A History of Northumberland Table Tennis Association Chapters 1 to 6

A HISTORY OF NORTHUMBERLAND TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION

BY

AUBREY DRAPKIN

CHAPTER ONE The Beginning Page 2

CHAPTER TWO The Thirties Page 8

CHAPTER THREE Almost like starting afresh Page 22

CHAPTER FOUR The Fifties Page 32

CHAPTER FIVE The Peak Years – Part One Page 58

CHAPTER SIX The Peak Years – Part Two Page 101

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CHAPTER ONE

The Beginning

In the beginning a meeting of a small band of enthusiasts, none of whom had very much knowledge of the game, decided to introduce the sport to the district. Those pioneers were the convenors Mr. F.A.Constable and Mr. Ken Nicholson of Saint George's Presbyterian Church together with Miss D.M.Davidson of Saint George's Church of England, Mr.J.H.Jackman of Ministry of Labour, Mr.S.P.Brown of Evening World, Mr.Cook from Friends Meeting House, and Mr. N. Hudspith of Saint Stephen's Church of England. The convenors' nominee, the Reverend W.MacNichol had been unable to attend the meeting. Mr. Constable was elected to the chair and Mr.Nicholson was appointed as Acting Honorary Secretary.

A full discussion of all of the items on the agenda took place and the following proposals were adopted as recorded in the minutes of this Preliminary Meeting:

1.That a Table Tennis Association be formed in Newcastle, the question of affiliation to the English Table Tennis Association to be brought up at the first Annual General Meeting.

2.That the Acting Honorary Secretary obtain an exact estimate of the expenses to be incurred by the proposed Association in its first season.

3.That the subscription be five shillings (25p) for each Gentlemen's team entered by a club.

4.That a Ladies' Section of the Association be formed, and that there be an additional subscription of two shillings and sixpence (12.5p) for each Ladies' team entered by a club.

5.That the 'Tema' ball be approved for all Association matches; the indulgence of the meeting being, however, extended to the Ministry of Labour, who were desirous of using a heavier ball for all their home matches.

6.That a fixture list be prepared by the Acting Honorary Secretary, and submitted for confirmation at the next meeting; the following nights being stated as suitable to the respective clubs for their home matches: a. St George's Church of England: Tuesdays and Saturday afternoons. b. Ministry of Labour: Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays. c. Evening World: Tuesdays, Wednesdays, Thursdays and Fridays. d. Friends' Meeting House: Mondays. e. St.Stephen's Church of England: Tuesdays and Fridays. f. St.George's Presbyterian Church of England: Mondays.

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7 That five players constitute a team; that each player play two games of twenty-one points up, and in the event of the score twenty all being reached, the player who thereafter succeeds in obtaining a clear lead of two points to be the winner. That matches be decided on aggregate points, two league points to be awarded for a win, and one league point for a draw.

8.That the question of liability to the English Table Tennis Association did not arise until the question of affiliation was decided.

9. That a suggested Exhibition Match by players of the Sunderland Association be deferred until a later date.

The representatives promised to acquaint their clubs with the proceedings, and to report their decisions at the next meeting to be held on 19th November, 1930. This meeting, minuted as the Inaugural Meeting of the Association was duly held at 24 Nuns Moor Crescent, Fenham, Newcastle upon Tyne being the home of Mr. Ken Nicholson. with the same persons apart from Mr. Cook present and being joined by a Mr.T.H.Johnston.

At this meeting it was decided that the Association be called the Newcastle upon Tyne Table Tennis Association. Mr F.A. Constable was appointed as Chairman with Mr. J.H.Jackman as Vice-Chairman. Mr Ken Nicholson was appointed as Honorary Secretary and Treasurer. He was to hold the position of Treasurer until 1950. Miss D.M.Davison and Mr.N.Hudspith were appointed as Honorary Auditors.

The proposals made at the preliminary meeting were agreed except that the Friends Meeting House intimated that it would not be possible for them to engage in any home fixtures at that juncture. The estimated cost of buying the Books of the Association and of other necessary supplies was presented, the total cost being one pound thirteen shillings and three pence ( £1.66p) which included the cost of Score Books. The purchase of all items except the last one was approved it being agreed that the Score Books should be provided by the clubs.

A letter had been received from the Secretary of the English Table Tennis Association regarding several points that had been raised at the previous meeting and the Honorary Secretary was instructed to reply thereto, stating that the question of affiliation would appear on the Agenda of the first Annual Meeting.

No formal rules and regulations were drawn up but it was agreed that in the event of any complaint arising as to the discourtesy or mismanagement on the part of any club, notice of such complaint should be sent by the Honorary Secretary of the Association to the Secretary of the alleged offending club. The minutes do not say, however, how any such matter was to be dealt with.

It was also decided that meetings of emergency could be convened on written notice being given to the Honorary Secretary, such notice to bear the signatures of at least four Club Secretaries and to be in the hands of the Honorary Secretary at least one week before the proposed date of the meeting. The Honorary Secretary was instructed

Page 3 of 145 to supply each Club Secretary with a list of names, addresses, and telephone numbers of all Club Secretaries.

So the very first season of competitive play got under way, albeit on a fairly relaxed basis with very few rules and regulations.

The mens section was made up of teams from the six clubs who had been represented at the Inaugural Meeting together with L & N.E.Railway Engineers whilst four teams, Saint George's Church of England, Friends Meeting House, Saint George's Presbyterian Church and Evening World competed in the Ladies Section.

Whilst no record was made of a committee being formed a summary of the first season was given at a committee meeting held on 6th May, 1931 at which the chairman, who was also representing his club, the secretary and representatives of four other clubs were present. This meeting was also attended for part of the time by a Mr. Bart Kinnair who made an application for a team from Blyth Young Mens Christian Association to join the Association.

In view of the difficulties that had been encountered in the first season of the Association gratification was felt at the way in which all concerned had tried to carry out their obligations.

It also appeared that there was some misunderstanding as to whether the home or visiting team was responsible for the final arrangements for playing of matches and it was agreed that in future each club secretary communicate with the other by letter or telephone to confirm the final details.

The playing of ladies on gentlemen's teams created a lively discussion with the Vice Chairman proposing that this should not be allowed in future and being seconded by Miss Davidson. On the other hand the Chairman spoke at length for the idea and moved an amendment that one lady be allowed to play on a gentlemen's team which received a seconder but was dropped on being put to the vote.

The very first champions of the Gentlemen's Section of the League were Ministry of Labour who completed the season without being beaten although there is no record as to whether or not they did indeed use the heavier ball. L.N.E.R. Engineers were the runners up. Saint George's Presbyterian Church were victorious in the Ladies Section with Evening World the runners up.

The first Ordinary General Meeting, as it was called, was held on 2nd September 1931 when the retiring Officers, F.A. Constable (Chairman), J.H.Jackman (Vice Chairman), Ken A.Nicholson (Honorary Secretary and Treasurer) were all re-elected and Mr.Bart Kinnair was appointed as a second Vice Chairman. This was to be the start of a long involvement with the Association by Bart Kinnair who was appointed as Chairman in the following year, a position he held until the end of the 1954/55 season after which he was President up to and including 1985/86.

It was agreed that the 'Tema' ball, match weight would be the ball to be used in all league matches and that Mr. Stan Seymour, the former Newcastle United footballer

Page 4 of 145 who had a Sports Goods business in Market Street in Newcastle, be asked to supply these.

The first Receipts and Payments Account of the Association was approved which showed income of £2.5.00 (£2.25) and expenditure of £1.9.6 (£1.47) The production of a printed handbook was discussed and left in the hands of a Mr.Oakley and the Honorary Secretary.

However the major item was the adoption of a complete set of rules which had been prepared by Mr. Ken Nicholson, the first of which stated that the Association would be called the Northumberland Table Tennis Association and would be affiliated to the English Table Tennis Association.

The object of the Association was to administer and to advance the interests of the game in Newcastle upon Tyne and the County of Northumberland and the Association would consist of individual players residing within, and bona-fide Table Tennis Clubs playing within these areas.

The Association was to be divided into such district Leagues or other divisions as deemed necessary.

The subscriptions ( including the fee to the English Table Tennis Association) was five shillings (25p) in respect of each club together with an additional two and six pence (12.5p) in respect of each team entered by such club. The registration fee for individual players was one shilling and sixpence (7.5p) but would not confer voting rights at meetings.

Any club that did not pay the current subscription by the date of the first committee meeting to be held in the second week in September would be deemed to have withdrawn.

The voting rights at each meeting of the Association were to be that each club in membership had one vote only.

The financial year end was to be 31st March and a statement of income and expenditure to be circulated with the Agenda for the Annual General Meeting.

The Honorary Treasurer was empowered to discharge any debt of less than £1. The previous sanction of the Committee being required in all other cases.

The Officers of the Association would be elected at the Annual General Meeting and would be a President, a Chairman, not more than four Vice-Presidents and/or Vice Chairmen, an Honorary Treasurer, and Honorary Secretary, an Honorary Editorial Secretary, at least two Honorary Auditors and two Honorary representatives to the English Table Tennis Association.

The Executive Committee of the Association was to consist of the Officers of the Association together with the duly authorised representatives of each club and would meet in September and subsequently on the request of the Chairman and Honorary

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Secretary. This committee would have the power to elect such sub-committees as may from time to time be deemed necessary.

The committee also had the power to recommend the expulsion or suspension of any member of the Association on account of such member's continued neglect or breach of any rule.

The Association was also entitled to admit to membership a limited number of clubs playing in the Gateshead district until such time as the said clubs were in a position to form their own district league. Affiliation to the Durham County Table Tennis Association was to be a condition precedent to the right of membership of this Association of clubs playing in the Gateshead district.

Playing regulations were listed separately but with a note that they were to be deemed to be part of the Rules of the Association.

They stated that the official rules of the English Table Tennis Association would be observed in all games, teams in each division or district league would play at home and away to every other team unless otherwise sanctioned by the Committee, the make of ball approved from time to time by the Association to be used in all matches, and the result of each match to be sent to the Honorary Secretary on the day after the match, with the card typewritten when possible.

They also stated that clubs were expected to provide adequate lighting and playing room although there was no indication as to what was deemed adequate. Combined with this was a request that players did not to wear any article likely to un-sight an opponent.

The home club was to communicate with the visiting club to make final arrangements for each match and non fulfilment of any fixture would involve the loss of points at the discretion of the Committee. Players not present when required were liable to a penalty of two points.

No player was to play for more than one club in one season, clubs or individuals holding trophies of the Association were to be responsible for their safe keeping and return when requested, and the first and second team in each division to be promoted to the next higher and the last and second last to be relegated to the next lower division.

The regulation relating to teams and match play stated that five players were to constitute a team and two reserves to travel when possible. Each player of the one team to play each player of the other team two games of 21 points up, in the event of the score 20 all being reached, the winner to be the player who thereafter obtained a lead of two clear points. Matches to be decided on aggregate points, two points being awarded for a win and one for a draw.

No player was to play twice in a match and no lady was allowed to play for a gentlemen's team or vice-versa.

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Several of the draft rules and regulations drawn up by Ken Nicholson were rejected such as the refund of subscription to any withdrawal by a club if notice had been given by 31st August, that one representative from each team be entitled to attend a General Meeting, and that Committee meetings be held in specified months of the year.

He had also suggested that all matches should be played on a Tuesday as far as possible and should start as early as possible. His other ideas which were not taken up included the appointment of two umpires and two line judges to officiate where possible and team players not to umpire until they had played and also regulations that catered for the playing of individual and team tournaments.

There is no doubt, however, that the tremendous amount of work that he had done in drawing up these regulations was a major factor in the early development of the Association.

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CHAPTER TWO

The Thirties

Now that the Association had been put on a more formal basis the second season in operation was greatly looked forward to and it saw an immediate increase in the number of clubs and teams involved.

The Gentlemens' Section increased to eighteen teams and was divided into two divisions whilst two additional teams took part in the Ladies Section. One of the new entries was from London and North Eastern Railway Divisional Accountants Office, in later years known simply as Revac, who were to remain affiliated to the Association until 1993.

Although there is no record in the minutes of it being agreed to, the Association also affiliated to the English Table Tennis Association.

Apart from the now organised League play thoughts turned to the playing of matches against other Associations. A suggestion was made on behalf of the Sunderland and District Table Tennis Association that a Newcastle team should meet a team from Sunderland Y.M.C.A. with a view to finding out whether the former were strong enough to oppose with advantage a team drawn from the Sunderland League.

This was agreed to but before it could be arranged a request was made to this Association by the English Table Tennis Association that a match be played with the Sunderland and District Table Tennis Association to ascertain whether this Association had any player or players strong enough to justify inclusion in a team to visit Whitby for the Northern trials in December 1931.

This was agreed to provided that the Sunderland and District Association also agreed and would be played at Sunderland on 25th November. The team selected for this, the very first representative match played by the Association, was Messrs. B. Kinnair, C.S.Jessitt, J.N.Bovill, W.Milburn, C.N.Chowdary (or failing him, I.C. MacConachie),J.H.Henson and W.Nealings. Reserves selected were N.S.Hudspith, L.Ruddock and F.A.Constable. Unfortunately there is no record as to the result of this match, or indeed, as to whether or not it was actually played.

There was obviously a feeling that the players of this Association be given the opportunity to play against players from elsewhere as it was also decided to invite the Durham County Association to oppose Northumberland in Newcastle. Again there is, alas, no record as to the result but the match was played as in February 1932 arrangements were made for a return match.

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With regard to the playing of League Matches Bart Kinnair asked the committee whether it would be possible for visiting teams to be allowed the use of the table for a half-hour prior to a match and whether smoking could be prohibited during play but it was felt that the Committee had no jurisdiction over this.

What was to be, at least throughout the thirties, an annual match between the holders of the Championship of the Gentlemen's Section and a team representing the Rest of the League was agreed to in January 1932 and L.N.E.R. Divisional Accountants Office kindly offered the use of their premises and the Chairman undertook to arrange for ladies to assist with refreshments.This was eventually played on 11th February 1932 together with two ladies singles matches and two Gentlemen's singles matches.

At the same time, to assist with Association funds, it was agreed to run a singles tournament at an entry fee of sixpence (2.5p), games to be forty points up. There were only two events, Gentlemen's Singles and Ladies Singles.

A cup was purchased from Cottam Bros. at a cost of ten shillings (50p) for the Ladies event which became known as the Ladies' Singles Association Cup. An offer, which was accepted, was received from a Mr.G.W.Cottam ( presumably of Cottam Bros.) jointly with a Mr .J.C. Metcalf to donate a cup for the Gentlemen's event. This was to be held by the winner for a period of one year and to be known as the 'Comet' Cup and to be returned to the donors each year to be inscribed with the name of the winner.

The final of the Gentlemen's event was an all Blyth affair with W.Cooknell becoming the first Northumberland Gentlemen's Singles champion by defeating G.R.Brennand whilst Miss M. Kay of St.George's beat Miss Sinclair of Ministry of Labour to become the first winner of the Ladies Singles.

Blyth Y.M.C.A. won both divisions of the League and Saint Georges' Presbyterian Church retained the title in the Ladies Section.

As some of the clubs in membership were in the Gateshead District it was not long before the Durham County Table Tennis Association stated that they desired all of those clubs to be affiliated to them but that they had no objection to such clubs having the benefit of membership of this Association for the purposes of match play. This was agreed to by the Executive Committee in May 1932 and at the following Second Ordinary General Meeting it was proposed and agreed that the affiliation to the Durham County Table Tennis Association would be a condition precedent to the right of membership of this Association of clubs playing in the Gateshead district.

The very first President was appointed at the Second Ordinary Annual Meeting in May 1932 with Mr.I.C.Maconachie being elected to the position. Three people were made Vice Presidents - Mr. Arthur Heron, Mr. F.A.Constable who had been unable to offer himself for re-election as chairman, and Mr. Andrew Donaldson of Sunderland. The latter was a Scottish school teacher who had founded the Sunderland Table Tennis Association on 3rd March 1910 and who had also been the English Open Champion in 1921.

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Mr Bart Kinnair became chairman with Mr E.V.Gardiner and Mr J.Curley as Vice Chairmen whilst Mr J.J.Brennand eventually took over the secretarial duties from Mr. Ken Nicholson leaving the latter free to concentrate upon the job of Treasurer.

After the experience of playing for a season under the first set of proper rules, several amendments were thought necessary and it was decided that each player would play each of the opposition only one game of 21 points up and that matches would be decided on aggregate games. A fixture meeting was brought into being and it was decided that all matches should commence at 7.00 p.m. It was also agreed that the ball adopted by the English Table Tennis Association should be used for all matches.

In September 1932 the Executive Committee confirmed that in accordance with the English Table Tennis Association approved ball, the one to be used for the 1932/33 season was the Villa ball and Mr. Seymour offered to give special terms of two shillings and sixpence (twelve and one half pence) per dozen to members of the Association.

The question of whether players be allowed to play for two teams was discussed but as there was no printed rule against this it was decided to leave the question to the good sportsmanship of the clubs.

Over the years it has never, of course, been possible to keep every member happy and even as early as May 1933 sections of a letter of criticism were read out at an Executive Committee meeting although details of the criticism or of the response of the committee were never recorded.

As the Association grew quickly over the next few years the rules and regulations were gradually refined and the requirement to have the score cards typewritten soon disappeared.

Other changes saw the Honorary Officers of the Association listed as President, Chairman, General Secretary, Treasurer, Match and Tournament Secretary, Editorial and Publicity Secretary, Record Secretary, and E.T.T.A. Representative with the affairs of the Association being managed by an Executive Committee. This committee was made up of the Officers and Vice Chairmen together with one representative from each affiliated autonomous League.

More flexibility was given to the date on which the Annual General Meeting was held as long as it took place in April or May. The voting at the Annual Meeting was changed to give each team rather than just each club one vote and also gave the representative of any affiliated league one vote for each club in such league.

The subscriptions for clubs and teams remained unaltered throughout the thirties but the charge for individual membership was changed to five shillings (25p) per year.

After the introduction of a handbook it also became a requirement that each club had to subscribe for a minimum of five copies for each team that it entered. The cost of each copy amounted to sixpence in old money being equivalent to two and one half pence.

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The League regulations changed to state that the Laws of Table Tennis as adopted by the International Table Tennis Federation would be observed in all matches. The requirement for teams to have reserves was dropped as was the requirement that the secretaries of home clubs confirm the fixtures with the visiting clubs.

By the 1938/39 season there was no reference in the League Regulations to ladies not being able to play in Gentlemen's teams.

A specific end of season date was fixed with any postponed fixtures unable to be played after 31st March without the permission of the Executive Committee.

Postponements were only allowed in exceptional cases and opponents were to be notified at least four days before the scheduled date of the match.

Players were not allowed to wear light coloured clothing and it was recommended that all members of the same team wore similar clothing.

In order to avoid long and tedious matches a rule was made that stated that an umpire was empowered to declare void any game in which both players were guilty of continued unenterprising defensive play.

Promotion and relegation was brought in with the top two teams in each division below the first being promoted and the bottom two in each division being relegated to the next lower division but being allowed to apply for re- admission if circumstances permitted.

The home clubs were requested to observe regulations regarding the staging of matches with the playing area to be not less than twenty five feet by fifteen feet and free from all obstructions and spectators.

Adequate lighting was to be provided so that the table should be lit by electric lamps of total wattage of not less than 180, or equivalent gas light, reflected downward and that the light was evenly distributed and should not un-sight the players.

Home clubs were also requested to provide such umpires or end-umpires as were necessary.

The rule relating to the ball to be used was eventually changed to read that the make of ball should be one of those officially approved by the International Table Tennis Federation and that a sufficient number of samples be made available for selection of a specimen satisfactory to both players.

Clubs were initially allowed to play matches against unaffiliated clubs provided that the unaffiliated club intended to seek membership but this was changed and the new rule stated that registered players or clubs were forbidden to take part in competition with any player or club, or in exhibition at any club, or under any auspices not registered or affiliated to the International Table Tennis Federation, without the sanction of the E.T.T.A. Executive Committee.

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There was obviously a lot of interest in the Ladies game and Miss Jean Young was nominated to act as representative on the Northern Regional Womens Committee of the English Table Tennis Association.

On the playing front in 1932/33 season representative matches were played against Carlisle and Sunderland and District Table Tennis Association with a team of twelve players representing the Association in the former match whilst a team of seven played against the Sunderland side. W.Cooknell, G.R.Bennand, A.Willis and J.H.Parsons of Blyth Y.M.C.A, together with T.Wight (L.N.E.R.Accountants) J.N.Bovill (Ministry of Labour) and C.N.Choudary (College Road Presbyterian) were selected for both matches. B.Kinnair (BlythY.M.C.A), E.V.Gardiner and J.Gibson (L.N.E.R.Accountants), W.Nealings (Ministry of Labour) and A.Gettins (St. Stephens Church of England) were also selected for the match against Carlisle.

BlythY.M.C.A. retained the titles in both the first and second divisions of the League with College Road Presbyterian Church coming out on top in the Ladies' Section.

W.Cooknell was again the winner of the 'Comet Cup' Gents Singles and Miss Jean Young took the Ladies Singles Association Cup title in the tournament.

The Annual Meeting in May 1933 saw a new President in Mr Arthur Heron being elected as Mr. I.C.Maconichie had moved to London. It was decided to create the post of Honorary Editorial Secretary and Mr. T.Wight was duly elected to that position. It was agreed to appoint two E.T.T.A. representatives and these positions were filled by Mr. Ken Nicholson and Miss J.Young. A change in Honorary Secretary was, however, made before the 1933/34 season started as Mr.J.J.Brennand was unable to continue on account of his business activities and Mr.A.E.Stapleton took over.

Mr.Wight, the new Editorial Secretary, made enquiries regarding the printing of a handbook and after reporting his findings to the Executive Committee it was decided to go ahead and have one printed. This was done by a firm called MacDonald of Newcastle upon Tyne and was very compact, measuring 11cm by 7.5cm and had twentyfour pages.

The contents were a list of Officers and Past President, Club information ( premises and secretaries of sixteen clubs),Rules of the Association, Fixtures for season 1933/34 for 'A' Division (Men) comprising of nine teams, 'B 'Division(Men) comprising of ten teams, and Ladies Section of six teams,. It also included the Rules of Table Tennis as adopted by the International Table Tennis Federation and mistakenly described on the contents page as the Rules of English Table Tennis Association, Honours List, Special Events page (Details and date of the Champions v The Rest of Northumberland fixture and date of the Singles Tournaments), and a Notelets page which gave details of the local newspapers which would print table tennis topics and the days on which they would appear. That page also had a list of advertisers recommended to members and notes regarding a request for details of any suggestions on the game or of any prospective new clubs to be given to the Publicity Secretary ( presumably the Editorial Secretary) as well as an appeal to members to attend the special events. A blank page was left for notes.

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Six full pages of advertisements were included and the advertisers were J.Rose & Son of London (Ball and table suppliers for whom Mr.J.J.Brennand was the sole agent for Northumberland) who were selling the balls at £1.63 per gross or specially tested balls at £2.40 per gross, Tables at either £6.50 or the higher price of £8.93 for Villa or Jaques ones, whilst a R.D.Jones bat was 22 pence. Spalding Table Tennis advertising the 'Villa' ball, John Jaques & Son Ltd. of London advertising the 'Tema' ball at £1.12 per gross, tournament posts costing 15 pence and nets at a cost of 5pence each, Stan Seymour of Market Street, Newcastle advertising a full range of Table Tennis Requisites and other Sports Goods, Lenglens Limited of London selling Lenglens 'Starred Club' balls at £1.43 per gross, and 'The Finest Table Tennis Table - Lenglens 'Vivax' which cost £6.87.

The other advert was for The Newcastle Journal stating Table Tennis Topics would appear on Wednesdays throughout the season, the best Paper for all Sports and Particular attention devoted to amateurs. The Annual Singles Tournament was held in December 1933 at the L.N.E.R. Central Institute, Forth Banks, Newcastle upon Tyne with the number of points played being 40 up in the rounds, 50 up in the semi finals and 100 up in the final.

The Handicap Singles tournament was held at a later date but there is no record of how the handicaps were fixed or, indeed, the format for play.

G.R.Brennand of Blyth Y.M.C.A. was the Mens singles winner with Miss M. McBride of L. & N.E.R. Accountants Office being successful in the Ladies. The first winner of the Mens Handicap Singles was J.Bradley of Wallsend and the first Ladies Handicap event was won by Miss E.M.Kay of St.George's Presbyterian Church, High Heaton.

County matches at home and away were played against Durham but requests to visit Carlisle and London were turned down on the grounds that the County was not in a position to send a team to either.

Blyth Y.M.C.A. provided five of the Men's team that entertained Durham on 31st January 1934 at Vickers-Armstrong-Whitworth Badminton Hall on Scotswood Road in Newcastle. They were G.R.Brennand, A.Willis, W.Cooknell, T.L.Kinnair and B.Kinnair. E.V.Gardiner of L.& N.E.R. Accountants and N.Hudspith of St.Stephen's Church of England, Scotswood Road completed the side.

A return match in Durham was played on 8th March 1934 when W.Frost and H.Grainge (both Blyth Y.M.C.A.) replaced E.V.Gardiner and N.Hudspith. There is no record of the results of these matches.

The Ladies County team that played Durham at Sunderland on 6th February 1934 was Miss M.McBride, Miss J.Young, Miss D.Hunter, Miss R.Hall ( all L.N.E.R. Accountants Office) and Miss M.Kay, Miss H.Wilson, and Miss S.MacNichol ( all St.Georges Presbyterian Church, High Heaton).

The home match was played at the L.N.E.R. Railway Institute on 7th March 1934 when Miss E.Sanderson ( Reyrolles) replaced Miss R.Hall. As with the Men's matches there is no record of the results.

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All players who represented the County were awarded County badges, a practice that continued for many years.

Blyth Y.M.C.A. continued to dominate the League with their 'A' and 'B' teams again finishing on top of the Mens Section First and Second Divisions respectively. L. & N.E.R. Accountants Office Ladies won the Ladies Section.

The administration of the League was not without it's problems with complaints being dealt with by the award of points in nine cases and three matches being declared void.

Arising out of these complaints it was agreed that St.Stephen's Church of England, Scotswood Road be expelled from the League following their continued breach of rules unless a satisfactory explanation and apology was received. Although not recorded such explanation and apology must have been received as St.Stephen's were in the Mens First Division the following season.

It was also agreed that unless St.Georges Presbyterian Church, High Heaton Mens team were better conducted in arranging matches that drastic action would be taken against them It was not made clear in the records as to what such action would be.

In April 1934 Mr. Arthur Heron intimated that he did not wish to stand as President again and he seconded a motion that Mr. Henry Laird be elected President in his place which was agreed. Mr.J.Curley was appointed as a Vice President and Mr. Parkin replaced him as a Vice Chairman.

The 1934/35 season saw another increase in the number of teams playing in the league with once again two Mens divisions and one Ladies division. Handbooks were not replaced but inserts were printed and available to clubs at a small charge of sixpence in old money (two and one half pence) but new clubs were also issued with copies of the original handbook.

Local press interest in the Association's activities continued to grow with regular articles now appearing in the Evening Chronicle, Journal, South Shields Gazette, North Shields Daily News, Blyth News, Hexham Courant and the Whitley Bay Seaside Chronicle.

Three players, G.R.Brennand and A.Willis of Blyth Y.M.C.A. and W.Skeoch of Armstrong Whitworth's, were nominated to take part in International Trials.

County matches were again organised with Durham but no record was kept of the teams selected or the results of these matches.

Blyth Y.M.C.A. were once again top of the Mens Section First Division and they were certainly the outstanding team in the league going on to win the title in every year up to 1938/39 season which was the last one before the hostilities of World War II brought about the cessation of competition. The second division was won by North Durham.

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Like Blyth Y.M.C.A., L.& N.E.R. Accountants were the dominant force in the Ladies Section and they too were top dogs right up to and including 1938/39 season.

On the tournament scene Blyth's G.R.Brennand retained the Mens Singles title, Miss E.M.Kay, now of L.& N.E.R.Accountants was successful in the Womens Singles and the Ladies Handicap Singles whilst another Blyth player A.Wedderburn came out on top in the Mens Handicap Singles.

The following year saw a change in Vice Presidents with the appointment of Reverend F.Baker, Stan Seymour and W.S. Bell. A.Heron and J.Curley stood down. Sam Boyd replaced Mr. Parkin as a Vice Chairman. A new position of Assistant Secretary was created which was filled by H.Conyers Walker but unfortunately he had to resign part way through the season because of ill health and was replaced by Mr. Bill Archbold.

The title of Editorial Secretary was changed to Publicity Secretary and two Official Umpires were added to the list of Officers, the first to be appointed being J.J.Brennand and Johnny Waugh. The latter was to become a driving force within the Association in the future.

The number of teams for the season 1935/36 rose dramatically with fifty one competing in six divisions, four Men’s Section, one Ladies Section and a new Blyth League. A knock- out competition was also arranged for the first time.

County matches with Durham again took place as well as an Inter League match with Seaham. An exhibition match was also staged at South Shields at their Association's request with Blundell, Miss Young and Miss MacNichol of L.N.E.R.Accountants, Skeoch of Armstrong Whitworth's and Frost of Blyth all taking part.

The Men’s Section Second, Third and Fourth Divisions were won by Dunston Saint Nicholas, Benwell Presbyterian Church and Bitumastic Sports Club respectively, Blyth Y.M.C.A. 'C' team winning the Blyth Divisional League. The new Teams (Knock-out) Championship went, unsurprisingly to Blyth Y.M.C.A.

Blyth Y.M.C.A. supplied yet another Men's Singles champion in A.Willis who also won the Men's Handicap Singles. Miss E.M.Kay retained the Ladies Singles title and Miss L.M. Sharp was successful in the Ladies Handicap Singles.

It was common practice at the time for the English Table Tennis Association to encourage County Associations to stage Exhibition Matches in conjunction with themselves when top International players would take part. The highlight of the season was the staging of such an event at the St. James' Boxing Hall in Newcastle upon Tyne on Wednesday 27th November 1935 when a top squad of Hungarian players who had won the world championships were the attraction.

It was decided that Northumberland players G.R.Brennand, A.Willis, Miss E.M. Kay and Miss M McBride would take part along with Edgar Reay and T.E.Ewbank of Durham. Contact was received from a Mr. Robinson of Hull & East Riding who had secured the services of an English International player, Hyman Lurie who was prepared to come to Newcastle if required. It was agreed to ask him on the basis that

Page 15 of 145 he would play doubles with the Hungarians. The Hungarian squad was Szabados, Bellak, Leibster and Erlich and arrangements were made for them to stay at the Royal Station Hotel in Newcastle.

Johnny Waugh and Arthur Heron were appointed as the Official Umpires and F.Ashworth was the Announcer for the night.

Steps were taken to make sure that the event was well advertised with posters being purchased including a hand written one which was placed outside of the hall. Adverts were paid for to be published in the Chronicle on the Monday and Tuesday before the exhibition as well as the Wednesday on which it took place.

The boxing ring had to be extended and a local firm were paid £5.50 to do this, 3000 programmes were purchased, twelve stewards were needed and it was agreed that Arthur Heron would arrange this with preference being given to the unemployed. The stewards each received a complimentary ticket. It was arranged that four turnstiles would be open with two for ticket holders and two for those who would pay on the night and the services of two policemen to be on duty outside the hall from 6.30p.m. until 10.30 p.m. were acquired. All the officials turned out in Evening Dress.

It turned out to be a great success with an attendance of two thousand and ninety one spectators.

The following season 1936/37 saw a new Vice President in Mr.M.C.Robson as the only change in the Officials although two changes had to be made during the season with Mr.Parkin resigning his position of Vice Chairman and the Publicity Secretary, Mr.T.Wight also resigning. They were replaced by Arthur Heron and Mr. Johnny Waugh. The General Secretary, Mr. A.E.Stapleton, saw out the season before he, too, resigned. The deep appreciation of the members of the Association were recorded in acknowledgement of the valuable work done by him since the formation of the Association and as Secretary since September 1933.

Only one County match was played that season with A.Willis, W.Cooknell, A.Wedderburn. B.Kinnair and M.Wake of Blyth Y.M.C.A. together with Messrs Leeson of L &.N.E.R Accountants and Mincoff of North Durham selected to play against Durham.

As well as winning the Men's top division, Blyth Y.M.C.A. won the Team Knock out Competition and their 'C' team took the Blyth Divisional League.

Other clubs to taste success in the Men's Divisions were L. & N.E.R. Accountants whose 'B' team won the second division with their 'C' team finishing on top of Division Three South, and Newcastle Postal Clerks who won Division Three North. L.& N.E.R .Accountants, of course, took the Ladies Section title.

In the Individual Competitions A.Wedderburn of Blyth won both the Men's Singles and the Men's Handicap Singles whilst Miss J.Young of L.& N.E.R.Accountants regained the Ladies Singles title with Mrs. J.R.Waugh gaining success in the Ladies Handicap Singles.

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By season 1937/38 the number of teams in the league had grown to sixty playing in four Newcastle & District Mens Divisions, one Blyth Mens Division and one Ladies Division. There were a few changes to the Officials with Mr. T. Wight replacing Arthur Heron who had left the district as a Vice Chairman, Mr.N.Proud appointed as Records Secretary ( a new name for the Assistant Secretary), and Mr. Chris Clark filling a new post of Match and Tournament Secretary and Mr.J.Hall was added to the Official Umpires.

The Ashington Collieries Welfare League affiliated to the County.

During the season the Executive Committee agreed a payment to Mr.A.E.Stapleton for services to the Association in past years and agreed that in future honoraria would be paid to the General Secretary, Match and Tournament Secretary, Records Secretary, Publicity Secretary and Treasurer, the amounts to be decided at the Annual General Meeting.

It was agreed to support a proposal by the Yorkshire Table Tennis Association to the inauguration of a County Championships competition on a regional basis and this went ahead being the forerunner of the eventual national competition. Matches were arranged for a men’s team to play home and away against Yorkshire, Lancashire and Durham and for a ladies side to play home and away against Lincolnshire and Warwickshire.

The men who represented the Association in these matches were Blyth Y.M.C.A.'s A.Wedderburn, G.R.Brennand, W.Cooknell and G.Thompson, L.&N.E.R. Accountants' A.Bulmer, W.Skeoch and H.Blundell and T.Simpson of Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson. Mrs. J.R.Waugh, Miss J.Young, Miss L.M.Sharp and Miss E.M.Kay, who all played for L.& N.E.R.Accountants, played for the Ladies team.

Following the success of the exhibition with the Hungarians in 1935 a similar event took place at the St.James Boxing Hall on February 9th 1938 with world champions Hungary again the visitors including Viktor Barna and Laslo Ballak. Durham's Edgar Reay and T.E.Ewbank again took part along with the top Northumberland players with Johnny Waugh acting as the Umpire.

Similar arrangements were made to those in 1935 and once again all of the officials wore dinner jackets.

It was an even bigger success than the 1935 event with the official attendance being 2554. It was also a financial success, contributing just over forty two pounds to the Association's funds which now stood at approximately fifty eight pounds.

Apart from the continued success of Blyth Y.M.C.A. in the top Men’s Division and L.& N.E.R. Accountants in the Ladies Section, Postal Clerks 'A' team won the Men’s Division Two having been successful in the Third Division the previous year and their 'B' team finished top of Division Three South. Swan Hunters Staff Institute had a double success in winning Division Three North and also the Knock-out Cup whilst Blyth Y.M.C.A. 'B' team won the Blyth Divisional League.

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For the first time the Individual Men's Singles was won by a player from a club other than Blyth Y.M.C.A. with A. Bulmer of L.& N.E.R. Accountants being successful. He also won the Men's Handicap Singles.

The Ladies Singles was won by Mrs. J.R. Waugh with Miss Robinson of Alnwick Mech. Institute taking the Ladies Handicap title.

The Ashington Collieries Welfare League was won by Morpeth Y.M.C.A.

It would appear that the publicity given to the sport by the holding of the exhibition at St. James Hall had the effect of creating more interest in the Association as the 1938/39 season saw fifty seven clubs taking part, an increase of fourteen over the previous year. This meant that there were now five divisions in the Men's Section of the Newcastle & District League and two in the Ladies Section. The Ashington Collieries Welfare League and the Blyth Divisional League combined to become the North Eastern Mens League The total number of teams taking part was now sixty seven Mens and sixteen Ladies.

Nearly all of the Officials remained the same, the exception being the position of Publicity Secretary where Mr. F.Ashforth took over from Mr Johnny Waugh. The number of Official Umpires increased to nine who were J.J.Brennand, G.Dellow, T.N.Henderson, T.B.A.Hutchinson, G.Mitchell, W.A.Robinson, C.W.Hall, Rev.S.Bell and Johnny Waugh.

Miss J.Young ceased being an E.T.T.A. representative but was appointed to the National Women's Advisory Committee.

Mr.Ken Nicholson was appointed to the English Table Tennis Association Executive Committee.

It was agreed that Honoraria be paid to certain officials in future and initially the General Secretary received seven guineas (£7.35), the Match and Tournament Secretary five guineas (£5.25) the Publicity Secretary four guineas (£4.20) the Records Secretary and the Treasurer two guineas (£2.10) each.

In an effort to increase the performance of the leading players Hyman Lurie was hired for a coaching session with them that was held in July 1938 with approximately twenty five men and ten ladies taking part. Mr. Lurie was then asked to nominate the best six men which he did, the players being Bulmer (L.& N.E.R. Accountants ) Brennand (Blyth Y.M.C.A.), Simpson (Swan Hunter and Wigham Richardson), Wedderburn (Blyth Y.M.C.A.), Henderson (North Durham) and Whitney (Postal Clerks). These players were asked to practice together at least once a week under the supervision of Mr. Ashforth during the close season.

The services of Mr. Lurie for a week were again acquired later in the year in December when he helped the Northumberland squad in taking part in the National Fitness Exhibition which was held in Newcastle. Afterwards he stayed on to again coach some of the leading players.

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It was later agreed to send, at the Association's expense, Messrs Bulmer, Simpson and Wedderburn to the Leeds tournament.

Men's teams were entered in the County Championships Regional Competition and in the Wilmott Cup ( the National Club Competition ) and Ladies' teams in the County Championships Regional Competition and the Rose Bowl, the latter being the National Club Competition for Ladies.

Another successful exhibition was held at the St. James Boxing Hall on 31st January 1939 with Hyman Lurie and another English International, Adrian Haydon being asked to augment the programme.

The season's honours, in what turned out to be the final one before the outbreak of World War II put an end to proceedings, saw Blyth Y.M.C.A. win the Men's Section First Division for the eighth successive year and L.& N.E.R. Accountants make it six in a row in winning the Ladies' Section top flight.

The other Men's Section Division winners were Newcastle Jewish Social Institute in the Second Division, West End Constitutional Club 'B' in the Third Division, Tynemouth U.A.B. in the Fourth Division North and North Durham 'C' in the fourth.

West End Congregational Church were successful in the Ladies' Section second Division and Blyth Y.M.C.A. won the Team Knock-out Championship and their 'B' team finished top of the North Eastern Men's League.

The only Individual Tournaments held were the Men's Singles and the Ladies' Singles, the winners being G Thompson of Blyth Y.M.C.A. and Mrs. J. Fennell of L.& N.E.R. Accountants respectively.

The Annual General Meeting on 28th April 1939 saw a few changes in the persons running the Association with Sam Boyd, who had previously found it necessary to resign as a vice chairman although the reason is not recorded, being replaced by Mr.T.B.A.Hutchinson. Mr.S.H.Mincoff took over as Publicity Secretary from Mr.Ashworth and Mr.R.Thompson became Records Secretary. Mr.C.W.Hall and the Reverend S.Bell ceased to be official umpires but Mr.M.Freedman was added to the list.

It was agreed to organise an Annual Open Tournament and also an Annual Table Tennis Dance but unfortunately these were never able to be held in that year.

The Executive Committee proposed a new and full set of Rules and Conditions for the Knock Out cup which were adopted for both the Men’s and the Ladies competitions. Most of the rules contained in them have remained in force up to the present time.

It was agreed to express the unqualified appreciation of this Association of the work done over the previous five years by the Honorary Officers of the English Table Tennis Association and it was also agreed to support a proposition to increase the fees payable to the E.T.T.A.

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An agenda prepared for an Executive Committee Meeting on 5th September 1939 was marked 'Hitler Permitting' and included an item headed 'Arrangements in the event of Hostilities'. However another Agenda was subsequently marked 'Hitler not permitting'.

World War Two broke out on 1st September and the meeting on 5th September attended by Messrs Wight, Archbold, Clark, Mincoff, Thompson and Nicholson along with Miss Young agreed the minutes of the previous meeting and the payment of two accounts. The following minute was also recorded: 'Owing to the International situation, it is agreed, that the activities of the Association be left in abeyance until circumstances are more favourable.'

Although all league play had been suspended at an Executive Committee meeting on 1st March 1940 it was agreed to look at the possibility of holding the County Tournaments. It was decided that if an exhibition was held on behalf of the Red Cross or Chronicle War Fund that the tournaments be advertised in the programmes after which the holding of them would be reviewed. The decision regarding the Red Cross or Chronicle events rested entirely with the Chronicle and there is no record of either having taken place.

The 1940 Annual General Meeting took place as usual on 3rd May, being attended by twenty two members.

A Mr. Buglass of North Durham complained bitterly about the conduct of the Executive Committee on its lack of initiative during the year. He maintained that they had done nothing to stimulate interest in table tennis since the outbreak of hostilities and had allowed the activities of the Association to lapse and doubted whether even after the war it would regain the ground lost. The General Secretary read extracts from articles which had appeared in the local press asking club secretaries to contact him to enable some sort of arrangements to be made to which only two replies had been received including one from Sandersonians whose premises had since been taken over by the military. However Mr. Buglass went ahead and proposed a vote of censure on the Executive Committee but as there was no seconder to this motion the matter was dropped.

The President and all of the existing Officers were re- elected with Mr.A.Read also being appointed a Vice President. It was recorded, however, that the services of the Publicity and Records Secretaries were not necessary under present conditions and their nominations were put forward on the understanding that they could be called upon if necessary.

It was agreed that only a nominal subscription of 5p per club be charged based on the application forms for season 1939/40 until further notice.

It was also agreed that the affairs of the Association be left entirely in the hands of the Executive Committee until further notice, but that an Extraordinary General Meeting could be called on the request of six clubs. It was also recommended to the Executive Committee that they co-opted Mr. Buglass.

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Because of the war nothing at all was able to take place and the next meeting of the Executive Committee was not held until 18th December 1945.

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CHAPTER THREE

Almost like starting afresh

On 18th December 1945 a meeting was arranged and attended by Bart Kinnair, T.Wight, T.B.A.Hutchinson, Ken Nicholson, Bill Archbold, Miss J.Young and Messrs Gibson and Chipchase who all agreed that the Association should recommence activities and they agreed to have a circular sent to all clubs and to ask the local press to advertise the fact that they wished to resume activities.

An Extraordinary General Meeting was called for 14th March 1946 which was attended by sixty representatives and it was agreed that a start would be made for season 1946/47. It was also agreed to ask the Duke of Northumberland to be the Patron of the Association which he agreed to be.

As Mr. Bill Archbold had retired, Chris L. Clark was appointed to act as secretary.

The Annual General Meeting was duly held on 14th May 1946 when it was agreed to go ahead.

The former President, Henry Laird, had died and Mr. M.C.Robson was elected as President, a position he was to hold for the next nine years. Messrs Stan Seymour Senior and W.S.Bell were re-elected as Vice Presidents with A.Read and Bill Archbold also appointed. Bart Kinnair ( Chairman), T.Wight and T.B.A. Hutchinson (Vice Chairmen), Ken Nicholson (Treasurer and E.T.T.A. Representative) and R.Thompson (Records Secretary) were all willing to continue in their previous roles and were all re-elected. Chris Clark was confirmed as the new Secretary with Johnny Waugh, who was to be highly involved with the running of the Association until season 1957/58, appointed as Match and Tournament Secretary and R.Chipchase appointed Publicity Secretary. It was agreed to put on record the thanks of the Association to the Officials who had carried on under difficult conditions with the names of Mr.Chipchase and Mr. Quick being especially emphasised.

The season eventually got under way with fiftyone teams from thirtysix clubs taking part in five divisions. Unfortunately there were no Ladies' divisions. Numbers were down compared the last season before the war broke out but it was very gratifying when it was considered how many former clubs were just beginning to get going again after losing premises and equipment to service and Civil Defence requirements. Because of the lack of divisions for Ladies it was decided that ladies could play on mens' teams, something which was to be the norm in future.

As the Secretary was to say in his first report to the membership it was almost like starting afresh.

Lack of equipment was a nightmare during the early part of the season and it was only towards the end of the season that bats and balls were becoming plentiful and tables were beginning to be manufactured again.

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Apart from the League programme, the annual tournament was played with the introduction of Veterans Singles, Mens Doubles, Mixed Doubles and Youth's Singles events as well as the Mens and Ladies Singles and the Mens and Ladies Handicap Singles.

As part of the Anglo-Netherlands Sports Scheme it was agreed that four players who had agreed to pay £10 each would represent table tennis and take part in a visit to Groningen. They were very successful and all received medals for winning the match. Mr. Batley also received an extra medal for the best individual performance.

A return match was played at Rutherford Grammar School later in the season when A.Punshon (South Shields YMCA), A.Bulmer (L.N.E.R.Accountants), Johnny Hewitt (North Durham), and Leon Kertzman (Maccabi) proved to be too strong for the Dutchmen. Durham were beaten in a friendly match that was played at Stanley.

Teams were also entered in the National K.O. Competitions for Leagues, i.e. the Wilmott Cup for men and the Rose Bowl for women. A.Bulmer L.&N.E.R) J.Hewitt (N.Durham), H.Ions (Maccabi),L.Kertzman(Maccabi), J.Middlemiss(PostalClerks),R.Punshon(S.Shields Y.M.C.A.), and D.Wright(Swan Hunters) all represented the men for the County during the season. Miss J.Purves, Miss D.Smith, and Mrs. J.R.Waugh (all L & N E R ) also represented the County and were narrowly defeated in the semi final of the Rose Bowl.

As in the years before the war, an Exhibition took place when over 1000 spectators saw top players Victor Barna, Johnny Leach, Jack Carrington, England Lady International, Peggy Franks, and Scottish Lady International Helen Elliott at the City Baths Hall.

Following the success of that exhibition it was agreed to stage the first International Match to be held in Newcastle with England Women playing Scotland Women in the Western Zone Final of the European Ladies Cup. The English Ladies team of Vera Duce, Betty Blackbourne and Peggy Franks were successful. Unfortunately the weather was atrocious, the day of the match being one of the worst winter days for years when Newcastle was almost cut off from civilisation. Even so many were waiting in the snow before the doors opened and the number of almost six hundred spectators amazed both teams.

Two of the Association's players, Hewitt and Kertzman, were invited to take part in International Trials in Liverpool and it was agreed to send them and to pay them £2.10.00 ( £2.50) each towards the travel costs. It the transpired that two women had also been invited to the Trials and it was agreed that they should also go but would have to pay their own expenses! The two men were later invited to the Final Trials in London and it was agreed that they should go and that the Association would pay half of their rail fare and half of their hotel costs. One of the women was also invited but this was not followed up.

As before the war there were clubs in membership that were based South of the River Tyne and the Durham Association were objecting to them playing in the Northumberland League. A meeting was held with representatives of the Durham

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Association with Northumberland proposing that any such clubs should affiliate to Durham but be allowed to play in the Northumberland League. Talks were ongoing.

Although not part of the Association's activities, top players Victor Barna and Alec Brook appeared at the Empire Theatre in Newcastle to give an exhibition when the well known comedian Arthur Askey was top of the bill.

Some of the teams in the league were there to stay for a long time, Blyth Y.M.C.A. who had been in the league from the start going on to complete forty years, L.N.E.R. Accountants (later to be called Revac) who joined in 1931 were to complete fifty four years, Postal Clerks fifty one years ( joined in 1936/37), Newcastle Y.M.C.A. thirtyeight years (joined in 1936/37 ). Newcomers South Shields Y.M.C.A. were to stay for forty two years whilst another new club, Maccabi were to be in the League until 2013/14, a total of sixty eight years.

Before the war the First Division of the League had been dominated by Blyth Y.M.C.A.who had won it in each of the eight years up to 1938/39. After the fresh start the first winners were newcomers South Shields Y.M.C.A. with Blyth Y.M.C.A. 'B' team being successful in the second division and Maccabi 'B' Team finishing top of division three.

The winners of the two fourth divisions were both in the League for the first time, Thermal Syndicate taking the North Division and Murray House the South.

The Knock Out Cup was won by North Durham and the experimental three a side knock out competition by South Shields Y.M.C.A.

The Official List of Umpires totalled seven, being T.A.B.Hutchinson, Johnny Waugh, S.Scatchard, F.Ashforth, D.W.Scarth, Johnny Hewitt and Sam Boyd.

There were new winners in all of the tournament events with A.Punshon (S.Shields YMCA) taking the Mens Singles title and Doreen Smith (L.N.E.R.) the Womens Singles title. Johnny Hewitt (North Durham) and Doreen Smith were both successful in the respective Mens and Womens Handicap Singles. The new Veterans Singles was won by J.Smalley (L.N.E.R. and N.F.S) with T.Armstrong ( Blyth YMCA) successful in the new Youth Singles. Johnny Hewitt completed a hat trick of victories, winning the Mens Doubles with A.Percy (North Durham), and the Mixed Doubles with Joyce Purves (L.N.E.R.)

A few changes to the officers and officials were made for 1947/48 with three new Vice Presidents in Stan Seymour, Junior joining his father along with T.Wooding and T.Wight whilst W.S.Bell and A.Read retired. D.W.Scarth, who was to hold the position until 1955/56 when he became Chairman for one season, took over from T.Wight as a Vice Chairman. B.P. Bell replaced R.Chipchase as Publicity Secretary.

C.L. Clark moved out of the district during the course of the season and J.R.Waugh replaced him with A.Wilson taking over from the latter as Match and Tournament Secretary. A.Wilson was to hold this position until the end of the 1953/54 season and then be still involved on the Committee until the end of season 1959/60.

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It was also agreed that the Executive Committee should have one representative from each division

An honorarium of thirteen guineas ( thirteen pounds 65 pence) was given to the secretary at the A.G.M. in May 1947 of which three guineas ( three pounds 15 pence) was to be given to the typists, Miss Smith and Miss Wright, who had typed hundreds of letters.

The method of play was agreed at four players per team who had to be numbered in order of ability, such order having to be strictly adhered to. Each player was to play three best of three games of 21 points as follows: A v 1,2,3 B v 2,1,4 C v 3,4,1 and D v 4,3,2

Matches to be played strictly in accordance with the Official fixture list, i.e. commencing at 7.00p.m. prompt on the date shown in the handbook. Postponements would only be allowed in exceptional cases and notice of such postponement had to be in the hands of their opponents four days preceding the match.

The long standing disagreement with Durham regarding clubs situated in Co Durham being able to play in the league continued with Durham stating that they should form a League in Durham and not play in the Northumberland League. It was decided to ask the E.T.T.A. to amend their rules to provide for affiliation through County Association as a unit instead of through League as a unit, but that clubs should play in Leagues on the most convenient basis. For the current season entries from any clubs affected were still accepted.

With Table Tennis once again becoming popular the season started with an increase to ninety two teams from fifty six clubs divided into seven divisions as follows: 1,2,3,4A,4B,4C and North Eastern Division.

The experimental Teams of Three K.O. Competition was not continued with.

The County Tournament was held at North Shields Y.M.C.A. and the Ladies' Doubles event was introduced.

Of the new clubs in the league, Ashington Y.M.C.A. who had previously been in for one season in 1938/39 were to stay until 1994/95 season and North Shields Y.M.C.A. for sixty eight years until they were no longer able to use the premises in 2016.

One club is still there in 2018 although it has had many name changes. Starting out as Ministry of National Insurance, Longbenton it then became M.P.N.I., M.O.S.S., D.H.S.S., D.W.P., and then Newcastle Estates Sports and Leisure Club.

A very comprehensive fifty six page handbook was printed, of which clubs had to buy four copies at one shilling (five pence) per copy, and contained List of Officers, Honours List, Previous Season final Tables. N.T.T.A. Rules, The Laws of the Game, Club Information, the Fixtures for the Season, Dates of Special Events and Tournaments, Notelets, County Championships Fixtures and Extracts from Rules and other County Championship information and included a comment as follows:

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' TABLE TENNIS is no longer a pastime but a game, an athletic game, and it can be a very spectacular game. Do all you can to foster this view by encouraging your friends to attend the events organised by the Association.'

It also included nine full page adverts despite supplies of equipment still not being freely available. Indeed the advert for John Jaques and Sons referred to limited supplies of equipment being available against Board of Trade buying permits. It also stated that Tables as used in the World Championships were still not available owing to the lack of suitable timber.

The first record of transfer of players between clubs was recorded with Harry Dignan going from North Shields Y.M.C.A. to North Durham and J.Everson from Newcastle Transport to West End Congers.

Two exhibitions to promote the sport were held during the season, one in Gateshead and one in Hexham which was attended by approximately two hundred people.

A team was entered in the new County Championships Competition and played in the Northern Division and were represented by Miss D.Smith, Miss Joyce Purves, Mrs J.R.Waugh (all L.& N.E.R.) Johnny Hewitt (N.Durham) Leon Kertzman (Maccabi) J.W.Middlemiss (Postal Clerks) and A.Punshon (S.Shields Y.M.C.A. ). Victories were achieved away from home over Cheshire 6 - 3, Yorkshire seconds 5 - 4 and Cumberland 9 - 0 with success at home against Lincolnshire 6 - 3. Unfortunately 4 - 5 defeats came in home matches against Durham and Lancashire Seconds and the team finished third in the division.

Highlight of the season came in the National Competitions for leagues when the Men’s team of Johnny Hewitt, Kertzman and Punshon beat West Cumberland 9 - 0 in Newcastle, then won away 5 - 4 against the Sunderland League and by the same score against the Grimsby League to reach the semi finals of the Wilmott Cup.

Doreen Smith, Joyce Purves and Madge Waugh progressed in the Rose Bowl with a 5 - 0 win away to the Grimsby League, a walk over against the Sunderland league and success in Newcastle 4 - 1 over the Blackpool League to get to the semis.

The Semi Finals and Finals of both the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl were staged at the same time in Willesden in London when all eight of the competing teams were accompanied by coach loads of supporters. Unfortunately the men, despite giving a good account of themselves, failed to reach the final, going down 5 - 0 to the Manchester league who went on to beat North Middlesex and win the cup. The women were up against the South Devon League in the semis and triumphed 3 - 0 to go into the final against a very strong Birmingham League side who had accounted for North Middlesex in the other semi.

A tremendous performance from the Northumberland Ladies saw them triumph 3 - 2 against all the odds to win the County's first ever trophy. A report in the English Table Tennis Magazine carried the line that players from the 'Far North' can produce players to rank with the best! The tournament ( known in those days as the Individual Championship) saw J.W.Middlemiss of Postal Clerks triumph in the Men's Singles and Miss Doreen

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Smith (L.N.E.R. ) retain the Women's Singles title. The Handicap singles were won by A. Percy (North Durham) in the men's and Miss S.Kertzman of Maccabi in the women's event.

The South Shields Y.M.C.A. pairing of A.Punshon and S.Myers were successful in the Men's Doubles with Johnny Hewitt (N.Durham) and Miss Joyce Purves (L.N.E. R.) retaining the Mixed Doubles title. Joyce Purves was also successful partnered by Madge Waugh ( also L.N.E.R..) in the new Ladies' Doubles. M. Wood of Blyth Y.M.C.A. won the Youth's Singles with J.Smalley of N.F.S. retaining the Veteran's Singles title.

In the League L.N.E.R. Accountants became the new First Division Champions and newcomers Ministry of National Insurance 'A' won the Second Division. South Shields Y.M.C.A. 'B' team won the Third Division. The three successful sides in the Fourth Divisions were Postal Clerks 'C' team in the A division, North Durham 'C' in the B division and Ministry of National Insurance C team in the C division. Ashington Y.M.C.A. were the winners of the new North Eastern Division and South Shields Y.M.C.A. won the K.O. Competition.

The following season, 1948/49, saw the same set of officials looking after things with the exception that there was no longer a Publicity Secretary.

Of the Official Umpires, T.A.B.Hutchinson and F.Ashforth were no longer on the list but H.Irons was added thereto.

The growth of the number of clubs and teams continued with ninety eight teams from fifty eight clubs participating in the league which now had eight divisions. The set up was again changed with a First Division, a Second Division, a Third Division, a Fourth Division, three Fifth Divisions and the North Eastern Division.

The new clubs included BBC House Boy's Club of Gateshead who had previously been in membership in 1937/38 and 1938/39 seasons and were now to stay until the end of season 1977/78.

The rules had been thoroughly revised by a small committee and a complete set of rules drawn up for the knock out competition.

Regarding the question of players and clubs who were actually in the County Durham area and had to affiliate them it was decided that they could still play in the Northumberland league provided that they had the permission of the Executive Committee.

A rule was brought in that any player not present when his match was due to be played would automatically forfeit it except with the opposing captain's consent.

The rule regarding postponements stated that in the case of the Premier Division and subject to appeal to the Executive Committee either side unable to fulfil a fixture strictly in accordance with the fixture chart would forfeit the match to the opposing team. There was, however, no reference to a Premier Division in the list of fixtures and presumably it referred to the First Division!

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The old rule whereby an umpire was empowered to declare void a game on the grounds that it constituted unenterprising defensive play was done away with.

The now usual entries were made of teams in the County Championships, the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl. The Annual Tournament, now referred to as the Closed Tournament was arranged at North Shields Y.M.C.A. with the finals to be held at Rutherford College Hall in Newcastle which was also the venue for all of the home County matches.

Equipment was much more readily available after the shortage created by the war and permits for the purchase of balls were no longer required.

For the very first time the County fielded a Junior side that played a friendly match against Durham in Newcastle. R.Heslop (N.Durham), B.Donkin (West End Boys Club), B.Thompson (Blyth Y.M.C.A.), N.Gibson (Gateshead Y.M.C.A.) and L.Rose (Maccabi) were the youngsters to represent the County at this level.

Following the success of the Ladies in the Rose Bowl the E.T.T.A. decided to stage a match between the South of England Ladies and the North of England Ladies as a trial for places in the National team. This was held at the City Baths Hall but turned out to be disappointing and not as popular as had been hoped for. The North of England team which lost 6 - 3 included Joyce Purves and Doreen Smith but they were below par on the night. Doreen Smith, however, had been named as a reserve for the England team to play Czechoslovakia.

The County continued to try to help the Hexham area to promote table tennis by staging another exhibition match in Hexham.

Following the success of the visits of Internationals to play exhibitions in previous years it was agreed to stage one against the touring Czechoslovakian squad that included the 1946/47 world champion Bohumil Vana and the most attractive stylist Ivan Andreas who had won the English Open Championship in the same year. The exhibition was also held at the City Baths Hall but was not the great success that previous ones had been.

A. Punshon and Joyce Purves were both successful at the Hartlepools Open Tournament winning the Mens and Womens Singles titles respectively and Joyce combining with Madge Waugh to also take the Women's Doubles crown.

The County Championships saw the Northumberland side once again in the Northern Section and they won three and lost three of their matches.

In the Wilmott Cup the Men beat the Carlisle League, Sunderland League, and Cambridge League but went out at the hands of the South London League.

The Rose Bowl side was the same one that won the trophy the previous year but they could not repeat the feat, losing out 7 - 2 away to the Manchester League after beating the Grimsby league at home.

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On the domestic front North Durham became a force to be reckoned with and won the First Division, winning all twenty six of their matches as well a winning the Knock Out Cup.

Postal Clerks 'B' finished top of Division Two and Gateshead Y.M.C.A. 'A' triumphed in Division Three.

Newcastle Y.M.C.A.'C' team won Division Four whilst Gateshead Y.M.C.A.'B', Cullercoats Y.M.C.A.'A', and Ministry of Works 'B' were the victors in Division Five A, B and C. Ashington Y.M.C.A. retained the North Eastern Division title.

The successful players in the Closed Tournament were led by Doreen Smith (L.N.E.R.) who won the Women's Singles for the third year in succession, the Ladies Doubles with team mate Miss M. Elliott and the Mixed Doubles with another L.N.E.R. player, B.Moore. B.Moore was the Men's Singles Champion whilst J.Smalley (now of Newcastle Y.M.C.A) took the Veterans' Singles for the third time in a row.

The Handicap Singles were won by J.Middlemiss of Postal Clerks in the Men's event and Miss E.S.Tully of Westonians in the Women's event.

At the other end of the age scale B.Thompson of Blyth Y.M.C.A. took the Youth's Singles title.

For some reason the Mens Doubles event was unfinished and despite a suggestion that it be completed the following season this never happened.

The Records Secretary resigned at the end of the season and R.Farrow took over for 1949/50 season and R.Littlejohn was appointed as Assistant Treasurer later in the season. W.P. Allen was added as a Vice President. R.Farrow held the position of Records Secretary up to and including 1957/58, thereafter serving on the Committee until 1966.

R.Littlejohn, L.Kertzman, A.Percy and N.W.Boyd were all added to the Official Umpires list but Sam Boyd had come off the list.

When the war had brought proceedings to a halt in 1939 there were sixty seven teams from fifty seven clubs in membership when Mr Buglass criticised the Committee for allowing things to lapse and doubted whether the lost ground would ever be made up. Now at the start of the 1949/50 season he was shown to be completely wrong as there were now one hundred and twelve teams from sixty four clubs and an extra Division Four was added making nine divisions in total.

A handbook was again produced which turned out to be the model for the next twenty-seven years and contained sixty-eight pages including ten full page adverts. The contents included List of Officials, Rules, Laws of the Game, previous season county match results and tables, fixture charts and club information, previous season final league tables, tournament results and records, world championship records and English championship results and records.

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One change was made to the Club Match Regulations bringing in a rule that clubs operating more than one team must not under any circumstances play any of the numbers one, two or three players of a team in any lower team.

Teams were once again entered in the Northern Division of the County Championships, the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl but were knocked out of both Cup Competitions at an early stage.

It was a successful season in the Northern Division, however with victories home and away against Cumberland, Yorkshire and Durham to finish top of the table with a one hundred per cent record.

On the Junior front several of the most promising Juniors were both gaining limited experience and improving generally but it was unfortunate that a proposed match against the Durham Junior team did not materialise. To offset this the Swedish Junior International team was invited to Newcastle to play against Northumberland's side of J. Hillyer (Newcastle Y.M.C.A.) L. Rose (Maccabi) and M .Armstrong (Whitley Bay Y.M.C.A.) at Rutherford College Hall in Newcastle. Though defeated the home side was certainly not disgraced.

As the Association was growing so too were the problems of running the League Competition with lack of discipline in conforming with the Rules, Club Match Regulations and Knock Out Cup Rules becoming more pronounced. In particular late starts to matches and incorrect playing order were becoming major problems together with too many postponements. From the Records Secretary's point of view late receipt of score cards made his job more difficult.

There was a record number of entries into the County Closed Championships with the preliminary rounds staged once again in the Sir James Knott Youth Centre, home of North Shields Y.M.C.A. and the finals in Newcastle at Rutherford College. A.Punshon of South Shields Y.M.C.A. won the Men's Singles and also the Mens' Handicap Singles. Mrs J. Hewitt North Durham) was successful in the Women's Singles and also won the Mixed Doubles with her husband Johnny who partnered A.Coffer, (also of N. Durham) to victory in the Men's Doubles.

The Revac pairing of Miss D.Smith and Miss M. Elliott retained the Ladies' Doubles title and another Revac player, N.Proud, won the Veterans' Singles.

Miss S.Rutherford of Ministry of Works won the Women's Handicap Singles and Newcastle Y.M.C.A.'s young player J.Hillier won the Youths' Singles.

There had still not been very much progress in having coaches although the St. Lawrence club had approached Newcastle Education Committee who had agreed to an appointment at their club and Mr. Ashforth had been appointed.

On the Social side of things it was decided to hold the first ever Association dance at the Brighton Assembly Rooms in Westgate Road, Newcastle. Unfortunately lack of support was most was disappointing and regrettable and it was decided that further

Page 30 of 145 efforts to extend the social activities would have to be carefully considered in the future.

By the end of the forties the cost of tables was in the region of £30 to £40, the cost of bats ranged from five shillings and eleven pence to ten shillings (thirty to fifty pence). Nets were three shillings (fifteen pence),and the posts twelve shillings and three pence (sixty one pence) whilst a sheet of bat rubber was one shilling (five pence). Balls were still expensive at approximately one shilling (five pence) each.

The finances of the Association were by now very satisfactory with an accumulated surplus from day one of £28. The Donation scheme introduced in 1947 had been a great help, raising £143 over three years. The fees for entry into the league had been held for a few years at fifteen shillings (seventy five pence ) per club plus five shillings ( twenty five pence ) per team and one shilling (five pence) for the K.O. Cup.

North Durham 'A' continued to be the strongest team in the league winning the First Division once again and retaining the Knock Out Cup whilst their 'C' team won Division Three. Newcastle Y.M.C.A. 'B' were successful in Division Two and their 'D' team took Division Five A. Gateshead Y.M.C.A. also achieved two titles, their 'B' side taking Division Four B and their 'C team' winning Division Five C. Saint Anthony's House were successful in Division Four A, Whitley Bay Y.M.C.A. 'B' won Division Five B and Seaton Delaval Miners' Welfare took the North Eastern Division title.

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CHAPTER FOUR

The Fifties

1950-1951

The start of the fifties saw the Association continue where the forties left off with sixty five clubs in membership having one hundred and fourteen teams in nine divisions for season 1950/51. There were two new teams who were to stay in the League for a long time in Saint Anthony's Old Boys, who were also to make a most impressive start, and South Shields Corporation. The former continued for twenty three years until 1973 whilst the South Shields outfit remained until 1972.

Changes in the Officials saw the appointment of Mr. R. Littlejohn as treasurer replacing Ken Nicholson who was made a Vice President. Johnny Waugh replaced Ken as E.T.T.A. representative.

A couple of changes were made to the Club Match Regulations with the regulation regarding postponements being simplified to allow any team in any division to have permission to postpone in exceptional circumstances granted to them by the Executive Committee. However, they had to apply in writing not less than fourteen days prior to the date of the original fixture.

The rule that clubs with more than one team could not play any of the players of a team numbered 1, 2 or 3 in any lower division was deleted and replaced by one that stated that no player may average more than one game weekly over the season or from his or her first game, whichever was the later. This appears to have been a very complicated matter to control!

The K.O. Rules were simplified to state that no League match could be cancelled to accommodate a cup match.

Teams continued to be four a side with the method of play continuing as follows: A v W X Y, B v W X Z, C v W Y Z and D v X Y Z

The Executive Committee continued to have an elected member from each division.

Representative teams played in the County Championships Northern Division, the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl with creditable results.

Among those to be awarded County Badges was Harry Dignan who was to go on to become one of the best known figures in the Association both as a coach and an official as well as eventually being President from 1986 to 2007.

In an effort to improve the standard of play of the leading players plans were made for intensive practice throughout the summer at the Sir James Knott Youth Centre. Messrs Ashforth and Kertzman applied to act as coaches to the Local Education Committee and this was agreed to.

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Westonians who were in the Second Division were given permission to include County players in their 'Open Day' programme and it was agreed that Red Cross TTC of Jesmond could invite leading players for an exhibition.

The introduction of a three a side league was discussed but left in abeyance.

It was agreed that the E.T.T.A. scheme for County Umpires be supported and copies of the test papers given to the current Umpires Panel when they became available.

The Northumberland Association of Girls' Clubs and Mixed Clubs applied to the Association for the supply of a coach for two or three evenings for their girls but for some reason the Executive Committee told them to apply directly to the Education Authorities.

There was sad news in January 1951 when the Committee were informed of the death of Ken Nicholson. The following tribute appeared in the Executive Committee Report for the year - 'It was a very great shock to learn of the death of Mr. K. A. Nicholson. Mr. Nicholson was, without doubt, largely instrumental in the founding of the present Association and chiefly responsible for the framework of the constitution and was from the inception until last year Honorary Treasurer. Those of us who were fortunate enough to be associated with him appreciate the time he devoted to our activities and though having many and varied interests none of them occupied his conscientious attentions more than the furtherance of Table Tennis. He was for many years a respected member of the National Executive and his understanding of constitution must have been of considerable assistance in that particular sphere. It is much to be regretted that the war years resulted in him losing his place on that body.'

On the financial front it was decided to run a Donation Scheme to make sure that the Association remained on a stable footing and this was left in the hands of a sub committee consisting of Littlejohn, Helm and Waugh. It proved to be successful, raising some £28 which resulted in the Association having a surplus of approximately £22 at the end of the financial year.

News of a league being formed in Alnwick was received and it was expected that this league would eventually affiliate to the Association.

A complaint was received from Ministry of Works regarding the unsatisfactory lighting at Byker Brotherhood which they claimed had probably interfered with the result. The lighting was actually gas lighting and the Executive Committee agreed that they be sent a letter to the effect that in view of the current fluctuation in gas pressure that it was difficult to arrive at a solution to the problem! There is no record of the outcome.

The County Closed Championships continued to be very popular and there was another record entry. The preliminary rounds took place at Sir James Knott Youth Centre with the Finals Night again at Rutherford Grammar School.

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Ronnie Heslop of North Durham won the Mens Singles title and the Mens Doubles partnered by Harry Dignan, also of North Durham. He also partnered Miss S.Rutherford ( Ministry of Works) to success in the Mixed Doubles.

The Womens Singles was won for the third time by Mrs. J.R.Waugh (Revac) and the Womens Doubles title went to Miss D.Smith (Revac) and Mrs A Coffer (North Durham).

J.Smalley of Revac won the Veterans Singles and L.Rose of Maccabi took the Youths Singles title. The Mens Handicap Singles also went to J.Smalley and the Womens Handicap Singles winner was Miss E.S.Tully of Westonians.

Some of Northumberland's players took part in the Hartlepools Open Tournament where Ronnie Heslop won the Mens Singles event and Philomena Heppell was runner up in the final of the Womens Singles. Miss D.Smith and Mrs. J.M. Waugh gained the Womens Doubles title and Mrs Waugh was also successful in the Mixed Doubles final partnered by L. Kertzman. The latter also lost in the final of the Mens Doubles with L.Rose. Johnny Hillyer was successful in the Junior Singles.

In the League, Division One was won for the third year running by North Durham, the outstanding club since the war. They were, however, beaten in the final of the K.O. Cup by Ministry of National Insurance in an exciting match, the proceeds of which were donated in full to the Chronicle Sunshine Fund. The Chronicle had kindly allowed the use of Chronicle Hall for the final.

Westonians thoroughly earned the Division Two title and it's 'B' team won Division 4b.

Newcomers Saint Anthony's Old Boys won Division 3 and their 'B' team were successful in Division 5b. Division 4a was won by Longbenton Hostel, North Eastern Marine finished top of Division 5a and Dunston Lawn Tennis Club top of Division 5c. The North Eastern title was retained by Seaton Delaval Miners Welfare.

During the year good press coverage had been given to the Association by the Evening Chronicle, Journal and North Mail and the Northern Press.

1951-1952

There was no change to the format of the League for 1951/52 nor was there at all during the fifties. The number of teams in total reached an all time high at 118.

Newcomers included Blyth Town Boys Club who eventually played in the league for forty years. Two new clubs, Tyne Lead Athletic and Hedley Sports and Social Club later known as Thos Hedley & Co. then Proctor and Gamble Sports Club were to remain until 1986. Reyrolles, who had been member from 1933 to 1938, returned and they stayed until 1987.

Two new teams, Ouston R A.F. and Westonians 'D' side were given permission to play all of their matches away from home.

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Changes were made to the Association's Rules and Club Match Regulations with the introduction of a Guarantee Fee. Each club in membership of the league had to pay the sum of one pound as a guarantee of carrying out the full commitments during the ensuing season. The sum to be refunded at the end of the season less any fines imposed. If a team resigned during the season the guarantee to be forfeited in its entirety.

Fines were also brought in for teams cancelling matches at less than three days notice - two shillings and sixpence ( twelve and one half new pence) on each and every occasion, one shilling ( 5p) for each player short on each and every occasion, and one shilling on each and every occasion that the home side failed to send the score card to reach the Records Secretary within three days of the match being played.

On the financial side it was decided to change the year end from 30th June to 31st March.

The only change to the Officers of the Association was that Mr.A.Punshon replaced Mr. T.A.B. Hutchinson as a Vice Chairman.

Two new Vice Presidents were appointed being The Hon. Denis G. Berry of Wylam and Mr. H.V. Lightfoot of Gosforth.

A secretary to the Umpires Sub Committee was appointed with Adam Coffer taking on the role.

Following discussions that had been held during the previous season it was decided to go ahead with an Exhibition to mark the 'coming of age' of the Association which had now been in existence for twenty one years. This was held at the Newcastle City Baths Hall on 19th November 1951 and included top English players Leach and Barron, Mr and Mrs Carrington and Scotland's Helen Elliott. It was very successful and attracted a capacity house, produced some very entertaining table tennis and financially made a profit of approximately £46.

Jack Carrington conducted a coaching session for the local junior players over the weekend which proved that the County had many Junior players of promise. He was also sub let to Northumberland Education Department for thee days.

The County teams were not as successful as hitherto and the support was very disappointing. In the newly formed Second Division North the first team finished sixth out of seven whilst the newly formed second team competed in the old Northern division finishing second out of four. Neither of the League representative teams progressed past the zone finals of the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl.

Seven clubs were interested in forming a Ladies League which had not been in existence since before the war with another two wishing to delay until the start of the following season. It was decided to go ahead with the seven.

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Following reports about the suitability of their premises Saint Anthony's Old Boys were written to the effect that the Executive Committee deprecated that Club's action in playing in a public bar. It was also agreed to delete all congratulatory remarks about the achievements of that club from the Annual Report!

Philomena Heppell (Revac) won the Womens Singles at the Hartlepools Open Tournament and went on to become the first Northumberland player to gain a National Honour. She was picked, along with Doreen Spooner of Middlesex and Jill Rook of Surrey to play for England Juniors against Wales at Aberdare in a mixed junior international. The three girls were, in fact, the first ever junior girls to gain international honours. The match was won by England with Philomena only playing in one match. According to the English Table Tennis Association's official magazine, Table Tennis News, her success came as a complete surprise! This was the start of a long and successful time for Philomena.

Newcastle YMCA's Johnny Hillyer was also making a name for himself and the County sponsored both Philomena and Johnny to compete in the English Open Championships. Both gained experience to stand them in good stead for the future.

The County Closed Championships again attracted record entries and was again played on ten tables at Sir James Knott Youth Centre in North Shields with the final staged once again in the Sports Hall of Rutherford Grammar School in Newcastle which drew a large attendance. The outstanding player was, undoubtedly, Johnny Hillyer, who according to the Executive Committee Report for the season, through keenness and natural ability proved himself, at the time, to be Northumberland's most promising player for many years. He won the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with K.Snaith (Newcastle YMCA) and the Mixed Doubles with Miss D.Smith (Revac).

The Womens Singles was won by Philomena Heppell, being the first of many victories to come.

Miss D.Smith was also successful in the Womens Doubles partnered by Mrs A Coffer of North Durham and for good measure also won the Womens Handicap event. Stan Lawson (Ministry of National Insurance) won the Veterans Singles and the Mens Handicap Singles and the Youths Singles was won by Daniel Knaresborough of St. Anthony's Old Boys.

In the league there was the closest struggle ever for the First Division championship which eventually went to West End Boys Club who wrested the title from North Durham by virtue of a better sets record as they finished level on points.

The two clubs also contested the final of the K.O. Cup with the North Durham side regaining the trophy they had relinquished the previous season. The match was again staged in the Chronicle Hall and again a donation was made to the Sunshine Fund.

St. Anthony's Old Boys won Division Two, their 'B' team won Division 4a and their 'C' team were successful in Division 5a. Murray House were the winners in Division Three, Lyndhurst won 4b, Temple Torchbearers 5b and Power House 5c. Seaton Delaval Miners Welfare made it three in a row in the North Eastern division.

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Revac won the newly formed Ladies League.

The Executive Committee Report made special mention of Gateshead Centre for the Deaf 'B' team who lost twenty three of the twenty four matches that they played in Division 5c but persevered to the end of the season when many others would have, in similar circumstances, withdrawn from the league.

Financially the Association broke even for the period to 31st March 1952 thanks to the surplus made on the exhibition.

Good publicity was once more given by the Evening Chronicle, Northern Mail and Journal, and the Northern Press.

1952-1953

The following season, 1952/53, more or less carried on where the previous one left off with the same number of divisions in the league and the same officials.

Harry Dignan had proposed that an Assistant Treasurer be appointed but the Treasurer, Mr. Littlejohn, said he would resign if that happened so it was not proceeded with!

There was one less Vice President as Mr. W.P. Allen had left the district.

The new E.T.T.A. scheme for umpires meant that the official umpires of the County were all qualified County Umpires and a County Umpires Secretary was appointed being Mr. Adam Coffer. Those qualified were J.R.Waugh, A.Coffer, D W Scarth, G W McDougal, and Sid Holt. The latter was eventually to play a major role in the administration of the Association.

North Shields Boys Club who had previously had a brief spell in the league in 1948/49 season returned and were to stay for a total of thirty six years until the end of season 1986/87.

Bells Close Methodists who were to be involved for twenty three years joined as did Delaval Community Centre who stayed in the league for thirty one years until 1983.

The Association Rules regarding fees were amended so that a club would have to pay fifteen shillings (75p) plus seven shillings and sixpence (thirty seven and one half pence) per team. The latter amount being increased from five shillings (25p). They also had to pay the guarantee fee recently brought in.

Match play regulations were altered so that no player could participate in more than one league fixture in any one week except in the case of the rearrangement of a postponed match. The only exception was that lady players could play in the Ladies League and the Main League.

With regard to playing conditions a rule was brought in to the effect that all teams in divisions one, two and three had to have tables, lighting and conditions which, in the

Page 37 of 145 opinion of the Executive Committee, were of reasonably high standard. However it in no way described what amounted to 'reasonably high standard'.

After much discussion and taking into account the cost it was decided to enter teams in the County Championships Division Two North and the Northern Division, and League representative teams in the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl. The County second team was to consist of younger players.

It did not turn out to be a very good season for the County teams with the first team only winning one match (against Durham) and losing all of the other four. The second team did reasonably well to win three draw one and lose two but once again support for the teams was disappointing. In the Wilmott Cup the men went out in the first round but the ladies reached the Quarter finals of the Rose Bowl before going out 4 - 5 to the Manchester League. The team consisted of Philomena Heppell and Mrs R Ormond of Revac together with Miss E Tully of North Durham.

During the regional stages of the competition Huddersfield had only offered Sunday dates for their home match with Northumberland and the Executive Committee agreed that Northumberland deprecate Sunday play and the secretary wrote to the E.T.T.A. accordingly. There is no record of any reply being received and the match went ahead with Huddersfield being beaten 6 - 2.

The question of expenses for players representing the Association came under discussion and it was decided that the maximum to be paid to any such player would be the cost of approved transport from Newcastle Central Station plus the cost of one meal.

An Exhibition was again held at the City Baths Hall with star players Richard Bergmann, Johnny Leach, the Rowe twins, Ken Stanley and the Chilean player Vicente Gutierrez together with Jack Carrington. A full house was treated to a great evening when according to the E.T.T.A. magazine items ranged from the mirth provoking astonishing clowning of Gutierrez to a terrific duel between Bergmann and Leach. The executive committee were of the opinion that the Chilean proved to be the highlight of the season. The crowd were also treated to the appearance of another Chilean, Newcastle United's F.A.Cup winning star George Robledo. The night was also financially successful, bringing in a profit of £51.

One of the Daily Mirror Area events was staged at the Sir James Knott Centre in North Shields in March 1952 when two local players, Jack Oughton (Hebburn) and Daniel Knaresborough (Newcastle) qualified for the National semi finals. This event was also very successful and both the E.T.T.A. and the Daily Mirror reported that the organisation was of the highest standard and infinitely superior to the other three centres.

The County's top two young players were both in action at the Hartlepools Open Tournament with Johnny Hillyer winning the Mens Singles title and reaching the final of the Mixed Doubles with Philomena Clark. Philomena was also the beaten finalist in the Ladies Singles as she also was in the Ladies Singles final of the Pontefract Open Tournament.

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The Central Council of Physical Recreation requested that Philomena Clark be permitted to take part in a show in Berwick to play against Scotland's Helen Elliot. Permission had been granted by both the E.T.T.A. and the Scottish T.T.A. and the Executive Committee had no hesitation in agreeing to the request.

Once again entries into the Closed Championships reached a record high and the preliminary stages were played to a schedule at the Sir James Knott Youth Centre in North Shields. An earlier start than in previous years was requested but little collaboration was received from the competitors! Somehow the matches were all played.

Rutherford Grammar School was again the venue for the Finals Night which attracted what was the usual large attendance.

Hillyer ( Newcastle YMCA) and Heppell ( Revac) both had personal triumphs with Hillyer winning the Mens Singles, the Mens Handicap Singles, the Mens Doubles with P.Wilson, also of Revac, and the Mixed Doubles with Revac's Mrs. R.Ormond. Heppell was successful in the Ladies Singles, the Ladies Handicap Singles and the Ladies Doubles partnered by Miss E. Tully (North Durham).

J. Middlemiss of Postal Clerks was the winner of the Veteran's Singles, Jack Oughton of South Shields YMCA won both the Youths Singles (Under 19) and the new Boys Singles for the under 17s.

After an interval of only one season North Durham were once again crowned champions of the Northumberland League First Division, South Shields YMCA won Division Two and Dunston Saint Nicholas were successful in Division Three. The two fourth divisions were won by Sigmund Welfare and North Eastern Marine whilst the three Division Five tables were topped by Saint Peters Youth Club, South Shields Corporation Welfare and Fusarc Sports and Social Club from Team Valley Trading Estate.

There were new winners in the North Eastern Division in Blyth YMCA 'C' team and the Ladies League title again went to Revac who won on set difference from Tyne Lead Industries Athletic Club.

There were new winners of the Knock Out Cup where Ministry of National Insurance were the successful side.

Once again good press coverage of the Association's affairs appeared in the Evening Chronicle, the Newcastle Journal and North Mail and the Northern Press.

On the financial side there was a surplus for the year of £112 thanks mainly to a profit on the Exhibition of £51 and the re introduction of the Donation Scheme which brought in approximately £48. At the end of the year the total cash at the bank and in hand amounted to approximately £196.

1953-1954

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Adam Coffer took over from A.Wilson as Match and Tournament Secretary at the start of the 1953/54 season and there were two new County Umpires in N.W.Boyd and L.W.Robson.

On the National scene Johnny Waugh was elected onto the E.T.T.A. Executive Committee.

A rule change was made to replace the election of one member of each division to the Executive Committee with that committee now having nine members plus a Ladies Representative elected by the Annual General Meeting.

Members elected to the first such committee were L.W.Robson, Dave Robson, Adam Coffer, Stan Lawson, M.Allan, R.S.Bell, Rowley Ormond, R.Smith and Syd Holt as well as the Ladies Representative Mrs. J.R.Waugh.

The divisions remained the same and there were eight teams at the commencement of the Ladies League but unfortunately one was to drop out part way through the season.

A team was entered in the County Championships Division Two North again but there was no second team following the disbanding of the County Championships Northern Division. Unfortunately it turned out to be another poor season with only one match being won.

The League representative team failed at the first hurdle in the Wilmott Cup but the ladies reached the quarter finals of the Rose Bowl losing out once again 4 - 5 to the Manchester League.

The continued lack of support for the County team's home matches was discouraging.

The Daily Mirror Regional Events were again held at the Sir James Knott Youth Centre and this year saw thirty two competitors including Northumberland's Pat Tindale, Ron Hunter and Miss Keating-Payne. Pat Tindale excelled, winning through to the National Finals at the Albert Hall in London were he lost narrowly to the eventual winner.

Philomena Heppell again made a name for herself by reaching the final of the Yorkshire Open Womens Singles before losing to Adele Wood of Lancashire and winning the Womens Doubles with Pam Mortimer of Yorkshire. Tindale, who was sponsored by the County, was runner up in the Boys Singles.

Philomena also won the Womens Singles title at the Hartlepools Open as well as the Womens Doubles and was runner up in the Mixed Doubles.

On the matter of County players expenses it was decided to pay Philomena's expenses for travel from Hexham and to treat any future requests from players on their merits.

The E.T.T.A. Secretary had telephoned Johnny Waugh to ask if Northumberland would be prepared to host the Norwegian team for a few days before they took part in the World Championships at Wembley. This was agreed to and the Norwegians were provided with a pleasant and interesting visit which had been most appreciated.

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Unfortunately there is no record as to whether a proposed match against them ever took place. However it was to be the forerunner of a long association with the Heros Club of Bergen.

The Newcastle City Baths Hall was once more the venue for an Exhibition by top players with Johnny Leach, Victor Barna, Rosalind and Diane Rowe again taking part along with Aubrey Simons and Ken Stanley. The Lord Mayor of Newcastle attended what was again a very successful evening with another capacity audience.

Entries for the Closed Championships were slightly down but were still sufficiently large to tax the resources of the Sir James Knott Youth Centre where the preliminary rounds were once again played.

With Johnny Hillyer not taking part the honours this time went to Revac's young Pat Tindale who won the Mens Singles, the Mens Handicap Singles and the Mens Doubles with Adam Coffer also of Revac. Coffer also took the Mixed Doubles title partnered by another Revac player, Mrs. D. Ormond.

Philomena Heppell, also representing Revac, was the Ladies Singles winner, the Ladies Handicap Singles winner and the Ladies Doubles champion with Mrs. D.Turnbull of Tyne Lead. Stan Lawson( Ministry of Insurance) took the Veterans Singles.

The Youths Singles event was won by Jack Oughton of South Shields YMCA with K.Grimmer of West End Boys Club being successful in the Boys Singles.

In the league North Durham retained the First Division title in what was to be the final year of their existence, Whitley Bay YMCA won division two and Vickers Sports Club topped the third division. Vickers' second team won division 4a and South Shields Corporation were successful in division 4b. The three fifth divisions were won by North East Marine 'B', Sandersonians and Northex with the North Eastern title once again going to Blyth YMCA 'C' team.

Revac triumphed in the Ladies League and West End Boys Club won the Knock Out championship.

Once again the Association showed a surplus in the Annual Accounts and ended the year with total funds of £248. Whilst the Donation Scheme had been dropped, two Special Events involving the November Handicap and Grand National horse racing raised the sum of £84.

The annual report of the Executive Committee thanked the Kemsley Press for their help in the promotion of the Association's events.

1954-1955

In an attempt to improve the K.O. Cup competition it was decided that from the beginning of the 1954/55 that there would only be three players to a team and that teams would have to apply to enter the competition and pay a fee of one shilling and

Page 41 of 145 sixpence (twelve and one half pence) per team. Seventy teams actually applied and it turned out to be a very successful competition.

The treasurer, Mr Littlejohn, had moved to Preston and the finances were taken over by Rowley Ormond. Adam Coffer found that because of pressure of business he could no longer carry on as Match and Tournament Secretary and Dave Robson was appointed in his place. Dave had been a member of the Executive Committee since 1950 and he was to be very much involved with the affairs of the Association in the future, going on to be County Secretary from 1958 until 1968 as well as being the County representative at the E.T.T.A. He had also qualified as a County Umpire and was added to the county list. Messrs Ormond and Robson were replaced as Executive Committee Members by Adam Coffer and Mr N W Boyd and Miss Baitey became the Ladies representative with Mrs E.S. Turnbull also co-opted.

Newcomers to the league included Trustex who were to be in for the next twenty years but a loss to the league was North Durham who had disbanded owing to clubroom difficulties. Their leading players all moved to other clubs.

The usual entries were made in the County Championships Division Two North, the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl. The county team fared a little better than in previous years but still finished in fourth place out of six. The League Representative teams went out of both the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl in the second round.

Sunday play for the County team was again frowned upon by the committee and when Warwickshire wished to play Durham on a Saturday and Northumberland on the Sunday of the same week end they were told to contact Durham regarding the match on the Sunday. They also played matches in the two cup competitions away in Huddersfield and Leeds that had been scheduled at home on Sundays.

Permission to use the Northumberland County Coat of Arm on badges and stationery was refused but permission to use the shield recently used by the County Council was granted.

The Daily Mirror Area tournament was again played at North Shields and again was successfully organised.

The staging of the exhibition at the Newcastle City Baths Hall what had become a regular event had to be suspended until the following season as the leading players who were to be invited were unavailable and others of sufficiently high a standard could not be found.

Pat Tindale continued to impress as a leading young player and the Association sponsored him to enter the Youth's events at the English Open by paying his rail fare, hotel accommodation and expenses of up to fifteen shillings (seventy five pence ) per day. This decision was justified when he reached the last eight of the Boys Singles before losing to the eventual winner and defeating an English Junior International in the process. In the Mens Singles he lost in the third round but not before he had accounted for the German Number One Junior.

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Pat also reached the final of the Daily Mirror Tournament where he came up against Ernest McLeish from Hinckley in what turned out to be a superb spectacular with a defender having the last word against an explosive hitter. After losing 18 - 21, 18 -21, Pat levelled by taking the next two games 21 -9, 21 -15 only to lose out 20 - 22 in the fifth and deciding game. He was later picked as a reserve to the English Junior team to play in an International Tournament in Germany at the end of the season.

Philomena Heppell won the Womens Singles at the Hartlepools Open with victory over the local player Miss O Waites and at the same tournament she was successful in winning the Mixed Doubles event partnered by Johnny Hillyer. She reached the final of the Womens at the Yorkshire Open but lost out to Scottish international Helen Elliott and lost in another final, this time the South Yorkshire Open when she was beaten by Mrs. B. Cassell of Kings Lynn. Another Mixed Doubles title came her way at the same event with the help of Peter Skerratt of Scunthorpe.

Jimmy Tindale reached the final of the Junior Singles at Hartlepool.

The Council of Physical Recreation asked for permission for Philomena to play with Helen Elliott in a show they were organising and this was agreed to.

The entry for the Closed Championships was only a few short of the previous year and the conditions and amenities for the preliminary rounds played at the Sir James Knott Youth Centre were, as usual, ideal although it was a long and tiring day for the successful competitors. The concluding stages at Rutherford Grammar School reached a high standard and in these Johnny Hillyer ( Newcastle YMCA), closely pressed by Pat Tindale (Revac), and Phil Heppell ( also Revac) again proved their superiority. Johnny won the Mens Singles and also the Mens Doubles with Newcastle YMCA's Ron Hunter. Philomena took the Womens Singles title for the fourth year running and the Womens Handicap Singles for the third year running as well as the Womens Doubles partnered by club mate Mrs A. Coffer and the Mixed Doubles with K. Smith of West End Boys Club. J. Rourke of Vickers Sports Club was the winner in the Mens Handicap Event, Harry Lawson from the Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance was successful in the Veterans Singles and Pat Tindale won both the Youths and Boys Singles titles.

In the League the First Division champions were North Shields YMCA whose only loss was by default and not from defeat! They also looked like doing the double when they led by four games to one in the final of the Knock Out Cup but Newcastle YMCA hit back to win 5 - 4.

Saint Anthony's Old Boys were successful in two divisions with their B team winning the Second and their C team coming out on top in Division 4b. New club names to appear on the League trophies were Maccabi whose B team won Division Three, Vickers Apprentices (Walker) who took 4a, Cullercoats YMCA who were top of Division 5a without dropping a single point, Bells Close Methodist winning 5b, and a team participating in the League for the very first time in Lansdowne Social Club who finished top of 5c. Blyth YMCA, with a wide selection of young players from whom to choose won the North Eastern Division again, this time with their D team.

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Revac, previously known as L & N E R, had won the Ladies Section every year from 1933/34 season before the war and from its reintroduction in 1951/52. This time Ministry of Pensions and National Insurance broke their monopoly.

The rendition of Result Sheets was the worst for years with sixty three cards not received at the end of the season and even requests for missing cards were ignored in twenty four cases. This resulted in the Annual General Meeting having to be postponed until June.

The non staging of an exhibition and expenditure on the purchase of two tables resulted in a financial deficit for the year of £95 leaving the Association's funds at £153.

Publicity had again been given by the Kemsley Press.

The season ended on a very sad note with the death in May of the President, Mark C Robson. As a pioneer of the game it had been largely because of his suggestions that table tennis had been introduced to the county.

It was stated that it had only been fitting that the greatest honour that the Association could bestow, that of President, had been held by one who until the end was intensely interested in the Association's activities and who would have preferred to have taken a more active part in the organisation. This, unfortunately was precluded by the state of his health during the last few years.

1955-1956

At the following Annual General Meeting before the start of the 1955/56 season it was only fitting that his place as President was filled by Mr. Bart Kinnair for no-one had worked so assiduously in the Association's interests. He had been actively connected for the twenty five years of the Association's existence and for many of these he had been chairman although in the later years his many varied interests had precluded him from devoting the same amount of time as previously. In the event he was to hold the position of President for the next thirty years.

Mr. D.W. Scarth, a current vice chairman, was elected as Chairman and Adam Coffer was elected as Vice Chairman.

L.W.Robson, Harry Lawson, R.Smith, Syd Holt, N.W.Boyd, R.S. Bell and Miss Baitey were all re-elected to the Executive Committee with A.Punshon, A.Wilson and Mr G.O.Pearce being added. Unfortunately Mr. Scarth's job saw him transferred to Manchester in the September and he was then replaced as Chairman by Adam Coffer with Mr. N.W.Boyd replacing him as Vice Chairman until the end of the season.

The format of the League and method of play remained unchanged and one of the new clubs to join was Dunston Hill Hospital who were to be in the League for some thirty-four years.

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The Ladies League operated again, starting with nine teams but losing North Shields Y.M.C.A. Ladies team part way through the season.

The South Shields league applied to affiliate to the Association but were not allowed to by the English Table Tennis Association who were precluded by E.T.T.A. rules from doing so because of the fact the Durham had objected.

The County team improved their performance over previous years in the County Championships Division Two North, winning two and losing two matches but the League Representative team went out in the first round of the Wilmott Cup to Leeds.

The ladies team of Phil Heppell, Mrs. D. Ormond and Mrs E.Robson again did extremely well in again reaching the quarter finals of the Rose Bowl before being beaten 5 - 4 by the Portsmouth League.

Once more an exhibition was arranged at the City Baths Hall in Newcastle and Johnny Leach was asked to arrange for some top players to take part. This was advertised in the association's handbook as the farewell visit of Victor Barna, Johnny Leach and the Rowe Twins, etc but there is no record of who actually took part and whether or not it was a successful event. The only record is that for the first time money was lost in staging the event. History shows that such an exhibition was never repeated.

There was a great deal of correspondence during the year with the Heros club in Bergen regarding a visit and the seeds were sewn for a long association with them.

The Central Council of Physical Recreation arranged a school leavers course in Newcastle and the association were invited to look after the table tennis aspect. This was duly done by the coaches Mr.and Mrs D.M. Robson, Mr and Mrs Coffer and Mrs J.R.Waugh. Afterwards their opinion of the event was that the young people had been given an insight into table tennis but that results would be impossible to estimate. They possibly would be if a follow on course proposed for later in the year actually materialised but there is no record of this happening.

Mention was made in the Annual Report of the success of R. Lucas in the 'News of the World' coaching scheme but no other details were given.

A proposed exhibition in Berwick by Scottish players was not allowed to take place, not being approved by the E.T.T.A.

International honours came to a Northumberland player for only the second time in their history when Pat Tindale was picked to play for England Juniors against Belgium. He won all three of his matches when the match was played in the November in Chatham with England winning 9 - 0.

Philomena Heppell was again successful in the Yorkshire Open and the Hartlepools Open tournaments.

In the Yorkshire she won the Womens Singles beating Miss A.Wood of Manchester in the final and then being losing finalist in the Mixed Doubles final partnered by the

Page 45 of 145 winner of the Mens Singles, Brian Kennedy. At the Hartlepools she again was successful in the Womens Singles, won the Womens Doubles with Miss J.Preston of Knaresborough who she had beaten in the Singles final and again partnered the winner of the Mens Singles in the Mixed. This time it was Ron Allcock of Manchester and once again she had to be content with them being runners up. It was a notable year for Philomena with her marriage to Matt Clark taking place.

A slightly increased entry testified to the continued success of the Closed Championships but for some reason it was decided not to hold a Veteran Singles event.

Great difficulty was occasioned through having to play a Rose Bowl match on the same day and at the same venue, Sir James Knott Youth Centre, North Shields, as the preliminary rounds. As a result some of the matches had to be left over and with excellent co-operation of the Vickers Sports Club officials the outstanding matches and the finals were completed in their premises.

Ron Hunter of Newcastle YMCA was outstanding in winning the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with Pat Tindale (Revac) and the Mixed Doubles with Philomena Heppell (St.Anthony's Old Boys). Philomena duly won the Womens Singles, the Womens Handicap Singles and helped Mrs. A. Coffer of Revac to retain the Womens Doubles title. The Mens Handicap Singles was won by E.Peter of Newcastle YMCA, the Youths Singles duly went to Pat Tindale and D.Cunningham of Newcastle YMCA was successful in the Boys Singles.

North Shields YMCA retained the Division One championship in the League and also played against Newcastle YMCA in a repeat of the previous year's final, this time winning to complete the double. Vickers Sports Club were the winners of Division Two with their 'B' team being successful in Division 4b. The Third Division winners were Revac'C' team, 4a was won by Ministry of Works and the three Fifth Division winners were British Legion (5a), West Denton Association 'B' (5b) and BBC House Boys Club (5c).

Blyth Town Boys Club broke the monopoly of Blyth YMCA in winning the North Eastern Division and Revac once more triumphed in the Ladies League.

The local press in Newcastle ( Kemsley Press) and in North Shields (Northern Press) had once again been very supportive of the association during the year.

On the financial side a donation scheme had again been promoted based on the Grand National horse race and had brought in £54. However an unexpected loss had arisen on the exhibition and with other costs rising there was a deficit for the year of £19, leaving the total funds at £134.

Club subscriptions at the time were fifteen shillings (75p) per club together with seven shillings and sixpence (37.5p) per team in the league and two shillings and sixpence (12.5p) for each team in the Ladies League. The cost of entering the K.O. Cup was one shilling and sixpence (7.5p) per team.

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The main tables were Jaques, Rose, Barna Match and Alec Brook and cost between £23 and £45 according to quality. Normal bats cost approximately ten shillings ( 50p) and a new controversial sponge bat was twelve shillings and sixpence (63p). Balls were advertised in the handbook by Murtons Stores in Newcastle at anything from four pence to one shilling and three pence each ( under 2p to 6p). The match balls mainly used were either Halex or Villa.

Table tennis clothing retailed at between fifteen shillings and one pound one shilling and sixpence for mens shirts ( 75p to £1.07) and thirty shillings (£1.50) for mens shorts. Womens shirts cost between fifteen shillings and eighteen shillings and sixpence( 93p), skirts at one pound nineteen shillings and sixpence (£1.97) and shorts at twenty two shillings and sixpence (£1.12). The average weekly wage at the time was just over nine pounds.

1956-1957

With a record entry of 119 teams the 1956/57 season carried on as before with the same number of divisions except that there no longer was a Ladies League due to lack of response from clubs. The constitution of teams and method of play also remained unaltered.

League tables had in the past few seasons been regularly published in the Sports Edition of the Evening Chronicle and it was decided that this would be continued with as the method of publication.

Stan Lawson, who had been on the Executive Committee since 1952/53 season was elected as Vice Chairman and he was to continue to be a driving force for the association in future years, becoming chairman in 1959 and continuing in that role until 1971/72 as well as being the association's E.T.T.A. representative from 1959/60 to 1963/63 and later from 1970.71 to 1973/74.

Stan Lawson had to be replaced on the Executive Committee and this brought in another person who was to be a stalwart of the association in Harry Dignan. L.W.Robson, N.W. Boyd and Miss Bailey were replaced by D.Davidson and Mrs. Patterson leaving one vacancy to be filled. It was decided to ask a Mr. Weightman but he declined the invitation and eventually a Mr. Basil Moore was appointed.

The qualified umpires remained the same except for the loss of D.W.Scarth who had left the district.

The only amendments to the rules saw the fees increased with a club now having to pay £1 and ten shillings (50p) for every team entered in the League. A fee of two shillings and sixpence ( 12.5 pence) was introduced for the transfer of a player.

Seventy three teams entered the Knock Out Competition and it was decided that all matches would be played to a conclusion irrespective of a result having been reached unless it was mutually agreed between the teams to terminate at any point after the result had been determined.

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A county team was again entered in the County Championships Division Two North and again the results were disappointing with the side only winning one match and losing three.

Teams were also entered in the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl but both lost out in round two of their respective competitions.

It was in the minutes that the press would be requested to send a representative to the home matches together with a photographer but there is no record to show that this actually happened although there was a press photographer at the closed championships finals.

The newly married Philomena Clark is only on record as having played in one open tournament during the season when she was a beaten finalist in the Womens Doubles at the North of England event in Manchester.

There was success for junior Jimmy Tindale of Gateshead YMCA when he won the Junior Singles at the Hartlepools Open. He was also selected, along with D.Mawson of Whitley Bay YMCA, Colin Archbold and D.Ward (BBC House B.C.) to take part in National Junior Trials in Sunderland but unfortunately the performances of all four were disappointing.

Entries in the Closed Championships fell from 157 in the previous year to 116 which caused a financial problem but made the staging of the event a little easier. It was thought that the reason was the earlier start necessary to complete the programme of events.

The Preliminary rounds were one more played at the Sir James Knott Youth Centre and things went according to plan with all matches played. The rule brought in that made losers umpire the following match on a table appeared to work and tended to speed things up a little.

Vickers Sports Club again kindly agreed to stage the finals. Johnny Hillyer (Revac) regained the Mens Singles title and also won the Mens Handicap event. Ron Hunter (Newcastle YMCA) and Pat Tindale (Revac) retained the Mens Doubles crown. In the absence of Phil Clark, the Womens Singles was won by Mrs R. Ormond (Revac) who also partnered Revac's Mrs. J.R.Waugh to success in the Womens Doubles. Mrs.D.Ward (Gateshead YMCA) won the Womens Handicap Singles. She also won the Mixed Doubles partnered by Ron Heslop of Gateshead YMCA. Another Gateshead YMCA player, Jimmy Tindale was successful in the Youth's Singles whilst Colin Archbold of BBC House Boys Club won the Boys Singles.

Revac won the First Divion of the League, Gateshead YMCA 'B' team won Division Two and Blyth YMCA 'B' team won Division Three. The fourth divisions were won by Vickers Sports Club 'D' and Lansdowne with the winners in the fifth divisions being Whitley Bay YMCA 'C', Hedley Sports and Newcastle YMCA 'D'.

Blyth YMCA regained the North Eastern Division with their 'C' team.

Revac completed the 'double' by winning the K.O.Cup.

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Despite the loss on the Closed Championships the association managed to break even financially in the year.

The highlight of the year was no doubt the visit to Bergen arranged with their Heros Club. The seeds had been sewn in 1954 when the Norwegian team stayed on Tyneside for a few days after the World Championships in London. They had such an enjoyable time that they started discussions with the Executive Committee with a view to arranging a series of matches between the Heros Club and Newcastle.

The first of these matches took place in December 1956 when a Newcastle party went to Bergen to compete for the 'North Sea Cup' which had been presented by the Bergen Shipping Line for annual competition between the two teams. The Newcastle men were soundly beaten 5 - 0 saying it was possibly due to the match taking place shortly after a rough crossing! However that did not appear to affect the women who gave a far more impressive performance, losing narrowly 4 - 5. They also played in the Heros Jubilee Tournament when Newcastle gave a much better account of themselves. Mrs Robson won the Womens Singles, Stan Lawson and Ron Patterson reached the semi finals of the Mens Singles and Alan Morpeth and Harry Dignan just failed to reach the final of the Mens Doubles.

The party of nine comprising of Ron Patterson, Miss D. Bell, Mrs.E.Robson, Mrs.Y.Patterson, Harry Dignan, Alan Morpeth, Harry Lawson, Dave Robson and Fred Hannay all stayed in private homes and said that the hospitality had to be experienced to be believed. On the last evening the Heros gave a farewell party which lasted until the early hours of the morning.

When the Newcastle contingent embarked on the homeward journey about forty people went to the quay to wave them goodbye. All in all a very successful time even if the results were disappointing and perhaps more importantly the visit cemented ties of friendship which were to last for over twenty years.

1957-1958

All of the officers remained in post for the 1957/58 season, the only change being in the Executive Committee where Mr.J Arkless was elected instead of Mr. R Smith.

There were still too few qualified umpires and the listing of those that were qualified ceased to be recorded.

During the year news was received of the death of one of the Vice Presidents, Mr.W.R.Archbold. In the early days of the association he had done sterling work, first as Assistant Secretary and later as General Secretary. It had been largely due to his enthusiasm that the association prospered pre - war and survived during the war years.

A major change took place in the method of play in the league matches although teams were still made up of four players. Previously each player played against all three of the opposing side giving twelve singles matches in total but this was changed to eight singles and four doubles. Twelve matches were still to be played but each

Page 49 of 145 player now had to play in two singles only but also in two doubles matches. The order of singles play (where A,B,C,D are the home side and W,X,Y and Z are the away side in order of merit) was C v Z, D v Y, B v W, A v X, D v Z, C v Y, B v X, and A v W.

The doubles pairs had to be nominated before play commenced and the ties could be played in any order and in any sequence, i.e. before, after or between the various singles ties mutually agreed by the respective team captains.

The committee were concerned that serious consequences might arise in the near future so far as representative matches were concerned if the quality and quantity of ladies' play did not improve. Clubs with lady members were asked to try to put teams into the Ladies League or failing that to ask their lady members to take part in frequent American Tournaments organised by the committee. The standard of play of the top ladies could not be queried in view of the Rose Bowl results but it again proved impossible to re-start the Ladies League and there is no record that the proposed tournaments took place.

Teams were entered in the County Championships and in the League Representative competitions, the Wilmott Cup for men and the Rose Bowl for ladies but eventually the Mens team was withdrawn. This was on financial grounds when regionalisation of the early rounds did not happen.

The County side fared a little better this time round, winning two and losing three matches. There was an unfortunate experience when their last match of the season at home match to Cheshire was staged at Hexham. Just as the match was about to start all of the lights went out and the time lost in fixing them meant that the last two matches could not be played and were conceded to Cheshire. As Cheshire had already won six it did not matter too much with regard to the result.

The ladies did extremely well in the Rose Bowl although there was discussion after they had beaten Sunderland at home and Leeds away and then drawn away to Sheffield as to whether they should be pulled out of the competition on financial grounds. Thankfully this did not happen and they went to Sheffield and won and then travelled to Bristol in the quarter finals and won that one as well.

They then had to travel to Portsmouth where they came up against a very strong London Business Houses side in the semi final and lost 5 - 0.

The team consisted of Mrs Phil Clark, Miss L. Hamilton and Mrs D. Baston. Miss M. Semple played instead of Mrs. Baston in the first round match. Miss L. Hamilton was not eligible to play for the County side without special licence from the County Championships Committee but this had to be refused when Edgar Reay of Durham objected.

February saw the reciprocal visit by the players from the Heros Club in Bergen. This time the 'North Sea Cup' was won which gave Newcastle satisfaction but this was much less important than the cementing of the association with the Heros Club. Successful arrangements, including a reception at which the Lord Mayor of Newcastle

Page 50 of 145 and the Lady Mayoress attended were attributed almost solely to Dave Robson who was ably assisted by Adam Coffer.

Dave Robson commented that although it was a success some lessons had been learned which might improve their attempt. He also was disappointed that there had been a lack of publicity for which he blamed the local press rather than neglect by the committee.

Mrs Phil Clark appeared to have lost very little of her former consistency and was again on the Open Tournament trail, winning the Women’s Singles events at the Hull Open, The Hartlepools Open, the East Yorkshire Open and the Yorkshire Open. She also was successful in the Womens Doubles in the latter.

Junior player Colin Archbold who had come to notice in the 'Eagle/Girl' tournament was one of twenty four young players selected for special coaching by Johnny Leach at a holiday camp.

This year the staging of the preliminary rounds of the Closed Tournament was moved from the Sir James Knott Youth Centre to the M.P.N.I. No2 Canteen in Benton, commencing at 1.00p.m. This proved to be most successful. With twelve tables side by side and controlled from one point it was considerably expedited. It was hoped that the advantages of the change would prove to be sufficiently attractive to ensure increased entry in future. The finals were again held at Vickers Sports Club.

The one disappointment was that the re-introduction of the Veterans Singles (for the over 35s) had been on the entry form but because of lack of sufficient entries it had to be cancelled.

Ron Hunter of Newcastle YMCA claimed three titles, winning the Mens Singles, the Mens Handicap Singles and the Mixed Doubles with Miss L.Hamilton of St. Anthony's Old Boys. The Mens Doubles event was won by the Revac pairing of Johnny Hillyer and Roland Earl. Mrs Phil Clark (St.Anthonys Old Boys) was successful in the Womens Singles and combined with Miss L.Hamilton to win the Womens Doubles. The Womens Handicap Singles was won by Miss M Semple of M,P.N.I., the Youths Singles by Dave Armstrong of West Denton and the Boys Singles by L.McFarlane of Newcastle YMCA. Newcastle YMCA an Postal Clerks, both members of the League since 1936 won divisions for the very first time, the YMCA winning the First Division and Postal Clerks triumphing in Division Two. St.Anthonys Old Boys won two divisions with their 'C' team coming out on top in Division three and their 'D' team winning Division 4a. The Division 4b winners were West Denton Association 'B' with the fifth divisions going to Blyth YMCA'C' team, Lemington Glassworks 'B' and Thompson (Contractors) South Shields.

Blyth YMCA retained the North Eastern Division title with their 'D' team.

The K.O. Cup was won by Gateshead YMCA who beat North Shields YMCA in the final. Unfortunately from the League's point of view the final which was staged at Vickers Sports Club was a flop. There were no spectators and the Cup could not be presented because it had not been returned by Revac.

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The author of this history, nineteen at the time and having played in the Northumberland Association of Mixed Clubs League for two or three seasons, played in his first ever match in the League, turning out for Delaval Community Centre 'B' in an away match against Bells Close Methodists 'B' in Division 5b on 23rd September 1957. Unfortunately he lost all of his matches.

Despite a Donation Scheme based on the Grand National horse race raising some fifty pounds the association suffered a loss of £23 for the year due mainly to the cost of the County and Rose Bowl matches.

Publicity was again given to the League in the Kemsley Press and the Northern Press.

Towards the end of the season concern was expressed at the 'falling off', i.e. the lack of participation, by members of the Executive Committee at County matches and at the closed tournament.

On the administration side of things Johnny Waugh who had been involved since 1933 and had been General Secretary for the last ten years and Mr.R.Farrow, Records Secretary for the last nine years, both resigned from their posts at the end of the season.

1958-1959

This meant that there had to be changes for the 1958/59 season and Dave Robson replaced Johnny Waugh with his position as Match and Tournament Secretary being taken over by Alan Morpeth. (Alan was to be highly involved for the next forty-eight years in various capacities. He continued as Match and Tournament Secretary until 1980, was County Secretary from: 1968/69 to 1990/91 and again from 1994/95 to 2004/05, National Councillor from 1980/81 to 1987/88, Handbook Secretary from 1982/83 to 1991/92, Development Officer from 1998/99 to 2005/06, Umpires Secretary from 1992/93 to 1996/97 and Chairman of the Association from 1991/92 to 1996/97.)

Mr. Farrow's job as Records Secretary was taken on by Syd Holt who had been on the Executive Committee since 1953/54 and was another who was to become a long service volunteer, holding that position until the end of the 1986/87 season and then serving one more year on the Executive Committee. He also served as Umpires Secretary from 1971/72 until 1986/87 and Handbook Secretary in 1980/81and 1981/82.

Mr. R.Farrow continued on the Executive Committee and was joined by Mr. C.B. Fairless who replaced Mr. B G R Moore. Dave Robson also replaced Johnny Waugh as E.T.T.A. Representative. Two new Vice Presidents were appointed in Mr. G W Wilde of Gateshead and Mr. C L Mellowes of Cramlington. Unfortunately Dave Robson had to resign as General Secretary in the November and Adam Coffer stood in for the remainder of the season. The duties of the chairman were taken on by the Vice Chairman, Stan Lawson with Harry Dignan acting as Vice Chairman and Mr P Chaplin being co-opted onto the Executive Committee.

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Johnny Waugh and been involved as a player for L.N.E.R. Accountants and on the committee since the very foundation of the Association and he was presented with a Smith's gold watch by the President, Bart Kinnair, at a special informal evening held at the Corner House Hotel in Newcastle.

The only change in the rules was that the entry fees were increased form ten shillings (50p) to seven shillings and sixpence (75p) per team and one hundred and thirteen teams from fifty-eight clubs, a slight decrease from the previous season took part in the league.

The only change to the number of divisions was that a Ladies League was re introduced. There was not any change to the method of play.

Youngsters G.Bass and Colin Archbold took part in Junior Area Trials held in Sunderland and came joint second to Barker of Durham.

This led to the arrangement of a Junior Friendly match away to Durham Juniors with the two boys being joined by Miss L.Hamilton which ended all square at 4 - 4.

A coaching course for coaches, conducted by Ken Stanley of Manchester, was held in Sunderland and was attended by P.Chaplin and Stan Denton who both passed the course.

A very successful coaching session was held at Vickers Sports Club and then three sessions were arranged at North Shields.

Both P.Chaplin and Stan Denton were referred to the Northumberland Associaion of Mixed Clubs organisers who had requested assistance with a coach in preparation for their Regional competition. Unfortunately P.Chaplin's job meant that he had to leave the area at the end of the season.

Another organisation to seek assistance from the Association was the Gateshead Police who need two tables for their championships. Permission was granted but they had to make their own arrangements for transporting the tables.

Complaints were made to the E.T.T.A. about the way in which the Umpires Scheme affected the county and a reply was received referring them to Edgar Reay of Durham who was the North East Representative. He attended one of the Executive Committee meetings but it appears that the matters discussed and Edgar Reay asked to refer back to the E.T.T.A. seemed to refer more to the financial spending of the E.T.T.A. which the committee felt were of no benefit to the county.

1958/59 was a disastrous season for the County team who lost all five of their matches and finished bottom of the Second Division. It was pleasing. however, that 130 people turned up to watch one of their home matches.

Even though the North Sea Cup had not been won a very successful visit to Bergen took place in the February.

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No team was entered to represent the Northumberland League in the Wilmott Cup but a team of ladies was entered in the Rose Bowl. Unfortunately they did not, like the County team, have the services of Phil Clark and went out in the first round to Leeds.

There is no record of any Northumberland player being successful in any Open Tournaments in this year. Phil Clark did not play at all in the season.

A very successful County Championships was held at the M.P.N.I. canteen with ten events, including the reintroduction of the Veterans Singles, taking place. Ron Hunter (Newcastle YMCA) and Miss L.Hamilton (St.Anthony's O.B.) were the stars of the tournament. Ron winning the Mens Singles for the second year running, the Men’s Doubles with Jack Oughton (Gateshead YMCA) and the Mixed Doubles with Miss Hamilton, also for the second year running. Miss Hamilton was the Womens Singles champion and also won the Womens Doubles, partnered by Mrs.D.Ward (Gateshead YMCA). Stan Lawson (MPNI) was successful in the Men’s Handicap event and Miss M.Semple, also MPNI, took the Womens Handicap title. Adam Coffer (Revac) won the Veterans Singles with the Youths Singles going to D.Mawson of Whitley Bay YMCA. Gateshead YMCA's Colin Archbold was the Boys Singles winner.

The League Title was retained by Newcastle YMCA who won the first division and also beat Gateshead YMCA in the final of the K.O. Cup. All of the other divisions went to separate clubs with Lansdowne top of the Second Division and South Shields YMCA winning the Third Division. The two fourth divisions were won by Lemington Glass Works and Blyth YMCA 'C' team with the three Fifth Division winners being Tynemouth NALGO, Swan Hunters and Dunston Hill Hospital whilst Blyth Town Co-op won the North Eastern Division for the first time.

The Ladies League and a small K.O. Competition were both won by ladies from Saint Anthony's Old Boys Club.

The Association was once more grateful to the Newcastle Chronicle and to the South Shields Gazette for publishing the league tables and mention was also made of Tyne Tees Television for their support of the Association. Unfortunately their is no record of what the TV company covered.

It was a better season financially with a surplus of £28 being made and the year ending with £139 in the bank.

Prices for equipment and clothing at the end of the season saw Tournament standard tables at £44 or £45 and the Ken Stanley bat at ten shillings (50p) and the Johnny Leach bat dearer at twelve shillings and sixpence (87p). Men’s shorts cost one pound seven shillings and sixpence (£1.37) and Ladies shorts one pound ten shillings (£1.50). A sheet of rubber retailed at one shilling and three pence (approximately 6p).

1959-1960

Season 1959/60 saw two clubs that were to be regular members for many years join the League. Winthrop Laboratories, later known as Sterling Winthrop were to stay until 1979/80 and Electrics destined to stay even longer until 1990/91.

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Once again there were nine divisions made up of 116 teams from 57 clubs and a Ladies section.

The rule regarding submission of scorecards was changed to state that score cards had to be in the hands of the records secretary within seven days of a match being played.

Stan Lawson continued as Chairman, Harry Dignan as Vice Chairman and Adam Coffer as General Secretary and the E.T.T.A. representative was Stan Lawson. J.Arkless, R.S.Bell, A.Punshon,G.O.Pearce all came off the Executive Committee and with Harry Dignan now being Vice Chairman there were five vacancies which were filled by Stan Denton, Ronnie Heslop, J L Mundy, W D Robson and Ron Patterson. Dave Robson was co - opted onto the committee in the November and took over all of the arrangements for the visit of the party from Bergen.

The method of play in the league was changed with the doubles being done away with although teams still consisted of four players. With A,B,C,D being the home team and W,X,Y, and Z the away team A now played W,X and Y. B played W,X and Z. C played W,Y and Z whilst D played X,Y and Z. This was back to the system in force before doubles was introduced.

There was an increase in the amount of coaching that was carried out with Stan Denton holding a number of sessions during the summer period and more coaching of the county team players.

A one Day coaching course taken by the National Coach Jack Carrington was held at Sunderland which was reasonably successful. Some of the association's players attended although Northumberland was not very well represented. Those who went received individual instruction, talks, match play and physical exercise. In the evening they then saw two films of world championships.

A coaching session organised by Stan Denton at Vickers Sports Club attended by eighteen junior players proved to be worthwhile and a practice session, also at Vickers Sports Club, for eight men and five women in contention for places in the County side was very successful.

Despite the additional coaching and practice the County side again finished bottom of the County Championship Second Division without a win to their name.

The League representative sides had similar results to the previous season with the men beating Stockton in the first round of the Wilmott Cup but then losing to Huddersfield. The Women again narrowly lost to Leeds in the opening round of the Rose Bowl.

Another friendly match was held with Durham for the Juniors but this time the Northumberland youngsters Colin Archbold, A Purvis and Bill Young were beaten 7 - 1.

Dave Robson organised a very successful weekend over Easter for twenty-six visitors from the Heros Club in Bergen with the Lord Mayor of Newcastle receiving them at

Page 55 of 145 the Mansion House and then attending a dinner in their honour together with the Lady Mayoress, On the playing side seven events took place with Northumberland winning 5 - 2 to regain the North Sea Cup. Pat Tindale excelled by defeating the Norwegian National Champion.

Away from the county Phil Clark once again entered Open tournaments as did Pat Tindale and Miss L.Hamilton. Phil reached the final of the North of England Tournament but lost out to England ranked Betty Bird of Surrey but then played with her in the doubles which they won. She also reached two finals in the North East of England Open losing to star junior Jean Harrower in the Womens Singles and also losing in the Mixed Doubles final partnered by Brian Brumwell of Essex.

Pat Tindale and Miss Hamilton were both prominent in the Hartlepools Open with Miss Hamilton winning the Womens Singles, the Womens Doubles with Northumberland's Mrs. D.Ward and the Mixed Doubles with Pat. Pat lost out to Durham's W.Barker in the final of the Men’s Singles but won the Mens Doubles with his Northumberland colleague Roland Earl as well as the Mixed Doubles.

Durham's Edgar Reay received the highest honour that the English Table Tennis Association can give which at the time was described as the Knighthood of Table Tennis and a letter of congratulations on behalf of the Northumberland was sent to him.

The M.P.N.I. Canteen in Longbenton was again the venue for the Northumberland Closed Championships held in February and featuring the same ten events as the previous year.

Phil Clark representing St.Anthony's Old Boys came back with a vengeance, winning the Womens Singles, the Womens Doubles with Mrs D.Ward of Gateshead YMCA and the Mixed Doubles with Roland Earl (Revac). For good measure she also won the Womens Handicap making it win in each event that she entered.

Pat Tindale (Revac) was successful in the Mens Singles and Roland Earl won another title, taking the Mens Doubles partnered by Revac team mate Johnny Hillyer. The Mens Handicap was won by B.Craike of Balkwell St.Peters and North Shields YMCA's Harry Dignan was the Veterans winner. There was an excellent final in the Boys Singles between Bill Young ( Gateshead YMCA) and A.Purvis which was won by the fourteen year old Young. The previous year's Boys Singles winner, Colin Archbold, also from Gateshead YMCA, took the Youth's Singles title.

The League Championship went to Revac, previous winners in 1956/57 who went through the season undefeated.

South Shields YMCA, winners of Division Three the year before, won promotion to the first division by winning Division Two and Reyrolles came out on top in the third division. Thomson Contractors and Tynemouth N.A.L.G.O. were the winners of the two fourth divisions and in the fifth divisions success was achieved by the newly

Page 56 of 145 formed Electrics who won Division 5c. The other fifth division winners were South Blyth B.R.S.A. and British Paints 'B' and Blyth YMCA 'D' came out on top in the North Eastern Division.

The Ladies Division was won by St.Anthony's Old Boys ladies team with Revac ladies team winning the Ladies Cup.

Gateshead YMCA were the winners in the Knock Out Cup.

The Association was financially stable with a small surplus of £10 meaning that the total finds at the end of the year was £149 compared with £61 ten years previously. When the Chairman and General Secretary presented the Annual Report of the Executive Committee for the year they claimed that the present Executive Committee was the ablest that the Association had had since it's formation and anticipated that this would reflect in the affairs generally in the next few years.

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CHAPTER FIVE

The Peak Years - Part One

1960-1961

The next decade was to turn out to be the years during which the activities of the Association and participation reached their highest level although 1960/61 season in the Northumberland League started with one less club and four fewer teams than the previous season.

There was a lack of support for the North Eastern Division with insufficient teams to actually form a full division and those teams that did enter from that region were spread across the other divisions meaning that there were only eight divisions in total.

The Knock Out cup continued and, despite only four teams entering, the Ladies K.O. Cup also took place again.

Despite having been turned down because of lack of available places the Newton club from the Tynedale area were eventually admitted when there was a late withdrawal and they are still in the league to this day. When they entered their secretary was Edwin Symm and, apart from two years when he did his National Service, he has continued in that role until the present time.

The President and all of the Officers of the Association were unchanged except for that of General Secretary where Adam Coffer had resigned during the previous year. Dave Robson had taken over and he was to continue in that position with Adam Coffer remaining on the Executive Committee where the only other change was that Mr A Wilson had resigned and Mrs. E Robson replaced Mr. J L Murdy. The Vice Presidents remained unchanged and the E.T.T.A. representatives were Stan Lawson and Dave Robson.

The constitution of teams and method of play in the league remained unchanged and there were no changes to the Rules and Regulations of either the Association or the Northumberland League.

The need for coaching was highlighted by the executive committee at the beginning of the season and it was arranged for the National Coach, Jack Carrington, to come to hold a Diploma Course for Coaches in the October. This was duly held and the committee decided to issue registration forms to all of those who attended with one exception although Jack Carrington felt that those on the course were not likely to qualify in full. This, however, then gave some level of coaching expertise to a number of individuals which it was hoped would benefit those who attended coaching courses held by the association.

The committee were also aware of the fact that it would be of great benefit if coaching table tennis in schools came about but nothing is on record that this was able to be done at that time.

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However there were several applications from clubs for coaching which did take place and a further course for coaches was also held at Ashington YMCA.

An effort to improve the standard of play of the best young players in the county was made by sending several of them to the Yorkshire Junior Open tournament. They had little success but all benefitted from the experience.

Three Juniors, Stuart Lennie of North Shields YMCA, W. Young of Gateshead YMCA and A. Purvis of Balkwell Saint Peters, went to the E.T.T.A. Junior Trials but unfortunately they were somewhat out of their class.

Phil Clark was back in action in various Open tournaments and was also placed at number ten in the England Womens ranking list. At the East of England Open she won the Womens Doubles with the England number three Betty Bird of Surrey and also reached the semi finals of the Womens Singles. It was a similar story at the North of England with success in the Doubles with J.Williams of Hertfordshire and reaching the Womens Singles semis. Two other semi final defeats were at the Yorkshire Open to another England player Jean McRee of Essex and to Warwickshire's Pam Mortimer at the North of England Open.

Phil also entered the English Open where she went out in the second round of the Womens Singles to Jean Harrower of Middlesex and reached the quarter finals of the Womens Doubles partnered by J.Williams.

Another visit to Bergen was hugely successful although Bergen narrowly won the North Sea Cup. The Northumberland squad won the Junior and Veterans events but lost the Men’s First and Second competitions as well as the Doubles.

The County side again played in the Second Division North of the County Championships but only won one of their four matches.

It was decided to enter the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl provided that they were initially held at Central Venues. They were, in fact, held on that basis in Leeds and the Northumberland League therefore participated in both competitions. The Men went out of the Wilmott Cup , losing to Bradford in the second round after defeating York in the first.The Ladies side were without Phil Clark and were no match for Grimsby, losing 5 - 0 to them in the very first round of the Rose Bowl.

The clubs in the Northumberland league played in a variety of premises with thirty of them in Works or Office premises, seven at YMCAs, six in Boys or Youth Clubs, five in Church premises, and seven in various other.

One of them, Westonians, played at Benwell Adult School where the policy of the Trustees of the School was that the consumption of alcohol on the premises was strictly forbidden. At one point during the season they were in danger of losing the use of the premises after a visiting Newcastle YMCA team brought bottles of beer to a match and to make matters worse left the empties behind! Fortunately Westonians were able to continue to use the premises and an official of Newcastle YMCA sent them an apology.

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Press coverage was difficult to get and on a couple of occasions when articles had been printed about Phil Clark they had contained inaccuracies. The desperate need of a Press or Publicity Officer was highlighted but nobody could be found who was prepared to take on the task.

Discussion took place at an Executive Committee meeting about the possibility of staging an Open tournament as the only one in the North at that time was the Hartlepools Open. A sub-committee was set up to look into this but they came to the conclusion that nothing could be done until at least 1963.

A very successful Closed Championships was once again staged at the M P N I Canteen and all events were completed in good time on the same evening.

Johnny Hillyer of Revac returned to form to capture the Mens Singles and Mens Handicap Singles titles while Phil Clark (St.Anthony's O. B.) retained the Womens Singles crown, the Womens Doubles title, this time with Eileen Chape of North Shields YMCA and the Mixed Doubles again with Revac's Roland Earl. P. Norton (Newcastle YMCA) and Pat Tindale (Revac) won the Mens Doubles event, Miss Doyle, another St.Anthony's O.B. player, won the Womens Handicap and R.S.Bell of North Shields YMCA was successful in the Veterans Singles. The Youth's Singles and Boys Singles were retained by the Gateshead YMCA players W.Young and Colin Archbold respectively.

After stiff competition from Revac and Newcastle YMCA the Gateshead YMCA team became champions of the first division while their second string won Division Two. Westonians won the third division winning all of their matches except the very last one. The two fourth divisions were won by North Shields YMCA 'C' team and Electrics. The Electrics club completed a double when their 'B' team were successful in Division 5a. One of the ex North Eastern Division teams, Ashington YMCA finished top of Division 5b and the other fifth division winners were the new club Newton TTC who won that division without losing a match.

Revac beat Blyth YMCA ( a top team many years earlier) in the final of the K.O. Cup and St.Anthony's Old Boys ladies won a very exciting Ladies K.O. Cup final against Tyne Lead.

On the financial side a Donation Scheme based on the Grand National Horse Race was again organised and raised £41 which was largely responsible for the surplus of approximately £47 for the year.

1961/62, the following season started more or less where 1960/61 left off with the same set up of divisions for the Northumberland League and the same method of play. There was one more club affiliated making fifty-six in total but the number of teams was exactly the same at one hundred and twelve.

There was one change to the Officers being the addition of a Publicity Secretary and Fred Hannay was appointed to this position. The necessary amendment to County Rule 6a to allow this appointment was made.

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All of the other Officers continued to act and there was no change to the Executive Committee nor were there any changes to the Vice Presidents although Johnny Waugh had been invited to become one but had declined. The E.T.T.A. representatives were also unchanged.

The duties of the Publicity Secretary were roughly outlined as having to make every effort to obtain space in the local press for a weekly table tennis article and also to place a similar article in the E.T.T.A. magazine. Also to try to improve the publication of results and league tables in the local press and the clubs were asked to supply as much information to him as possible.

At the October meeting of the Executive Committee Fred Hannay reported that he was still trying to overcome the apathy of the local press but at a later meeting reported that things had improved and that there was now a regular space in the Newcastle Journal every Saturday. Very little information was supplied by the clubs. No articles were ever published in the E.T.T.A. magazine but it is not known whether any were submitted or not. An attempt was made to obtain sponsorship from Newcastle Breweries and from Hedley Soapworks to run an Open Tournament but was declined although Hedley's did say they would be prepared to help in any other way that they could. The appointment was not really a success and before the end of the season Fred Hannay had resigned. The circumstances leading up to his resignation were reported by the secretary to the Executive Committee but were never minuted. Alan Morpeth took on the responsibility of the job for the remainder of the season.

A considerable amount of coaching was undertaken during the season and in the previous close season with sessions being held in a few clubs, local Youth Clubs and some progress into schools.

The education authorities of Northumberland, Newcastle and Wallsend were contacted but at first only acknowledgements were received. However Wallsend eventually responded and agreed to have a course at their Hadrian Road school. A Junior practice night was held during the season which ten likely youngsters attended and two of them, Peter Hoyles of Newcastle YMCA and a youngster called Nelson from Marine Park came out on top and showed great promise for the future.

The committee also looked into the possibility of setting up a Northumberland Youth Club League, something that actually came into being a few years later.

Madge Waugh was registered as an evening class teacher of table tennis with the Northumberland Education Committee and on one occasion when she was unable to take a course in Bedlington the general secretary filled in for her and as a result he also became an evening class teacher.

A verbal approach for coaching was received from the Northumberland Association of Mixed clubs but surprisingly they were told to write in officially but there is no record of anything taking place.

At the end of the season it was the opinion of the Executive Committee that they felt that the year had been a successful beginning in breaking new ground.

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As usual a County team was entered in Division Two North of the County championships but it was defeated in all of the matches and the performance was considered to be the worst ever.

A league team was again entered in the Wilmott Cup but lost 5 - 3 to Leeds in a close match in round one.

An entry was also made into the Rose Bowl for the ladies but when it was discovered that Phil Clark, Eileen Chape and Nancy Young were all unavailable the entry was withdrawn.

It was considered that the Juniors were not of sufficiently good standard to be entered into the newly formed Junior Division North of the County Championships so an attempt was made to enter a team in the Durham Junior League but this was turned down by Durham’ The Juniors eventually played six friendly matches against teams in Durham and actually won four of them.

Bergen were unable to send a team to play for the North Sea Cup during the season so that event was postponed until the following year. However a Norway Week for several sports was organised in the area of Northumberland and Durham which included table tennis matches against a very strong team from Bergen which included Knut Havag, the Norwegian national champion. A match against them was played at North Shields which the visitors comfortably won 8 - 2 but the organisation was far from satisfactory and certainly not of the standard that the Association had provided for the North Sea Cup matches.

One of the County Matches had been played at Ashington YMCA and a verbal approach was made to Alan Morpeth asking that player's expenses incurred in getting to Ashington should be paid by the Association. This created a heated discussion and unfortunately the usual pleasant atmosphere of the Executive Committee meeting was somewhat dispelled. The committee members were obviously very divided on the matter with some thinking that any expenses incurred in getting to a match should be paid and others of the opinion that this was a home match and nothing should be paid. It was also felt in some quarters that the honour of playing for the county should be sufficient reward for the players. In the event no firm proposal was made and no vote taken so presumably the matter was dropped.

It was hoped to take several young players to the Yorkshire Junior Open tournament but the only one to go was Miss Robson and she did not make very much progress.

It was a quiet time for Seniors on the Open Tournament circuit, the only record of anyone involved being Phil Clark who reached the semi finals of the Ladies Doubles with Yorkshire's L. Hamilton at the Yorkshire Open and also played in the English Closed Tournament but lost in the second round.

The Closed Tournament continued to go from strength to strength with a record entry being received. In order of any very strong lady players like Phil Clark to take part in it the previous Mens Handicap Singles for re- named the Individual Handicap Singles.

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It was again staged at the M P N I. canteen in Benton with the other events exactly as in the previous year. A decision to give prizes instead of trophies for the Mens and Womens Singles, all Doubles and both Handicap Singles events was met with a mixed reception by the players. The tournament was once more a very successful one with all matches being completed on the day. Unfortunately the floor was left in such a poor state that there was a complaint to the association by the M P N I authorities. It was noted that things would have to be improved upon in that direction if the tournament was to be able to be held there in the future.

On the playing side of things Gateshead YMCA's Ron Heslop, whose only other success in the Mens Singles was eleven years previously took the title and he also won the Mixed Doubles with another Gateshead YMCA player, Mrs. D. Ward. Phil Clark (St.Anthonys O.B.) won the Womens Singles again and also the Doubles with Eileen Chape of North Shields YMCA who also came out on top in the Womens Handicap Singles. Harry Dignan (N.Shields YMCA) won the Veterans Singles and also took the Mens Doubles partnered by Stuart Lennie, also of North Shields YMCA whilst the Individual Handicap Singles was won by Alan Wilkie of Dunston Hill Hospital. The Youths Singles and the Boys Singles were won by the same Gateshead YMCA players for the third year running with Colin Archbold successful in the Youths and W.Young in the Boys.

Despite the fact that clubs were constantly reminded to keep within the regulations the Records Secretary felt that it was one of the worst ever seasons for infringements and hoped that things would dramatically improve in the future.

Gateshead YMCA retained the Division One title and Lansdowne were the top dogs in Division Two. Electrics continued to make remarkable progress, winning Division Three with their first team, Division 4b with their 'B' team and Division 5b with their 'C' team. Division 4a was won by Ministry of Works, Division 5a by Power House Youth Club and Division 5c by North Shields YMCA Boys team.

The K.O. Competition was again won by Revac who beat Gateshead YMCA in the final and St.Anthony's Old Boys ladies once again defeated Tyne Lead in the Ladies K.O. Competition final. Both finals were excellent matches to watch.

On the financial side it was felt that a Donation Scheme was not really needed but it was an opportunity to go ahead with one on a reduced scale for the express purpose of raising funds to buy a new typewriter for the Association. This happened and £24 was raised, the typewriter being bought in the next financial year at a cost of £27.10.0 (£27.50).

The accounts for the year, which included the income from the Donation Scheme, showed a small surplus of approximately £13.

1962-1963

The increase in participation in league play in the Northumberland League began to show with the advent of the 1962/63 season when the number of clubs increased by

Page 63 of 145 seven to reach sixty three with the number of teams rising by fourteen to a total of one hundred and twenty six. This necessitated the formation of an extra fifth division.

New teams included Newcastle NALGO and Woodlands Park. The former were to stay in the league for twenty two years and Woodlands Park remained members for thirty years.

Teams continued to be made up of four players and there was no change to the method of play.

All of the Officials except for the new position of Publicity Sectary where no one could be found to take on the job continued in office and the E.T.T.A. representatives were unchanged. Fortunately a Publicity Secretary was found after the start of the season. There were, however, changes in the membership of the Executive Committee with Phil Clark, Roland Earl, Leo Gowan and Fred Hannay all being elected to replace D.Davison, C B Fairless, W D Robson and Mrs Y J Patterson.

A change to the League regulations saw the introduction of a fine of five shillings (25p) if a team cancelled a match at less than three days notice and a fine of ten shillings (50p) if a team failed to turn up for a match. In each case points to be awarded to the non offending team.

On the coaching front National Coaching Diplomas were earned by Harry Dignan (N.Shields YMCA), Phil Clark (St.Anthonys) and B.Reid and Dave Robson (Westonians) with Stan Lawson (M P N I ) gaining a Teaching Theory Certificate. Later in the season Stan Denton (Ministry of Works) was also awarded the Coaching Diploma.

Several courses were arranged during the year and Junior Trials were held as well as quite successful County Trials.

There was concern that members of the association were at times playing against players in the South Shields League, the Berwick on Tweed League, a league in the Hexham area and the Tynemouth League, all of which were unaffiliated leagues. The Berwick League actually affiliated during the season, the Hexham and South Shields leagues promised to affiliate at the start of the following season but the Tynemouth League stated that they had no intention of affiliating to anyone and that Northumberland Association players would not be allowed to play in their league. The discussion about these leagues also led to discussion about the possibility of forming an Inter Town League but this was left in abeyance for the time being.

Arrangements had been made for a reciprocal visit to Norway by the organisers of the Gateway to Britain who had contacted Edgar Reay of Durham. He went ahead with the organisation of the table tennis participation in conjunction with the Sunderland Committee but they completely ignored Northumberland. Dave Robson had protested in writing and lengthy correspondence together with Reay's reply were read at an Executive Meeting in October.

In view of the non co-operative nature of the reply the committee decided to ignore it and felt there was no point in proceeding further in the matter.

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Obviously relations with Durham were at a low ebb with Durham in the past refusing to allow the South Shields League to affiliate to Northumberland and trying to stop clubs based South of the Tyne from playing in the Northumberland League and refusing to accept entry of a Northumberland Junior side including the current season under the name of Newcastle into the Durham Junior League.

A meeting with some of the E.T.T.A. officials was arranged at the M P N I in Benton and it turned out to be most satisfactory from a Northumberland point of view and founded good relations with the governing body. Unfortunately the rank and file membership did not really support the meeting with only twenty four Northumberland people present. General discussion took place covering such points as future E.T.T.A. fees, their administrative structure, international matches as well as county representation and development.

There was a great deal of promise among the younger players, W.Young being selected to attend an E.T.T.A. sponsored intermediate tournament in Stevenage although he did not have a very inspiring time but would have gained a lot of experience. Four of the juniors in Brian Burn, Joe McLeod, Ball and Longstaffe attended area trials where McLeod reached the group final play off. Burn reached the semi finals of the Under 15 Boys Singles at the Yorkshire Junior Open.

Thirteen year old Maureen Heppell, the niece of Phil Clark, who played for Newton in the Northumberland League had only been playing competitive table tennis for six months when she entered her very first tournament, the Sussex Junior Open. Her father, Len, had decided the time was right for her to play in as many tournaments as possible. The round trip to Hastings and back was 600 miles but it was to become typical of the distances she was prepared to travel. Not only did she reach the semi finals of the Junior Girls Singles she actually won the Under 13 Girls event.

She had a great deal of success in the Eagle/Girl competition and did well in other tournaments, reaching the final of the Junior Girls singles in the North East of England, the semi finals of the Lancashire Open Girls Singles, and the final of the Under 15 Girls Singles at the Yorkshire Junior Open.

A venture north of the border saw her described as a delightful 13 year old who won the Junior Girls Singles and the Senior Womens Doubles partnered by Pam Mortimer of Warwickshire.

Apart from the juniors Phil Clark reached the semi finals of the Womens singles at the Hartlepools Open.

Brian Burn, Joe McLeod and Maureen Heppell were considered by the executive committee to be the Association's most promising players.

The North Sea Cup was competed for at the M P N I in Benton but this year the Bergen only sent a party of three and they also played in a small invitation tournament.

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Jack Oughton, Stuart Lennie and Roland Earl represented Northumberland in the North Sea Cup match and ran out 6 - 3 winners.

The County team once again had a very lean time in Division Two North of the County Championships and because of the fact that the early rounds of neither the Wilmott Cup nor the Rose Bowl were played on a regional basis at a central venue both League teams were withdrawn. Friendly matches were played against the Whitehaven League in Hexham with success for both the Senior and Junior teams.

Having been refused entry to the Durham Junior League the junior side did play a couple of friendly matches against Hartlepools juniors, winning both.

Once again the question of paying expenses for players representing the county or the league in home matches was raised and this time it was decided that such expenses in excess of two shillings and sixpence (12 1/2p) would be paid.

At the beginning of the season the A.G.M. gave the Secretary permission to inaugurate a County Youth League and steps in this direction were taken with the formation of a sub committee to investigate and the same sub committee also took on board the possibility of an Inter Town League.

In an attempt to overcome the non election of a Publicity Secretary at the Annual General Meeting the executive committee invited Fred Hannay to take on the role again but he refused stating that he was unable to do so under the existing arrangements for receipt of scorecards. As the Chronicle had a team participating in the League it was decided to offer the job to their secretary, Mr. Gus Park, and he kindly agreed. After discussions with him it was agreed that he would initially concentrate on the Chronicle only for our main features. It was subsequently recorded that there had been more success than in previous years. However a request to the Chronicle to sponsor a Northumberland tournament was refused.

There was a record entry of 234 including a strong contingent from Berwick on Tweed into the Closed Championships which meant that the tournament stretched to two Saturdays. All eventually went well although it was obvious that there was a need for more help in running the event in the future. The Mens Singles was won by Jack Oughton (Newcastle YMCA) who also secured the Mens Doubles title with Roland Earl of M P N I. Phil Clark, now playing for Revac, was once again successful in the Womens Singles, winning it for what was to be the tenth and last time. She also won the Womens doubles with her niece Maureen Heppell of Newton. The Mixed Doubles title was retained by the Gateshead YMCA pairing Ronnie Heslop and Mrs. D. Ward. Harry Dignan ( N.Shields YMCA) was once again successful in the Veterans Singles. Young Brian Burn of North Shields YMCA won the Junior (Under 17) Singles and also took the Individual Handicap Singles. while his club mate Stuart Lennie won the Youths (under 19) Singles.

The Womens Handicap Singles went to Florence Kauffman of M P N I.

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It was a good year in the administration of the Northumberland League this time round.

North Shields YMCA won the First Division and their 'C' team took Division Three.

The Second Division was won by Reyrolles and the two Fourth Divisions were won by West End Boys Club 'B' team and Kenton Civil Service whose 'B' team were successful in Division 5c.

Hayhole Works won Division 5b and two teams of students, Kings College and Eustace Percy Hall were successful in divisions 5a and 5d respectively.

North Shields YMCA completed the double by beating Gateshead YMCA in the final of the K.O. Cup and Tyne Lead were successful in the Womens K.O. Cup.

There were no financial problems and a small surplus was made taking the cash in hand to £232.

1963-1964 The momentum in participation in the Northumberland League continued with 140 teams from sixty eight clubs at the start of the 1963/64 season which necessitated the formation of a tenth division. As it was considered bad policy to extend the fifth divisions any further a premier Division was formed from the previous first division and the old first division down over were renamed and filled up on merit.

There was no change in the Officers with Gus Park being confirmed as Publicity Secretary nor was there any change in Executive Committee or the E.T.T.A. representatives. However Ronnie Heslop and Adam Coffer resigned from the Committee mid season and Phil Clark at the end of the season.

One of the Vice Presidents, the Hon Denis G Berry had resigned because he was leaving the area. New appointments were D S Davidson of Gosforth and Johnny Waugh of Whitley Bay.

The number of players in a team remained at four and the method of play was unchanged.

RAF Acklington joined and because of the distance involved by other clubs to their venue they agreed to play all of their matches away from home if necessary.

The Hexham and South Shields League followed Berwick in becoming affiliated to the Association and several minor alterations to the Association's rules were made to cover the affiliation of autonomous leagues.

The Club Match Rules were amended to allow for the first four sets of a match to be claimed at 7.00p.m. if the opposition were not present and to allow the match to be claimed in entirety if the opponents failed to arrive at all by 7.30p.m.

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A great deal of importance was given to the coaching of the younger players and the National Coach again visited the county. He held sessions at Newcastle, Berwick and Kings College, Newcastle as well as schools in Bedlington, Newbiggin and Blyth.

All of the association's panel of coaches did a lot of work, particularly in the schools which appeared to be worthwhile judging by the keen interest eventually shown by the Northumberland Education Youth Organisation.

Two county team trials were held at North Shields YMCA and special junior practise sessions were arranged.

The Annual General Meeting had given the go ahead to the Executive Committee to organise an Inter Zone Competition with the current member clubs of the Northumberland League being divided into eight zones but there was very little response to this idea by the clubs themselves and the idea was dropped in favour of forming an Inter Town League for the commencement of the following season for which a considerable amount of progress was made.

The secretary, Dave Robson, had attended a meeting with Youth Centre leaders at County Hall when they had expressed an unanimous wish that the association should run league competitions for them until such time as they were able to do so themselves and that there were about twenty five youth clubs that could be involved. The executive committee instructed Dave to go ahead and he put the wheels in motion to do so and twenty centres expressed an interest so arrangements were put in place to commence a Youth League for the following season.

The Publicity Secretary continued to work with the press to get copy published and especially to get advance publicity for county matches. By the end of the season a quite satisfactory amount of cover had been obtained when the occasion warranted it.

It was thought that Northumberland should host an Open Tournament and the committee obtained provisional approval from the E.T.T.A. to run such an event on the assumption that the next Annual General Meeting would approve.

The Association became a subscribing member of the Northumberland Playing Fields Association and were now in contact with the Governing Bodies of other sports. The hope was that if and when the proposed multi sports stadium in Newcastle became fact membership of the that organisation would ensure that table tennis was not forgotten and that adequate facilities and the association's own advice would be provided for.

The County Senior team were once again a disappointment, losing all five matches played in the County Championships. Difficulty in getting a team out was a problem and at one stage the committee expressed disgust at the attitude of some of the leading senior players.

On the other hand the newly formed Junior side won five, drew one and lost only two of their matches to finish runners up in Junior Division North. The two losses were to Yorkshire who won all of their matches and the division. Of the Junior performances young Maureen Heppell started her county career by winning six of her eight sets.

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The Northumberland League Senior Men lost to Leeds in the second round of the Wilmott Cup and the Women fared even worse, going out of the Rose Bowl in the first round to Bradford. Both competitions were zoned and played at Leeds.

Friendly matches were again played against the Whitehaven League with both the Senior and Junior teams being successful.

The now regular visit to Bergen was very successful in all but the playing side with defeat in the North Sea Cup to the extent of 5 - 0.

The leading junior boy Brian Burn had a deal of success in Open tournaments, winning the Boys Singles at the South Yorkshire Open. In other events he reached the final of the Boys Singles at the Hull Open, the final of the Under 15 Boys at the Yorkshire Junior where he also reached the semi finals of the Under 17s, the final of the Boys Singles at the Midland Open and also at the East of England Open.

Young Maureen Heppell had even more success, winning five titles on her travels. They were the Under 15 Girls Singles at the Yorkshire Junior where she was also a runner up in the Girls Doubles, the Girls Singles at the South Yorks Open, the Under 15 Girls Doubles at the Sussex Junior ( also semi finalist in the Under 15 Girls Singles), the Under 15 Girls Singles at the Cheshire Junior, and the Cadet Girls Singles at the North East of England. She was also a finalist in the Girls Singles at the North of England, the Hull Open, where she also reached the semis of the Mixed Doubles with Stuart Lennie, and the Pontefract Open. In addition she reached the final of the Eagle and Girl Under 15 Competition and was runner up in the News of the World scheme. She was also a losing finalist in the Girls Doubles at the Cheshire Junior Open where she also lost in the semis of the Girls Singles. Other semi finals were reached in the Girls Singles at the Merseyside Open, the Lancashire Open and the East of England Open and of the Womens Doubles at the Lancashire Open.

Both Brian and Maureen were invited to the E.T.T.A. Junior trials, Brian being one of ten boys and Maureen one of eleven girls.

Maureen's father, Lennie got to the semis of the Veterans Singles at the Merseyside whilst Harry Dignan won two Veterans titles being successful at the Hull and East Riding and at the Yorkshire Open.

The Northumberland Championships were staged at the M P N I Canteen which was now established as their home and the leading light this time round was Stuart Lennie of North Shields YMCA. Not only did he win the Mens Singles, he won the Mens Doubles with Harry Dignan, and the Mixed Doubles with Eileen Chape, both Harry and Eileen also of North Shields YMCA. And just for good measure he retained the Youths Singles. A congratulatory letter had been sent to Phil Clark who had won the Womens Singles for the tenth time in the previous year and this year she was succeeded by her young niece Maureen Heppell who now played for St.Anthony's Old Boys. The Womens Doubles was won by the M P N I pairing of Florence Kauffman and J.Turnbull and Harry Dignan won the Veterans Singles for the third year in a row. The Individual Handicap Singles was won by P.Graham of West End

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Boys Club with Florence Kauffman retaining the Womens Handicap crown and North Shields YMCA's Brian Burn retaining the Junior Singles title,

On the League front Sid Holt unfortunately reported that it had been a Record Secretary's nightmare with nine resignations from the league and about one hundred postponed matches. Over forty of these were in division 5d alone mainly because of the fact that there were four University teams in that division.

North Shields YMCA retained the championship, winning the newly named Premier Division and their Juniors were successful in Division Two.

M P N I won Division One and North Shields Boys Club finished top of the third division.

The fourth division winners were Eustace Percy Hall in 4a and West End Boys Club 'C' team in 4b.

The four fifth division winners were Borough of Wallsend Sports Club. M P N I 'E' team, South Shields Corporation Welfare and newcomers Methodist International House.

North Shields YMCA beat Revac in the final to retain the K.O. Cup and the final of the Womens K.O. Cup was an all M P N I affair with the first team defeating the 'B' team.

Financially there was a small loss of approximately £35 at a time when bats could cost anything from six shillings (30p) up to just over one pound and as much as thirty five shillings and sixpence (approx £1.77). A sheet of rubber was about seven shillings and sixpence (approx 37p), shirts were approximately sixteen shillings (80p) and a new table was anything from £38 to £45. The average weekly wage at that time was approximately eighteen pounds.

1964-1964

The highest ever number of clubs playing in the Northumberland League happened in the 1964/65 season when it totalled seventy nine from which one hundred and fifty two teams took part. The clubs were made up of thirty eight works or office clubs (73 teams),eight Church Youth Clubs, ten Youth or Boys Clubs, nine YMCA clubs, four Universities and ten other. This necessitated the formation of an eleventh division and following a rule change the divisions for the season were divisions one, two, three, four, two fifth divisions, two sixth divisions , two seventh divisions and an eighth division. A youth section also came into being in the Northumberland Youth Association League.

Teams were still made up of four players and the method of play stayed the same.

One new club was West Allotment who competed in the league for a total of twenty one years split over two spells.

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In addition to the Northumberland League the Inter Town League was formed and affiliated to the County Association.

The changes to rules meant that the formation of divisions had to be made on the basis of the first four being numbered consecutively from 1 to 4 and thereafter in two streams, 'A' and 'B'. This meant that it would take a very good new club in the bottom division some seven years to get into the top division and this was to prove to be unpopular and only lasted for one year.

Other changes to rules saw an increase in the league fees with the payment of £1 per club plus fifteen shillings (75p) being replaced with a straight forward twenty-eight shillings (£1.40) per team. Payment by autonomous leagues was based on two shillings (10p) per team.

In order to save having to send out handbooks and score sheets to those clubs that did not attend the Special Meeting held before the start of the season a rule came into force stating that any club not represented at the Special Meeting would be liable to expulsion from the league.

Under E.T.T.A. regulations the County's National Councillor as the E.T.T.A. representative was now called had to be ex-officio a member of the executive committee if not already a member. A representative of each autonomous league was also able to attend executive committee meetings as a full member.

The season started with no changes to the Officers but three new members of the Executive Committee in J Richardson, B Reid and Miss E Smith to replace those who had resigned. Dave Robson represented Northumberland on the new E.T.T.A. National Council and he was appointed to the E.T.T.A. Tournament Committee.

The death of Johnny Waugh who had served the association extremely well in various roles between 1933 and 1958 and was one of the Vice Presidents was sadly recorded. One new Vice President was appointed in Adam Coffer.

The South Shields League had affiliated but the dispute over this with Durham persisted and eventually the South Shields League were told by Northumberland that for the future the decision as to who they affiliated to would have to be their decision alone.

Participation in the E.T.T.A. Master Points Scheme was discussed and it was agreed that Northumberland would participate from the beginning of the next season.

Discussion also took place regarding the possibility of staging an International match within the county and Dave Robson was instructed to explore the possibility with the E.T.T.A.

Another item that was considered was the separation of the Northumberland League from the County Association but this idea was dropped as it was decided that it was impossible on financial grounds.

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Harry Dignan took on the organisation of coaching and quite a good deal of effort was put into this. Coaching took place with regular weekly sessions being held in Wallsend ( four centres), Ponteland, Prudhoe, Blyth (two centres), Bedlington ( two centres), and two centres in Whitley Bay.

Harry worked closely with the Northumberland Education Authority and also with the National Coach, Jack Carrington who visited the area in the October when coaching days under his guidance were held. These included a day at Longbenton, a session with the Northumberland Association of Youth Clubs, and a mass rally at Guidepost School which was paid for by Northumberland Education Committee.

A few weekly sessions were held at the request of Gateshead YMCA and North Shields YMCA organised weekly tournaments. Advanced coaching for the best young players and for pupils on the students list for coaching diplomas were also held.

A new coaching centre was opened at Valley Gardens School in Whitley Bay in conjunction with Northumberland Education Committee, Harry being a leading light in this venture.

All of this seemed to have a tremendous effect with a massive improvement in the standard of players at Youth Club level.

Another area where there was a great improvement was that of publicity with Gus Park making inroads into the local press. Unfortunately he found it necessary to resign at the end of the season because of pressure of business.

Arnie Warents had also started supplying copy although he had to be asked not to overlap with Gus. He did get copy in the English Table Tennis Magazine 'Table Tennis' as he had done previously for Durham, which was the first time that Northumberland copy had been published in it.

The County team continued to struggle in Division 2 North of the County Championships and it was only the fact that newcomers Cumberland were very weak that they did not finish bottom again.

However a Junior team was again entered into the Junior Division North and did well in winning three, drawing one and only losing one match to finish in third spot.

The Wilmott Cup and Rose Bowl Northumberland League teams were both eliminated by Sunderland in the first round of each competition.

Unfortunately it did not prove possible to arrange anything with Bergen regarding the North Sea Cup.

The lack of spectator interest and resultant poor attendances at the home county matches continued to be a disappointment.

The first ever Northumberland Open Tournament was staged at the M.P.N.I. canteen in Longbenton in the October and it turned out to be a very successful event although

Page 72 of 145 the entry of 120 was not as big as that for other Open tournaments and the local entry was rather low.

The star of the show was Lesley Proudlock from Yorkshire who captured three titles. Not only did she win the Womens Singles but took the Mixed Doubles with Mike Symonds of Lancashire and the Womens Doubles partnered by Northumberland's own Phil Clark.

Mike Symonds was the Mens Singles winner and the Lancashire pairing of Keith Forshaw and Ron Allcock triumphed in the Mens Doubles. There were local winners in the Junior Singles which was won by Brian Burn and in the Veterans where Harry Dignan came out on top.

Brian Burn produced the shock of the day in the Mens Singles when he defeated the North East's top player and England number five Denis Neale.

W D & H O Wills supplied what were described as wonderful prizes for both the Mens and Womens Singles events.

For the first time there was a big interest in Open Tournaments by Northumberland players with two dozen going to the Lancashire Open and nearly three dozen to the Yorkshire Open. There was a degree of success for some of the male players with young Brian Burn being the most successful despite not winning any Singles events. He was runner up in the Boys Singles at the Lancashire and at the North East of England as well as winning the same event at the Northumberland. He also reached the semi finals of the Boys Singles at the Bucks Open, the Under 19s at the North East of England and the Boys Singles at the Merseyside. Playing with Joe McLeod he won the Junior Doubles at the Midland and was a semi finalist in both the Mens Doubles and Boys Doubles at the Cumberland and in the Junior Doubles at the Midland as well as reaching the semi finals of Boys Doubles at Cumberland in the Boys Doubles at the Yorkshire Junior.

Joe also reached the semi finals of the Mens Singles at the Cumberland. Arthur Chilvers got to the semis of the Mens Singles at the Cumberland Open. At the Hull Open Stuart Lennie reached the semi finals of the Mens Singles and Peter Whiteman lost at the same stage of the Boys Singles.

At Veteran level Harry Dignan triumphed at the Northumberland, the Hull and at the Yorkshire Open where he beat Len Heppell in the final. Len won the Veterans Single final of the Stevenage and also in the semi final of the Hull Open.

On the female side Phil Clark reached the semi finals of the Womens Singles at both the East of England and the Hull as well as winning the Womens Doubles at the Northumberland before announcing her retirement but the year belonged to her niece Maureen Heppell.

Maureen set a junior record by winning the Girls Singles in no less than twelve Open tournaments - North Of England, Birmingham, Portsmouth, Hull, Merseyside, Midland, Yorkshire Junior, Lancashire, Scottish, Gwent, Bucks, and North East England. Just for good measure she also won the Womens Singles when she ventured

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North of the border taking the West of Scotland and the Scottish Open titles. She also had success in the Womens Doubles at the Scottish and in the Mixed Doubles at the Yorkshire Open, the Scottish and the Gwent Opens.

She was also runner up in a number of singles events including the English Open Girls Singles and at the English Closed she reached the semi finals of the Womens Consolation Singles. There were also a lot of events in which she at least reached the semi finals.

Unfortunately the list of honours did not include her local tournament as she was playing in the English Open on the date that it took place.

The excellent form of both Brian Burn and Maureen Heppell was recognised at International level with Brian been selected to play for England Juniors against Wales when he won two singles and also a doubles with Johnny Kedge of Yorkshire as England triumphed 9 - 1.

Maureen who had been ranked at number three in the England Junior Girls Trials was selected to play against Germany at Crawley where she won the only singles set that she played in and also won the doubles with Stuart Gibbs of Essex although England were beaten 5 - 4.

Letters of appreciation were sent by the Executive Committee to both Brian and Maureen and also to Phil Clark on her retirement.

There was a new Mens Singles Champion in Mike Ford of M P N I at the Closed championships which were held at what now was the regular venue at the M P N I canteen in Longbenton.

Another M P N I player, Florence Kaufman won the Womens Singles a third, Norma Robson taking the Womens Handicap Singles and also the Womens Doubles with Gateshead YMCA's Mrs D Ward.

North Shields YMCA's Harry Dignan retained the Veterans crown and also the Mens Doubles with club mate Stuart Lennie. Lennie also retained the Mixed Doubles title with Eileen Chape, also from N.Shields YMCA. D.White, a Newcastle University student based at Henderson Hall triumphed in the Handicap Singles, Peter Hoyles (Newcastle YMCA) won the Youths singles and North Shields' Brian Burn won the Junior Singles once again.

The Northumberland Youth Association League got underway with twenty six teams taking part in three divisions split into Tyne Area, Blyth, Alnwick, Morpeth Area and Ashington, Bedlington Area. Play offs at the end of the season were held to decide the overall winner but unfortunately there is no record of league tables or as to which Youth team won it. It had been well organised by Mr. Farrow and a letter of thanks was received from the Northumberland Education Committee.

The new Inter Town League had twelve teams consisting of North Shields who won all of their matches to become the first champions, runners up Newcastle, together with Gateshead, South Shields, Hexham, Hebburn, Wallsend, Ashington, Blyth ,

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Berwick, Morpeth and Whitley Bay although Whitley Bay did not complete the season.

The administration of the Northumberland League had been good but unfortunately there were still 93 postponements, 63 of which involved the various university teams.

The champions were, for the third year running, North Shields YMCA with Westonians winning Division Two.

North Shields Boys Club took the third division and Tyne Lead finished on top of Division Four.

The fifth divisions went to Woodlands Park and Ministry of Labour, the sixth divisions to Tynemouth Village Boys Club and Maccabi 'C' team.

The seventh divisions went to Prudhoe Youth Club and National Assistance Board whilst newcomers West Allotment Boys Club won Division Eight.

North Shields YMCA won the K.O. Cup for the third year in a row and M P N I retained the Womens K.O. Cup.

Unfortunately there had been an incident involving Stuart Lennie at a Yorkshire tournament held in Scarborough which resulted in a complaint being received from Scarborough although no details were recorded of what had happened. However the Executive Committee obviously decided that whatever it was deserved strong action being taken as Lennie was removed from the coaches list, asked to give an apology and suspended Nationally for the period 1st September 1965 to 9th October 1965. Scarborough and Yorkshire County were both informed of the outcome.

The increase in membership of the Northumberland League had brought in some extra income and this, coupled with less being spent on the County matches during the season resulted in a surplus for the year of approximately £105 and the committee considered that the financial state of the association was very healthy indeed.

1965-1966

1965/66 saw the loss of the South Shields League as an autonomous league affiliated to the Association but both the Berwick League and the Hexham League continued their affiliation as did the Inter Town League.

Because of the growing amount of administration work three new officials were appointed with Ron Patterson becoming Handbook Secretary, Michael Lynch becoming Assistant General Secretary and Dave Barron appointed as Assistant Records Secretary.

Arnold Warents was appointed as Publicity Secretary to replace Gus Park and changes to the Executive Committee brought in J F Griffiths, W M Kidd and Terry Wilkinson to replace Ron Patterson, the new Handbook Secretary, and Roland Earl and Fred Hannay who had both resigned.

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Unfortunately the position of National Councillor lapsed due to the fact that the application submitted to the E.T.T.A. was invalid. The official list of qualified umpires consisted of Adam Coffer, Harry Dignan, Syd Holt, B.Reid, J.Richardson and Dave Robson.

In order to spread the load of the admin work the Executive Committee appointed four sub committees to deal with County Management, League Management, Affiliated/Associated Leagues and Coaching.

There was little change in the number of clubs or teams and once again there were eleven divisions in the Northumberland League. However the distribution of divisions was altered to bring in a pyramid system with one first division, two second, three third, four fourth and one fifth.

Teams still consisted of four players and the method of play was unchanged.

Byker Community Centre were newcomers to the league and were to be members until 2016/17, a total of fifty-two years.

On the coaching front Harry Dignan was appointed as Coaching Secretary and all credit to him was due as an increasing number of young players were taking advantage of practice sessions and were beginning to make their presence and ability felt. It was a tremendous boost to Harry and the various coaches involved and was hoped to spur them on to greater efforts in the future.

A coaching rally was held at Thomas Addison Boy's School in Hailsham Avenue, Longbenton under the direction of the National Coach, Jack Carrington which was sponsored by Northumberland Education Committee.

Coaching was highlighted in a television programme on Tyne Tees Television showing the coaching techniques from the new Lightfoot Stadium featuring Harry Dignan and Dave Robson and also including an exhibition by Brian Burn and Peter Hoyles.

Training sessions for top players were being held by the E.T.T.A. in Bradford and it was agreed to support this at a cost of £4 per year, with players to pay their own entry fees and travelling costs. A session was also held for advanced juniors.

Further coaching sessions were held during the season sponsored by Frank Brennan Limited and it was considered that all of these coaching activities were making a worthwhile contribution to the Association. Thanks were expressed to the many coaches and helpers involved and in particular to Northumberland Education Committee Youth Officers for their tremendous co-operation and assistance. The need for more coaches was also apparent.

The Committee were empowered to send one Senior and or Junior player of outstanding merit to the English Open and or Closed if the opportunity arose and it was agreed to send Brian Burn to the Closed and to subsidise him to the extent of £15 if necessary.

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Maureen Heppell was nominated for the Junior Trials but she was so successful elsewhere that she reached number one spot in the E.T.T.A. Junior Rankings and number six in the Senior Rankings. She also played for England in the European Junior Championships where she won one and lost one in her singles group, did likewise in the doubles and played one and lost one in the mixed doubles.

She also played for the English Senior Ladies team, being 'the baby of the team' in the European Championships. In the singles she had a bye in round one, beat Michele Stirn (Switzerland) in round one and Greta Petterson (Finland) in round two before losing out to Signe Pajsarv of Russia in the fourth round. She also played in the team event in an early group match against Greece. but not in the later matches.

Maureen's father Len must have been a very proud man when Maureen reached number one junior. To coach first his sister Philomena and then his daughter to number one junior was no mean feat but Len never had any doubts that he would achieve this ambition.

Brian Burn was also making a name for himself and he reached number three in the E.T.T.A. junior boys rankings, finished seventh in the European Qualifying tournament. He was picked for England Juniors in matches against Wales and Scotland, both of which England won 10 - 0.

On the tournament scene Maureen won Girls Singles titles at the North of England, Newbury Junior, Merseyside, Middlesex, Cumberland, Lancashire, Newbury Senior, Kent and Scottish after losing in the final at the East of England. She also picked up the Senior Womens title at the East of England and the Cumberland, the Womens Doubles crown at the Cumberland and the Scottish. Four Mixed Doubles titles were also hers being at the North of England, the Cumberland, Lancashire and Scottish. She was also runner up in the Butlins Boy and Girl of the Year event.

Brian was successful in the Mens Singles at the Cumberland, Pontefract and Scottish, won the Junior Boys titles at the Cumberland, Lancashire and Cheshire Junior as well as reaching the final at the Newbury Junior and at the Merseyside. He also won the Under 17 Singles at the Newbury Junior and the Boys Doubles at the Scottish. Three Mens Doubles were his, the Lancashire partnered by Joe McLeod, the Scottish and at the Cambridge when Stuart Lennie was his partner.

Other Northumberland players saw Arnie Warents reach the final of the Mixed Doubles at the Cumberland, Lennie reach the semi final at the Lancashire as well as winning the Northumberland Mens Doubles.

Phil Clark lost in the final of the Northumberland Womens Singles and also in the semi final of the North East England. Veterans Lennie Heppell and Harry Dignan also did well with Lennie winning the Veterans Singles at the Merseyside, the Lancashire and the Scottish as well as losing in the Veterans final at the Northumberland. Harry won both the Yorkshire and Northumberland Veterans titles. Peter Whiteman lost in the final of the Boys Singles and Pauline Burns lost in the final of the Girls Singles at the Northumberland.

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The question of the situation regarding Stuart Lennie had been discussed at the Annual General Meeting when the decision of the executive to have him suspended was overturned but there still appeared to be discord between Lennie and the Association as he stated that he no longer wished to represent the County but later changed his mind.

The performance of the County team was again disappointing with the Senior team only winning one match and losing four. However the match which was lost to Yorkshire was described as surely being one of the finest matches seen in the area for a very long time. The home matches were played at three different venues with Cumberland being entertained at North Shields YMCA, Durham at Berwick and Yorkshire at Gateshead YMCA.

The Juniors also had a poor season winning only once. drawing one match and losing two.

The League representative teams had a measure of success with the Mens side beating Darlington, Sunderland and Carlisle before going out of the Wilmott Cup to Harrogate. In the Rose Bowl the Womens team beat Sunderland but then lost away to Manchester. The Junior Boys side played in the Carter Cup and beat Leeds before losing to Bolton.

The North Sea Cup was won when Bergen were beaten in Bergen 5 - 2 and then in Newcastle 5 - 0.

The visit of the Norwegians at Easter was unfortunately marred by the tragic death of Walter Kaufman, the Bergen Association Chairman. This was a sad blow as Walter was well liked and respected by all who knew him. Those who were able, did what they could to relieve the distress of the visiting guests and Harry Dignan was heartily commended for the very sympathetic and efficient manner in which he was able to deal with this most unfortunate situation. Suitable floral tributes were sent from the Association.

A letter was later received from the Vice Chairman and Secretary of the Bergen Association thanking Northumberland for the consideration and kindness shown to their party at the unhappy time.

The Publicity Secretary, Arnie Warents wished to set up a table tennis magazine in the county and this was agreed to. The new magazine, called 'Sandwich' got under was with the first publication in October 1965 and was well received. An article by Harrison Edwards was the highlight with others by Stan Lawson, Harry Dignan and Brian Burn. Invaluable help was given by Brian Reid both in production and distribution. The biggest problem was distribution and the magazine cost £7 over the first three months but the committee decided that it should continue at least until the end of the season. In the event it developed into a good publication and was to continue for some considerable time after that.

The inter town league had teams from Hebburn, North Shields, Wallsend, South Shields, Newcastle, Hexham, Gateshead and Prudhoe, a total of eight but enthusiasm

Page 78 of 145 for this competition appeared to wane and many matches were not played. North Shields were the eventual winners.

The Northumberland Youth Association was once organised by Bob Farrow and had two divisions of twelve teams and again functioned quite well, producing some good young players. A few clubs took steps to transfer their best teams into the Northumberland League and it was anticipated that more would follow in the following season showing that the Youth League was fulfilling its proper function.

Two new trophies were donated to the Association, the first being the Heppell/Clark Trophy donated by Phil Clark for presentation each year to the winner of the Girls Singles event at the Closed tournament.

Mrs Madge Waugh donated a trophy for presentation annually to the person considered to have done the most in the cause of the Association during the previous year. With her approval the committee named this the J.R.Waugh Award in memory of Johnnie.

Some of the top players gave an exhibition at Whitley Bay Y.M.C.A. in connection with the opening of their premises which was very much appreciated by the local organisers.

Nerwcastle University organised an invitation tournament which appeared to be outside of the scope of the tournament regulations but the executive committee told them they could solve the problem by calling it the Tyneside and District Closed Tournament. They did so and it went ahead, the winners being Jim Nelson, a former County player, in the Mens Singles, Phil Clark in the Womens Singles, Arthur Chilvers and Arnie Warents in the Mens Doubles whilst Len Heppell and Phil Clark won the Mixed Doubles and A. Cole the Consolation singles.

A letter was received from Cumberland asking if Northumberland would support the formation of a new Northern League for players of a standard just below that of County level. It was agreed to give support to this but there is no record that it ever materialised.

The Closed Tournament was once again held at the M.P.N.I. canteen in Longbenton with Brian Burn of North Shields YMCA winning the Mens Singles for the first time as well as taking the Junior Singles for the fourth year running. For good measure he also won the Boys Singles.

As expected Maureen Heppell ( Westonians) was the Womens Singles winner, the Womens Doubles winner with her aunt Phil Clark (Prudhoe Y.A.) and the Mixed Doubles with her father Len ( also Westonians). For the third year running the Mens Doubles was won by the N.Shields pairing of Harry Dignan and Stuart Lennie and Harry also claimed the Veterans Singles for the fourth year in a row. Terry Wilkinson of B.W.S.C. was successful in the Mens Handicap, A.Temple of Prudhoe Y.A. in the Womens Handicap and the new Junior Girls event went to P. Burns of Walbottle Campus Youth Association.

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The Open Tournament, also staged at the same venue, attracted a larger entry than in the previous year although the number of players from other counties was disappointing. W.D. and H.O. Wills again provided excellent prizes for the Mens and Womens Singles winners.

Kevin Forshaw of Lancashire won the Mens Singles and also the Doubles partnered by another Lancashire player. R.Allcock. Lesley Proudlock of Yorkshire was the star female player winning the Womens Singles, the Womens Doubles with Cynthia Duncombe of Yorkshire and the Mixed Doubles with Yorkshire's Peter Duncombe. Yorkshire also triumphed in the Junior Boys event which was won by P.Rowe and Miss B.E.Yates of Lancashire won the Junior Girls Singles.

There was local success in the Veterans Singles, the title being retained by Harry Dignan.

Both records secretaries for the Northumberland League found a backward trend in administration at club level but those good club secretaries did help the Officers enormously. At least a quarter of all scorecards had been filled in incorrectly or incompletely and there were over one hundred postponements, some of which were re-arranged without telling the appropriate official. There also appeared to be a large increase in the number of complaints and disputes.

The success of North Shields YMCA continued with victory in the top division for the fourth year running for their 'A' team who also won the Knock Out Cup, again for the fourth time running. Their 'C' team won Division 2a and their 'F' team took Division 3c.

Division 2b winners were Reyrolles 'B'.

The university side Eustace Percy Hall topped Division 3A and Division 3b was won by B.W.S.C.

Newcomers Byker Community Centre finished top of Division 4a and the other fourth divisions went to Newcastle University 'B', Newcastle Co-op Welfare and Willington Quay Boys Club.

Saint Lawrences took Division 5.

The Ladies K.O. Cup competition did not take place.

During the summer the North East Summer League, which had started in 1964 continued to operate with North Shields YMCA participating but there were no divisions purely for teams based in the Northumberland or Tyneside areas.

Financially the Association broke even for the year and with a sum of £302 in the bank appeared to be financially sound.

1966-1967 There were again seventy-eight clubs in the Northumbria League for the 1966/67 season and the number of teams rose to an all time high with one hundred and sixty

Page 80 of 145 three participating. The number of divisions was increased to twelve by the addition of an extra fifth division being the greatest number of divisions ever in existence.

Of the clubs Tyne Dock Youth Club, who had previously been in the league in season 1952/53 joined and were to participate in the league until 1994/95 season and again from 1995/56 until 2013/14, a total of forty eight years.

In 1966/67 the positions of Assistant General Secretary and Assistant Records Secretary which had been created in the previous year were replaced by a Northumberland League Secretary, Michael Lynch, and Master Points Secretary, D.Barron. Changes to the Executive Committee saw Bill Hodgkins, Llew Baker and K.Griffin replace Bob Farrow, Leo Gowan and J.F.Griffiths. Stan Lawson was added to the list of qualified umpires and the need for more umpires was expressed. Dave Robson was appointed as National Councillor.

Bob Farrow had resigned at the end of the previous season feeling that he had been 'in harness' long enough. He had served the Association since season 1948/49 being League Secretary from 1949/50 to 1957/58 and a member of the Executive Committee since then and had done sterling work being a patient, unassuming and diligent worker. The Executive Committee wished to put his name forward to be a Vice President but he declined the offer and assured them that he would always be on call to render any assistance required.

Once again a lot of emphasis was put on the need for coaching with Harry Dignan again heavily involved. Numerous sessions were arranged and the top players again had the opportunity to go to Bradford if they wished to.

Area Junior Trials were arranged by Durham but a letter was sent to Edgar Reay deploring the unsatisfactory organisation. His reply was considered unsatisfactory.

It was agreed to send Brian Burn, Stuart Lennie and Maureen Heppell to the English Closed Tournament and to subsidise each of them to a maximum of ten pounds each.

A team from Valley Gardens and Whitley Bay Grammar School was sent to the schools championships in Stockton.

The Association took part in the Blyth Festival of Sport where Brian Burn and Stuart Lennie gave an exhibition.

Participation in the Local Council's Anglo German Week together with Durham took place although details of what actually took place were not recorded.

Publicity saw greater coverage in the local press of the Association's major events but very little in the way of the league results and tables. Despite overtures to them there was a lack of interest in the affairs of the Association by the television companies.

The 'Sandwich' magazine continued to be successful under the guidance of Arnie Warents who also made regular contributions to the E.T.T.A. magazine, Table Tennis News.

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The County team was strengthened by the fact that Durham's Alan Ransome started to play for Westonians and became qualified to represent Northumberland and with him in the team along with Brian Burn and Stuart Lennie, Maureen Heppell and Eileen Chape they finished as runners up in the County Championships Division Two North, losing only to Lancashire.

The Junior side struggled in their division, winning only one match, drawing one and losing three.

The Northumberland League side of Burn, Lennie and Ransome beat Whitehaven 9 - 0, had a walk over against Doncaster, and beat Huddersfield 6 - 3 before losing out 2 - 7 to Manchester.

The Rose Bowl side of Doreen Ward, Eileen Chape and Francis Kauffman had a walk over against Hexham beat Grimsby 6 - 3 but lost to Lowestoft 2 - 8. Both of the League's junior teams went out in the first round. The boys lost to Hull in the Carter Cup and the girls went out to Liverpool in what was the first time that a girls team had been entered in the Bromfield Trophy.

Brian Burn, Stuart Lennie and Arnie Warents went to Greece under the captaincy of Harry Dignan to represent the British Y.M.C.A. in the International Y.M.C.A. championships where they won all of the titles.

A Northern Premier League was formed with teams representing Northumberland, North East Summer League, Hexham, Carlisle, Whitehaven and South Shields.

The Northumberland team finished as runners up, losing only to the North East Summer league but no record was kept of who actually played for the Northumberland side but it was made up of mainly second string players.

The students at Newcastle University again organised the Tyneside Closed Tournament which was well supported by Northumberland's county players.

Stuart Lennie won the Mens Singles, Phil Clark the Womens Singles, Brian Burn and Lennie the Mens Doubles and Lennie and Eileeen Chape took the Mixed Doubles. The Consolation Singles was won by Frank Mitchinson.

A Newcastle Sports Council was formed and Northumberland Table Tennis Association were represented on it.

The organisation of the Inter Town League was taken on by Bill Hodgkins with Hebburn, North Shields, Wallsend, South Shields, Newcastle, Hexham, Gateshead and Prudhoe all taking part. There was an improvement on the previous season but several matches were again not played. Newcastle were the winners in what turned out to be the last year in which it was played.

Dave Robson again organised the Northumberland Youth league in which there were three divisions of six teams. The winners of the three divisions were Morpeth

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Chantry, Longbenton 'A' and Walbottle Campus. A play off was then held which was won by Longbenton'A'.

Maureen Heppell and Brian Burn brought more honour to the County when they were involved both nationally and internationally.

Maureen finished top in the England Junior Trials but must have been disappointed to find herself at junior number two at the start of the season but by February she had won six senior womens titles. She did rise to number one junior and also to number three in the senior womens list. She was in the England team that played Czechoslovakia and in the team that beat the Netherlands 7 - 2. She also featured in the England Junior team that beat West Germany 6 - 4. She represented England in the Czech and East German Open Tournaments as well as the West German Invitation event where she got to the semi finals of both the Girls Singles and Doubles.

At the English Junior Open she reached the semi finals of the Girls singles before losing to the German player, M.Rester. She also represented England at the European Youth Meeting where she reached the final of the Girls Doubles with Karenza Mathews and also the quarter finals of the Girls Singles.

At Senior level she was selected to play for England in the World Championships in Stockholm but must have been disappointed when after playing in the first two matches against Luxemburg and Bulgaria and winning both her sets in straight games she was never called upon again.

Brian was also selected to represent England in the Netherlands Open where he reached the quarter finals of the Men’s Doubles, the West German Invitation where he won the Boys Singles and the European Junior in which he reached the semi finals of the Boys Doubles partnered by Yorkshire's Alan Hydes. Those two paired up again to get to the semi finals of the English Closed.

On the tournament scene Maureen won the Womens titles at the North of England, Cumberland, Merseyside, Lancashire, Midland and Northumberland as well as being runner up at the Hull and East Riding. She was also winner of the Doubles at the Cumberland, Hull and East Riding and Middlesex and the winner of the Mixed Doubles at the Cumberland, Hull and East Riding, Merseyside, Lancashire and Northumberland. She claimed eight Junior Girls Singles titles - the East of England, North of England, North Middlesex, Cumberland, Hull and East Riding, Merseyside, Lancashire and Midland, just losing out in the final at the Middlesex.

Brian Won the Senior Mens Singles at the Pontefract Open and reached the final at the South Yorkshire, and the semi finals at the Scottish and the North of England, where he also reached the final of the Youths Singles. He did particularly well in doubles winning the Men’s at the Lancashire,, South Yorkshire, Yorkshire, North East England and Northumberland. He also got to the final on five occasions - the Hull and East Riding, Merseyside, Pontefract, Scottish and Stevenage as well as the semi finals at the North of England. Wins were achieved in the Mens Mixed Doubles at the North Middlesex and the Cumberland.

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Several other Northumberland players did well in Open Tournaments with Stuart Lennie partnering Brian to success in the doubles events at the Cumberland and the Yorkshire, the pair also reaching the doubles final at the Pontefract and Stevenage. He also reached the semi finals of the Mens Doubles at the South Yorkshire and the final at the Northumberland. At the Pontefract Open he reached the final of the Mens Singles where he was beaten by Brian.

Alan Ransome lost in the semi finals of the Mens Doubles at the South Yorkshire and in the semis of the Mens Singles at the Northumberland.

E.Samson reached the final of the Girls Singles at the Pontefract, and Theresa Heppell reached the semi finals of the Girls Doubles with Nancy Ferguson at the Yorkshire Junior.

Valerie Baker got to the semi finals of the Womens Singles at Pontefract where she also lost in the final of the Womens Doubles. She also reached the semi finals of the Womens Doubles at the North East of England. In Girls Singles she reached the final at both the Hull and at the Northumberland.

Young Malcolm McMaster was runner up in the Boys Singles at the Northumberland.

The two veterans, Harry Dignan and Len Heppell also had a measure of success. Harry won the Veterans Singles at the Hull and East Riding and at the Lancashire, beating Len in the final on both occasions, while Len was also Veterans Singles runner up at the Merseyside and at the Midland.

The Closed Tournament was held once more at the M.O.S.S. (previously called M.P.N.I.) Canteen in Longbenton and seven players from North Shields YMCA were title winners.

Stuart Lennie won the Mens Singles, Joe McLeod the Mens Doubles with Peter Whiteman of Revac, Nancy Ferguson partnered Maureen Heppell (Westonians) to success in the Womens Doubles, Eileen Chape won the Mixed Doubles with Stuart Lennie, the Womens Handicap was won by Vicky Breeze, Charlie Grassie came out on top in the Junior Boys Singles and Brian Burn retained the Youths Singles title. As expected Maureen Heppell was the victor in the Womens Singles and her father (also Westonians) was successful in the Veterans Singles, wresting the title from Harry Dignan who had held it for the previous five years. The Mens Handicap Singles winner was Ron Kettlewell of M.O.S.S., and Valerie Baker of South Shields Corporation won the Girls Singles.

The Northumberland Open was also staged at the M.O.S.S. venue when Lancashire's Kevin Forshaw retained the Mens Singles title and the Yorkshire pairing of Lesley Proudlock and Cynthia Duncome were again successful in the Womens Doubles. There was success for local players Maureen Heppell and Brian Burn with Maureen taking the Womens Singles whilst both of them were partnered by Yorkshire's Alan Hydes to win the Mixed Doubles and the Mens Doubles events. The Junior Boys Singles was won by Brian Mitchell of Lancashire and Miss L.Forbes of Yorkshire came out on top in the Junior Girls. The Veterans Singles was won by another Yorkshire player, Steve Nunn.

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Problems still abounded in the administration of the Northumberland League with the Newcastle University causing many of them and having many complaints made against them. They eventually received a warning that they had to improve if they were to be allowed to stay in the league.

Unfortunately there had also been no improvement in the completion of scorecards.

The Executive Committee were certain that steps needed to be taken if the league was to be satisfactorily run in the future as they were of the opinion that it was becoming too large to handle and that there did not seem to be any 'new blood' around. To that end they formed a Decentralisation Sub Committee to look at the way forward. This sub committee had a few lengthy meetings and were not really sure about how things could be improved.

At the end of the day they came up with the a proposal that for one year only entries would be restricted to the number of teams needed to fill eleven divisions, that trials would be held using computer methods with a view to improving the administration and that they would await the outcome of the formation of the new Newcastle League which held an inaugural meeting on 18th April 1967. Little did they know at the time that the number of teams entered in the league had reached its peak.

The E.T.T.A. Master Points Scheme was brought into operation whereby players could collect points based on their league results to become progressively club, league. county. tournament. national masters. After amounting their first 250 points (200 for women) they would get a certificate from the administrator bearing the E.T.T.A. crest showing that they were an official club master and a permanent record card for subsequent points and possible higher classification if they continued to collect them.

Honours in the League were well spread with only North YMCA winning more than one title being for the fifth year running the first division and the Knock Out Cup. Tyne Dock Y.C. and South Shields Corporation won the two second divisions, the former on their first year back in the league. The third divisions went to Saint Lawrence, Byker Community Centre and Tynemouth NALGO and the winners of the fifth divisions were West Allotment B.C. 'B', North Shields Boys Club 'B', South Shields YMCA and Marine Park 'C'. Longbenton Youth Club and Willington Quay 'B' were the winners of the two fifth divisions.

The new J.R.Waugh trophy for work done for the Association was presented to the secretary Dave Robson.

The high cost of the handbook and of administration meant that there was a financial deficit for the year of approximately £89.

A new Tyneside Section of the North East Summer League came about in the summer of 1967 for the third and fourth divisions with Llew Baker of South Shields Corporation as the organiser. North Shields Boys Club 'A' and 'B' teams were the winners of these.

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1967-1968

When entries were received for the Northumberland League 1967/68 season only two had to be refused to adopt the suggestion by the decentralisation committee that ten divisions was to be the maximum. This was a big drop from the previous year and as the season progressed several actually resigned and the season ended with only 129 teams.

Teams continued to be composed of four players and the system of play continued to be the same as in the previous few years.

Ron Patterson had resigned as Handbook Secretary and his place was taken by Tony Dott and Bill Dixon took over as Northumberland League secretary in place of Michael Lynch. D.Barron had resigned as Master Points Secretary and this position was left vacant.

Dave Robson was elected as National Councillor and he was actually on the E.T.T.A. Tournaments Committee.

Three new Vice Presidents were elected being Mrs. E. Robson of Whitley Bay, Mrs Madge Waugh of Whitley Bay and D.W.Scarth of Tynemouth.

There were changes to the Executive Committee with K.Griffin, Mrs E Robson, B.Reid and Bill Hodgkins being replaced by Ram Bhalla, Arthur Chilvers, J.Wray and Michael Lynch. The latter, however, resigned in the September and Mrs Audrey Buck was co - opted in his place. The qualified umpires remained as the previous year with many more still needed.

In an attempt to lessen the load on the Executive Committee it was decided to share the load between a County Management Sub Committee and a League Management Sub Committee.

The County Management Committee was made up of Arthur Chilvers, Llew Baker, Alan Ransome (North Premier League), Len Heppell (Hexham League), D.J. McLeary (Berwick League), Ram Bhalla, J.Richardson, Miss E Smith, Dave Robson, Alan Morpeth and Bill McMaster (Newcastle League).

The League Management Committee consisted of Bill Dixon, Syd Holt, Stan Denton, Terry Wilkinson, Miss E Smith, W.Kidd, J.Wray, Arthur Chilvers, Mrs Audrey Buck, Miss Pauline Jackson, A.Nichol and R.Power.

As a result of the financial deficit in the previous year a proposition to increase the entry fees into the Northumberland league from £ 1.10.00 ( £1.50) to £2 was agreed at the Annual General Meeting.

The newly formed Newcastle League joined the Berwick League and the Hexham League in being affiliated to the County as did the Northern Premier League.

Coaching sessions at Bradford for the top players again took place and the Association again encouraged their leading players to attend.

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Harry Dignan as Coaching Officer had a very busy time with many and varied events taking place.

The National Coach for the Area, Peter Simpson attended a coaching rally at Valley Gardens, Whitley Bay and a similar rally was held under the auspices of the Newcastle Education Department. two sessions of coaching for school teachers from Newcastle were also arranged. Encouragement on the coaching scene was received from the Northumberland Education Authority as well as from Peter Simpson.

Junior Trials were held and Charlie Grassie, Barry Thomas, P.Jackson, F.Wood, Nancy Ferguson and Theresa Heppell were all nominated for the Northern Area Trials at Bradford.

Apart from working out special footwork exercises for Maureen, Len Heppell was now coaching some of Newcastle United's footballers in speeding up their movements.

The Northumberland Youth league once again came under the umbrella of Dave Robson and was again most successful. There were two divisions of five teams each and one of six teams. The divisional winners were Bedlington Westridge, Walbottle Campus 'B' and Whitley Bay Campus. Play offs were held at Whitley Bay Grammar School and Walbottle Campus 'B' were the eventual winners.

The highlight of the season and what Dave Robson described as his 'Swan Song' was the staging of an international match against Czechoslovakia at the Lightfoot Stadium, the first ever international to be held in Northumberland. A great deal of work had to be done to stage this match with Messrs Lawson, Holt and Warents looking after the provision of programmes and tickets, Dave Robson and Miss Atkinson reception and hospitality, ticket sales by Lawson, Dignan and Mrs Waugh, press and publicity by Warents ,and equipment and hall arrangements also by Dave Robson himself.

Wrights Biscuits of South Shields and W.D. and H.O. Wills both provided souvenir gifts for the teams and officials and a preview of the match was aired by television on the evening before the match.

England were represented by their number one ranked man Denis Neale of Yorkshire, their number ten Alan Hydes, also of Yorkshire, Karenza Smith the number two woman from Middlesex and Maureen Heppell who at that stage was the number four woman. The Czech side was an extremely strong one of Jaroslav Stanek, Vlado Miko, Marta Luzova and Jitka Karlikova who won the match 8 - 1 and then went on to easily win three other matches against England in different parts of the country. Englands sole success was when Smith defeated Luzova 21- 15, 21 -17 although Maureen Heppell only narrowly lost her match against Karlikova, going down 21 -19. 10 -21, 20 -22. The umpires were National Umpire G.Darley, County Umpires R.Richardson and C.Warley, all of whom were from the Yorkshire Table Tennis Association.

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The Lord Mayor of Newcastle, Alderman Roy Hadwin and the Lady Mayoress were the main guests along with Tom Harrison, the E.T.T.A. President and Vaclav Vebr, the Deputy President of the European Table Tennis Union.

Dave Robson did a good job in arranging this match but unfortunately it was less of a success than had been hoped for. The attendance was 503 but there was poor support form the association's own members, the hall was not really suitable and was extremely cold.

The newly formed Newcastle League got under way with two divisions. Eight teams, M.O.S.S. Benton, Newcastle Y.M.C.A., Saint Lawrence, Longbenton Youth Club, Montagu and North Fenham Boys Club, Tyne Lead, Saint Anthony's Old Boys and Kenton Civil Service made up the first division. M.O.S.S. Benton 'B', Callers, Transco, Vickers Apprentices, Antonian Youth Club, Newcastle NALGO, Saint George's, Rutherford College, Postal Clerks and Longbenton Youth Club 'B' were in a second division of ten teams, although Saint Lawrence 'B' took over from Transco half way through the season.

The Newcastle University students once again staged the Tyneside and District Open tournament which was refereed by Syd Holt. Arthur Chilvers was the winner of the Men’s Singles and Phil Clark triumphed in the Women’s Singles. The Men’s Doubles was won by the combination of Peter Whiteman and Ran Bhalla with Peter also winning the Mixed Doubles partnered by Phil.

The feeling of the meeting at the Annual General Meeting had been that we needed better coverage of local affairs in our own magazine, 'Sandwich', better circulation of it and better coverage in the Evening Chronicle. Arnie Warents had outlined the difficulties in obtaining better coverage in the Chronicle which were mainly caused by the late score cards and poor completion of them meaning that league tables could not be regularly produced or up to date. He did however continue to do his best and was also still getting regular articles in the E.T.T.A. magazine Table Tennis News.

At one stage he reported to the Executive Committee a letter that he had received for publication in 'Sandwich' being very critical of the committee and the association in general (which eventually was disclosed as coming from Brian Burn) and asked for advice on whether to publish it or not.

Unfortunately it appears that Arnie sometimes got over enthusiastic at matches and became very boisterous and, in the opinion of some, was out of order. A complaint along these lines by Woodlands Park about his behaviour at a match that he was not actually playing in was made to the Executive Committee and those with a vested interest left the room. After discussion it was decided to reprimand him for his ungentlemanly conduct, warn him of his future conduct, and demand that he apologise over the table to Bill Dixon of Woodlands Park when the latter returned to the room. When all members of the committee returned the Chairman informed him of the decision and he, although not happy about the decision, apologised to Bill. He then said that he wished to resign as Publicity Secretary because he was dissatisfied with the decision and also that because of domestic difficulties he was unable to fulfil the duties properly. He agreed to carry on as editor of the 'Sandwich' magazine.

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He was thanked for his past efforts and Alan Morpeth then agreed to combine the publicity duties with his own until someone new could be found.

The County Senior team had its best ever season in the County Championships being unbeaten in Division Two North. After playing a draw with Lancashire in their first match they went on to win all of the other five to finish as runners up. They narrowly lost out in the play offs for a place in the Premier Division when they beat Warwickshire and Worcestershire but lost to Kent, finishing second on sets average. Brian Burn, Arthur Chilvers, Maureen Heppell had been the mainstays of the team with Alan Ransome, Peter Hoyles, Ram Balla Bhalla, Stuart Lennie ( only played one, being now based in Glasgow), Francis Kauffman, Doreen Ward, Valerie Baker, Eileen Chape and Nancy Ferguson were all involved in getting the team to the play offs.

The team selected for the play offs was Brian Burn, Arthur Chilvers, Stuart Lennie and Maureen Heppell. Unfortunately Maureen was unavailable, being on international duty in France, and her place was taken by Phil Clark

The Junior team had a poor time only winning one match, playing a draw in one and losing on three occasions.

Quick exits were made from the Rose Bowl, Carter Cup and Bromfield Trophy competitions, all of the teams losing in the first rounds to Spalding, Middlesbrough and Birmingham respectively.

However the men did well in the Wilmott Cup with victories over Carlisle, Leeds, Huddersfield, Burnley, and Hull to reach the semi finals before losing out 7 - 2 to the Birmingham League. Those involved were Ransome, Hoyles, Bhalla, Lennie, Peter Whiteman and Burn.

The team that played in the Northern Premier League also did well beating Hexham, Newcastle, South Shields, Carlisle and West Hartlepool but losing out to both Middlesbrough 'A' and 'B' teams.

Sixteen members and officials along with one or two guests where special hospitality arrangements had been offered made the trip to Bergen for the North Sea Cup competition. This turned out to be one of the most successful and enjoyable visits and the North Sea Cup was won but when they got home it could not be found. It eventually transpired that they had left it behind in Bergen and it was duly sent across to Alan Morpeth.

On the international front Maureen Heppell, now a senior, reached number three in the England Women’s rankings and was included in the England squad for the season. She was selected to play for England against Czechoslovakia in a match at Oxford as well as the one in Newcastle, played in the Quadrangular tournament against Scotland, Ireland, and Wales. She also was selected for the European Team Championships in Lyons where she won two and lost two in the team events.

Away from table tennis she announced her engagement to Brian 'Pop' Robson, the Newcastle United footballer who was also not a bad table tennis player.

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At the English Closed tournament Maureen unfortunately was ill and had to withdraw but Brian Burn, partnered by Yorkshire's Alan Hydes got through to the semi finals of the Mens Doubles. He also got to the semi finals of the Consolation Singles at the English Open tournament.

On the Open Tournament scene’ away from Northumberland, Maureen won the Womens Singles at the North of England, the Cumberland, the Yorkshire and the Teesside as well as reaching the final at the East of England, Merseyside and Middlesex. At the Cumberland she also won the Womens Doubles and the Mixed Doubles and she was also successful in the Mixed at the East of England as well as reaching the final of the Womens Doubles at the Merseyside and the Mixed at the Yorkshire. For good measure she also won the Womens Under 20 event at the Kent Open.

Brian won three Mens Singles titles, coming out on top at the Hull and East Riding, the Pontefract and the Teesside. Like Maureen he won the Under 20 event at the Kent Open and he also won the Mixed Doubles at both the Pontefract and the Teesside. With Alan Hydes as his partner he won the Mens Doubles at the Middlesex and the Lancashire and got to the final at the Sussex and at the Yorkshire. He won the same event at the Pontefract with Tony Boasman of Lancashire and the Teesside with Harry Dignan. Peter Hoyles won the Doubles at the Teesside with Arthur Chilvers and also reached the semis of the Doubles at the Pontefract.

Arnie Warents got to the final of the Mixed Doubles at Pontefract, Harry Dignan won the Veterans at the Teesside, beating Len Heppell in the final who also got to the final at the Merseyside.

Several Northumberland players reached semi finals with Phil Clark at the Teesside (losing to Maureen in the Womens Singles), Valerie Baker in the Womens Doubles at the Hull and East Riding and Nancy Ferguson in the Girls Singles at the Cumberland. Alan Ransome was beaten by Burn in the semi final of the Mens Singles at Pontefract and young Ian Robertson lost in the semi final of the Boys Singles at the Cumberland.

The Northumberland Open Mens Singles was won by the top English player Denis Neale of Yorkshire, Brian Burn, again with Alan Hydes as his partner won the Men’s Doubles, Hydes also partnering Maureen Heppell to victory in the Mixed Doubles. Maureen completed a hat trick by taking the Womens Doubles with Pat Dainty of Yorkshire and winning the Womens Singles. Harry Dignan won the Veterans Singles and the Junior Boys events went to N.D.Marshall (Yorkshire) and Miss L.Forbes of Yorkshire won the Junior Girls Singles for the second year running. All of the England squad players had been invited to enter free of charge but only Neale, Hydes and Heppell entered. The organisation ran smoothly and once again W D and H O Wills provided prizes for the main events.

As with the Open the Northumberland Closed was again staged at the M.O.S.S. Canteen but this year the entry was rather less than in previous years. As expected the main events, Men’s Singles and Women’s Singles, were won by Brian Burn (N.Shields YMCA) and Maureen Heppell (Westonians) with Nancy Ferguson

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(N.Shields YMCA) and Maureen retaining the Womens Doubles title that they achieved in the previous year. Newcomers Barry and Gordon Thomas of Reyrolles triumphed in the Men’s Doubles with Arthur Chilvers ( M.O.S.S. Benton) and Valerie Baker (S.Shields Corporation) landing the Mixed Doubles title. North Shields YMCA's Harry Dignan regained the Veterans crown, Frank Wood of Hexham won the Boys Singles, Nancy Ferguson triumphed in the Girls Singles and Brian Burn was the winner of the Youths Singles for the third year running. The Mens Handicap Singles went to Peter Whiteman (Revac) and the Womens Handicap Singles title was won by Pauline Jackson of M.O.S.S., Benton.

Revac had a very strong First Division squad in Pat Tindale, Ram Bhalla, Peter Whiteman backed up by Jim Jackson and Norman Wilkinson and they duly won that division. Their 'B' team were the winners of Division 2b with Saint Lawrence taking Division 2a.

The third divisions were won by M.O.S.S. Benton 'C', Reyrolles 'D' and Hayhole Works. The fourth division winners were Gosforth Civil Servants, Vickers Apprentices, Whitley Bay YMCA and Revac 'D' team.

The final of the Handicap Cup saw Revac defeat North Shields YMCA 5 - 4.

It had been a very difficult season in the administration of the league a great deal of arguments and dissention amongst the members of committees which actually led to the Secretary having to issue a statement concerning the leakage of committee meeting information before it was made public.

He reminded everyone that it was not until all members of a committee had been advised of the information by the circulation of the minutes that it remained private. No discussion with those outside of the committee about matters discussed in meetings should, unless sanctioned by the chairman, take place before the receipt of the minutes and that any confidential matters should be identified at the meeting and circulated separately to members of the relevant committee.

He also reminded members of committees that anyone not abiding by those guidelines would be considered guilty of misconduct.

With regard to the running of the league the problems encountered in previous seasons persisted and were even worse with late and/ or poorly completed score cards, many postponements and failure to notify the records secretary of re-arrangements.

Because of pressure of work with other matters the Records Secretary was unable to deal with the Master Points Scheme and he suggested that it be dropped unless it was found that the computer scheme previously suggested was able to give satisfactory results.

The Executive Committee proposed that in future changes be made to the Officers in that the post of General Secretary should become that of County Secretary and that the post of Records Secretary be taken over by a League Secretary and his committee.

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Resignations were received before the end of the season by the General Secretary Dave Robson, the Treasurer, Roly Ormond, and Messrs Wray, Chilvers and Kidd from the Executive Committee with Mr Kidd being deemed to have resigned under rule 7 (f) concerning non attendance at meetings. In addition Arnie Warents had previously resigned as Publicity Secretary.

Record was made of the excellent work that Dave Robson had done during his spell as general Secretary.

The J.R.Waugh Award was made to the retiring Treasurer, Roly Ormond.

Financially the year showed a small deficit of approximately £29, leaving funds standing at £184.

1968-1969

The proposed changes to the Officers were approved at the following Annual General Meeting when Alan Morpeth was appointed to the post of County Secretary and Syd Holt became the League Secretary. Bill Dixon was appointed as Treasurer and Brian Burn appointed as Publicity Secretary. The vacancies on the Executive Council were filled by R Power, Pauline Jackson, Mrs Audrey Buck and A.Nichol.

Pauline Jackson was to be involved with the affairs of the Association until the end of the 1989/90 season and again from 1995/96 to 2010/11, most of the time as Publicity Secretary.

The County Management Committee was reduced by two with Arthur Chilvers and Dave Robson no longer involved while Miss E Smith, W.Kidd, J.Wray and Arthur Chilvers were no longer on the League Management Committee. Dave Robson continued as National Councillor and was again appointed by the E.T.T.A. to the Tournaments Committee and to the County Boundaries Committee.

The number of clubs in the Northumbria League was up slightly but the number of teams reduced by another three to 133. The number of divisions was unaltered. Saint Charles, later to be known as Saints, were one of the new teams and they are still in membership to this day.

A change to the regulations meant that in order for a player to be transferred from one club to another written application was needed with the agreement of both clubs involved and a fee of five shillings (twenty five pence) needed to be paid. No transfers were allowed after 1st January.

The Northumberland Youth Association League was again run under the control of Dave Robson with sixteen teams taking part in three divisions. The winners of the divisions were Bedlington Westridge, Walbottle Campus 'A' and Whitley Bay Campus with the Walbottle team winning the pay offs.

Coaching was again very prominent with many active groups in the area. Northumberland County and Newcastle City Education Committees were both contacted and it was hoped that coaching in schools would become effective from the

Page 92 of 145 following season. Regular Thursday night sessions were arranged at the Lightfoot Stadium.

Harry Dignan qualified as a Diploma 2 Star Coach and was appointed by the E.T.T.A. as an official assessor.

Junior Trials were held at North Shields YMCA to enable selection for the Northern Area Junior Trials at Stockton with Ian Robertson, Chris Shepherd, Frank Wood, Dave Armstrong, J Murray, Bob Appleby along with Joan Newham and Maria Sheals being recommended. Only Ian Robertson and Dave Armstrong impressed on the day.

At a later date Robertson and Shepherd were invited to attend the Northern Counties Top Junior Practice at Leeds.

The County side were strengthened by the inclusion of the Duncomes, Peter and Cynthia who had moved to Newcastle, and for the second year running won Division 2 North of the County Championships. The full squad was Brian Burn, Stuart Lennie, Alan Ransome, Arthur Chilvers, Ram Bhalla, Peter Duncome, Maureen Heppell and Cynthia Duncombe. This time they defeated Hampshire and Staffordshire in the play offs to gain promotion to the Premier Division.

Unfortunately the men were beaten in the second round of the Wilmott Cup by Huddersfield after accounting for Whitehaven in the first.

The Womens squad of Maureen Heppell, Cynthia Duncombe, Pauline Jackson and Phil Clark beat North Yorkshire, Lowestoft and Birmingham to reach the final of the Rose Bowl but lost out to Central London.

The Juniors won three matches in the Junior North Division but lost two to finish third and the boys were beaten by Middlesbrough in the first round of the Carter Cup.

A team was not entered in the Bromfield Trophy as it was felt that there were no girls of sufficiently high enough standard.

The top three county players, Brian Burn, Stuart Lennie and Alan Ransome along with Harry Dignan and Alan Morpeth were invited to go to Bergen by the Bergen Association who paid their fares and provided hospitality. It turned out to be a very enjoyable and successful visit with the North Sea Cup being won against a side that were all Norwegian internationals and Lennie won the Individual K.O. competition.

A team of players who were just below county standard played in the Northern Premier League and only lost out to a Middlesbrough team.

Whilst Arnie Warents continued to be editor of the 'Sandwich' magazine an editorial committee was elected with a request that the magazine should contain more local news and also have more publicity for the lower divisions of the Northumberland League. The committee consisted of Arnie as editor along with Pauline Jackson, Leo Gowan and Brian Burn. All seemed to work well and the magazine continued throughout the season.

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The new Publicity Secretary suggested that having copy in the Journal would be a better bet than in the Chronicle. He thought that there would be more space available and he was told to go ahead as the Chronicle was not considered to be satisfactory. He did so and a satisfactory working arrangement was agreed which resulted in good coverage with regular reports being printed.

Regular reports also appeared in the E.T.T.A. magazine Table Tennis News with the contributor merely being named as 'Geordie'. There is no record of who that was.

Newcastle University once again organised their Tyneside Closed Tournament which attracted approximately eighty entries with the Men’s Singles being won by Arnie Warents and the Womens by Joyce Turnbull who also won the Mixed Doubles with Ram Bhalla. Arthur Chilvers and Peter Hoyles were successful in the Mens Doubles. The consolation singles were won by Roland Earl and S.Maskerry.

Maureen Heppell started the season as England number three but fell away to number seven as the season progressed. She did play for England against the Netherlands at both Crystal Palace and Wellingborough. In Open tournaments she won the Womens Singles at the Cumberland, the Lancashire and the Midland Counties as well as being a finalist in the Middlesex, Merseyside, Kent, South Lanarkshire and Buckinghamshire. In Doubles she won the Womens at the Cumberland with Doreen Schofield of Cheshire and at the Midland Counties with the Hungarian player, M.Nemeth. In the Mixed she was successful at the Middlesex with Alan Hydes of Yorkshire, at the Cumberland with Brian Burn, at the Middlesex with local player L.Haslam and at the North of England again with Alan Hydes.

Brian Burn won the Mens Consolations Singles at the English Closed and on the tournament scene reached the final of the Men’s Singles at the Cumberland where he also reached the final of the Men’s Doubles with Peter Hirst of Yorkshire. Playing with Alan Hydes he also got to the Men’s Doubles finals at the Birmingham and the Lancashire.

A newcomer on the tournament scene was Ian Robertson who was also known by his nickname 'Bennie'. Four Junior Boys titles were his, winning at the Hull and East Riding, the Cumberland. the Birmingham and the Cambridge. He was also a finalist at the Teeside Junior. Boys Doubles, playing with Paul Freeman of Durham, were won at the Lancashire and at the Midland Counties and they reached the final of the Yorkshire Junior. He also played in the Mixed Doubles final at the Scottish Open with Susan Howard of Surrey and in the Junior Mixed Doubles final at the Teeside Junior with Susan Lisle of Lancashire. At the Scottish he also won the Mens Doubles with Laurie Landry of Middlesex.

His performances saw him rapidly rise to number four in the England Junior rankings and selection for England Juniors. Against Germany he played in one singles match which he won and also in the mixed doubles which was also won although Germany won the match 5 - 3. He won one and lost one against Scotland as England won the match 9 - 1. In the England Junior Open he played for England Thirds and won one and lost one in a 2 - 3 defeat at the hands of Sweden.

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Stuart Lennie was ranked at number two in Scotland.

Alan Ransome was a runner up in the Men’s Doubles at the Hull and East Riding partnered by Nicky Jarvis of Yorkshire and Len Heppell reached the final of the Veterans at the Birmingham.

The Northumberland Open was again most successfully staged at the now named D.H.S.S. Canteen in Longbenton when the E.T.T.A. paid half of the entry fees for any member of the England squad who wished to enter. The offer was taken up by Trevor Taylor, Maureen Heppell and Linda Radford. Southern players Henry Buist and Laurie Landry also entered.

The organisation of the tournament again went very smoothly and W D and H O Wills once again kindly gave prizes for the winners of the Men’s Singles and the Women’s Singles. Tony Clayton of Yorkshire triumphed in the Men’s Singles and Maureen Heppell won the Women’s Singles for the third year running. Brian Burn partnered Trevor Taylor of Hertfordshire and won the Mens Doubles whilst an all Northumberland pair in Maureen Heppell and Cynthia Duncombe took the Womens Doubles title. Maureen completed a hat trick of victories by winning the Mixed Doubles with Stuart Lennie. Ian Robertson won the Junior Boys Singles with Yorkshire's Linda Bashford taking the Junior Girls.

The Closed was also again staged at the same venue and Men’s Singles winner was Stuart Lennie of North Shields YMCA, being the third time in six years that he was successful. For the fourth time in succession and the fifth in six years the Womens Singles was won by Maureen Heppell of Hexham Fandango who was also a winner in the Women’s Doubles for the fourth year running, this time partnered by Cynthia Duncombe of Newcastle YMCA. The North Shields YMCA partnership of Brian Burn and Stuart Lennie won the Mens Doubles with Peter Hoyles ( Newcastle YMCA) and Cynthia Duncombe tasting success in the Mixed Doubles. The Veterans winner was Roland Earl of M.O.S.S., Benton and at the other end of the age scale Ian Robertson (N.Shields YMCA) was the winner of the Junior Boys and Joan Newham of South Shields Corporation won the Junior Girls Singles. Maureen Heppell was also successful in the Youths Singles, winning that title for the first time.

The submission of score cards to the League Secretary continued to be open to improvement in the Northumberland League and postponements continued to be a headache Nine teams resigning during the season also produced problems but overall the admin improved. Production of league tables, records and master points by computer also made things easier thanks to the efforts of Terry Wilkinson and it was decided to continue with the master points scheme.

Newcastle YMCA triumphed in the first division but were disqualified for some reason in the semi final of the K.O. Cup which was won by Revac.

Blyth YMCA won Division 2A with Harrogate House being the winners of 2b.

The Third Division titles went to Electrics 'B', South Shields YMCA and B.B.C. House B.C.

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Fourth division winners were North Shields YMCA 'D', Harrogate House 'C', Woodlands Park 'B' and M.O.S.S. Benton 'F'.

The Ladies K.O. Cup was won by M.O.S.S. 'A' team.

There was no great change in the financial position with a small deficit on the year of £21 meaning that the funds to carry forward were £163.

1969-1970

1969/70 season saw a reduction in the number of clubs in the Northumberland League with three less than in the previous season and the number of teams dropped to 125. This resulted in the loss of one of the fourth divisions. Other affiliated leagues remained unchanged in Berwick, Northern Premier, Newcastle and Hexham.

Brian Burn had resigned as Publicity Secretary and was replaced by Joe McLeod while R.Power and A.Nichol took over from Tony Dott as Handbook Secretary on a joint basis. Terry Wilkinson was appointed as Master Points Secretary. The County Management Committee, the League Management Committee and the qualified umpires were all unchanged.

Dave Robson carried on as National Councillor and was again appointed to the Tournaments Committee and the Boundaries Committee by the E.T.T.A.

With regard to the 'Sandwich' magazine Brian Burn resigned from the committee and was replaced by Brian Pierce.

There were a number of changes to the rules and regulations which were mainly financial. The entry fee to the Northumberland League was increased from £2 to £2.10.00 ( £2.50), the fee when a team changed the night for home matches after the start of the season was increased from five shillings to ten shillings (25p to 50p, the entry fee for the knock out competition was increased for one shilling and sixpence to five shillings per team ( 7.5p to 25p) and a new fine of five shillings (25p) per occasion brought in where a player played more than once in the same week except where it was necessary because of a re- arranged match.

Dave Robson once again organised the Northumberland Youth league in a most satisfactory manner with twenty four teams playing in four divisions. The four divisional winners were Hartford Youth Centre, Walbottle Campus 'A', Whitley Bay Campus and Blyth Y.M.C.A. The semi finals saw Whitley Bay Campus beat Hartford 7 - 1 and Walbottle Campus 'A' beat Blyth Y.M.C.A. 7 -1 and Walbottle went on to win the championship with an 8 - 0 victory over Whitley Bay.

Harry Dignan was appointed as Chairman of the National Coaching and Schools Committee ( Northern Panel) and he was once again responsible for a great deal of what took place locally.

Regular coaching took place at Whitley Bay including an experimental class for under thirteens and at Wallsend Sports Centre which was nationally recognised as a regional

Page 96 of 145 coaching centre. Student Coach sessions were held at Chantry School, Morpeth which went well and a number of county players qualified as Diploma One Star coaches.

Tests were held at Whitley Bay for Bronze and Silver Proficiency Awards which resulted in 22 Bronze Awards being presented of which six also achieved the Silver Award.

Publicity, now under Joe McLeod who was also co-opted onto the 'Sandwich magazine committee was very disappointing with little coverage now being given in either the Chronicle or the Journal despite copy being sent in by both Joe McLeod and Arnie Warents, and no articles appeared in the E.T.T.A. magazine.

Two Senior County teams were entered in the County Championships now that the first team were in the Premier Division and it was agreed to pay a daily team allowance of ten shillings (50p) each in addition to travel and bed and breakfast expenses.

The first team represented by Brian Burn, Stuart Lennie, Peter Duncombe, Alan Ransome, Maureen Heppell. Cynthia Duncome and Phil Clark fared badly in the Premier Division winning only one match to finish second bottom.

However the second team of Ron Kettlewell, Peter Hoyles. Arthur Chilvers and Cynthia Duncombe won Division Two North and with the first team being relegated from the Premier Division they qualified for the promotion play offs. Unfortunately they only won one of the three matches involved and missed out on promotion.

The Juniors won two matches and lost three in the Junior North Division and there was no joy in the Wilmott Cup or the Carter Cup with the Mens League team beating Leeds but then going out to North Yorkshire whilst the Junior Boys lost in the first round to North Yorkshire (Ormesby).

Because of transport difficulties the Junior Girls team was withdrawn from the Bromfield Trophy without playing a match.

It was left to the Ladies League team to carry the flag in the National Competitions with another good performance by defeating North Yorkshire, Chesterfield and Blackpool before losing in the semi finals to Lowestoft. Phil Clark played in three of those matches, Maureen Heppell in two with Florence Kauffman, Pauline Jackson and Nancy Ferguson all being involved in one.

The North Sea Cup was retained when a good party of players from Bergen were entertained on Tyneside and were also entered into and transported to the Yorkshire Open tournament together with some of the Northumberland players.

Maureen Heppell married Brian 'Pop' Robson at Saint Mary's Roman Catholic Church in Hexham with it being a double wedding with her sister Catherine also getting married.Brian's best man was his Newcastle United colleague Frank Clarke and the guests included Alan Ransome, Alan and Joyce Morpeth and several of the Newcastle United players.

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Maureen started the season as England number seven but was out of the rankings by February whilst Brian Burn reached number 6 spot in the men's list. Ian Robertson represented England at the European Junior Championships, playing in the individual events and in the team event.

Maureen had a few good results in Open Tournaments with victories in the Womens Singles at the Merseyside and the Teesside and an appearance in the final at the North Middlesex. Playing with Yorkshire's Linda Bashford she won the Womens Doubles at the Teesside and reached the final of the Merseyside where she also won the Mixed Doubles with Mike Johns of Cheshire. With Shelagh Hession of Essex she won the Womens Doubles at the Midland.

Brian Burn tasted success in the Mens Singles at Swindon as well as winning the Mens Doubles with Surrey's Paul Beck. He was Mens Singles runner at the Yorkshire and a runner up in the Mens Doubles at the Oxfordshire playing with Derek Munt of Warwickshire.

Alan Ransome did well in the English Closed tournament to get to the semi finals of the Mens Doubles playing with Yorkshire's Nicky Jarvis and he won the Mixed Doubles at both the Birmingham and Cumberland tournaments with Linda Bashford of Yorkshire. At the Cumberland he also got to the final of the Mens Singles and won the Mens Doubles with Nicky Jarvis. He had a particularly good tournament at the Teesside where he won the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with Mike Johns and the Mixed Doubles with Linda Bashford.

Peter Hoyles and Peter Duncome were the runners in the Mens Doubles and Ian Robertson partnered by J.Green of Cheshire the runners up in the Mixed, Ian also reaching the final of the Youth's Singles.

Harry Dignan won the Veterans Singles at the Teesside.

Brain Robson caused quite a stir in the Birmingham press when he played in the Midland Open and he also played in the Teesside where he reached the semi finals of the Mens Doubles with V.Doran of Yorkshire.

Young Chris Shepherd did well in the News of the World Coaching scheme where he finished seventh.

Both the Open and the Closed tournaments were again held at the Number 1 canteen in Longbenton thanks to the Department of Health and Security and W.D. and H.O. Wills once again provided prizes for the winners of the Mens and Womens Singles. Once again there were few players from outside the Northern area.

Northumberland tasted success in the Mens Singles when Brian Burn beat Alan Ransome in the final, in the Mens Doubles with Peter Duncombe and Peter Hoyles getting the better of Burn and Ian Robertson, the Womens Doubles where Maureen Robson and Linda Bashford (Yorkshire) beat Nancy Ferguson and Pauline Jackson, and in the Mixed Doubles which was won by Ransome and Bashford. Yorkshire's Susan Lisle won the Womens Singles and also the Girls Singles, the Boys Singles was won by Jimmy Walker of Yorkshire and there was also success for Yorkshire in the

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Veterans Singles when L.Browning defeated Harry Dignan in the final. Peter Hoyles of D.H.S.S.,Benton was the Mens Singles winner at the Closed Tournament and he also won the Mens Doubles partnered by club colleague Peter Duncombe and the Mens Handicap Singles.

Another D.H.S.S.,Benton player Pauline Jackson took the Womens Singles title, the Womens Doubles was won by Phil Clark and Cynthia Duncombe of Hexham Fandango, This was the eleventh time that Phil had been successful in this event. She also partnered Arnie Warents of North Shields YMCA in winning the Mixed Doubles. The Womens Handicap Singles was won by S.Collins of Whitley Bay Campus and Roland Earl of Blyth YMCA retained the Veterans title. The Junior Events winners were Dave Armstrong of Newcastle YMCA in the Junior Boys, Janet Priestley of D.H.S.S. Benton in the Junior Girls and Ian Robertson (N.Shields YMCA) in the Youths Singles. The Northumberland League ran more smoothly than in the past and there was far less troublesome but postponed matches, especially in Division One, were still a major problem

A strong D.H.S.S., Benton side won the first division.

The two second divisions were won by Anglo Plas and St.Anthony's Old Boys.

West Allotment, Vickers Apprentices 'A' and Maccabi topped the third divisions.

The three fourth division titles were won by Tynemouth NALGO, Vickers Apprentices 'B' and B.B.C. House Boys Club 'B'

The K.O. Cup winners were North Shields YMCA and the Ladies K.O. was won by D.H.S.S., Benton.

With the County Senior side being in the Premier Division of the County Championships expenditure on the County sides shot up from £107 to £257 and despite the increase in fees a deficit of £31 was incurred leaving cash to carry forward at £132.

At this time the average wage was approximately £32 a week and the price of table tennis items saw mens shirts costing thirty one shillings and sixpence (£1.55), Ladies shirts slightly cheaper at thirty one shillings with a pair of shorts costing two pounds twelve shillings and sixpence (£2.63).

A good bat could cost up to two pounds seventeen shillings ( £2.85) and match balls cost two shillings and sixpence each ( twelve/thirteen pence). Sandwich rubber was approximately six shillings and sixpence (32p) per sheet and pimpled rubber was around two shillings and ninepence (13p) for a sheet. Tables were anything from £36 to £ 59 depending on standard.

The end of the 1969/70 season saw the resignation of the chairman. Stan Lawson announced that he was going to stand down as Chairman at the end of the season and a piece in the 'Sandwich' magazine written by him stated that after being actively involved for twenty years and chairman for most of that time he had decided that it

Page 99 of 145 was time to quit. He was well satisfied with his years in office which he felt had been successful but he was disappointed that county matches were played at home with less than one hundred people watching. He also felt that it was time that more young people took an interest in being on the committee.

CHAPTER SIX

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The Peak Years - Part Two

1970-1971

During the summer of 1970 many of the clubs affiliated to the association continued playing competitive table tennis in the Tyneside section of the North East Summer League which was now administered by Aubrey Drapkin.

Stan Lawson had a change of heart about resigning after an approach to him had been made by several members of the executive committee and he was duly re-elected as chairman for 1970/71. In addition he was elected to be National Councillor and he was then appointed to the National Development sub committee by the E.T.T.A.

There was no change to the existing Officers of the association but Harry Dignan was now Coaching Officer and Arnie Warents was back on the executive committee, now called the executive council, along with new members Ray Rogers, Robert Lumb and George Newby.

The three new members were also on the County Management Committee along with Pauline Jackson, Arnie Warents, Len Heppell, John Richardson and Alan Morpeth.

There were no changes to the League Management Committee nor were there any new qualified umpires at the start of the season.

During the season M.J.Armstrong, Alan Morpeth and George Newby all qualified as County Umpires ads did Brian Burn but he left the district. Sid Holt eventually took over as County Umpires Secretary.

The editorial committee for the 'Sandwich' magazine were the editor Arnie Warents, along with Pauline Jackson, Leo Gowan and Joe McLeod.

Leagues affiliated to the County were the Northumberland League, the Berwick League and the Newcastle league.

The Northumberland League continued to be administered by the County Association and started the season with one hundred and twenty-two teams from sixty-six clubs, an increase of one club but a decrease of three teams. Nine divisions were again in operation.

D.H.S.S., Benton and North Shields YMCA were the largest clubs in the league at the end of the previous season, each having six teams throughout the divisions but at the start of 1970/71 the YMCA only had four.

George Newby took over the organisation of the Northumberland Youth Association League which was again a success with four divisions. The winners of each division who took part in playoffs were Hartford Youth Centre, Walbottle Campus, Bedlington Westridge and Gosforth. Unfortunately there is no record of the results of the semi finals or of the eventual winners.

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On the coaching front six centres were regularly used including a weekly advanced class at Whitley Bay Grammar School. E.T.T.A. Hard Training sessions were held monthly at the Lightfoot Stadium in Newcastle, the final one being attended by thirty student coaches and five staff coaches. Proficiency tests were taken by youngsters at Whitley Bay and at the Lightfoot with gold awards being achieved by Carolyn Little and Glenn McCardle, the latter being a very promising thirteen year old. Silver and bronze awards were gained by an increasing number of keen young players.

County trials were held which formed the basis of ranking lists which were drawn up.

Janet Priestley, Carolyn Little and Stephen Brewis were all nominated for junior trials to be held nationally in Cheltenham for which it was agreed that the association would pay their expenses, but it was only Janet Priestley that took up the offer.

In connection with the North East Educational Film project the area's National Coach, Peter Simpson, with the help of two Teesside youngsters, Nicky Jarvis and David Alderson had demonstrated table tennis. A second demonstration was also held at a later date.

Harry Dignan was appointed as chairman of the E.T.T.A. Northern Area coaching panel.

Because of the continued demand for coaching within the area the association decided to set up a coaching committee for the following season.

Two senior teams were once again entered in the County Championships with the first team in the Second Division, North and the second team in the Northern Division. The first team ended up winning three matches and losing three whilst the second team whose regular players included Arthur Chilvers, Ron Kettlewell and Pauline Jackson won three and lost one to win the Northern Division.

A junior team took part in the Junior Division North but could only draw one match and lose their other three to finish in bottom place.

The mens League team made an early exit from the Wilmott Cup at the hands of North Yorkshire to whom they lost 1 - 5.

However the womens side reached the quarter finals of the Rose Bowl but the team of Maureen Robson, Nancy Ferguson and Pauline Long narrowly lost 4 - 5 to Stockport.

Because of the lack of top standard junior players teams were not entered into the Carter Cup (boys) or into the Bromfield Trophy(girls) competitions.

Because he had left the district permission was granted to Brian Burn to register for Warwickshire. It had been hoped to be able to register Fred Short and Miss P.Young for the county teams and application was made to Durham but as in previous cases it was as usual met with a refusal.

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A strong party of players and officials visited Bergen but after five successive victories the association's hold on the North Sea Cup was relinquished with Bergen winning 3 - 2.

The Newcastle University students were once again all set to organise the Tyneside Closed Championships which Sid Holt agreed to referee but unfortunately it was impossible to organise it because of the postal strike.

Because publicity in The Journal had been poor in the previous season it was decided to once again approach the Evening Chronicle to obtain coverage. This resulted in an improved situation and league tables were occasionally published.

No copy was sent to Table Tennis News during the year.

The editor, Arnie Warents, changed jobs during the year and was unable to devote very much time to the 'Sandwich' magazine. This, coupled with the fact that there was a shortage of suitable advertising available led to the suspension of production and it was suggested that for the following season it should be replaced by a News Sheet.

Alan Ransome was the most successful player from the county on the Open tournament scene reaching the final of the Mens Singles at the Cumberland and the semi finals at both the North of England and the Birmingham.

In Mens Doubles he was a winner at the North of England partnered by Ian Robertson and at the Birmingham when his partner was Brian Burn who was now a Warwickshire player. He reached the final at the Humberside and at the Midland Counties with Yorkshire's Nicky Jarvis and at the Cumberland with JimmyWalker of Yorkshire. He also got to the semis at the North Middlesex when his partner was Yorkshire and England's Dennis Neale. Playing with Yorkshire's Linda Bashford he reached the final of the Mixed Doubles at the Humberside and won at the Cumberland where they defeated Ian Robertson and his partner J.Green from Cheshire.

Ian Robertson won the Boys Singles at the Kent Open and reached the semi finals of the Mens Doubles at the Teesside with Brian Burn.

Harry Dignan won the Veterans Singles at the Teesside and Arthur Chilvers got to the semi finals of the Mens Singles at the Pontefract.

There was a new tournament nearby with a Restricted Open taking place at Stanley in County Durham and quite a number of players from Northumberland took part. Peter Hoyles won the Mens Singles and Nancy Ferguson was runner up in the Womens Singles. Hoyles and Ron Kettlewell reached the semi finals of the Doubles event and the pairing of Peter Gorman and John Rowell were runners up in the Junior Doubles. There was also a Team of Two event which was won by Hoyles and Kettlewell who beat Arthur Chilvers and Peter Holt in the final.

The Northumberland Open tournament had to be cancelled because of the postal strike which also caused a lower entry than usual in the Closed Tournament.

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The Closed went ahead, once again at the D.H.S.S. canteen in Longbenton and was very successful both with the standard of play and financially. The outstanding players were Peter Hoyles representing D.H.S.S. Benton and Maureen Robson of Hexham Fandango, Peter retaining the Mens Singles and the Handicap Singles and also winning the Mixed Doubles with Maureen.

Maureen regained the Womens Singles title, this being the sixth time that she had won it in eight years, as well as partnering Nancy Ferguson of N.Shields YMCA to success in the Womens Doubles.

The Newcastle YMCA duo of Arthur Chilvers and Dave Armstong won the Mens Doubles whilst Blyth YMCA's Roland Earl was successful in the Veterans Singles for the third year running. The Youths Singles winner was Chris Shepherd of Newcastle YMCA and D.H.S.S. Benton players swept the board in the Womens Handicap, the Junior Singles and the Junior Girls Singles, the winners being Pauline Jackson, B.Kauffman and Janet Priestley.

The Northumberland League programme was adversely affected by power cuts during the year and the administration was also disrupted by the postal strike. Many postponements took place, mainly in the first division and the submission of correctly completed score cards also again left room for improvement.

D.H.S.S., Benton retained the First Division title and also had two other divisional winners with their 'C' team in Division 3c and their 'F' team in Division 3a. Borough of Wallsend Sports Club were the winners of Division 2a and Revac 'B' team were successful in Division 2b. The other third division winners were Reyrolles 'C' and the three teams to win the fourth divisions were Wills SRC, Procter and Gamble 'A' and Saint Wilfred's Boys Club.

The Knock Out competition did not take place.

For the first time for many years a Dinner Dance and Presentation Night was held. It took place at the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth and turned out to be very successful thanks to the organisation of Joe McLeod, Bill Dixon and John Richardson. Financially a deficit of some £65 was incurred, mainly due to a loss on the Closed Tournament for the first time which was probably caused by the postal strike, and the balance in hand at the end of the year was down to £67.

During the summer a good number of teams once again took part in the Tyneside Section of the North East Summer league.

1971- 1972

The start of the 1971/72 season saw the same Officers in post although one of the Handbook Secretaries, Tony Nichol, resigned in the October. Terry Wilkinson's position became that of Assistant League Secretary instead of Master Points Secretary, therefore the participation in the Master Points Scheme must have come to an end.

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Harry Dignan continued to be Coaching Officer The Executive Council was unchanged except that Arnie Warents was no longer involved. After the season started Bill McMaster was co - opted onto the Council.

The County Management Committee and League Management Committee were also both unchanged apart from the omission of Arnie Warents from the former and Tony Nichol resigning from the latter as well as Handbook Secretary in the October.

The number of qualified umpires was unfortunately reduced with Adam Coffer and Dave Robson no longer active and Brian Burn moving to Warwickshire.

The Berwick and Newcastle Leagues continued to be affiliated to the association.

There were two less teams in the Northumberland League although the number of clubs actually increased by three to sixty-nine and the number of divisions remained at nine.

One of the new clubs was Ashington YMCA who had previously been in the league in 1938/39, 1947/48 to 1950/51 and from 1952/53 to 1965/66. This time they were to stay until the end of the 1994/95 season.

Rule changes saw the fees for participation in the Northumberland League increased from £2.50 per team to £3 per team and the fee for an autonomous league increased to 20p per team. Individual affiliation became 50p.

All references to pounds, shillings and pence were, of course, changed to pounds and ne pence following decimalisation.

Each team in the Northumberland League now had to subscribe for four copies of the handbook.

A rule was brought in that teams having resigned during the course of the season were to be treated as having been relegated from a division except, of course, any of the fourth divisions.

Teams in the Ladies Knock Out Cup were now to consist of only two players.

A proposal was made at the Annual General Meeting to reduce the number of players in a team from four to three. The advantages were said to be that matches would be shorter, there would be less waiting time between games and it would allow for the inclusion of a doubles match. After much discussion a vote was taken which ended having to be decided by the casting vote of the chairman Stan Lawson and he decided that there should be no change.

It was decided that the type of ball to be used for league play was to be one approved by the E.T.T.A. and not the I.T.T.F.

A Northumberland Youth Association League was again organised by George Newby with nineteen teams in four divisions. It was again successful and the four divisional winners went into a knock out competition with Walbottle 'A' beating Hartford and

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Whitley Bay overcoming Saint Charles, Gosforth 'A' in the semis. The final was won by Walbottle 'A'.

Contact with schools obviously continued as Colin Richardson was appointed to be Schools Representative.

Regular coaching sessions were again held at the Lightfoot Stadium in Newcastle and at Whitley Bay Grammar School. with up to thirty players turning up at the Lightfoot.

A Stiga Exhibition was held at Whitley Bay Grammar School aimed principally at young players of school age and it was well publicised in schools and Youth Centres. The exhibition was well attended and well put over by Alan Ransome and his Teesside squad and generally considered to be a success.

Seven boys and three girls attended Sheffield YMCA during the Christmas school holidays for an official E.T.T.A. squad practice for top juniors.

There was also a coaching weekend at Lea Green in Derbyshire for which three places for boys and two for girls were available to Northumberland but thre is no record of whether or not these were taken up.

Copy was still supplied to the Evening Chronicle for publication and it was recorded that the Northumberland League tables had on occasion been printed.

The publication of a newsletter to replace the 'Sandwich' magazine was left in abeyance with the typing, duplication and sending out the league tables to clubs taking preference.

Joe McLeod only sent in copy to the E.T.T.A. magazine on one occasion although Alan Morpeth did supply copy to them relating to the Northumberland Open Tournament.

In the one article that was printed in Table Tennis News Joe McLeod wrote that relegation from the Premier Division of the County Championships at the end of the 1969/70 season had cost Northumberland dearly both materially and psychologically. He stated that earlier a veneer of talent had travelled the tournament circuit for years to achieve within the county the standard necessary for Premier status but now we were back in the second division.

Stuart Lennie was now in Glasgow and Brian Burn who he said must surely have been the greatest player Northumberland ever produced was now in Warwickshire and Maureen Robson had also left the district with 'Pop' having been transferred by Newcastle United to West Ham United.

He said that their loss deprived the remainder of a target, a standard by which to gauge themselves and this psychological affect dulled a lot of the enthusiasm. He also said the standard within Northumberland's top ranks had been weakened even further with the loss of Ian Robertson to Essex, Pete and Cynthia back to Yorkshire and Alan Ransome to Yorkshire.

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Those remaining of any significance were Peter Hoyles, Arthur Chilvers, Ron Kettlewell and among the women Phil Clark, all of whom were well tried players who had been on the scene for years, but have not risen to the heights of their predecessors nor look likely to do so.

However he did state that there were promising young players on the scene in Glenn McCardle and Andrew Clark in the under 13s as well as Peter and Lucille Clark and Gillian McKenzie in the under sixteens.

A letter signed 'Old Northumbrian' appeared in the magazine the followed month referring to Hoyles, Kettlewell and Chilvers as excellent players who would not consider themselves to be so long in the tooth as to be contemporaries of Phil Clark who had actually coached Ron Kettlewell in his early days.

The writer also pointed out that Phil Clark had played for England Juniors before Burn and her niece, Maureen, had started their careers and to suggest that she would not reach the playing achievements of her predecessors seemed to be slightly misinformed to say the least!

The season was, in fact, a disappointing one for the senior first team in the County Championships Senior Second Division North beating Durham in their first match but only managing a draw in one other and losing out on four occasions.

The second team fared better in the Northern Division, winning three matches and losing two.

The Junior team were again in Junior Division North and they won two, drew one and lost three. After beating Stockton 5 - 3 the Northumberland League team went out of the Wilmott Cup with a 0 -5 defeat at the hands of North Yorkshire.

North Yorkshire also beat the womens' team in the first round of the Rose Bowl although it was closely fought with a 5 - 4 result.

However the association played host to the Bergen contingent of players and officials and the North Sea Cup was regained with a 3 - 2 success. The visitors were also given a dinner and a party with the usual friendly atmosphere prevailing.

There was not very much activity at Open tournaments outside of the county with the only record of any sort of success being Ian Robertson reaching the semi finals of the Mens Doubles at the North of England with Brian Burn, Harry Dignan getting to the semis of the veterans event at the Teesside and young Andrew Clark reaching the semis of the Junior Boys singles at the Teesside.

The Northumberland Open took place at the D.H.S.S. canteen again after having been cancelled in the previous year. There was a good entry although lacking in E.T.T.A. ranked players which was blamed on the fact that the Welsh Open was held on the same day.

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Cheshire's Brian Johns was the star of the show, winning the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with his brother Ian and the Mixed Doubles with Janice Green, also of Cheshire.

Jean White of Lincolnshire was successful in the Womens Singles while the Womens Doubles was won by Lynne Bainbridge of Durham and Judith Walker from Yorkshire, the latter also winning the Junior Girls event. Yorkshire's Brian Alderson won the Junior Boys and at the other end of the age scale Cheshire's Derek Schofield won the Veterans Singles.

Once again the Closed tournament was also held at the same venue but the entry was lower than usual. Peter Hoyles of D.H.S.S. Benton made it three in a row by winning the Mens Singles and Nancy Ferguson of N.Shields YMCA triumphed in the Womens Singles.

For good measure Peter also won the Mens Doubles with his team mate Ron Kettlewell and the Mixed Doubles with Barbara Kearney who played for N.Shields YMCA. Unfortunately the Womens Doubles had to be cancelled because of lack of entries.

Gillian McKenzie of Briarside won two titles, the Junior Girls and the Womens Handicap. The Individual Handicap winner was another Briarside player in Andrew Clark. The Youths Singles and the Junior Boys Singles were both won by players from B.B.C. House Boys Club, Dave Armstrong and Peter Gorman. Frank Graham of North Shields Boys Club won the Veterans Singles.

Numerous power cuts meant many postponed matches in the Northumberland League and the season had to be extended by three weeks in order that all matches could be played.

The incorrect completion of score cards continued to raise its head and caused problems for the league secretary and the loss of the use of the computer by Terry Wilkinson was also a set back.

Harry Dignan was very keen that in future all matches in a division should be held at a central venue each week but this idea was never taken up.

Blyth YMCA, who had been the outstanding team before the war and won the top division in eight of the first nine seasons of its existence, won it again for what turned out to be the last ever time while the two second division winners were Anglo Plas and Harrogate House.

The third divisions were won by Briarside, South Shields Corporation and Bells Close Methodists

The teams to finish at the top of the fourth divisions were North Shields Boys Club 'B', Wallsend Fire Brigade and Prudential.

North Shields YMCA triumphed in both the K.O. Cup and the ladies Knock Out Cup competitions.

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A Dinner Dance and Presentation Evening was once again held, this time at the Panorama Restaurant in Shephards of Gateshead and was financially successful despite a disappointing attendance. Once again Bill Dixon, Joe McLeod and John Richardson were the people responsible for organising the event.

This year the running of the tournaments showed a small surplus compared with the large loss of the previous year and there was also a big saving in the costs of running the county teams and financially there was a surplus of £53 for the year which meant funds to carry forward stood at £120.

Because of the change in county boundaries and new county names having come into force it was agreed to support the E.T.T.A. proposals that counties should be based on the new boundaries but that leagues be given the choice of county if on the border. It was also agreed that a new county 'Greater Tyneside', in which most of the Northumberland League teams played would be recommended and the secretary was instructed to write to the E.T.T.A. on those lines.

The Tyneside Section of the North East Summer league continued to attract a good number of teams from Northumberland during what used to be the 'closed' season.

1972-1973

The start of 1972/73 season suddenly saw a drop in the number of entrants to the Northumberland League with seven fewer clubs and eleven less teams entering.

There were also now only the Berwick League affiliated in addition to the Northumberland League, the Newcastle League having been disbanded.

The officers of the association were unchanged and Harry Dignan at first continued to be coaching officer/ secretary but because of his Area commitments he let Ray Neal take over after the season started and Phil Clark was also brought in as Northumberland's representative on the Area Coaching Panel.

Bill McMaster , who had been co - opted during the previous season, was officially elected to the Executive Council along with Ray Neal who replaced Ray Rogers.

The County Management Committee was now made up of Joe McLeod, Bill McMaster, Harry Dignan, Ray Neal, Robert Lumb, George Newby, John Richardson, Pauline Jackson and Alan Morpeth. Terry Wilkinson and Tony Nichol were no longer involved.

There was no change in the number of qualified umpires.

George Newby once again organised the Northumberland Youth Association League which had an entry of twelve teams in two divisions of six but there is no record of any of the results.

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Representative teams were once again entered in the County Championships for two senior teams and one junior team as well as League representative teams in the Wilmott Cup and the Rose Bowl. This year entries were also made in the junior events, the Carter Cup for the boys and the Bromfield Trophy for the girls.

The senior county teams fared badly with the first team only winning one match and drawing one in the Second Division North and the second team's results were extremely disappointing in the Northern Division with only a single win to their name.

The Junior county team, however, did really well to win three, draw one and only lose one match to finish as runners up in the Junior Division North. As the winners of the division, Yorkshire's second team, were not eligible for promotion to the Junior Premier Division the Northumberland Junior team of Andrew and Peter Clark, Glenn McCardle, Barbara Kearney and Lucille Clark, went into the play offs but could only draw one match and lose three and were not promoted.

The men’s League team beat Stockton but then lost to North Yorkshire who also narrowly defeated the women in the first round Rose Bowl match.

The boys lost their first round Carter Cup match to Stockton but the girls did well in the Bromfield Trophy beating North Yorkshire 5 - 4 and Hull by the same score to reach the quarter finals and were then drawn against Liverpool. Unfortunately they then pulled out of the competition because the date offered by Liverpool coincided with the Junior Premier Division play-offs at Loughborough.

A party of players and officials once again made the trip across the North Sea to visit Bergen but despite having a most enjoyable visit they were unable to win the North Sea Cup, being beaten 3 - 2.

After the start of the season Pauline Jackson (later to be Pauline Long) took over as Publicity Secretary from Joe McLeod. a position she was to hold until the end of the 1987/88 season and then again from 1994/95 to 2010/11.

There is no record of what happened with local publicity but regular reports were submitted by her to Table Tennis News.

Regular coaching sessions were held during the season at Whitley Bay and other centres and four training sessions for juniors were held at the Lightfoot Stadium later in the season.

Five boys and three girls were nominated for places in the Northern Assessment Camp at Sheffield but only five places were allocated being for two boys and three girls. Those who were finally nominated were Andrew and Peter Clark, Barbara Kearney, Lucille Clark and Gillian McKenzie and the association paid for the costs incurred. Unfortunately the two boys to miss out were A.Walton and B.Howe.

Both of the boys did well and Barbara and Lucille showed good form but Gillian did not attend.

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Peter Hoyles was nominated, subject to sponsorship being arranged, to take part in the Butterfly Champion of Champions tournament which was held in Plymouth but there is no record of him ever going.

With a bus being organised a good number of juniors were taken to a junior tournament in Eston and a junior, unfortunately not named in the records, went to an event in Berwick.

Berwick also held an invitation event which was won by Northumberland's Alan Jones.

Sid Holt, together with Ray Rodgers and his wife, attended a tournament for disabled persons at the Lightfoot Stadium and helped with the organisation.

The J.R.Waugh award for 1971/72 season was presented during the year to Terry Wilkinson for his excellent service and help with the administration of the league.

There was not a lot of action away from the county but Barbara Kearney was involved quite a lot. She won the Girls Singles at the Yorkshire Junior Open and was runner up in the Girls Singles at the Meadowbank Open and a semi finalist at the Cumberland Open.

The doubles partnership of Kearney and Lucille Clark won the Girls Doubles event at Meadowbank, lost in the final of the Womens Doubles at the Cumberland and reached the semi finals of the Womens Doubles at the Teesside Open.

Playing in the Womens Team event at the Teesside they got to the semi finals. Barbara also reached the final of the Junior Mixed Doubles at the Teesside Junior Tournament with S.Haskiag of Durham.

Glenn McCardle reached the Grand Finals of the News of the World National Coaching Scheme.

The Closed Championships were organised by Ray Neal and Robert Lumb and once again staged at the Number 1 Canteen of the D.H.S.S. at Longbenton in the November.

It was a very enjoyable tournament despite a low entry but there was a complaint lodged about the handicap that had been given to the winner of the Independent Handicap competition which was not resolved until a later meeting of the Executive Council at the beginning of January.

At the same meeting it was decided that an Honorary Referee would be appointed at future tournaments.

A report was also given to the Executive Council of the prizes being awarded at an event at the Swallow Hotel in Newcastle but no details of this were ever recorded.

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Alan Jones of Byker Community Centre won the Mens Singles. Sixteen year old Barbara Kearney of Newcastle YMCA won the Womens Singles, the Womens Handicap Singles, the Junior Girls Singles and for good measure retained the Mixed Doubles title with Peter Hoyles of Blyth YMCA. Once again there was insufficient entries to hold a Womens Doubles event. As well as the Mixed, Hoyles also won the Mens Doubles with Byker Community Centre's Ron Kettlewell.

The Individual Handicap was won by a Newcastle University student S.Hanson, Andrew Clark did the double of the Youths and Boys Singles and Harry Dignan won the Veterans Singles for the eighth time, the last one being in 1967/68.

The Open Tournament, also again at the D.H.S.S. Canteen, was sponsored for the first time, thanks to Viking Marine and to Stan Swan (Sports) Limited. There was a good entry but it again did not attract the England ranked players.

The Mens Singles was won by Jimmy Walker of Yorkshire with the Womens Singles title being retained by Lincolnshire's Jean White who also won the Mixed Doubles with Alan Ransome, now of Yorkshire.

The Cheshire pairing of Nigel Eckersley and Brian Johns triumphed in the Mens Doubles with the Yorkshire pairing of Judith Walker and Sylvia Broadbent coming out on top in the Womens Doubles.

Judith Walker also won the Junior Girls Singles and other successful Yorkshire players were Philip Ward who took the Junior Boys title and Len Browning who won the Veterans Singles.

In the season end Annual Report of the Executive Council clubs in the Northumberland League were congratulated for their co - operation throughout the season with the League Secretary although the correct completion of score cards still continued to be a problem Unfortunately several teams resigned from the league during the course of the season.

Byker Community Centre won Division One and their 'B' team finished top of Division 2a with Reyrolles 'B' team the other second division winners.

The third divisions were won by Electrics 'C', Saint Wilfred's and Leam Lane Community Centre whilst Health and Social Services and South Shields YMCA 'C' were the fourth division winners.

The Knock Out Cup was won by Blyth YMCA but the Womens K.O. Cup was not played for.

Joe McLeod and John Richardson organised the Dinner Dance, this time back at the Grand Hotel in Tynemouth when all of the cups were presented by the president of the association, Bart Kinnair. It was a very enjoyable evening but the low attendance cast doubt as to whether such an event would be held in the future.

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The general increase in costs of running the association coupled with an increase in the expenditure of £25 on the County teams and a decrease of £30 in subscriptions meant a loss for the season of £71, leaving only £46 in reserve.

After the normal season ended for league play many teams yet again took part in the Tyneside section of the North East Summer League.

There were a couple of changes to the officers of the association at the beginning of the 1973/74 season with Pauline Jackson officially becoming Publicity Secretary and Robert Lumb taking over as Handbook Secretary.

On the coaching front Harry Dignan was appointed as the Coaching Adviser for North East England so Ray Neal took on the role of Coaching Officer and Phil Clark carried on as the representative on the Area 10 Coaching Panel.

Changes to the Executive Council saw Maurice Bowman replace Robert Lumb and Joe McLeod was elected in place of George Newby who had resigned.

The County Management Committee members were Robert Lumb, John Richardson, Alan Morpeth, Pauline Jackson, Joe McLeod, Bill McMaster, Harry Dignan, Ray Neal and Maurice Bowman.The separate League Management Committee was dispensed with.

Apart from the Northumberland League the Berwick League was still the only league affiliated to the county.

The proposed rule to make teams of three instead of four players that was so narrowly defeated two seasons previously was brought into effect for this season and this composition of teams has remained unchanged to the present day.

The playing format was that each player played each member of the opposition giving nine singles matches. Together with one doubles this gave a total of ten matches all together.

A change was made to the Knock Out Cup in that only the third and fourth division sides would play in the first two rounds, the first and second division teams coming into the draw for the third round.

The number of clubs in the league increased slightly to sixty-five and as a result of the change to three a side the number of teams rose by twenty-five to make a total of one hundred and thirty-four. Whilst this increase in teams meant that there was an extra fourth division the actual increase was not as many as expected with the change to the composition of the teams.

George Newby had resigned as organiser of the Northumberland Youth Association League and nobody else could be found who was willing to take over the organiser's job. The league continued but it was then dealt with through Northumberland County Hall Unfortunately no record exists as to whether it was successful or indeed as to whether it carried on for any length of time.

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With Harry Dignan more involved in the Northern Region, Ray Neal and Phil Clark took on more of the active roles in Northumberland.

One good success was the organisation of a coaching course and assessment for school children at Newcastle Polytechnic Sports Hall which was followed up by a rally at the same venue later in the season. Both were well attended with about eighty boys and girls attending each event.

Coaching sessions were held at other centres including the Lightfoot Stadium and a centre in Berwick on Tweed.

Harry Dignan organised a course for coaches at Gateshead Technical College.

Andrew Clark had made so much progress that he was sent to a coaching session at Lillieshall, the cost being met by the county.

Selected junior players of county standard attended summer coaching week-ends on Teesside.

Due to her commitments to working with the young players in the county Phil Clark actually resigned as representative on the Area 10 Coaching Panel.

In the County Championships Division Two North the first team won three matches and lost two to finish third. However the top two were ineligible for promotion to the Premier Division as they already had a team in it so Northumberland qualified to play in the Premier Division play-offs at St.Albans in Hertfordshire. The team was Peter Hoyles, Alan Jones, Ron Kettlewell, Andrew Clark and Barbara Kearney but they lost all four of the matches.

Peter Hoyles and Viking(Marine) were thanked for their help in financing the participation in the play-offs.

During the season the match against Durham was staged at the Spittal Club in Berwick upon Tweed along with a corresponding junior match on the same day. Fourteen year old Andrew Clark played in both matches, making a winning debut in the senior one.

However the county lost the services of his brother Peter who decided to call it a day at the age of sixteen!

The senior second team, playing in the Northern Division, had a disappointing time and only won one match, losing the other three.

The juniors fared even worse in the Junior Division North when they lost all six matches played.

The Northumberland League men’s team beat Carlisle in the first round of the Wilmott Cup but then went out to North Yorkshire League in the second round.

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In the Rose bowl the women had a walk over against the Aycliffe League but then went out to a North Yorkshire side that included their own county player Barbara Kearney. With regard to the women and girls there was an acute shortage of players.

The junior boys also lost to North Yorkshire in the Carter Cup and an entry was not made into the junior girls Bromfield Trophy competition.

Because of all of the industrial disputes taking place during the season it was decided to leave any arrangements regarding the Bergen visits until the following year.

Local publicity continued to be a problem and while league tables were prepared and sent to the Evening Chronicle on five occasions they were only published once

Nationally however, Pauline Jackson had reports published in every monthly edition of Table Tennis News.

The association was unable to stage either the Open or Closed Tournaments. The venue at the D.H.S.S. was unavailable on the first date arranged for the Closed because it was being redecorated and it was also unavailable on the re-arranged date. The Open was cancelled because of the industrial disputes affecting the country which left doubt as to whether lighting would be available on the date arranged.

As it turned out there would not be another Northumberland Open for a few years, the next one not being held until the 1979/80 season.

On the tournament scene away from Northumberland Barbara Kearney had a good measure of success especially in the doubles playing with North Yorkshire's England ranked Carole Knight. They won the Womens Doubles at the Cumberland Open and the Durham One Star, lost in the final at the Yorkshire and reached the semis at the Essex.

In singles Barbara lost in the final of the Womens at the Cumberland and in Mixed Doubles lost in the final at the same event partnered by Tony Martin of Yorkshire.

At the Teesside Junior young Andrew Clark won the Under 15 Boys Singles and also the Boys Doubles with Brian Baxter of Yorkshire. He reached the semi finals of the Under 15 Boys singles at the Yorkshire Junior Tournament and also the semi finals of the Boys Doubles with his fellow Northumbrian Glenn McCardle.

At the Pontefract open Peter Hoyles won the Mens Singles and Alan Jones, partnered by Len Browning of Yorkshire, got to the semis of the Mens Doubles.

In the Northumberland league the change to three a side was welcomed by the majority of players.

Unfortunately the league programme was again interupted by lighting restrictions imposed during the State of Emergency and consequently the season was extended by five weeks. Incredibly one hundred and thirty matches were played in the last five weeks and clubs were congratulated on their efforts to complete the fixtures.

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Once again score cards were poorly completed despite a copy of a correctly completed one once again being printed in the handbook and team captains were implored to insert correct division number, week number, and team number in the next season.

Byker Community Centre entered a team in the Stiga National Club Championships but there is no record of how they got on. Domestically they did the double by winning the First Division and also the Knock Out Cup and their 'D' team won Division 4b.

BBC House Boys Club won Division 2a and Electrics 'A' triumphed in Division 2b.The Third Division winners were Campbell Isherwood, North Shields Boys Club 'B' and Whitley Bay YMCA.

The other fourth division winners were Cramlington Fire Brigade, Prudhoe East Youth Club and Tyne Lead 'B'.

This year a Dinner Dance was organised by Bill McMaster and held at Parrish's 'Highlight Suite' in Shields Road, Newcastle which was very successful and well attended with approximately one hundred being there.

The J.R.Waugh Cup was awarded to John Charlton, the secretary of the Dunston Hill Disabled Club.

The Tyneside Section of the North East Summer league was again in operation with two divisions and the first division was won by North Shields Boys Club with National Carriers winning Division Two.

On the financial side of things there was another small deficit for the year which left the total funds standing at only £23. The treasurer reported that ways and means were being sought to create a sound financial structure for the future.

It was with regret that it was reported that the Chairman, Stan Lawson, had died on 10th April, 1974 after a brief illness and deepest sympathy to Mrs Lawson and family was recorded in the Executive Council Annual report.

Stan had first played table tennis in the Northumberland League in 1947/48 and had played in every season since then. He joined the Executive Council in 1955 and became chairman in 1959. He gave yeoman service to the Association, not least in helping to organise the tournaments, and it was recorded that he would be sadly missed.

1974-1975

1974/75 saw the appointment of Harry Dignan as Chairman with Stan Denton taking on the role of Vice Chairman. Harry was also elected as National Councillor.

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Mrs Phil Clark, Miss Barbara Kearney, Ron Wilson and W.E.Bolton were elected to the Executive Council. John Richardson had resigned, Joe McLeod had left the district and Stan Denton was now Vice Chairman.

Phil Clark replaced Joe McLeod on the County Management Committee.

The qualified umpires remained the same. Once again, the Berwick League was the only autonomous league affiliated to the county association.

There were six fewer clubs and eight fewer teams in the Northumberland League but it still consisted of ten divisions.

As a result of the poor financial position at the end of the previous year the fees for entry into the Northumberland League were increased from £3 per team to £4 per team and the cost of the handbook, of which each team had to purchase three copies, went up from 25p to 50p.

With Harry Dignan again being involved regionally Ray Neal was again instrumental in arranging most of the coaching.

County practice was arranged at the new Killingworth Sports Centre which was attended by all of the junior team players but only by two of those involved in the senior teams. Unfortunately it was reported that the facilities were below the required standard.

Regular coaching took place at the Lightfoot Stadium in Newcastle and there was also a deal of coaching at Whitley Bay Grammar school whilst courses for coaches were held at Killingworth Sports Centre and at Carnegie College.

Two coaching rallies were held at Newcastle Polytechnic with sixty-three players attending the first one and fifty-six at the second one.

A couple of events solely for juniors were also held at the Lightfoot Stadium. Andrew Clark was nominated by the Regional Area 10 for coaching and assessment at Lillieshall but he was not then invited to the final National Trials at Crystal Palace.

It was suggested that three under thirteen players, M.Johnson, Bernard Clark and Janet Aust take part in an Under 13 competition in the area but there is no record of whether or not this took place.

Nineteen juniors took part in a sponsored walk which raised £81 for the association's funds.

It was also agreed to pay Andrew Clark £15 to enter the English Junior Open tournament but unfortunately the event was cancelled.

Teams entered in the County Championships and the National League Competitions were on the same basis as in the previous year and it was hoped that results would improve with the return to the area of Maureen Robson and Ian 'Benny' Robertson.

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However the expected increase in performance did not materialise and the County Senior first team won two, drew one and lost two matches in Division Two North. Maureen Robson did not play at all.

The Senior second team were the most disappointing, losing all four of their matches in the Northern Division but there was a slight improvement with the Juniors in Junior Division North who won two and lost four.

All of the League representative teams went out of their competitions at the hands of Ormesby. The mens senior side had previously beaten Carlisle 5 -4 and Aycliffe 5 - 0 but went down 0 - 5 to Ormesby. In the Rose Bowl Barbara Kearney was again playing for the opposition and they were far too good for the Northumberland League side and won 6 - 0. Before losing 1 - 6 to Ormesby the Junior Boys had beaten Carlisle 8 - 1 in the Carter Cup.

It was Northumberland's turn to host the players and officials from Bergen but the visitors retained the North Sea Cup. However there was local success in the Individual Tournament, that was also arranged, with Ian Robertson winning the Mens Singles and Barbara Kearney being successful in the Womens Singles. Players from Bergen won the junior events.

There was a great deal of interest in the affairs of the Berwick League and of the County with the Spittal club being able to get full coverage in the Berwick press and also get the league tables published.

There was not a great deal of coverage by the Newcastle newspapers but Pauline Jackson continued to have her article published every month in the E.T.T.A. magazine.

Following the boundary changes and formation of new counties the Cleveland Association and the Cumbria Association had been formed and the Northumberland executive council discussed at length whether or not there should be a Tyne and Wear Association.

The question was put in abeyance and advice was sought from the E.T.T.A. Following a reply from them it was felt that a special meeting would be needed to discuss the matter further.

Barbara Kearney had a measure of success at Open tournaments, especially in the Womens Doubles although she was a runner up in the Womens Singles at the West of Scotland tournament. She lost in two Womens Doubles finals the first being at the North of England when Carole Knight was her partner. The other was at the Yorkshire when her partner was Susan Lisle at Cheshire.

She also lost in the semi finals at the East of England partnered by Gloria Stocks of Yorkshire and at the Cumbria with Carole Knight.

Phil Clark and her partner Barbara Kirkman from Lancashire beat Barbara and Carole in the semi finals at the Cumbria but then lost in the final.

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Peter Hoyles won the Mens Singles at the West of Scotland and Ian Robertson was a semi finalist at the Perth Open. Ian also featured briefly during the season at number eighteen in the English rankings.

Andrew Clark got to the semi finals of the Boys Singles at the North of England and was a losing finalist in the Boys Doubles with Durham's Keith Paxton at the Lancashire Open.

Whilst he did not gain a place in the English Junior Rankings Andrew's form saw him being included in the Group 'A' list.

After having to be cancelled in the previous season the Closed Tournament returned and were once more staged at the D.H.S.S. canteen and there was a reasonable entry but down on previous years. This year it’s players were limited to enter only three events and the Veterans Singles was changed from Over 35 to Over 40.

Ian Robertson (North Shields YMCA) was the star player, winning the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with Dave Armstrong and the Mixed Doubles with Pauline Jackson (D.H.S.S.)

Pat Small (D.H.S.S.) was victorious in the Womens Singles but the Womens Doubles was once again cancelled because of insufficient entries.

Fred Short (Tyne Dock) was the winner of the Individual Handicap Singles with Kit Cheung winning the Womens Handicap event.

Andrew Clark (Briarside Fandango) was successful in both the Youths Singles and the Boys Singles with Anne Henderson coming out on top in the Girls Singles. The Veterans Singles was won for the ninth and last time by Harry Dignan (North Shields YMCA)

The running of the Northumberland League was generally satisfactory although the problem of postponed matches was still a problem. Ron Wilson did a good job in duplicating and circulating the league tables on a regular basis.

Spittal were allowed to enter the league in division 3b despite a number of clubs objecting to the distance they would have to travel. Spittal were very accommodating as to the arrangements for their home matches with some being staged in the afternoon on a Saturday or Sunday. In the event they actually won the division.

The first division was won by Reyrolles while Briarside Fandango 'B' and North Shields YMCA were the winners of the second divisions.

As well as Spittal the third division winners were Vickers Michell and Prudhoe East Youth Club and the fourth divisions were won by Postal Clerks 'D', Watson Norie, Saint John Vianney Youth Club 'B' and South Shields YMCA 'C'

South Shields YMCA won the Knock Out Cup.

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It was decided to try to arrange a schools’ league in the Newcastle area for the following season and Phil Clark wrote to ten schools of which eight showed an interest.

Bill and Lily McMaster organised the end of season dinner dance at J.T.Parrish Ltd which once again which turned out to be extremely successful with over one hundred and fifty people supporting it. Once again the President, Bart Kinnair, presented the trophies and prizes.

The financial situation at the end of the year was healthier as a result of the increased fees with a surplus of £36 being achieved giving £59 total funds to carry forward.

Twenty nine teams entered the Tyneside Summer League which had been formed to take the place of the Tyneside Section of the North East Summer League and it operated with four divisions and also a Handicap Knock Out Cup competition.

The founder members of this league were Aubrey Drapkin, Bill McMaster, Ron Wilson and Pauline Jackson.

North Shields YMCA won the First Division, Delaval Community Centre were successful in the Second Division and also the Handicap Cup.

Postal Clerks took the Third Division and Watson Norie finished top of the Fourth Division.

1975-1976

No changes were made to the officers for the 1975/76 season but Barbara Kearney resigned from the Executive Council and two new members in Ian Bryson and Aubrey Drapkin were elected.

Dave Robson was made a Vice President, Harry Dignan continued as National Councillor and Regional Coaching Advisor, Ray Neal continued as Coaching Officer and Phil Clark continued in her role as Area 10 Coaching Representative.

Aubrey Drapkin had been involved with the North East Summer League as registrar of the Tyneside section from 1970 to 1974 and thereafter secretary of the Tyneside Summer League.

He became involved with the county and league and still is having had various roles including two spells as Chairman as well as many other positions. Currently he is the President of the Association.

Changes to rules saw the entry fees for teams in the Northumberland League further increased to £4.50 per team and the K.O. Competition entry fee increased from 25p to 50p per team.

There was a change in the structure of the Northumberland League, which was now the only league affiliated to the county, with the formation of a Premier Division, one First Division. two Second Divisions, three Third Divisions ,etc.

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The number of clubs in membership of the league was one less at fifty eight but there were still one hundred and twenty six teams which this time round were put into nine divisions of fourteen teams each.

The question as to whether a Tyne and Wear Table Tennis County should be formed gained sufficient interest at the Annual General Meeting for the Executive Council to look further into the matter and it was decided to send a circular to all clubs asking for their opinion. Twenty five replies were received with eighteen in favour and seven against and it was decided to write to Tyne and Wear Council for advice.

There is no record of any follow up to this and the matter was still being deferred at the final Executive Council meeting of the season in June 1976.

Shortly after the Annual General Meeting a party of junior players attended assessment trials at Eston for a North East Counties training camp to be held at a later date which resulted in Andrew Clark, Glenn McCardle and Valerie Smith being selected.

North Tyneside Council were interested in having a coaching centre in their area and courses for coaches were held at Ralph Gardner School in North Shields and in Whitley Bay. Eventually there were five newly qualified coaches.

Trials were held for both the County Senior and Junior teams.

Phil Clark arranged a four week's course for young players at the Lightfoot Centre in Walker and also two Newcastle Schools Leagues, one for seniors and one for fifteen year olds.

Further junior training camps and a North East assessment meeting were held in Billingham which resulted in Bernard Clark, Eddie Thomas, John Anderson, Roger Bambrough and Julie Hobson all being recommended.

Newcastle Recreation Department informed the association that there was a possibility that the new Eldon Square Leisure Centre could become available for coaching and for staging tournaments.

The Newcastle Schools League organised by Phil Clark turned out to be very successful with teams from ten schools taking part. The competition received a fair amount of publicity and the successful school was Saint Cuthbert's.

The presentation of medals was made to the winners by the football star, Bryan 'Pop' Robson.

Later in the season a similar league for fifteen year olds was successfully arranged but there is no record of how many schools took part or of the winners.

The regular competition with Bergen for the North Sea Cup was discussed by the Executive Council and it was decided that it would only take place this year if a strong team was available and eventually it did not happen.

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Some of the members of the Executive Council assisted with a competition for the disabled which was held at the Lightfoot Stadium.

Pauline Jackson continued to submit monthly articles to Table Tennis News which were always published.

Table tennis was included in the Newcastle Spring Indoor Festival of Sport at Newcastle Polytechnic with a tournament staged on four tables. Good standard junior players in the age group of fifteen to eighteen were to take part with sixteen boys and six girls being invited although it went ahead with the full compliment of boys but only three girls.

Alan Morpeth and Phil Clark made all of the arrangements although the conditions were poor and the winners were Andrew Clark and Valerie Smith. The prizes provided were poor and the Association provided better quality ones for the winners and runners up.

The E.T.T.A. were to host the World Championships in 1977 in Birmingham and it was agreed to support their request for a fee of thirty pence per team place for the next three seasons to help towards the cost.

It was not a good season for the various representative sides with the County Seniors who were rarely able to field their strongest team only winning one match and losing four in Division Two North whilst the second team lost all four of their matches in Division Three North. The Junior County team fared slightly better with two wins and five defeats.

The Northumberland League sides all made early exits from the Wilmott Cup, the Rose Bowl and the Carter Cup. The Senior League team were weakened when Andrew Clark decided to represent the Sunderland League this season.

New venues for staging the County matches were found with Byker Community Centre and Woodland Park Community Centre both turning out to be excellent.

The staging of the match against Durham at the Royal Grammar School was however, apart from the result, the biggest success with over one hundred spectators. Tickets had been sold and a fairly good amount of publicity given which obviously had the desired effect.

For away matches the meal allowance for the players was increased to 75p.

There was not very much participation in tournaments outside of the county although Andrew Clark, partnered by Durham's Keith Paxton, won the team event and the Boys Doubles at the Cleveland Junior 2 Star and Andrew reached the semi finals of the Under 19 Boys event at the Cleveland 3 star.

Ian 'Benny' Robertson lost in the final of the Mens Singles and in the final of the Mixed Doubles with Valerie Smith at the East of Scotland whilst Barbara Kearney,

Page 122 of 145 once again partnered by Cleveland's Carole Knight got to the semi finals at the Cleveland 3 Star.

Andrew Clark had the honour of being selected for the English (R.C) Schools representative team.

Disappointingly he had been ranked at number fifteen in the E.T.T.A. Junior Ranking List at the start of the season but slid down to eighteen at the halfway stage before being excluded completely before the season ended.

The County Closed tournament had for many years been held at the Number One Canteen of the D.H.S.S. but that building had now been demolished and Executive Council members were asked to look for an alternative venue.

Various suggestions were made including Ashington Leisure Centre, Gibson Street Baths in Newcastle, Wharrier Street School Tennis Club, Norham Road High School, North Shields and Eldon Square Leisure Centre.

Eventually a sub committee was formed to look into this but by this time it was late in the season and it was decided that the tournament would not be held until early in the following season by which time the various details of availability and costs would be known.

The organisation of the Northumberland League had generally been successful although the number of postponed matches, especially in the Premier Division, had once more been a problem.

The Spittal club had informed the league secretary and the various clubs involved in their fixtures that they would no longer be able to arrange matches on a Saturday afternoon as their players would not be available and that they preferred their home matches to be played on a Monday evening.

Later in the season they also stated that Sunday afternoons were also out of the question. In the event five teams forfeited the points rather than travel to Spittal.

There was also a problem with Hexham Fandango failing to play seven matches and it was decided by the Executive Council to look at bringing in a special rule to apply to clubs outside a radius of twenty five miles from Newcastle.

League tables continued to be circulated by Ron Wilson on a regular basis.

The winners of the newly formed Premier Division were Briarside with the first division being won by North Shields YMCA 'B' team. Saint Georges Methodists.

Woodlands Park were victorious in the second divisions as were Newbiggin Hall Boys Club, Arden House and Postal Clerks 'C' in the third divisions.

The two fourth divisions were won by Sterling Winthrop 'B' and Thompsons T.T.C.

Byker Community Centre were the winners of the Knock Out Cup.

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Robert Lumb who had been on the Council for a few years and had been Handbook Secretary for the last three stated that he was resigning at the end of the season and the County Secretary Alan Morpeth asked for a revision of his duties as he felt that his job had become more onerous and that he should relinquish some of his duties.

Financially the season had been the best for a few years with a surplus of £228 being achieved thanks mainly to an increase in income from the clubs and income from sponsorship and from the dance.

The Summer Season saw an entry of forty-eight teams playing in six divisions in the Tyneside Summer league and a Knock Out Cup Competition being organised which was won by Allen Bradley Electronics.

The association had been asked to organise table tennis at the North Tyneside Summer Festival and this was referred to the Tyneside Summer League. Aubrey Drapkin and Ron Wilson along with some helpers handled it.

The various singles winners were Andrew Clark in the Mens and the Under 18 Boys, Miss B Murtaugh in the Womens, Valerie Smith in the Under 18 Girls Singles, John Anderson in the Under 15s, Neil Herrington in the Under 12s and S.Hills in the Third and Fourth Division event.

Bob Dodds and Jimmy Scope won the Mens Doubles, Kit Cheung and Valerie Smith the Womens Doubles and Phil Stewart and Valerie Smith the Mixed Doubles.

1976-1977

There was one enforced change in the officers of the association for 1976/77 following the resignation of Robert Lumb and his place as Handbook Secretary was taken on by Aubrey Drapkin.

There is no record that the request by Alan Morpeth for a reduction in his duties was ever followed up.

After only one season Ian Bryson resigned from the Executive Council and Arnie Warents returned as a member along with newcomers Bill Armstrong and Billy Baird.

Harry Dignan continued as National Councillor as well as still doing his work on the National Coaching Scheme and Ray Neal carried on as Coaching Officer.

The only rule change was an increase in the cost of the handbook to 30p per copy.

The proposed change to bring into effect a rule stating that clubs outside of a 25 mile radius of Newcastle must allow their opponents the opportunity to play on a Saturday or Sunday was deferred from the Annual General Meeting to the Special Handbook Meeting in the September when it was put to the vote but not passed.

The Tyneside Summer League became affiliated to the county having previously been directly affiliated to the E.T.T.A.

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Whilst the number of clubs in the Northumberland League increased by three to sixty- one the actual number of teams was down by four to one hundred and twenty two.

There was no change in the structure of the league with nine divisions again being formed. A new club that joined was Ouston Community Centre and they have continued their membership until the present time.

The question of as to whether to form a Tyne and Wear Association dragged on and on and was still not decided by the final meeting of the Executive Council for the season when it was reported that changes were imminent in the Durham set up and it might then become an opportune time to open discussions with them.

Senior trials were held at Byker Community Centre for the men with similar trials for the women held at a different time and venue. As a result of these trials the top two men were Andrew Clark and Alan Jones and the top two women were Phil Clark and Pat Small.

Junior trials were held at the Lightfoot Stadium which resulted in the top two boys being Eddie Thomas and Bernard Clark and the top two girls were Julie Hobson and Debbie Glenn.

Ray Neal and Phil Clark were asked to formulate a coaching plan and several courses were organised. Unfortunately Ray Neal was unable to commit sufficient time to the association and eventually had to resign as Coaching Officer.

Courses for coaches were held in Boldon and in North Shields and during the course of the season Maurice Bowman became a qualified coach.

Phil Clark organised one or two coaching courses as well as a course for beginners at Eldon Leisure Centre which were well attended and she also organised a course for about twenty youngsters after the Schools League was completed.

A course which was open to the public was held at the Lightfoot Stadium over a few weeks which was under the control of Frank Buck who was ably assisted by Maurice Bowman and Eddie Thomas.

Harry Dignan reported that there was a great deal of interest in the schools in North Tyneside although no courses appear to have been organised.

At the end of the season seven boys and two girls were nominated to attend the Northern Trials.

Phil Clark, with the help of some teachers, organised the Newcastle Schools League and Tournament at Eldon Square Leisure Centre.

The League was divided into four sections with a Senior Division of ten teams, an Intermediate (under 15) Division of ten teams, a Girls Division of four teams and a Junior (under 13) Division of six teams.

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The Royal Grammar School won the Seniors, Heaton Grammar won the Intermediate, Gosforth High were top of the Girls and Royal Grammar School also won the Juniors.

There was an entry of approximately one hundred and fifty in the Schools tournament with ten events taking place, five for boys and five for girls.

The Under 19 Singles were won by Roger Bambrough and Valerie Smith, the Under 16 Singles by John Burke and Susan Norris and the Under 13 Singles by Bernard Clark and S. Carr.

There were also doubles events with the Seniors winners being Roger Bambrough and D.Mosley in the boys and Kit Cheung and Julie Hobson in the girls.

The successful pairs in the Juniors were Simon Montague partnered by Jimmy Brumby and the girls combination of S.Carr and J.Hancock.

In the English Schools Table Tennis Association tournaments the Royal Grammar School under eleven team came third in the area competition.

Pauline Jackson continued to get monthly articles published in the E.T.T.A. magazine Table Tennis News but there was still little coverage in the local press.

It was decided that the Northumberland County Senior team should have organised practice once every two weeks under the supervision of Arnie Warents who was appointed as County captain.

The county Senior team had a mixed season in the County Championships Division 2 North winning two matches, drawing one and losing two. The second team were also very average in Division 3 North with two wins and three defeats.

Unfortunately the very inexperienced Junior side were outclassed in the Junior 2 North division and lost all seven of their matches to end up relegated.

Towards the end of the season it was decided to request the release of Ian Robertson from Essex in order that he would be available for the following season.

The Northumberland League had representative teams in the Wilmott Cup for men, the Rose bowl for women and the Carter Cup for Junior boys but all of them made early exits from their relevant competitions.

The mens team did beat Carlisle in the first round before losing to Ormesby, the women also lost their first match to Ormesby and the junior boys went out at the first time of asking to Millom.

The contact with Bergen was renewed with a party from Northumberland going over in the January. The trip was socially successful but the organisation of the matches was found to be disappointing as was the result of the North Sea Cup competition which Bergen won 4 - 0.

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In the tournament that was arranged Peter Hoyles got to the semi finals of the Mens Singles and Valerie Smith did likewise in the Womens Singles.

There was little interest in open tournaments and no record of any achievements by players from Northumberland.

The sub committee formed at towards the end of the previous season to look into possible venues at which to stage the Closed Tournament had recommended that it take place at Eldon Square Leisure Centre and this recommendation was followed up and arrangements made.

Despite some difficulties and unforeseen incidents the arrangements were very good and the tournament turned out to be a most popular and successful one although it did not finish until 10.00p.m.

Sid Holt was appointed as the referee and he received valuable assistance from David Lush of the Woodlands Park club.

The Mens Singles was won by Andrew Clark (Briarside) who also won the Under 18 Youths Singles.

Valerie Smith was the outstanding female player winning the Womens Singles, the Under 18 Girls Singles and the Mixed Doubles with Malcolm McMaster of Byker Community Centre .

Malcolm was also successful in the Mens Doubles when he had fellow Byker C.C. player Chris Shepherd as his partner.

The Womens Doubles was won by Pauline Jackson and Pat Small (both D.H.S.S.),

Peter Hoyles won the Individual Handicap Singles off scratch and Terry Wilkinson of North Shields YMCA was the Veterans champion.

In the Northumberland League Sid Holt reported that there had been an improvement in the receipt of score cards on time but yet again a lot of inaccuracies on them.

The Premier Division was won by Tyne Dock Youth Club who also captured the Knock Out Cup.

Prudhoe East Youth Club were successful in Division One and the two second division winners were Electrics 'B' and Delaval Community Centre.

Woodlands Park 'B', Saint Wilfred's 'B' and SEVCON were the third division winners with Tynegas Welfare and Byker Community Centre 'H' finishing at the top of the two fourth divisions.

During the season Ron Wilson and Aubrey Drapkin qualified as County Umpires.

Bill and Lily McMaster once again organised a successful Dinner Dance and Presentation Night at Parrish's in Newcastle. A feature of it was the attendance of the

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1947/48 Rose Bowl winning team of Doreen Ormond (nee Smith), Joyce Hewitt (nee Purves) and Madge Pattinson (nee Waugh).

Financially there were no problems with a small surplus for the year of £19 making just over £300 to be carried forward.

A Junior Tournament was held for the first time in the August and was played at Eldon Square Leisure Centre with John Burke (Byker Community Centre) winning the Junior Boys Singles and Susan Norris the Junior Girls.

Burke also won the Under 15 Boys Singles with Martin Schapira winning the Under 13 Boys Singles.

Susan Yeung was the winner of both the Under 15 and Under 13 Girls Singles

There was also an Under 11 event for both boys and girls which was won by Martin Schapira.

Seventy-one teams took part in the Tyneside Summer league which had nine divisions and also ran a handicap cup competition.

National Carriers finished top of Division 1a with the winners of Division 1b being Eldon Square who then won the challenge match and also won the handicap cup.

The second division winners were National Carriers 'B' and Great Lumley 'B' whilst Maccabi and Byker Community Centre 'E' were top of the third divisions.

There were three fourth divisions and the successful sides in those divisions were Oxhill, Byker Community Centre 'H' and Thompsons 'D'.

The league organised the North Tyneside Silver Jubilee Tournament at Norham Road High School in North Shields which attracted a large entry.

Andrew Clark won the Mens Singles and Under 18 Boys Singles, Julie Hobson the Under 18 Girls Singles, Kit Cheung the Womens Singles, Alan Westwater the Division Three and Four Singles, S.Lawrence the Under 15 Singles and Martin Schapira the Under 11 Singles.

In the doubles events Malcolm McMaster and Chris Shepherd won the Mens, Lily and Janet Aust the Womens and McMaster and Kit Cheung the Mixed.

Bill and Lily McMaster also organised a buffet supper and 50/50 disco as a Tyneside Summer League Presentation Night at Parrish's which was attended by 170 people.

1977-1978

Stan Denton had left the district which meant a change in the officers for the 1977/78 season with Bill McMaster taking over as Vice Chairman.

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Sid Holt was appointed as Umpires Secretary and Aubrey Drapkin replaced Harry Dignan as National Councillor.

David Lush was elected onto the Executive Council which was otherwise unchanged but during the course of the season there were resignations by Maurice Bowman, Billy Baird and Eddie Bowman and Bill Brown was co-opted onto the council.

The position of Coaching Officer remained unfilled throughout the season despite efforts and discussions with various persons.

The position of the association's representative on the Area 5 (previously called area 10) Coaching Panel was taken over by Harry Dignan who was no longer involved with the National Coaching Scheme.

There was no change in the leagues affiliated to the County, the Northumberland League and the Tyneside Summer League being the only ones.

Changes to rules saw the entry fees for teams in the Northumberland League again being raised, this time from £4.50 to £5 per team.

A change was made to the order of play for Northumberland League matches so that where A,B and C are the home team and X,Y and Z are the away team the final three matches became CvZ, BvY, and AvX.

Changes were also made to who could play for which teams where a club had more than one team. It now became necessary that four players had to be registered for the first team and a minimum of three for each other team. Teams also had to be selected in order of playing ability and not more than one player registered for a team could play for the next lower only team in any one match. Players were allowed to play for a team higher than the one they were registered for without any restriction on number of times.

Later in the season the Executive Council decided that a review should be made of all of the rules and regulations and a sub committee of Sid Holt, David Lush, Ron Wilson and Aubrey Drapkin was appointed to look into this.

There had been a surge of interest in table tennis after the large amount of coverage of the World Championships in Birmingham on television and the number of clubs increased to sixty-eight and there were one hundred and forty teams which meant the creation of an extra fourth division.

Dunston Community Centre were one of the new clubs and, albeit also under the names of Dunston T.T.C. and Dunston Methodist at different times were to stay in the league for thirty-four years up to and including 2010/11 season.

Another new club was Northumberland Fire and Rescue Service who were to be in the league even longer, being involved for thirty-nine years until the end of the 2015/16 season.

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Aubrey Drapkin, Ron Wilson and Sid Holt all qualified as Tournament Referees and Bill Brown and Philip Solomon became County Umpires. Another County Umpire was David Lush who had transferred from Essex.

A.J.P. Guymer and young Andrew Drapkin passed the theory test of the County Umpires examination and were classed as Probationary Umpires.

It was decided to form a County Umpires Committee and the first members were Sid Holt, Ron Wilson and Aubrey Drapkin.

The question as to weather or not a Tyne and Wear Table Tennis County should be formed lingered on as Durham had been approached several times without success. As Durham now had a new set of officials it was decided to form a sub committee of Arnie Warents, Alan Morpeth and Aubrey Drapkin who were asked to contact other leagues in the new Tyne and Wear area for possible discussions. By the end of the season there was still no progress.

Obtaining local press coverage was still a problem and it was decided to produce a monthly News Bulletin for distribution to all clubs along with copies of the league tables and Aubrey Drapkin took this on board.

Pauline Jackson still continued to get her articles published in Table Tennis News.

The front cover of the November edition of Table Tennis News carried a photograph of the result of an Easter Egg competition held earlier in the year which showed two decorated eggs with bats on either side of a pretend net and a score sheet showing that Mr. Douglas (Desmond) had lost 5 - 3 to a Mr.Dodd.

It turned out that school teacher Gilbert Dodd, who played in the Northumberland League had been encouraging his class of 9 – 10 year olds at Parkside School in Cramlington to watch the world championships on television and when he ran the Easter Egg competition at the end of term it had been created by a ten year old girl!

Phil Clark once again organised a Newcastle Schools League at Eldon Square Leisure Centre which had thirteen teams in the Senior section, fourteen in the Intermediate, nine in the Junior and seven in the Girls section but there is no record of the winners.

However there is a record of the Schools Tournament which was also organised by Phil Clark and had one hundred and forty nine youngsters taking part. John Burke won both the Under 19s and the Under 16s Boys events and Susan Norris did likewise in the Girls. Neil McMaster was the Under 13 Boys winner and Christine Burke won the Under 13 Girls. An Under 11 mixed event was won by Martin Schapira.

Various coaching courses were held during the season. One for advanced players was held at Eldon Square Leisure Centre as was an intermediate course for young players. The same venue also hosted a course for the top thirty juniors, both boys and girls and a course for beginners.

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Frank Buck took a course for youngsters at the Dr. Barnados home in North Kenton, Maurice Bowman conducted a general coaching course at Wallsend Sports Centre and Terry Straughan looked after a course at the King Edward VI School in Morpeth

Phil Clark organised courses at the Lightfoot Stadium for schools players including one over three days and one during the half term holidays in October.

Courses for coaches were held at the Lightfoot Stadium and at Whitley Bay where Harry Dignan was highly involved.

County trials for both the senior and junior teams were also held at Eldon Square.

The association with Bergen was resumed when a party of Norwegians visited the area in January 1978 to play for the North Sea Cup and in a tournament organised for them at Eldon Square. The visit was sponsored by several local businesses, the main one being the North East Co-operative Society. The jewellers H.Samuel Limited supplied a cup for the mens singles event at the tournament.

Bergen retained the North Sea Cup, winning 4 - 2 and they also swept the board in the tournament winning all of the events but unfortunately the Boys Singles final was not played as the time allocated by Eldon Square ran out. Socially the visit was another success and a party for the visitors as well as for the local players, officials and friends was held at Tynemouth Cricket Club.

The season was a disaster for the teams in the County Championships with the first team losing all five of their matches in Division Two North and the second team doing likewise in Division Three North. This meant that the first team were due to be relegated and that there would no longer be a place in the third division for the second team in 1978/79. As it turned out the firsts were actually retained in the second division when the divisions were made up and the second team were able to continue in the third.

The Junior side did slightly better, winning one match, drawing one but losing three.

In the National league competitions the Northumberland League men beat Westmorland in the Wilmott Cup but then were eliminated by Ormesby who also defeated the women in the first round of the Rose Bowl. The junior boys team were beaten in the opening round of the Carter Cup albeit narrowly, going down 4 - 5 to Barrow.

The Eldon Square team that won the previous season's Tyneside Summer League also played in the Wilmott Cup and beat Carlisle before they too went out to Ormesby.

Andrew Clark played in a few tournaments and his best performances were reaching the quarter finals of the Class 2 Singles at the Cleveland 3 Star and also the quarter finals of the Mens Singles at the North Yorkshire 1 Star.

Ron Kettlewell and Malcolm McMaster reached the quarter finals of the Mens Doubles when they travelled north of the border to play in the Perth Open.

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Playing in his first ever tournament young Martin Schapira having put out Andrew Drapkin in the quarter finals went on reach the final of the Under 11 Boys event the Cleveland Junior 2 star. He was beaten in the final by Carl Prean from the Isle of Wight who was to become one of England's stars in later years. He was beaten again by Prean in the final of the English Schools National Tournament.

A group of juniors played in a Cadet tournament at Ormesby. Neil McMaster did best by winning three matches and only losing one in his round one group but then lost out in round two. Bernard Clark, Martin Schapira and James Brumby all won two and lost two in their groups but did not progress any further. There was a cadet girls round robin event in which Christine Burke won one match.

Despite the lack of success, all four of the young players gave a good showing on the day. Andrew Clark, John Burke and Neil McMaster were all accepted into the Centre of Excellence at Eston in Cleveland.

Pauline Jackson had the honour of being selected to play for the Civil Service team to play against the Universities Athletic Union in London where she won all three of her matches.

The Closed tournament was staged at Eldon Square Leisure Centre, the cost of hire being £200 but sponsorship of £50 was raised thanks to TeesSport Limited and to P.Plunkett (Tiling Contractor) Limited of Prudhoe. Nearly 150 competitors took part in eleven events on sixteen tables and the playing conditions were excellent.

Andrew Clark (Briarside) was the winner of the Mens Singles and his younger brother Bernard, who also played for Briarside, won the Cadet Boys Singles.

The Womens Singles was won by Pauline Jackson (D.H.S.S.) who also won the Womens Doubles with Nancy Kirsop of North Shields YMCA.

Tyne Dock's Fred Short and Billy Dial were successful in the Mens Doubles and the Mixed Doubles winners were Frank Mitchinson of Briarside and Susan Norris. Susan also won the Girls Singles. Revac's Jim Jackson was the Veterans Singles champion and Jimmy Scope won the Handicap Singles.

Christine Burke (Briarside) and Henderson Yeung (Byker Community Centre) won the Cadet Girls Singles and the Boys Singles respectively.

The league programme was completed a little later than scheduled because of the necessary rearrangement of postponed matches once again and the usual problems were faced by the league secretary regarding the scorecards.

Briarside regained the Premier Division title and their team of Andrew Clark, Frank Mitchinson and Steve Robinson were successful in winning the Knock Out Cup.

Procter & Gamble won the first division with Visionhire and Byker Community Centre 'D' the second division winners.

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Procter & Gamble were also winners in the Division 3a with their 'C' team, the other third division titles going to Eldon Square and North Shields YMCA 'C'.

Simonside Youth Club, Newton 'C' and Thompsons 'C' won the three fourth divisions. The Womens Knock Out Competition, which was revived after an absence of five years and had eight teams of two competing, was won by the D.H.S.S. team of Pauline Jackson and Pat Small.

In May 1978 Aubrey Drapkin was appointed to the newly formed E.T.T.A. Development Committee.

Despite an increase in income from the club entry fees, increases in the cost of county team matches, the cost of the Bergen visit and an increase in admin costs in general, their was a financial deficit of £77 for the year, leaving £229 to carry forward.

Eighty-four teams entered the Tyneside Summer League which had eleven divisions and also once again ran a Handicap Cup Competition.

The winners of the various divisions were as follows: Washington TTC (1a), Eldon Square (1b), Stanley Central (2a), Wrekenton Community Centre (2b), Washington TTC 'B' (2c), Gladstone Terrace 'C' (3a), Reyrolles 'B' (3b), Gladstone Terrace 'B' (3c), D.H.S.S. 'D' (4a), Delaval Community Centre 'D' (4b), John Boste (4c). The Handicap Cup was won by Washington TTC 'B'.

The North Tyneside Festival Tournament was once again organised by the Tyneside Summer League and attracted an entry of 150 competitors.in eleven events.

The mens and boys events were won by Andrew Clark (Singles), Frank Mitchinson and Ian Svenson (Doubles), Philip Kolvin (Boys Singles) and Neil McMaster (Cadet Boys Singles).

The winners in the womens and girls events were Kit Cheung (Womens), Kit Cheung and Julie Hobson (Womens Doubles), Susan Norris (Girls Singles), Christine Burke (Cadet Girls Singles, and Claire Mouzon ( Under 11 Girls Singles).

Martin Schapira won the Under 11 event open to boys and girls and the two divisional event winners were Jimmy Scope (divisions one and two) and Nigel Jobling (divisions three and four).

Another successful buffet dinner dance was organised, again by the McMasters at Parrish's Highlight Suite in Shields Road, Newcastle.

1978-1979

There were no changes to the Officers for 1978/79 but the Executive Council had two new members in Dave Armstrong and Bob Dodds as well as Bill Brown who had been co-opted onto the Council during the previous season.

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Aubrey Drapkin was still National Councillor and Harry Dignan continued to represent the association on the Area Coaching Panel. The County Umpires Committee was unchanged.

During the course of the year the treasurer, Bill Dixon was forced to indicate that he would have to resign because of health problems and Bill Brown was appointed as assistant treasurer for the remainder of the season.

There was no change to the leagues affiliated to the County.

The sub committee appointed to review the rules produced a complete redraft of them which was approved by the Annual General Meeting. The were no major changes except for a separate proposal to alter the system of the award of merit points in the Northumberland League which was not approved.

Sixty-seven clubs started the season in the Northumberland League with the number of teams increased to 148 and an additional fourth division was formed making eleven divisions in total.

Two new clubs came on the scene who were to be members for a considerable time. Lemington Community Centre, also later known as Lemington TTC joined and Lemington Riverside over the years and played for one season before missing out in 1979/80 but then coming back in and staying until 2002.

The other newcomers were Whitehouse Lane who remained as members until the end of the 2012/13 season.

By now the largest club in the league was Byker Community Centre with nine teams operating.

Coaching by Phil Clark continued at Eldon Square Leisure Centre on a regular basis but the trials for the Junior County team were moved to Byker Community Centre as the use of Eldon Square was now considered to be too expensive.

The trials would in future take the form of assessments and the invited players were informed that they were expected to attend or to give an adequate reason why they could not.

Phil Clark also held a coaching class at the Lightfoot Stadium which lasted for two and one half hours on Sunday afternoons. Among the attendees were seven boys and four girls who were regulars.

Phil also organised a Day Course for Teachers at the Lightfoot.

There was a suggestion that the association should employ a top coach from Cleveland to coach the juniors but this idea was strongly rejected on the grounds that the Executive Council were more than happy with Phil Clark.

The Maccabi club requested a coach for their club for Sunday afternoons and Alan Morpeth agreed to ask Frank Buck to take this.

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Area ranking trials were held at Eston in Cleveland for the best juniors. Of the five that were nominated to take part, Henderson Yeung did best and progressed to the second round of groups in the Juniors. Neil McMaster was fourth in his Cadet Group and Martin Schapira eighth in his. Susan Norris won one match in the Junior Girls but Christine Burke was unable to attend.

Neil, Martin, and Christine together with Susan Yeung were nominated to take part in the National Cadet Championships

On the publicity front Pauline Jackson continued to submit monthly articles to Table Tennis News which were always printed and she also submitted copy to the Evening Chronicle which was sometimes published.

Aubrey Drapkin continued to produce a monthly newsletter for the clubs which was now called 'Smash'.

Dunlop (Sports) Ltd. arranged for an exhibition to be held at Eldon Square in the September but no advance notice was given to the association by Dunlops and it was of little value to Northumberland. Overall the exhibition and the arrangements appeared to be poorly organised.

Once again Phil Clark organised a Schools League at Eldon Square which attracted entries from forty five teams spread over five divisions.

The Senior Division was won by the Royal Grammar School as was the Intermediate 'A' and the Junior Boys. Slatyford School won the Intermediate division with Heaton winning the Girls.

Ashington Leisure Centre requested permission to stage a tournament which was granted and it took place in the December with eight events.

Durham's Dave Svenson was victorious in the Mens Singles as was Judy Davies in the Womens and Malcolm McMaster and Chris Shepherd won the Mens Doubles.

The Junior Boys was won by Henderson Yeung with Susan Norris winning the Junior Girls. A third and fourth division competition was won by Ian Bonner.

Ashington's rising young star Claire Mouzon won both the Under 11 Girls and the Under 11 event that was open to both girls and boys.

A small group of Norwegians visited the area in November although not the official party from Bergen and they were taken to the East of Scotland along with a number of local players.

The competition for the North Sea Cup took place in February when the contingent of players and officials that visited Bergen numbered twenty-eight including four from Durham. Unfortunately the North Sea Cup was once again retained by Bergen.

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The Mens team of Dave Svenson, Frank Mitchinson and Peter Whietman lost 2 - 5, The Mens Doubles side of Whiteman and Arnie Warents, Mitchinson and Svenson and Dave Armstrong and Jimmy Scope went down 4 - 5 as did the Womens team of Pauline Jackson, Julie Smith and Lily Aust. Both the Mens Second team of Armstrong, Scope and Warents and the Junior Boys team of Nigel Jobling, John Burke and HendersonYeung were also beaten.

With Northumberland having a large party of players other friendly matches were arranged. They involved a Mens team (Michael Watson, Aubrey Drapkin and Alan Morpeth), Womens Second team of Janice Fowles and Olive Drapkin, Junior Girls side of Susan Norris and Janet Aust, Cadet Boys (Nicholas Jeffreys and Andrew Drapkin) and a Junior Boys Second team of Alistair Collin, Nicholas Ringrose and Jimmy Brumby. Unfortunately Bergen won all of them!

There was a measure of success in the individual tournament with Dave Svenson being runner up in the Mens Singles, Pauline Jackson and Julie Smith being losing semi finalists in the Womens Singles, Nigel Jobling doing likewise in the Junior Boys Singles whilst Jimmy Brumby and Aubrey Drapkin reached the semi finals of the Class 'C' Singles.

It was another poor season for the County teams with the Seniors only winning one match in Division Two North, the second team doing the same in Division Three North and the Juniors also just having one success in the Junior Division Three North.

The Northumberland League sides failed to get very far, the Men losing out to Carlisle in round one of the Wilmott Cup and the Women losing to Ormesby in the first round of the Rose Bowl.

The Junior Boys beat the Tyneside Summer League in round one of the Carter Cup but then lost to Ormesby but only 4 - 5 with John Burke winning all three of his matches.

There was more interest in the tournament scene with bus loads of thirty-four players going to the North of England in Manchester, over forty to Carlisle for the Cumbria Two Star and another to the East of Scotland in Edinburgh.

Nigel Jobling got to the quarter finals of the Boys Singles at the Cumbria while at Edinburgh Andrew Clark and his partner Keith Paxton of Durham reached the semi finals of the Mens Doubles and Susan Norris and Valerie Elsdon were losing semi finalists in the Girls Singles.

Alan Jones reached the quarter finals of the Mens Singles, Kit Cheung the quarter finals of the Womens Singles and Andrew Drapkin the quarter finals of the Cadet Boys Singles.

Barbara Kearney, back from Australia, reached the quarter finals of the Womens Doubles with an Australian player, C.Little, at the Cleveland 3 Star and there was a fair amount of success at the Durham 1 Star where Arnie Warents won the Veteran Mens Singles. Pauline Jackson and Cleveland's Julia Woodcock got to the semi finals

Page 136 of 145 of the Womens Doubles and Malcolm and Neil McMaster reached the quarter finals of the Mens Doubles.

In the singles events Peter Whiteman got to the quarter finals of the Mens Singles and Kit Cheung did likewise in the Womens Singles. Other quarter finalists were Susan Norris, Susan Yeung and Caron Buglass, all in the Girls Singles event.

Judith Drapkin reached the quarter finals of the Under 11 Girls Singles at the Cleveland Junior 'Select' tournament.

Pauline Jackson was again picked for the national Civil Service team that played against the Combined Services at Stanmore in London.

Young Martin Schapira played for the England Schools Junior Boys 'B' team at the 'Stiga' Schools International Championships in Bradford who defeated Scotland, Ireland 'A' and 'B' teams but lost to England 'A'.

The Northumberland Closed was held in April, this time at Cramlington Concordia Sports Centre where the staff were thanked for being extremely co-operative. The organisation of the tournament was excellent and the facilities excellent. Aubrey Drapkin was the referee and stewards were appointed to look after getting matches started as soon as possible after being called and it worked extremely well.

Afterward a number of incidents were discussed and it was felt that a more flexible line may have been taken on occasion without affecting the overall efficiency of the tournament.

The entry was the highest for many years and a record amount of prize money (£150) was paid out.

The handicap event produced a situation that is not likely to be repeated when both players in the final were called Michael Watson. The winner was from Eldon Square club on plus seven with the runner up on plus ten coming from Ashington.

Frank Mitchinson of Briarside won the Mens Singles, Barbara Kearney won the Womens Singles, Nigel Jobling (Delaval C.C.) won the Junior Boys, Byker Community Centre's Susan Yeung won the Girls Singles, Martin Schapira won the Cadet Boys Singles and Christine Burke (Briarside) was successful in the Cadet Girls. Ken Lawson of West End Boys Club was the winner of the Veterans Singles.

Winning doubles partnerships were Ken Lawson and Charlie Robertson in the Mens, Barbara Kearney and Kit Cheung in the Womens with Frank Mitchinson and Susan Norris retaining the Mixed title.

The league season had once again to be extended to enable the large number of postponed matches to be played. Strikes and bad weather had been a major factor in eighty-four matches being postponed but on top of that another one hundred and fourteen had also been put off.

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During the season the news magazine contained a warning to players that it was not permitted to play for or against teams in an unaffiliated league such as the Coast Youth league.

Briarside won both the Premier Division of the Northumberland League and the Knock Out Cup for the second year in succession and D.H.S.S. did likewise in the Womens K.O.Cup. Byker Community Centre 'B' won the first division and their 'D' team were successful in Division 2b. Eldon Square won the other second division.

The three third divisions were won by Simonside, Delaval Community Centre 'C' and Gladstone Terrace 'B'. Delaval Community Centre had other successful teams with their 'D' side winning Division 4a and their 'F' team finishing top of Division 4c.

6th Newcastle Boys Brigade and Gladstone Terrace 'C' were the winners of the other two fourth divisions.

The season was described as a 'holding one' as far as the umpires committee were concerned with no new qualified umpires but no loss of any either. Aubrey Drapkin was upgraded as he qualified as a National Umpire.

During the season Arnie Warents reminded the Executive Council that no progress had been made regarding the formation of a Tyne and Wear Table Tennis County and Aubrey Drapkin arranged an informal meeting with Durham's Ken Taylor. No report of that meeting was ever recorded.

Application was made to the E.T.T.A. to stage a 2 Star Open Tournament for the 1979/80 season and this was granted.

The now usual dinner dance was arranged by Mr and Mrs McMaster at Parrish's and it was well attended and enjoyed although the feeling was that the buffet meal was not up to the same standard as previously. Mrs Madge Pattinson again presented the prizes.

Bill Dixon was awarded the J.R.Waugh trophy and he was thanked for his work over many years. The Executive Council wished him and his wife improved health in the following year.

Harry Dignan indicated that he would resign at the next Annual General Meeting and he was thanked for his services to the Association over many years.

Away from local affairs Aubrey Drapkin was appointed by the E.T.T.A. to be administrator of the County Championships.

A small deficit was incurred financially leaving £214 to carry forward.

The close season again saw a good entry in the Tyneside Summer league with 89 teams from 52 clubs. There were twelve senior divisions and this time round three cadet divisions which were played on Saturday afternoons. A handicap cup competition was again organised.

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New Collingwood won the Premier Division, Washington 'B' were top of Division 1a and Sunderland West top of Division 1b.

Sunderland West 'B' and Reyrolles 'B' were the second division winners with Brandling Hall, 6th Newcastle Boys Brigade and Royal Grammar School finishing on top of the third divisions. The four fourth division champions were Whitehouse Lane 'A' and 'B' teams, Whitley Bay Boys Club and Schwalbe 'B'. Washington 'E' won the Handicap Cup Competition.

The winners of the cadet divisions were Washington, Byker Community Centre and Blaydon Youth Club.

The Tyneside Summer League once again organised the North Tyneside Festival Tournament, this time at Wallsend Sports centre which was once again successful.

Dave Svenson was the winner of the Mens Singles and Shirley Gelder won the Womens Singles.

The winners of the other events were as follows: Dave and Ian Svenson the Mens Doubles, Shirley Gelder and Kit Cheung the Womens Doubles, John Burke the Junior Boys, Christine Burke the Junior Girls and the Cadet Girls, Martin Schapira the Cadet Boys, Claire Mouzon the Under 11 Mixed, Michael Watson the Premier, First and Second event, and G.Stephenson the Third and Fourth Division event.

A social evening was held at the 'Junction Cafeteria' in Newcastle town centre.

1979-1980

The enforced changes to the Officers of the Association for 1979/80 saw Bill McMaster appointed as Chairman with Ron Wilson becoming Vice Chairman and Bill Brown elected as Treasurer.

Bill McMaster had been on the council since 1971/72 and Vice Chairman since 1977/78 and was to continue as Chairman until the end of 1986/87 season.

Apart from Ron Wilson and Bill Brown becoming Officers no changes were made to the Executive Council at the Annual Meeting but Eddie Kennedy was appointed at a later date and Jimmy Scope was later co - opted onto the Council.

Part way through the season Phil Clark, Bill Armstrong and Eddie Kennedy resigned from the Council and a letter of thanks was sent to Phil for all of the hard work she had done in the past.

The County Umpires Committee remained the same but there was a change to the representative on the Northern Area Coaching Panel with R.Hepple taking over for a while and then being replaced by Charlie Mouzon.

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The only rule change was to increase the entry fees for the Northumberland League from £5 per team to £6 per team.

Aubrey Drapkin produced a document that was considered by the Executive Council and as a result seven sub committees were formed. These were to cover Selection and Ranking, Publicity, Finance and Development, League Management, Umpires and Tournaments, Coaching and County Rules.

As well as the Northumberland and Tyneside Summer Leagues, the North Tyneside Coastal Youth Conference affiliated to the County.

The Northumberland League had an additional five clubs and an extra six teams making a total of seventy-two clubs and one hundred and fifty four teams which meant that once again there were eleven divisions.

Blaydon Youth Club were one of the new clubs to join and after playing in the 1979/80 and 1980/81 seasons they withdrew but were members from 1984/85 to 2001/02 and then again from 2005/06 to 2012/2013 inclusive.

The handbook was again drastically reduced and no longer contained the rules and regulations which were circulated separately to the clubs.

A certain amount of publicity was given in the Evening Chronicle and Aubrey Drapkin continued to produce the newsletter 'Smash' on a monthly basis.

Pauline Jackson continued with her excellent articles in the E.T.T.A. magazine, Table Tennis News.

The umpires committee stressed the need for more qualified umpires but only Matt Clark became a County Umpire during the season and Jack McAllister became a Probationary County Umpire. Ron joined Aubrey Drapkin in qualifying as a National Umpire.

As well as her schools programme Phil Clark continued to organise coaching at Eldon Square and also held regular Sunday afternoon sessions at the Lightfoot Stadium which were well attended. She also ran a three day course there.

A course for coaches was held at Whitley Bay Grammar School.

County player assessments were held during the season at Byker Community Centre.

An exhibition and invitation tournament was organised by Eldon Square Leisure Centre in connection with the city's nine hundred year anniversary.

Blyth Sports Centre held a 'Sport for all' day at which youngsters John Burke and Neil McMaster put on a table tennis exhibition. Three players were nominated and took part in the National Area Junior Assessment Trials and they all progressed into the England Junior Ranking tournament at Thornaby where Martin Schapira won six of his eight matches in the Cadet Boys but Caron Buglass lost all of her matches in the Junior Girls as did Claire Mouzon in the Cadet Girls.

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A highly successful Newcastle Schools League was again held at Eldon Square under the guidance of Phil Clark with the Royal Grammar School teams winning the Senior, Intermediate and Junior Divisions and Heaton winning the Girls Division.

A schools tournament was again held this year with Neil McMaster winning both the Under 19 and Under 16 Boys Singles events and Christine doing the same in the Girls Singles as well as taking the Girls Doubles with Susan Yeung.

Andrew Drapkin won the Under 13 Boys Singles and also the Under 13 Boys Doubles with Waseem Shakoor while Jimmy Brumby and David Maughan were successful in the older Boys Doubles. Linda Jackman won the Under 13 Girls Singles and Judith Drapkin took the Under 11 Mixed Singles.

In the National Schools Area Competition the Royal Grammar School Under 19 and Under 13 teams along with Slatyford School Under 16 team qualified for the Regional Competition at Millom School in Leeds. The Royal Grammar School Under 13 team of Martin Schapira, Andrew Drapkin, Waseem Shakoor and Jonathon Miller defeated Fairham School from Nottingham and Wakefield Sandal Endowed to reach the National finals.

These were held at Matlock but they lost out to Stepney Green of Inner London and Shropshire's The Grove from Market Drayton to finish third.

Martin Schapira reached the final of the Under 13 Boys Singles at the Schools National Tournament where he once again lost out to Carl Prean. During the season he was selected and played for England Cadets 'B' team.

The County Senior team had their best season for many years, winning two and drawing one of their six matches in the County Championships Division Two North. They were helped by the return to the area of Ian 'Benny' Robertson who played in their last three matches.

The policy for the second team in Division Three North was to use younger players and this was done as far as possible. One match was won but the other three ended in defeats.

The success story was the Junior side who won three and lost only one match in the Junior Division Three North to finish on top of the table. The team that represented them was John Burke, Neil McMaster, Malcolm Aitchison, Caron Buglass and Christine Burke.

The Northumberland League sides all lost out to Sunderland in the Wilmott Cup, Rose Bowl and Carter Cup. However the men beat Barrow and Stockton before losing to them in the Wilmott Cup.

A team of girls was entered in the Bromfield Trophy and they did beat Sunderland and then had a walk over against Preston before going out to Sheffield.

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Teams representing the Tyneside Summer League lost to Stockton in the Wilmott Cup and to Harrogate in the Carter Cup.

There were a number of good performances in various tournaments over the course of the season starting with the Cumbria 2 Star where Kit Cheung won the Womens Doubles partnered by Cleveland's Carole Knight and Arnie Warents won the Veteran Mens Singles.

Ian Robertson was a runner up in two events, the Mens Singles in which Andrew Clark reached the semi finals and the Mens Doubles with Pat Glynn of Warwickshire. Caron Buglass was a quarter finalist in the Girls Singles.

Peter Whiteman reached the quarter finals of the Mens Singles at the Pontefract 1 Star and young Claire Mouzon was runner up in the Girls Consolation Singles at the North Yorkshire Junior.

Andrew Clark got to the quarter finals of the Class 2 Mixed Singles at the Humberside 3 Star and north of the border in Edinburgh the Boys Singles of the East of Scotland title went to John Burke, Arnie Warents claiming another Mens Veterans Singles crown.

John got to the quarter finals of the Mens Singles at the Hartlepool 1 Star where Kit Cheung did well in two events, reaching the semi finals of the Womens Singles and the semi finals of the Womens Doubles partnered by A. Smith of Durham.

At the same tournament Neil McMaster reached the quarter finals of the Boys Singles.

A number of players did well at the Durham Open where Andrew Clark won the Mens Doubles with Durham's Tony Gelder. Ian Robertson was runner up in the Mens Singles as well as getting to the semi finals of the Mens Doubles with Peter McQueen, then of Surrey.

Kit Cheung also had a good tournament reaching the semi finals of the Womens Singles and only losing in the final of the Womens Doubles partnered by July Speight of Durham.

There was a semi finalist in the Veteran Mens Singles in Bill Newham.

Quite a few players took part in a local event in Consett, the Maureen Kerry Memorial Tournament, winning five events including the Mens Singles by John Burke. Pauline Jackson won the Womens Singles and Jimmy Brumby the Open Junior Singles. In the doubles events Michael Watson and Martin Young were successful in the Mens and Pauline Jackson and her partner Betty Charlton of Durham won the Womens.

Pauline won the Mixed Doubles title at the National Civil Service Championships and was again selected to play for the National Civil Service team against the Combined Services at Aldershot.

Northumberland Fire Brigade league team's Brian Illingworth was a double winner at the National Fire Brigade Championships held in Wiltshire at Devises. He won the

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Veteran Mens Singles and also the Veteran Mens Doubles with his team colleague Johnson McKenzie.

A new national competition, the National League, had been formed and Briarside entered a team in the Second Division, playing their matches at Sunderland Y.M.C.A. Their squad was Andrew Clark, Frank Mitchinson, Chris Reed, Steve Robinson and Bryan 'Pop' Robson from Northumberland along with Dave and Ian Svenson and Tony Gelder from Durham. They had a decent first season, finishing in mid table.

As usual the Northumberland League season had to be extended in order that the glut of postponed matches could be played otherwise there were no problems with the running of the competition.

Unfortunately there was disciplinary problem that had to be dealt with following a complaint by North Shields YMCA regarding the behaviour of the young Byker Community Centre 'F' team and Dean Hastie in particular who had used abusive language to Nancy Kirsop.

The players involved were warned as to their future behaviour and Hastie was asked to send a letter of apology to Nancy Kirsop but he did not do so and in March was suspended until the end of April or further if the letter was not sent immediately. There was no further mention of the incident.

New Collingwood were the winners of the Premier Division for the first time and they did the double by winning the Knock Out Cup.

East Cramlington won the second division and their 'B' team won Division 3b.

The winners of the two second divisions were Simonside and Saint Georges with the other two third division titles going to Reyrolles 'D' and Tyne Dock 'B'.

Newton TTC 'D', New Benwell, Cullercoats Methodists and British Ship Research Association were the successful teams in the fourth divisions.

The Womens Knock Out Cup was won by Briarside.

There was another change of venue for the staging of the Northumberland Closed Tournament when it was played at Ashington Leisure Centre. It was well attended and Ian 'Benny' Roberson of North Shields YMCA was the star player.

He won the Mens Singles, the Mens Doubles with Peter Whiteman of Saint Georges and the Mixed Doubles partnered by his North Shields YMCA colleague Nancy Kirsop.

Briarside players were on form in the Womens events with Kit Cheung taking the Singles title and the pairing of Caron Buglass and Christine Burke being successful in the Doubles.

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Arnie Warents Saint Georges) secured the Veterans title and the Handicap Singles went to Malcolm Aitchison of Simonside playing off plus seven.

A Northumberland Junior Closed Tournament was held for the first time and was played at Blaydon Youth Club on five tables. The tournament was sponsored by Crow's Transport Limited and there was a very good entry with seventy-seven boys contesting the Junior Singles, forty-five playing in the Cadet Boys Singles and twenty girls taking part.

Dave Godbold of Washington won the Junior Boys Singles and the Boys Doubles with Briarside's John Burke. John's sister Christine who also played for Briarside was the Junior Girls champion and partnered another Briarside player, Caron Buglass to success in the Girls Doubles.

Byker Community Centre's Neil McMaster won the Cadet Boys Singles, Claire Mouzon of Ashington Leisure Centre the Cadet Girls Singles and Delaval Community Centre's Judith Drapkin came out on top in the Under 11 Mixed Singles.

For the first time since the 1972/73 season the Northumberland 2 Star Tournament took place being organised by Aubrey Drapkin with help from various committee members.

It was sponsored by the Evening Chronicle and there was a prize fund of £510. It attracted a very good quality entry of just under two hundred players with several highly ranked English players and some from Scotland and Wales taking part. Geoff Scruton of Yorkshire was the referee assisted by Aubrey Drapkin.

The Mens Singles was won by Nigel Eckersley of Cheshire who was the ranked at number nine in England and the English Women's number eleven ranked player Sally Midgley won the Womens Singles. The Lancashire pair Phil Bowen and Tony Boasman were successful in the Mens Doubles with Northumberland's Barbara Kearney and Cleveland's England ranked Carole Knight taking the Womens Doubles.

Cleveland players came out on top in the junior events with Lindsay Taylor winning the Junior Boys Singles and Helen Robinson the Junior Girls Singles.

Northumberland men who did best in the tournament were Chu Van Que who was a semi finalist in the Mens Singles, Andrew Clark ( partnered by Eckersley) who reached the semi finals of the Mens Doubles in which Peter Gorman and Jimmy Scope got to the quarter finals and John Burke, a semi finalist in the Junior Boys.

In the Womens Doubles Caron Buglass and Kit Cheung and the mother and daughter partnership of Olive and Judith Drapkin were semi finalists while Caron Buglass lost in the final of the Junior Girls Singles.

It was intended to hold the usual presentation night at the end of the season but unfortunately it had to be cancelled due to lack of support.

The sub-committee to look into the possible Tyne and Wear County was still in existence though nothing ever happened.

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Financially there was a small surplus for the season.

The cost of equipment by now saw tables retaining at anything from £48 to £375 depending on quality and table top thickness. The cost of blades ranged from £6.60 to £35.50 and bat rubbers from £8.50 to £18.50 a pair. Balls were £3.95 to £4.97 per dozen and clothing costs saw shirts at £11 to £13 whilst a pair of shorts cost £7.

The average wage at the time was £110 per week.

The Tyneside Summer League had eighty- eight teams playing in eleven divisions and also thirteen taking part in Cadet Divisions and sixty-six entries in the Handicap Cup but there is no record of the final placings.

There is a record of the first Tyneside Summer League Closed tournament which was held at Blaydon Youth Club over two days with over one hundred entries and a prize fund of £160.

John Burke (New Collingwood) won the Mens Singles and the Junior Boys Singles and Pauline Jackson (D.H.S.S.) won the Womens Singles. There was a Division One Singles which went to Micky Grimes of Reyrolles.

The Junior Girls Singles winner was Judith Hindmarsh of Delaval Community Centre and the two Cadet Singles were won by Neil McMaster ( Byker C.C.) and Judith Drapkin (Delaval C.C.).

The Under 11 Singles was won by Dave Watson of Blaydon Youth Club and there was also a singles event for players in the Tyneside Summer League cadet divisions which was won by Neil McMaster.

During the summer Aubrey Drapkin was appointed as treasurer of the governing body, the English Table Tennis Association.

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