Start of celebration of the 75th anniversary of our club
Last Saturday, 3 September, TTV Amstelveen celebrated the opening of its 75th anniversary.
A report in the form of a short film can be found at YouTube.
The jubilee committee had prepared the day well and had put together a nice programme.
Everyone was received with a welcome drink and at about eleven o’clock we started.
After some nice words of welcome to all guests by our secretary Ben,
with a special welcome to our honorary members and members of merit,
a lovely video was played as an intro.
This was made by Sourabh with photos and videos provided by various (former) members.
This was followed by speeches by Mayor Tjapko Poppens who talked,
among other things, about sport as a form of inter connection,
NTTB Holland Noord chairman Arjen Kreike who ended his speech with a beautiful gavel as a gift
and finally our own chairman Arjan who, after all these earlier beautiful words,
skilfully improvised his speech into a shorter version.
You can read his entire speech via the button
After the official part, everyone went into the hall for the great clinic with Britt Eerland, arranged by Guus.
As usual, Britt was very enthusiastic and she played a demonstration against sparring partner Ryan.
After this, several members, including our oldest and honorary member Jaap Boerop
and several youth members, were invited to play some balls against her.
The originally planned half hour soon became an hour after which it was really time for the lunch provided by caterer Kragtwijk.
Everyone enjoyed the delicious tomato soup (with balls) and vegetable soup as well as the various rolls and tasty salads.
Of course, our vegetarian members were also catered for.
And as usual, there was also far too much, unfortunately due to the fact that a number of members had not turned up without prior notice….
Brian, meanwhile, was working on the format of the doubles tournament. As much as possible, youth members were matched with senior members.
Then the tournament was played in two seven-sided games, best of three.
In spite of sometimes occurring differences in level, the games were played very enjoyably
and it was wonderful to see the enthusiasm of the youth, but also of the senior members.
After the group matches, the numbers 3, 4, 5, 6 and 7 of both groups played each other as the final match.
After that the semi-finals ‘for the prizes’ were played between the numbers 1 and 2.
Han and Roy were just too strong for Mick and youth member Amrit; Paul and youth member Taha came up short against former chairman Marius and Atie.
Mick and Amrit (according to his own words his first prize ever!) won in the battle for 3rd place from Paul and Taha
and after an exciting 3 setter Atie and Marius won from Roy and Han!
In the canteen the special anniversary prizes were handed out.
Jaap Boerop, who turns 90 this December, also received a ‘special prize’ from his team mate Gerard
for being a member of TTV Amstelveen for over 57 years.
Due to the beautiful weather and the efforts of the tournament, everyone was very thirsty so the cold drinks were well appreciated.
Meanwhile, the Indian snacks (not too spicy) provided by Diwali restaurant had arrived. Delicious and definitely worth repeating.
There was some after-dinner chat, but after this rather long day, it was time to break up at around half past seven.
All in all, a great, successful day, not least because of the great help from Atie, Wanda and Monique (from Arjan) in particular.
But of course thanks to everyone who helped in any way on this day.
The jubilee committee has more ideas for this jubilee year, including a reunion for former members,
an open tournament for clubs from the area, an event for our youth members and a big party for all our members.
To be continued!