CIPPENHAM Table Tennis Club celebrated the 20th anniversary of the opening of its purpose-built centre with a party and award presentation.
The evening was organised and presided over by Charles Mitchell who began by presenting chocolate gifts to the club volunteers.
The first of the main presentations was the Senior Player of the Year. This went to Martin Adams, the mainstay of the first team in the Senior British League for many years.
Under his captaincy, the team gained its highest-ever league position, second in Division One South, last season and as a consequence qualified for the newly-created Championship Division for the current campaign.
On a more personal not, Adams won all 20 of his matches in the Veterans British League Division Two.
His team were promoted as a result of this and prompted Cippenham to enter a second men’s team into the league for the current season.
Next was the Alan Farral and Terry Boxall Junior Player of the Year award. There was an obvious choice for this and it went to Shae Thakker for the second year running.
Thakker is a Great Britain Para international and is still only 13-years-old.
PHOTO: Charles Mitchell, left, presents Malcolm Makarian with the Karen Mitchell Outstanding Contribution Award, which he also won in 2007 and 2013.
He has won many medals in local events and in national disabled competition, but the main reason for the award was the stupendous achievement of winning all 35 of his matches in the National Junior League for Cippenham last season.
Thakker is currently at is again having started the season with unblemished records in this season’s National Junior League and National Cadet League.
The main event was the presentation of the Karen Mitchell Outstanding Contribution award. This award, not open to officers of the club, is made to the person who, in the eyes of the committee, has made a big difference.
This year the award went, for an unprecedented third time, to Malcolm Makarian.
Makarian spends more hours each week at the premises than almost anyone else and is always on hand to take on those tasks that no-one else seems to want to do. He is the DIY man at Cippenham, lending his various skills on many occasions and in a variety of different ways.
In recognition of this award, Makarian has also been entered by the club into the Table Tennis England Pride awards as its Club Volunteer of the Year, and he was presented with a certificate by club founder and general secretary Graham Trimming.
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