The Pride of Table Tennis Awards regional winners have been revealed! A total of 31 inspirational individuals have been honoured for their immense dedication to table tennis.
Each year The Pride of Table Tennis awards recognises and rewards the amazing effort and commitment to our sport given by our unsung heroes. This year’s Pride of Table Tennis Awards are being celebrated at local, regional and national level to ensure volunteers, our sport’s lifeblood, are honoured.
The regional stages celebrate the achievements made across 10 regions and are decided by the Regional Chairs and their Panel. The categories included in the regional stages included Volunteer of the Year, Young Volunteer of the Year, Contribution to Table Tennis and Coach of the Year.
Congratulations to all those nominated in this year’s awards and thank you to our Regional Chairs for their continued support of the awards. The winners will now go forward for considersation for the national awards, which will take place later this year.
Volunteer of the Year
This award recognise a person over 25 years of age for their dedication, commitment or impact in/on table tennis on a voluntary basis over the past 12 months. This may take place at a club, local community, league, county, schools county, regional or national level.
Winners:
North East – Craig Dring (Beaumont Accountancy Nomads)
North West – William ‘Bill’ Wheeler (Halton Table Tennis Club)
Yorkshire – Stuart Dunhill (Haworth Hawks Table Tennis Club)
West Midlands – Simon Morgan (Green Farm Table Tennis Club)
East Midlands – Peter Wilson (Leicester & District Table Tennis League)
East – Gordon Gatheral (Chelmsford & District Table Tennis League)
London – Richard Grethe (Hampstead Garden Suburb Table Tennis Club)
South – Stephen Long (Emsworth Table Tennis Club)
South West – David May (St Just Primary School)
South East – David and Caroline Hanson (Thanet Vikings Table Tennis Club)
Young Volunteer of the Year
Recognises a person under 25 years of age for their dedication, commitment or impact in/on table tennis on a voluntary basis over the past 12 months. This may take place at a club, local community, league, county, schools county, regional or national level and includes those young people involved in coaching and/or officiating.
Winners:
North West – Tom Ray (Halton Table Tennis Club)
Yorkshire – Jack Cross (Abbeydale Park Table Tennis Club)
East Midlands – Katie Hicks
London – Joshua Amanor (Greenhouse Sports)
South West – Jake Tucker (Portishead Table Tennis Club)
South East – Alex Power (Horsham Table Tennis Club)
Coach of the Year
This recognises the outstanding contribution of a coach to get more people starting to play and/or developing players to reach their potential in table tennis over the last 12 months.
Winners:
Yorkshire – Rick Gonzalez (Haworth Hawks Table Tennis Club)
East Midlands – Nigel Webster (Melbourne Swifts Table Tennis Club)
East – Mark Mitchell (St Neots Table Tennis Club)
South – Ajay Naik (Kingfisher Table Tennis Club)
South West – Marcin Szram (Somerset Sabres Table Tennis Club)
Contribution to Table Tennis
This award recognises the outstanding contribution to table tennis this person gives through their time and talents, which enables others to participate and succeed – it is open to any age but must be in recognition of a contribution of at least 15 years.
Winners:
North East – Keith Wilson (Darlington Table Tennis Academy)
North West – Ian Gerrard (Brookway Table Tennis Club)
Yorkshire – Hans Soova BEM
West Midlands – Kevin Taylor (Stratford Upon Avon & District Table Tennis League)
East Midlands – David Green (Loughborough & District Table Tennis League)
East – Stuart Laws (Norwich City Table Tennis Club)
London – Ken Brady (Central London & District Table Tennis League)
South – Ronald Hedley (High Wycombe & District Table Tennis League)
South West – Paul Whiting (Joola Plymouth)
South East – David Coleman (Bishopstone Table Tennis Club)