Association

TTA is pleased to announce that Mr. Ken Cole has been awarded Life Membership of TTA for longstanding and valued service to table tennis in Australia. Ken’s nomination for TTA Life Membership was unanimously supported by the State and Territory Associations at the TTA AGM on Saturday 30 March 2019.

Ken started his table tennis career in the early 1950’s. He was part of numerous NSW junior teams that won National titles and was an accomplished senior player in NSW. Ken also enjoyed a distinguished career as a veterans player, captaining NSW for 31 years, winning no less than 14 National Titles across three age groups as part of NSW teams, and 4 winning doubles/mixed doubles National Titles across two age groups. Ken also won a bronze medal at the 2004 World Veterans Championships in Over 60 Men’s Doubles. 

However, it was as an administrator where Ken made his biggest contribution to table tennis. Over 20 years Ken held multiple positions within Table Tennis NSW including Assistant Honorary Secretary, Vice President, President, Team Manager, Senior and Junior Selector, and Delegate. Then in 1984, when the National Veterans Championships were held for the first time, Ken emerged as arguably the most significant contributor to veterans table tennis in Australia. Ken is widely regarded as the doyen of Australian veterans table tennis, to the extent that the winner of the National Veterans Player of the Year Award receives the Ken Cole Trophy – the highest honour that can be bestowed upon a Veterans player in Australia. Ken served for 21 continuous years on the National Veterans Committee, including 17 years as Chairman. Ken was also pivotal in establishing the annual Australia-New Zealand Veterans Test Match, with the event being so successful that a reciprocal rights agreement between TTA and TTNZ has been established and covers all National Championships. Ken's contribution to table tennis in Australia, particularly to veterans table tennis, has been overwhelming. 

Congratulations Ken, you’re a worthy recipient of TTA Life Membership.

To view Ken’s full bio, please click here. 

Original Article & Photo - https://www.tabletennis.org.au/news/18916/
 

I am delighted to advise that the following players from NSW will be among 10,000 athletes competing at the World University Games -

Joshua Ip

Edward Belokopytov

Sarah Tan

Antonia Zhang

The Games will be held in Napoli, Italy from 3 to 14 July and cover 18 sports with competitors from more than 150 countries.

Table Tennis NSW congratulates these players and wishes them every success in the Games.

Ted Davis

Vice President

The annual NSW Seniors Week commenced with Table Tennis featuring at the Seniors Expo in Darling Harbour.

This is the second year in which our sport has been featured at the Expo with the highlight for me being the number of seniors who advised us they were table tennis players and the variety of venues in which they played our sport.

We were then also active with two specific activities coming to mind.

The Illawarra Association, who have previously concentrated on running an internal competition, gained a small grant from the government to run a seniors come and try day.

The interest shown in the day has encouraged them to endeavour to set up an Active Seniors Club to cater for this growing group of players.

Cumberland Council also arranged a sporting expo which featured table tennis, walking netball and walking football.

The week of the Expo was particularly hot and the air conditioned Berala Community Centre was the venue for us. Unfortunately the other sports, being outdoors, were not as lucky with heat calling play off.

The table tennis was organised by the Cumberland Council, but run by Table Tennis NSW, as a round robin event comprising 8 women and 8 men.

The day was enjoyed immensely by the competitors a number of whom are now looking to further their involvement in our game

We look forward to once again joining with Cumberland Council in 2020 to celebrate the next Seniors week

Ted Davis