A festival of Table Tennis co-inciding with the Festival of Lights took place in New Plymouth over 3 days (14th to 16th Jan) which included a Night Glow event in Pukekura Park on the Thursday evening where the public was able to have a go. On Friday morning a kids coaching session was held at Highlands Intermediate, run by our ITTF Level 2 coaches Jessica MacAskill and Matthew Ball, assisted by Grant Wilson and John Tuki. It was wonderful to see nearly 50% of the kids participating were girls and the all loved the session finishing with a Round The World Competition. The kids coaching session was followed by  an adults community coach session involving enthusiastic club members, parents, teachers, sports co-ordinators, ultilising skilled ITTF Level 2 coaches. 

The events concluded with a Taranaki Open held at Devon Intermediate, the first Open event held in the region in over a decade. The pre-season tournament was well supported by out of town particiants from Wellington, Bay of Plenty, Manawatu and Auckland as well as locals. This event is looking to be a regular event on the calendar with an enthusiastic volunteer base keen to put new programmes in place to support.

The 3 day festival of table tennis was very successful, well supported by enthusiastic locals Delwyn Singh, Michael Gibbs and Helge Mueller.  Special thanks to Paul Kyle for all the work done to make this happen and to the support from our coaches, Jessica MacAskill, Matthew Ball, Grant Wilson and John Tuki and Tournament Manager, Kevin Haines who travelled from Wellington to run the Open. To all supporters who travelled thank you.

Thank you to sponsors Ray White, The Good Home and Our Cloud. A great evening was had by all at The Good Home as a finale to a wonderful 3 days of community table tennis.

Thank you to Michael Gibbs for photos of the event.

Taranaki Open Album

Article added: Tuesday 19 January 2021