Promotion, competition, and contrasts: UTTC looks back on an eventful spring season. The highlight, of course, was the second team’s promotion!

Apart from the cup, the league season is over. It’s time to celebrate, because UTTC 2 will be joining the first team in the top division (applause!). In the new lineup, with the cool-headed Sebastián as a steadfast three-pointer, the ambitions to be promoted have finally been realized. And that with a solid 7-point lead over SVE 5, which drew in the first match but lost at home. The final match, away against bottom-of-the-table Almeerspin 2, resulted in a ruthless 10-0 victory; Sebastián wasn’t even needed for that.

Our Colombian table tennis talent, with 25 out of 27 points (93%), managed to boost his sky-high rating by another 63 rating points and is certainly worthy of the top division, as was evident during a substitute appearance for Team 1. Haitham and Frederik also did well, not so much in terms of rating, but in terms of results: they won 76 and 67 percent of their matches, respectively. Unfortunately, Steven lost more than he won. But who knows what he’s capable of in the top division!

Team 1, the “flagship” of our little club, naturally hoped to bounce back up to the third division, but Peter Marijn’s departure proved to be too big a blow, especially against some pretty tough competition. With a third-place finish, Walter, Mark, and Maarten can make another run at promotion next season. Walter scored 20 out of 29, making him the team’s top scorer, but knowing him, that’s not good enough.

Jurian, Nicolaas, I Made, and Zhongyi (Team 4) performed well in the second division but finished well behind group winner VEV 1. I Made scored the most points (16 out of 21), and Zhongyi and Jurian also did well, though we saw the latter, as is often the case, struggling with his motivation (“Since the celluloid ball disappeared, it’s been nothing”) and the second division doesn’t seem to be his thing. Nicolaas, who miraculously manages to combine the presidency of our club with growing wings, scored a respectable 58 percent. Hats off to him.

Maarten (Team 1) shares his analysis with Nicolaas (Team 2)

Less fortunate teams are UTTC 3, 5, 6, and 7. Team 3 is one of contrasts and, despite Dmitri’s fantastic play (26 out of 30), shares fifth place with SVE 6. Marco, back after a long absence, doesn’t seem to have fully recovered from his injury yet (“I just see it as training…”). Erik, on the other hand, has climbed out of his slump and, hooray, has earned himself 122 rating points, while Simon, on the other hand, had a tough season; let’s not even talk about those rating points.

Unfortunately, the fourth division proved a bit too much for Team 5. They finished last in the pool and are returning to the fifth division. This is certainly linked to Nick’s health issues; he was on a roll until last year but managed to win only 3 out of 15 games this time. Hopefully he’ll recover soon! Claudio and Mike also performed below expectations. Long Jie scored 64 percent (9 out of 14), but Remy played twice as many matches and finished at 54 percent. In a more balanced team, that should have been enough to stay in the division.

Long Jie in an away match at SVE, unfortunately not enough to stay up

The undisputed relegation candidate is UTTC 6. Jan, Ton, Remco, Sjors, and Tanja managed to scrape together only 13 measly points. The 1-9 score was a common occurrence, and they weren’t even spared a 0-10 loss. “Good old” Jan managed to hit the 33 percent mark with 6 wins, but that was it. This team officially doesn’t belong in the fifth division, but it tagged along with Sjors’ depleted team, who was too busy with other hobbies this season to show his usual level of play.

Team 7, as is tradition (?), also finished at the bottom, but luckily there is no seventh division in our region. Still, Vincent’s performance stands out; he is certainly worthy of the title “top scorer” (16 out of 21) and has gained a nice boost in rating (806).

Duo

In the duo competition, Marc, Luuk, and Steven (Team 1) managed to hold their own in the first division, thanks in part to substitute Haitham.

The regular duo of Remco and Sayad (Team 2), with similar scores, finished in the middle of the pack in the third division, although they were only a few points behind the leaders.

The new third team of Vincent, Jeroen, and Mevlut finished in a tie for fifth place with ONI 1, with just 9 points. Hopefully they’ll do better next year in the sixth division.

Youth

Following the departure of a group of friends from the youth division, only two youth teams remain active for UTTC. The first team unfortunately had to concede the title to Hilversum 4 and finished in second place. Jelte (85%) and Albaraa (77%) contributed the most match points.

Team 2 is clearly less experienced and unfortunately finished at the bottom, entirely in line with the modest team rating (94). Alon, Olle, Shivansh, Vedant, and Douwe are sure to do better next year. League play is a whole different world; you have to gain some experience in it first.