Well, this is it. After years of talking about getting a Table Tennis Club in Codicote, we’ve taken the plunge and gone for it - Hertfordshire’s youngest club having started on Monday August 24th 2009!!

Initial soundings look positive (nearly 30 people turned up for the first Club Night with, apparently, loads more due other weeks!) and, whilst there are obviously some players who have played before, it is probably fair to say that our first season in the SHAW League is likely to be an example of enthusiasm over substance.

A lot of the fledgling membership has been drawn from Codicote Lawn Tennis Club which has a reputation for being a lot of fun and having a really good bar.

Having said that, we will be taking things seriously and are thoroughly looking forward to our matches against other Clubs with all our home matches taking place on Monday evenings at 7.30.

We weren’t really too sure about how many players to register for our first season in Division 4 so we’ve gone for the all-inclusive approach and named 25 which will no doubt put some football managers’ rotation policy to shame.

Those players are, in no particular order (other than the first lot are all male):

Nick Bayston, Simon Bayston, Tom Boardman, Zac Broad, Jim Bundy, James Doherty, Mark Howard, Lewis Andrews, Mark Knapper, Ian Mathieson, Rob Nevshehir, Jim Park, Tom Parker, James Ryding, Will Rogers, Stephen Pyle, Matt Wallis, Alan Williams, Rowan Patel, Alex Kinchin-Smith and Andy Webb.

However, to show our true equal opportunities commitment, the following ladies are also part of the gargantuan Codicote squad:

Dianne Boardman, Kathryn Brodie, Lorraine Howard and Hazel Mackrill

We don’t even have a Committee yet, although some judicious arm twisting / encouragement will hopefully change that over the coming weeks. In the meantime, if you have any questions at all, please feel free to contact Mark Knapper on (01727) 867070 (work) or (07968)144224 (mobile).

He can also be contacted by email at mark.knapper@astralisgroup.com.