OUTGOING chairman Dave Moth has hailed the hard work of the Weymouth & District Table Tennis League committee over the past 12 months.

The buoyant league, who met for their annual AGM and presentation evening at the Springfield Club in Broadwey, heard Moth pay tribute to his committee by saying they “had added a new dimension to table tennis in our area”.

In his opening address, Moth praised the excellent work of both secretary Andy Millar and outgoing fixtures secretary Sai Maganti for continuing to raise the profile of the sport in South Dorset through their development work in schools and through the new website.

Moth pin-pointed the return of the annual tournament as the undoubted highlight of the season and said: “What a superb event that was – every credit must go to Stan Smith and his team for organising such a successful day.

“I really do hope that we will be able to repeat the event next year.”

However, there was also very sad news for the members to reflect on as the chairman asked for a few moments’ silence so that two stal-warts of the league, Alan Henderson and Ray Harwood, could be remembered.

Moth described Henderson as “a man with endless wit and charm around the table,” and Harwood as “a dedicated player with an intense love of the game and a highly competitive spirit”.

Furthermore he added that both would be very sadly missed and he offered his thoughts and condolences to their friends and families while also sending best wishes to Rob Taylor, who had suffered health problems during the season.

Later in the evening, development secretary Millar highlighted the need for a junior league as a natural progression to help develop young players and assist coaches and officials to identify players who may be able to play in county and national competitions.

Next season Millar hopes to run an under-16 junior pairs league at a set school venue each month – which would be the first time the league has set-up its own junior section since 1958.

Before attention turned to the presentation, Budmouth’s Neil Hardisty was elected as the new chairman before ETTA representative Chris Brown, in his address, described how the league could benefit from a proactive relationship with the governing body, especially with regards to Sport England Funding.

Finally, the meeting was closed in traditional fashion with the president’s address, where Brian Copp echoed the sentiments of Moth with special congratulations to Millar for his commitment as both secretary of the league and the development committee.

In welcoming the new chairman, Copp added that he was witnessing “the strongest state of the sport” he’d ever seen in the area which was “going from strength to strength with a junior league planned thanks to the enthusiasm and commitment of a dedicated few”.