A group of people were honoured by Table Tennis England for their contributions to the sport during Finals Day at the Mark Bates Ltd National Championships.

They were the recipients of honours announced at the online AGM last July and included seven new Table Tennis England Vice-Presidents.

Vice-Presidencies are awarded for significant personal service to the governing body as volunteer, player, staff member, or partner, normally over a period of at least 10 years and at a national level.

Those presented with their VP honours by Anna Whowell, Table Tennis England Director, were:

• Neil Hurford – for his service as Chair of Members Advisory Group, on Committees, notably County Championships, as well as National Councillor for Oxfordshire
• Linda Jarvis – for her service as an England International, notably winning gold and silver medals in the 1976 European Table Tennis Championships Women’s Doubles and Team events, as well as representing England four times at the World Team Championships
• Matthew Kenny – for his service with British Para Table Tennis, notably as a Coach at four Paralympic Games
• Kim Mudge-Johnson – for her service as a Technical Official as well as Regional Chair for South East.
• Peter Simpson – for his service as Northern Staff Coach and National Team Coach
• Steve Smith – for his service as a Technical Official and on Competitions and Technical Officials Committees

Graham Frankel also becomes a Vice-President for his service to archives and governance as well as in Essex, but was unable to be at the Nationals.

The following awards were presented by Jos Kelly and Ray James, Table Tennis England Directors.

The Ivor Montagu Award, presented to a person who has made a significant personal contribution in the last calendar year to the administration of Table Tennis England at national level, was presented to Steve Pratt for his service on the Members Advisory Group and Nominations Committee.

The Leslie Forrest Memorial Trophy, awarded to a person who, in an administrative capacity in a participating county, has made an outstanding personal contribution to the County Championships over about 10 years, went to Tony Dias for his service to the County Championships on behalf of Middlesex.

The Victor Barna Award for the most notable performance by an English table tennis player during the last calendar year went to Tom Jarvis, for beating Jonathan Groth, world No 28, in the WTT Stockholm Feeder in the year he won his second Senior National Championships Singles title.

The Johnny Leach Award for the player showing most improvement while representing England or Great Britain in international competitions during the last calendar year was awarded to Abraham Sellado and Dimitar Dimitrov for their gold medal success in WTT Youth events. Dimitar was unable to be present at the Nationals

The Keith Ponting President’s Memorial Award is presented to a person who has given especially long and outstanding voluntary personal service to Table Tennis England over many years. This year, it went to Richard Scruton.

Just before the Mixed Doubles medal ceremony on Saturday, the Mike Watts Achievement Award – presented to the English boy and girl players who have made the greatest improvement in rating points between August 1 and the following July 31 – was presented for 2023/24 by Anna Whowell to Lauren Maxwell. The boys’ winner, Marcel Ndongala, was unable to attend.