Christmas was celebrated at Cippenham on Thursday with a "Festive Evening" for members and their families. The evening included the presentation of the annual awards and a friendly hard-bat competition for those who simply can't stop playing just because it's Christmas.

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The event is now our main annual get-together and was well supported by about forty people. There was mulled wine, mince pies and plenty of other tasty stuff to eat and drink. There was a quiz in which attendees had to identify celebrities playing table tennis - not quite as easy as it sounds as their faces were obscured! The whole evening was set-up and organised by Martin Adams, to whom we extend our grateful thanks,

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The first event of the evening was the presentation of our annual awards, presided over by Sue Hayes. For very many years this has been a highlight of the year with our junior and senior players of the year honoured and the prestigious award for outstanding contribution made to our most valued volunteer of the year.

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The first presentation was for the Alan Farral and Terry Boxall Junior Player of the Year, won by Louis Alexander for his hard work and general improvement during the year in which he debuted for the Club in the Senior British League. The Senior Player of the Year award went to Martin Adams who celebrated 300 appearances for Cippenham in the Senior British League and has been a mainstay of our top team for a quarter of a century. The highlight is always the presentation of the Karen Mitchell Outstanding Contribution Award. This year the award went to 14-years old Bharath Prasanna Kumar for his general and willing help around the club whenever he is there. This season he has also taken over the weekday Duty Officer role aided by his mother Jyothi.

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Of course, we could not let the evening go by without a little table tennis. Twenty-seven players took to the tables for a friendly hard-bat competition. The players were organised into eight groups with the group winners and runners-up progressing into the knock-out stages. The quarter-final winners were Sai Prasanna Kumar against Anna Piercey, Louis Alexander against Albert Cheung, George Driscoll against Elroy Hull and Jamie Woodford over Tim. So the four semi-finalists were all juniors, as is becoming common at the club. At this stage last years winner Sai was defeated by Louis but last year's runner-up Jamie reached his second final in a row by beating George. Jamie beat Louis in the final.