Table tennis is gaining ground in Pakenham

By Marcus Uhe

Amid the thudding bounce, play and squeak of feet on the floorboards of Cardinia Life's basketball courts on Sunday afternoon, a new set of vibrations penetrates the eardrums.

The hollow bunts and soft rebounds of four table tennis tables create a fast rhythm of action and buzz of excitement as the Officer City Table Tennis Club finds its footing in its formative phase.

Operating under the leadership of highly regarded parent club Officer City Soccer Club, the table tennis component provides physical activity in Cardinia that addresses a yawning gap in the local market, and a new avenue for social inclusion, especially among the strong Asian immigrant communities. in the region.

Initially managed by the football club's brains in Cheree Appledore and Radmila Dyson, operations in recent months have been steered by Taral Madhiwala, one of the club's founding fathers.

Some of our players played football at Officer City Soccer Club and were already interested in table tennis, but from Pakenham all the way to Dandenong there is no table tennis club at all, Madhiwala said.

We used to get together with all the parents and play in our garage or play on outdoor tables in community parks, but ultimately we thought we needed something where everyone could come together and benefit the community.

Officer City Soccer Club gave us the initial support, they said you could start among us and all the paperwork was done by them.

There was a parent and coach meeting for football and we were randomly talking about how it would be great if we could have a place where we could spend some time playing table tennis. Cheree, the president, said we can start with that.

Open to all ages and abilities, the club offers informal play on four tables at Cardinia Life on Sunday afternoons, with interest and demand quickly exceeding capacity to the extent that doubles matches are mainly played out of necessity to meet the growing numbers.

Since its inception mid-year, 28 members have signed on the dotted line, while up to 40 members are awaiting approval once facilities allow for expansion.

For the football club, Appledore said the new venture presents an opportunity for a new and alternative offering, despite describing the original proposal as hair-brained.

We actually wanted to broaden our scope a little bit as well to get involved in some local community sports, and make better use of locations as well, she said.

There are many people who play indoor sports and do not necessarily enjoy the outdoor sport of football.

Discussions with our members showed that there was also a significant need for this in our area.

From a football perspective we have also been able to use our branding and membership base to encourage people to come along and just have a go.

The idea behind it is not necessarily to get more people involved in one sport or the other, but rather to be in partnership and offer people something different as well.

Pakenhams James Bathe Reserve, one of the football club's temporary homes, will soon provide tables for midweek matches, while short-term goals for the club include securing grants for volunteers to undertake coaching programs to help those starting their table tennis journey start.

In the long term, the club hopes to build a base to participate in club competitions.

What has stood out in recent months is that many parents want their children to learn table tennis, while when we started it was initially intended for people who can already play and who just needed company to play with, says Madhiwala.

That's how we started, but now we're having more and more children.

They are so eager to learn and now we don't have a coach at all, so we planned to send some of our members to the training, and once they complete their training, they will get their license and we can start coaching as well.

People who have never played table tennis before, if they come to play once, they really want to come again.

It was really music to their ears when they came to play once, just for a taster, and said: definitely come next week.