The game in Connacht is at a very quiet time at the moment, so this years Chairpersons report is fairly short. We have only one league running in the province, The Galway League, with only one division in operation and even at that only 2 people to each team, with 7 teams in the league. So in Galway at present there are about 20 players and Athlone have 4 players affiliated and Mayo a handful of juniors,. Sligo we don’t get any correspondence back. So as you can see it is very hard to keep the game alive on the playing side of things. The Connacht Open was held in November and thanks to the Commercial Club, a very successful event was held. Connacht sent teams to the Senior Interpros in Belfast in March and to the junior Interpros in Cork in April. The Connacht Closed was held in Galway on May 5th with Sean Spelman winning the Men’s Singles and Karim Sabir the Vets Singles.
If the game is to survive in the West of Ireland something needs to be done to draw juniors and senior to the game or unfortunately the game will die in the next few years. The ‘99-’00 season started in the Autumn of 1999 with the Connacht Commercial Open Competition. This was successfully run by the Committee and created a small surplus of funds which was used to assist with the payment of affiliation fees to the I.T.T.A.
The year was again difficult as the number of persons wishing to become involved has decreased, and recruiting of persons onto committee’s and generally assisting is getting more difficult.
A number of Connacht Branch meetings were held at regular intervals during the year. At a frequency of about one per month, with greater frequency at times when matters had to be discussed.
Finance is an on going issue and much of the committee’s time spent in fund raising. Initially to cover the cost of affiliations to the I.T.T.A. in order to meet the requirements of the ongoing expenditure of the Branch, it was necessary to devote unnecessary time on matters of fund raising in order to meet the costs of expenses.
The number of persons affiliating with the Connacht Branch has decreased, with the bulk of the affiliations coming from Galway and Mayo. Despite best efforts, there have been no affiliations from Sligo, therefore it must be assumed that there is no one in competition in Sligo.
A Millennium Calendar was produced and launched by the Mayor of Galway at a well
attended social evening in the Commercial Boat Club Premises. Players past and present were in attendance and were given a reflective speech by alderman Declan McDonnell, which was well received by all in attendance. The proceeds of the sale of the calendar has assisted the expenditure of the Branch.
The senior Interpros put up very good performances this year at the tournament in Belfast and gained good results. The junior Interpros could only send a small number to Cork, as the participants were not available to take part to complete all the teams, but never the less those who went to Cork put up good performances and will fair better again, thanks to the experience. There is an intense effort being undertaken to encourage the schools to participate in the sport. This is to either continue or recommence where it may have lapsed. A great effort has to be put in place, it has already started, and will be revived.
This Autumn will see the start of Schools Table Tennis and we are hoping that a committee will be formed by the schools, with a rep on the Connacht Branch Committee.
On behalf of the Branch, I would like to record appreciation to a number of individuals who have worked so hard to sustain and promote our sport throughout the year.