the reins this year, and well done to all finalists.

Until next year then.....

National Table Tennis Day - Weds July 18th

The day went ahead as planned, tables being taken to IBC HQ at Grafton House. Report is here, with pics Teenagers, Table Crew, Chief Exec, Round the Table, IBC Staff and Chuks.
In the meantime, the IDTTL facebook page has details and pics, why not have a look (and like it!?) https://en-gb.facebook.com/ipswichtabletennisuk/

All in all, the day provided suitable encouragement to consider a similar exercise next year, once again as a BTTC / IDTTL joint venture, or even host a Council Championships at the Dome. Watch this space!

Table Tennis road trip 2018 (5 go to France)

Britannia members hoof off to France for the weekend for 18 hours of knackering fun. For report click here.

Photos from the weekend (see text for more details: 1) Limbering up on the plane, 2) Giant mechanical elephant, 3) Nigel's organ, 4) How to arrive at a serious sporting event, 5) Thouare hall, 6) Avrille hall, 7) Sylvain's team, 8) Miriam's team, 9) Angers tapestry

Suffolk Veterans Championships Sun 6th May 2018

An exciting round of events in blisteringly hot weather - full report is here

Britannia AGM, Thurs 3rd May, 19:30, the Dome

This passed off without controversy, minutes are in the noticeboard pockets, at the Dome

Britannia Champs 28/29th April 2018

At the Dome, Juniors Saturday report here and Seniors Sunday report here.

Final Super Series 2017/18 April 8th

This was a humdinger with plenty of shock results. Report is here

Vets Super Series March 18th

This event went ahead despite the bitter weather and produced some high-class stuff. Click for report here

IDTTL Champs 17/18th Feb 2018 (at Kesgrave)

Enjoyable event and organised impeccably as usual. Along with the expected big Britannia names of Richard Hutchinson, Andy Warner, Ryan Collins and Dan Shelley mopping up trophies, there were successes for our European contingent of Sylvain Floury in the Restricted Singles and Miriam Hetzel in the Ladies Doubles. Congratulations all.

Britannia achieve Clubmark renewal

We are pleased to announce that following a meeting at the Dome on 12/1/18 the renewal was rubber-stamped, following almost a year of graft and paperwork (due to new and stringent requirements). Claire Brockwell met with Martin and Colin, joined in the Vet's session, checked out facilities took pictures and copy documents and passed on the good news.
Thanks to everyone who contributed, but mainly Mick Talbot for breaking the back of the submissions.

Suffolk Senior Champs 28/1/18

At Stowupland high school - full report and results here

Super Series Jan 18th

This series is hotting up, 4 down 2 to go. Report is here

Read Aad's blog about Britannia and coaching

Our coach reveals what he's been doing..... link to it here

East Anglian Top 16 - Sat 30th Dec

Won by Steven Gray of Cambridgeshire, who knocked out Andy Warner on his way to the final against IDTTL 1st div player Gary Young. 
Full report here.

Our Splendid Juniors...

...have been competing in National Cadet and Junior Leagues. Latest results are here

Vets Super Series Nov 12th

Won again by Andy warner, 19 runners. Full report and pics here

Vets Super Series Oct 29th

Won by Andy Warner in a surprisingly small (but perfectly formed) field of 13 players. Full report is here

Alex Attew wins U15 2* Event at Batts

A stormer from Alex. McKenzie and Lucy also took part but were unfortunate to exit from the early knockout rounds.
Pics of Alex with Grandmother here (1) and running to the event here (2) and with father here (3).He pocketed a cool £100 for the win. Pic of Lucy here

Super Series Sun 1st Oct

Won by Andy Warner from Chris Cockburn, the event enjoyed by 17 entrants. Click here for full report

Super Series went international!

A modest turnout of 16 players saw Mathieu Jubault, who travelled from France for the event, take first place over Chris Cockburn in a thoroughly enjoyable even. Click here for full event report

Suffolk Top 12 Event Sun 10th Sept

A hard fought event won by Andy Warner, featuring an excellent display from Alex Attew. Full report here.

Adult Coaching event Sept 9th

This was cancelled due to lack of uptake - only two entrants.

Summer League - Final Positions after Playoffs

Following the play-offs this week we have the final results, with Sacre Bleu pipping Gladiators for the prestige of overall champions. The result hinged on erratic Martin Tomes v formidable Rob Wood, but hitting and hoping triumphed (just) over pimples and patience for a surprise win. Congratulations to all who took part, also to Brian Blagden who expertly marshalled the event as always. It was good to see new players and Juniors taking part in good numbers, adding an element of chaos to the handicapping but variety to the play. FOR THE FINAL POSITIONS click here.

For those of you who like a good table tennis puzzle, we had an interesting scorecard from one of this week's fixtures If you can work out what happened and who won what, please send your answers to Kieran Bean who may offer a small prize.

Summer League - Final Table and Playoffs

With the final results in, congrats are due to Gladiators, who won the Tuesday league in their customary dour and efficient fashion, while Sacre Bleu won the murderously competitive Wednesday league with flair and an entertaining style. The defending champs Duckling Ping Pong tried very hard and managed a creditable 3rd place in Wednesday's division.  For the final table please click here

Ping Pong Parlour open in Sailmakers/Tower Ramparts!!

Since Friday 23rd June there is a Ping Pong Parlour in our town, ground floor of Sailmakers (next to Poundland). Purple carpets, orange walls, 3 tables, bats and balls, all for passers-by to play free of charge. This is one of the pop-up parlours launched by TTE to promote the sport - there for seven weeks to cover National Table Tennis Day on July 12th and beyond. We are curious that TTE don't appear to have let us or IDTTL know about this, as we are in regular contact with them, but at least there was an article in the Star.
Wander down? Tell your friends? Pics here are courtesy of Rosemary: Pic 1  Pic 2  Pic 3 
It's like announcing that the Martians have landed...!

Super Series 7th May