Planning for The Future
Over the decades, the Oldham and District Table Tennis League has been proactive in its support of Juniors entering and participating in the game of table tennis, over the past 15 years this support has gained momentum and is now beginning to bear fruit the torch being held aloft at international level by Amir Hussain, who is now being followed at county Junior and cadet level by Sophie Newton and Alex Darlington all of whom have represented Oldham at Junior level in recent years.
The many divisions of Oldham league are currently inhabited by many ex and current juniors who have settled into league play at a standard to suite their abilities, these, past, current and future juniors are essential if the Oldham and District Table Tennis League is to survive and prosper in the future.
Many of the players that came through the earlier coaching schemes are currently playing in the Oldham first division and regularly represent Oldham senior teams in inter league matches and the Lancashire and Cheshire league.The current crop of juniors teams and players are performing exceptionally well with Alex Darlington, Sophie Newton Josh Hudson and Jack Dunning all above 60% wins in the third division, Jacob Sharp 60% in the fourth, and Angelo Robles and Jamaal Akhtar above 60% in the fifth division. Many of these players have represented Oldham in Junior team and individual events across the county with Sophie winning a Junior 2 star event recently and Alex winning a cadet 2 star event earlier in the season, two teams of Oldham juniors are currently representing Oldham in the National Junior League this is an event held in Garstang and attracts entries from across the northwest, the Oldham A team are currently 3 points clear at the top of the league after the first two rounds after holding the team in second place to a 3-3 draw, but with every team taking points off each other in what is a very even contest it is almost imposable to predict how this will end.
If you want to learn more about the Oldham and District Table Tennis League or about the junior coaching scheme held on Friday evenings 6-00pm to 9-00pm at Shaw Life Long Learning Centre (Ol2 8TB) or visit the leagues web-site ww.tabletennis365.com/Oldham.
