Dear Tabletenniser’s,

 We had an amazing 82 participants brave the chilly weather to come and play in our BTTC round robin this week.

Sally Sue upset the top division sweeping all players including Avishy Schmidt and Bunny Lee.

   With a premium on space and time we had sixteen sections, many with 5 players in each section. It takes a little longer for me to organize a large crowd

and I would appreciate a little assistance from volunteers occasionally. I was swamped w/ registration, money collection, problem solving, attention to the draw ,t-shirt sales

and only Anil Dhupelia came back to assist me by helping call the Late Reservation line .I need some more helpers and some people to actually take over for me once in a while. I want to train a few good people who are good at using a computer and then I can enjoy competing and focusing on my games too. Please remember I am a volunteering my time for all of you. ..

    Another small issue presented itself this week as the attendance expanded. Since there are so many players and limited time to play all of the matches  I called for a special rule of NO WARM-UPS before the matches (of course people can come early and warm-up as much as possible  between 6-7:15) As stated in the club policy …Warm-up time. A maximum of two minutes warm-up time is standard, but this should be minimized (towards zero minutes) when the club is crowded…. When I issue a No WARM-UP night please respect my wishes as you are hurting the chances to complete your own Round Robin. I heard many ignored the rule on Friday and obviously subsequently many matches were not completed. In the future I hope people will be more thoughtful.

  A couple of reminders from last week.. I have an important announcement regarding GLUING your paddles.  Ophelia our very nice Berkeley city staff member has requested that all gluing be done outside…she is pregnant and feels the fumes are potentially noxious and may hurt her baby. Let’s respect her wishes please...

BTTC T-shirt are on sale for $12, What a deal! The club is selling them at close to cost, they are good quality T-shirts with your club name on them! Only a few left at present, but I do plan to order more if there is interest..

This week’s Top Performers

Sally Sue +58 (actually 116 pts for players below 2000)

Kenny Wong +103

Terence Sun +102

Sebastian Belser+93

David Kant +89

Vania Chen +85

Wesley Boot +84

Anthony Cavazos +83

Justin Htuang +80

John Decker+74

Jeff Yu +58

Peter Chung +54

Evangelina Encalada +49

CONGRATS!       To view the RR results go to www.berkeleytabletennis.org  Please report any errors or omissions ASAP.I cannot change the posted result but will make the rating adjustments.

We are getting better about the courtesy of other players, but there still needs more reinforcing this idea as people forget….

Courtesy Reminder!   Please do not retrieve a ball from your game when it rolls to another table  or walk behind during another player’s active point play…this is distracting causing one player a serious disadvantage.

People need to be vigilant about this as it happens way too often….Just wait a few seconds for the point to be completed and say “LET!” Thanks for your consideration!

PLEASE DO NOT FORGET TO ARRIVE EARLY! REGISTRATION CLOSES AT 6:50 SHARP! If you are planning to be late then call the Cell Phone Reservation Number:  (510) 587-3388 before 6:35 PM. If you call this latecomer's number, please make sure to pronounce your first AND last name clearly. For non-native English speakers it is recommended to repeat their full name at least twice. We do not guarantee spots in our Round Robin tournament to latecomers who only left undecipherable messages.

Practice More, Play Better

Regards, Mike Labins