Table Tennis: Weymouth league takes top accolade

In 2018, the league had collected the clubmark award but has now earned the top accolade.

Hosted by Table Tennis England, the annual awards seek to honour the volunteers, officials, coaches and personalities who are the heartbeat of the sport.

This year, more than 70 nominations were received from the table tennis family, in a range of categories including clubs, leagues, coaches, volunteers and officials.

A judging panel selected the shortlist and the winners were revealed at the Oscar-style awards ceremony.

Weymouth & District Table Tennis League had been recommended to seek nomination for National League of the Year during the hard work which went into achieving the clubmark award last year.

Having submitted their nomination the league was informed that it had been shortlisted and was invited to send two representatives to the conference.

Chairman Neil Hardisty and secretary Ken Brake attended the weekend event to catch up on all the latest national initiatives and, of course, to attend the awards dinner.

The other league on the shortlist was Liverpool which boasts over 300 members but it was with great excitement that the winners were announced as Weymouth.

It was also a great opportunity to meet other club and league officials and to hear their clubs and leagues and what they do, and equally to pass on thoughts about success stories and league operations.

Hardisty said: “I’m sure we have raised our profile nationally by attending the conference and promoting ourselves and how we operate as a league, albeit as a small league compared to some.

“It was also great to see that we were mentioned twice in the presentations to the conference for our scores in player satisfaction ratings and in our success in promoting ‘This Girl Can’ and increasing our number of female players in the league.

“To win the award for League of the Year 2018 was a great honour for us all and we should all celebrate this achievement.”