Emily Godfrey & Ben Matthews star at Southend Closed Championships

Rawreth Juniors players Emily Godfrey & Ben Matthews star at Southend Closed Championships by winning many trophes at this major tournament.

In the Ladies Singles Final, ever improving junior Emily Godfrey repeated her effort last year and retained her Title. This time she was up against County player Lin Attridge, winner of many titles. Emily didn't have things all her own way and with Emily's strong attack often matched by Lin’s clever counter attack, the match was well balanced at 2 sets each, before Emily eased away in the fifth to take the Title 11-7, 6-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-5.

In the Under 21s, the surprise of the night was the performance of Ben Matthews. In his Semi Final against Owen Warren, Premier Player Owen seemed far too strong and started well taking the first end. Ben then recovered to take the next 3 sets to reach the final, a great effort against a very good player. Ben winning 9-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-6

In the other under 21s there was nearly another upset when fast improving junior Sid Dorn pushed Premier Player Keiran Skeggs all the way to narrowly lose in 5 sets. Sid is the current Essex Under 14 champion and clearly is a Premier player of the future. Keiran took the match 12-10, 8-11, 11-9, 7-11, 11-8

In the final, Ben showed his composure and improvement. Kieran's more powerful shots always looked like they would be the decisive factor, but Ben kept plugging away and finally edged it in the final set to take the crown 7-11, 11-9, 2-11, 11-9, 11-8

Coaching Sessions at Warehouse Centre

Rawreth Juniors during the coaching sessions at the Warehouse Centre in Rayleigh.

What do we offer?

We offer table tennis coaching to girls and boys between 7 and 18 years old.

Our experienced coaches and volunteers aim to teach the necessary skills for children to be able to enjoy playing the game, have fun, and if they wish to, play in local leagues and local and national tournaments.

You need no prior experience, and do not need to own a bat.

                        Andy Nunn during a Table Tennis training session

If you are interested in learning how to play table tennis and enjoy a friendly environment, have a look at our website, find out a bit more about us, and get in touch via the Contact Us page.

We look forward to meeting you.

Mel and Andy, Rawreth Juniors TT Club

Welcome to Rawreth Juniors Club Blog

Rawreth Juniors was established 11 years ago. Three local league players whose children and grandchildren had started to take an interest in the sport decided to set up a club for Juniors only as there were no such clubs in the area. From those early days, the club has gone from strength to strength, and it now arguably one of the biggest clubs in the county.

Our club was formed in 2000 by George Reeves, David Nunn and Ken Field.  Each of these gentlemen had played the sport within the local league, had children who were involved in the sport, and identified a need for a Junior club in the area. 

We are proud to say that our President is Steve Tilson (former Manager of Southend United Football Club) who happens to be a Premiership Division table tennis player too!

Andy Nunn (Our present Chairman) became involved in the running of RJTTC with brother David in 2001 and eventually took over the running of the club with Mel Jones in 2007. 2008 saw the arrival of Stuart Gibbs (Ex-England Junior and Senior and current England VET) as our Head Coach. This bought about a change to the club in terms of a more structured approach to learning the game. Stuart bought a wealth of knowledge and experience to the club and willingly shared it with our Juniors.

More recently, the club has undertaken further development of its coaching effort. We have appointed Gareth Herbert as our Head Coach.

Gareth has been England ranked No 1 in all the age categories he could have (Cadets, Juniors and Seniors). He has represented the UK in the Commonwealth Games and has won two gold medals. Gareth became the England Junior Team Coach, the England Youth Development Head Coach and was named Young Coach of the Year 2004

Not only does Gareth have a wealth of experience in terms of his playing ability, he has been trained by some of the best coaches in the sport so can bring a vast knowledge of coaching techniques to the club. He has a positive attitude to the game, is very motivational and will make learning the sport varied and fun! He also recognises that not everyone wants to play competitively and that some children are just keen to play for fun.

Over the years, we have been incredibly fortunate to have the assistance of many table tennis players from the local leagues to assist with the development of our Juniors, and as a result our Juniors have enjoyed local tournament success and commendable Essex and National rankings. We have two teams of Juniors entered into the local league, who compete regularly.

Our aim is to introduce youngsters between the ages of 7 and 18 years to the sport, develop their playing ability and enjoyment of the sport; build the skills of appropriate etiquette and gamesmanship, encourage them to progress to competitive play within the Southend and District Table Tennis League (SDTTL) and where possible offer them opportunities to advance to County and National ranking standard.

We now have approximately 38 members of our club who train regularly here, with us usually having between 20 and 30 on any one given evening, and our club continues to go from strength to strength.