75th Jubilee 1934-2009

Empire Table Tennis Club

Located at Marine Parade, Petone, Lower Hutt, Wellington - Phone 568 6054

75th Jubilee

Jubilee Weekend

Jubilee Events

Jubilee Weekend 18-20 September 2009

Jubilee Tournament

An Open Veterans Championships was held on Sunday March 29. Results are below.

Singles

Over 70 Men's			Over 40 Men's
Name	W		Name	Div
Jim Jarmin	5	1	Bryan McConnochie	1	1
Ian White	4	2	Chris Talbot	1	2
Eddie Moore	3	3	Ian Talbot	1	3
Leo Barnett	2	4	John Raumati	2	1
Ron Menchi	1	5	Scott Higham	2	2
Merv Allardyce	0	6	Stewart Hickford	2	3
Over 40 Women's			Graeme Jackson	3	1
Name	W		Dzung Nguyen	3	2
Mary Law	3	1	Pavle Mogin	3	3
Joyce Skinner	2	2	Nha Nguyen	4	1
Lan Hui	1	3	Wayne Upjohn	4	2
Melanie Armstrong	0	4	Richard Dalziel	4	3

Doubles

Over 40
Bryan McConnochie & Scott Higham	1
Chris Talbot & Ian Talbot	2
Stewart Hickford & Ra Raumati	3
Graeme Jackson & Wayne Upjohn	4
Dzung Nguyen & Nha Nguyen	5
Richard Dalziel & Lan Hui	6
Pavle Mogin & Melanie Armstrong	7
Over 70
Jim Jarmin & Ian White	1
Merv Allardyce & Ron Menchi	2
Eddie Moore & Leo Barnett	3
Mary Law & Joyce Skinner	4
Womens
Melanie Armstrong & Lan Hui	1
Mary Law & Joyce Skinner	2

Jubilee Book - Launch Date July 8, 2009

Empire started its 75th jubilee season with the launch of a club history. Building on the original history by founder Alf Harding for the 50th jubilee, “Empire Table Tennis Club, 75 Years Old and Growing” contains much meticulous research by its editor, John Kiley, as well as contributions from other members, including two of the youngest, aged six and nine.
John, who joined Empire in 1964, has himself been one of the long line of faithful club volunteers, serving on the management committee including a stint as chairman, secretary, newsletter writer, as assistant club captain, the all important raffle organiser and of course, a player.
In a message to the gathering, Hutt City councillor Joy Baird commented on the people of vision who made the club such a success, families like Harding, Menchi, Allardyce, Giles, Cleland and many others who are mentioned in the book.

“Empire Table Tennis Club, 75 Years Old and Growing” is 84 pages in total and illustrated by 196 photographs. It was published and printed in Wellington by First Edition Ltd. It is available at the club at a cost of $30.

Guests
70+ members and guests attended the launch
John Yvonne
John Kiley and Yvonne Airey read from the book
Quin
Local MP Paul Quinn was amongst the guests
Reading
Many began reading straight away

Numerous photos from the launch are available to view.

Jubilee Merchandise

To order merchandise complete an order form (pdf) and email to promotion@empirett.org.nz.

Book

84 pages including colour photos. This is a high quality publication chronicling the first 75 years of the Empire Table Tennis Club. John Kiley (editor) has put countless hours into this fine publication.

book open

Just $30 per copy

Polo Shirts

Another quality item are these polo shirts. They are available in men's, women's and children's styles and sizes and two colour schemes. Each has the Empire jubilee logo embroidered on the chest.

shirt1 This picture shows the mens shirt in Navy/Red.

shirt2 This picture shows the women's shirt in Ash/Black

Shirts will be on sale at the Jubilee Book Launch on July 8. Shirts are $35 each. Extremely large shirts may cost extra.

Wine Glasses

Wine glasses have a printed Empire Jubilee Logo.

wine The wine glasses are $18 each or $60 for a set of 4. Glasses come presented in a gift box.

Beer Glass

Beer glasses have a printed Empire Jubilee Logo.

beer The beer glasses are $15 each or $50 for a set of 4. Glasses come presented in a gift box.

Jubilee Weekend

September 18-20, 2009.

The following people registered for the jubilee weekend.

Anne Henry	Gary & Lynne (Harding) Heyden	Mary Law
Anthony Arraj	Gary Murphy	Melanie Armstrong
Antonio & Shirley Karena	Hone Ridley	Merv Allardyce
Arthur Lee	Jean Capstick	Monique Macartney
Audrey St Clair	Jim & Shona Jarmin	Pat Lee
Barbara & Bill Kilmartin	John Kiley	Peter Horne
Bob & Yvonne Airey	John Ogilvie	Robert Macartney
Bruce & Margaret Connolly	John Wales	Robin Radford
Caroline van Shaik & John Kane	Joy Mozer	Rose & Stephen Douglas
Chris Talbot & Deidre	Juli & Tony Williams	Russell McStay
Chris & Norma Williams	Tony Williams	Shirley Ivan (Harding)
Christine Robb	Ken Hindson	Shona Jarmin
Colin & Maggie Dyer	Keren Bartlett	Stephan Gerschewski
Maggie Dyer	Leanna & Ron Menchi	Tony Pearson
Wendy Ellery-Robinson	Leonard Hunter	Tony Rutledge
Dawn & Kees Dorresteyn	Lois & Russell McStay	Val Muirhead
Diane Hope (Allardyce) Stephen	Maggie Dyer	Yvonne Airey (Blackett)
Stephen Hope	Margaret Allardyce	Muriel Mouat
Dick Lynn	Margaret Cloughley	Graham Sole
Don & Pat Lee	Margaret Holdsworth (Wall)	Rhonda Evans
Eddie Moore	Margaret Wysocki

Friday Night: Registration and mix and mingle at Empire Stadium.

45 people attended this event. Photos are available at this link.

Saturday Morning (10-1pm): Fun tournament at Empire Stadium (included lunch).

Only 17 people played in this event but a lot of fun was had. We cannot recall who won. Monique Macartney took some photos during the day.

Saturday Night: Jubilee Dinner

Venue was Jetty Cafe, 160 The Esplanade Petone. About 50 attended the dinner and we were entertained by guest speaker, Peter Horne who spoke about his sporting career. Peter was once a table tennis player at Empire but went on to greater fame as a lawn bowler at the Paralympics. See photos of the dinner.

Sunday: Club Open Day

A chance for an informal hit. Some of the jubilee participants showed up but it was mainly a day for the public. About 60 came and enjoyed our facilities.

Jubilee Messages

From Chris Clegg

I was a very active junior member in the late 1970's and 1980's but have been living outside New Zealand now for almost 20 years. It is now unlikely that I will return as I am currently living in London, UK.

On the occasion of the 75th Jubilee - I would like to ask you to pass on my best regards to any active members that remember me and particularly those that I still hold in high regard. In no particular order I would include among those Ron Menchi, Merv Allardyce, John Kiley and Tony Rutledge. I hope they are all still active and in good health. Other members who have passed on who I remember well from that period include Alf Harding, "Kiwi" Keith Pointon and the infamous John Lelliott.

As a junior member I learnt many life lessons at the Empire Table Tennis Club, and I have many clear recollections of my table tennis times with the afore-mentioned members - you might want to share some of them with active members.

John Lelliott was an unforgettable and controversial figure as he was always an activist pushing some agenda or other - however he had the relatively rare virtue of being able to agree to disagree and move forwards. A true story from the late 70's is that Ron Menchi gave me a ride down to club night 1x a week for many years in my junior days and I'm particularly appreciative of the availability and good humor that he showed towards me. Ron had patience in buckets (i'm sure I used up more than my fair share of it) and was always ready with a humorous quip. I recall Merv as being somewhat the opposite of John Lelliott - a modest and self-effacing gentleman with the ability to make astute observations - particularly on my table tennis technique! I remember John Kiley as a very generous and wise person towards me, his cocktail of defense and offensive style at the other side of the court was one of my first intellectual hurdles as a teen ager! I have a clear memory of some real 70's long hair - I can't even imagine him with short hair! Tony and I played singles and doubles together many, many times - a particularly good natured and jovial person with a pimpled bat - I can still remember many of the acrobatic points that we played together - Tony was always very good company.

For those interested members I include a little personal history from the last 20 years.

The last time I played competitive table tennis was when I was living in New York in the early 1990's when at the time I was working as an investment banker on Wall St. for JP Morgan. I moved to London in 1996 to work for Europe's largest bank - Deutsche Bank - and I recall that I was unable to find anywhere in central London, where I live, to play table tennis! All the clubs are out in the more distant suburbs - as a result I started to play lawn tennis during the limited spare time that I had. Last year I retired from investment banking and these days I spend my days following the global financial markets - stocks, bonds, currencies and the like - and also playing with my 4 month old son - Matteo Patrick - born to my Italian wife, Stefania in March this year. Last year I started to play lawn tennis competitively here in London and although I have not played in rated tournaments this year due to my other commitments and lack of time to do fitness training, I am somewhat surprised to note on the UK LTA ranking list that I am still ranked No. 2 in the Over 40 category in the county of Middlesex which includes Greater London. As it happens, I am playing in the National Club League this afternoon which is the premier tennis interclub competition in the UK - it is Wimbledon fortnight so there is always a risk that it will be rained out!

Again please accept my best wishes for the jubilee celebrations and my best regards to all members of my era!

Chris Clegg

Glenys Morgan

I will be unable to attend, but wish the ETTC all the very best for their celebrations and hope it goes well. Could you please register my apologies.
With thanks
Glenys Morgan(nee Maunder).

Jubilee Organisation

Organisation of the jubilee was headed by board members Diane and Stephen Hope.

Thanks to the following people for their help on the jubilee committee:

Stephen Hope, John Kiley, Michael Xu, Nola Borrell, Merv Allardyce, John Kane, Len Hunter, Chris Williams, Margaret Connolly, Diane Hope, Yvonne Airey, Ron Menchi, Maggie Dyer

Last Updated 31 December, 2009