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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 

entire speach

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!

For 75 years, table tennis club Amstelveen has been a pleasant and flourishing club for everyone. Competitive and recreational players, seniors and juniors and even a separate 55+ group, everybody is welcome. Come and play 3 times for free to check out whether this sport and this club suits you. 

Any questions? Please email us
register as a new member
competition results and tables

You can find us here:
Landtong 14, 1186 GP Amstelveen

Copyright TTV Amstelveen 2023
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Translation from Dutch:

Dear attendees 

I would like to welcome you to the start of the 75th anniversary of Table Tennis Club Amstelveen.

The club has not always been called that.

When our predecessor was founded in 1947, we started as VDO or Vaardig Door Oefening (Skilled Through Practice ) and yes, we began our story in Amsterdam.

Then we merged with table tennis club Rembrand from Amstelveen. So that’s how we ended up in Amstelveen and the name VDO was adopted by the merger club.

In 1974 we acquired a sponsorship by NMB and became NMB/VDO and got a hall at the Van Heuven Goedhartlaan with our own canteen attached to the gym but still without a view of the hall. This was made possible by the efforts of Ferry Verbraak.

We stayed there for 23 years and had many successes. We were even the largest table tennis club with 9 national senior teams. This meant that on Saturdays and all weekdays it was always entertaining. We also played in the honorary division and became third in the Netherlands.

In those days we also had great trainers, including Bob and Els Lijesen, who I was also able to learn from. And I still have memories of the rides to tournaments in the Duck.

Because of the merger of the NMB with the Postbank to ING, we had to change our name and became the Table Tennis Association Amstelveen (1992).  But there was another change coming our way.

The plans for the Amstelveen shopping centre were announced and so we had to look for a new site, as the land was needed for a park and houses.  That was found at the Landtong and a beautiful canteen was built there too, with a fantastic view of the hall from the canteen.

In 1997, we were allowed to move into this beautiful building, which is still in use today.

So we are celebrating our 75th anniversary here in 2022, but we already know that we will be celebrating our 80th anniversary not far from here in our future new location.  Because of new spatial developments, houses will be built at this location. Fortunately, after much negotiation, we were able to get a nice spot in the new school and the hall will be bigger so we can place more tables and therefore growth will be possible.

During all these years, there have been many board members and chairmen who have managed the club. Some had more on their minds than others but everyone tried to make the best of it. A few presidents who have done a lot for the club: Ferry Verbraak, Fred Bouwman, Els Lijssen, Mick Hage, Marius Hettema.

The current board took over the reins after the club led an almost dormant existence. By cutting back on finances, the financial position was restored. And through the efforts of our volunteer trainers, including Marijke, Guus and Harry, life was breathed back into our youth department and the club came back to life. The website was also renewed and made available in several languages.

Partly because of this, we are a growing club (against the national trend) with a good basis and a multicultural composition. We see that expats like to come and play and we have members from India, China, Japan and many other countries. We hope that we will have many successes with our competition teams, but also that our recreational players and people over 55 will enjoy the game.

In the future, we still have a long-cherished wish for our own location and hall, which our Ladi would like to see realised and for which he is doing his utmost to achieve.

But for now, we are happy to have reached our 75th birthday and be able to open our anniversary year today with some fun activities.

Have fun today