Welcome to the SDTTL 79th Season
- Details
WELCOME TO THE NEW SEASON CHAIRMAN’S REPORT
Welcome to the 2026/27 season of the Sutton and District Table Tennis League. We continue to be extremely well supported by the committee and things are looking good for the coming season. Kalin Dimitrov is continuing as general secretary, and we have both Des Coke and Mike Loveder joining as committee members bringing some different perspectives and helping with decisions. We will have 3 divisions once again, and we have an influx of teams meaning the Sutton league is in good health. The unfortunate closure of the Wandsworth league has meant that we have picked up Wilton, XXIV Club and two York Gardens teams for next season, and additional teams from Eldon, Rosehill, Spicers and Woodmansterne put the total teams at 30 for the coming season. There will be 10 teams in each division, playing each other twice rather than 3 times last season and starting the week of the 14th September and the league will be done before Easter. With more teams, next season it is highly likely that we will return to having four divisions, which hasn’t been the case since 2020. As a result the top 7-8 of div 1 will remain in that division, div 2 will be approximately split in two and the bottom 7-8 of div 3 moving to div 4. We have a single rule change which amends the rules around players arriving late. Previously players arriving after 8.15 could be excluded from all games despite the potential to be present during later matches following the schedule. The new ruling allows for games to be claimed by the opposing team for which their opponents aren’t present, but are allowed to play in later matches if arriving late. Please review the new wording in the handbook, although we encourage all games to be played, even if players are late (obviously within reason and through agreement between captains). For the season just gone, in division 1 we had a strong showing from Spicers who went on to win that division ahead of Crusaders A. Ballards A were once again the winners of the handicap cup with another very close final, and St Paul’s did well to win the knockout cup. At the closed championships there were lots of tight matches which was well attended and with even more players this season I expect a strong showing again. Congratulations to all our winners and Tom Coady once again got everything ready for the presentations at the AGM as trophies officer. I wish all the teams an enjoyable season and with Steve Parris and Steve Sharp as divisional and cup secretaries I have no doubt things will run smoothly.
Lewis Vidler
SDTTL Chair
Cover Photo - Jaydan Griffiths - Crusaders -; Photo courtesy of Michael Loveder.