Castle Donington Table Tennis Club

by Mike Starkie
(Melbourne, Derby, UK)

Castle Donington Table Tennis Club is in Melbourne, Derby, England.

We were founded in 1977 initially as a "Ping Pong Club".

However Stuart Russell was a successful league player in the Derby & District League, and had the idea of entering a team in this league.

This team consisted of Stuart, his teenage son Neil, and myself, Mike Starkie and we joined in Division 5.

We started playing in the Community college, but soon moved to the Baptist Hall, where we stayed for over 30 years until the upkeep of the hall became too much.

After a short spell in a local school we moved to Shardlow village hall, and are happily settled there, where the conditions are probably second to none in the league, including a sprung wooden floor which is something of a rarity nowadays.

We run 3 teams at present and we are always looking to recruit keen players to play league table tennis.