• Greg Bristowe (Chair)
• Terry Saundry
• Kameron Chan
• Alan Trang
• Brian Zammit

A TEAM shall consist of 3-5 players. Teams may be all men, women, or mixed. All players listed in teams must play in singles games of a team match to be eligible to play the individual tournament

PLAYERS shall be registered with Table Tennis Victoria and:
(a)    Be bona fide members of the Association they are to represent, and
(b)    Have taken part in at least 3 matches on separate dates in that Association’s pennant competition since June 30th, 2023, and
(c)    At the closing date of entries either:
1. Live inside a radius of 32 km of the GPO Melbourne or
2. Live outside that radius but not TTV registered for a Country Association in 2022 or 2023.

Where a player competes in both a Country Association and a Metro Association, the player is not permitted to play in the Metro Challenge, unless they are TTV registered in 2023 in the Metropolitan Association.

STUDENTS or apprentices who have previously represented an Association and who temporarily live outside Melbourne for study or apprenticeship purposes may continue to represent their home Association during their study or tenure. A student from one metro area who is undertaking a course of study in another area can select which of the Associations he/she wishes to represent at the championships.

TEAMS ENTRIES
The use of substitute players, whilst welcome and recommended, often creates grading imbalances. The use of substitute players is regulated in an attempt to maintain the consistency of the grading throughout the tournament.
Provision to nominate up to 5 players (which should include any substitutes) has been made on the team's entry form. No other replacements will be permitted to play unless they are replacing a nominated player who has suffered injury or illness (please refer to the entry form for full details).

TEAMS FORMAT
There will be two formats used at this year's Metropolitan Championships, one will be six singles and one doubles (7 game format) and the other will be 9 singles matches (9 game format) and no doubles. All games are best of five games. Any player who wishes to play in the Individual tournament must play at least 1 round of singles matches.

Team Substitution: Players, who are included in the team as of grading, may substitute a player in the listed team in a team’s match once a result has occurred.

In a team match, only players listed in the first 3 singles matches can play the remaining singles matches of that team match - with the exemption of Team Substitution. Different players (who were originally entered in the submitted team entry) may play the doubles.

IMBALANCE OF STANDARD
Where an Association has an imbalance of standard or insufficient numbers, then subject to the approval of the Grading Committee it may combine with another Association to field a composite team. If an Association has a player(s) who can’t be included in a team may be nominated for a composite team and the Organising Committee will pair them with other player (s) of similar standard. The Association will be responsible for their player’s share of the team entry fee.

GRADES shall consist of up to 4 teams. Within any grade where possible, each team shall be given a minimum of 3 matches.

TEAM DRESS
Uniform shirts are to be always worn for all grades. Team players are encouraged to be uniformly dressed in their club shirts. If your Association does not have an official shirt, we ask that your teams all wear similar shirts. Composite team players are encouraged to compete in either their home club shirt or in shirts that are uniform in nature (i.e.: same colour and design)
 

GRADING OF TEAMS will be conducted at the grading meeting. The Grading Committee consists of Metro Championship Committee and a delegate from up to three other affiliates entering. These delegates should not be from the same affiliate as a member of the Metro Championship Committee. The grading committee will determine the grading of teams and their decision will be final. The Grading Committee will also determine which Shields are contested based on the numbers and strengths of entries.

Date & Time: Saturday, 25th May 2024 (time TBA)

Venue: Kilsyth 

Please note: This meeting will commence at a time to be decided and conclude within 1 hour, all Associations are encouraged to send a representative to the Grading Meeting. The Organising Committee and representatives of affiliated Associations form the Grading Committee for the Metropolitan Championships.

This Committee may, when grading teams, make such inquiries as it considers necessary, including consulting with Association officers, Victorian state selectors, and other relevant persons.

The grading committee may grade teams with higher or lower grades than those applied for by them.

The correct grading of teams always presents a challenge, especially when player performance is unknown. All Associations will be sent a summary of the teams entered and player history prior to the Grading Meeting.

Please ensure that the nominated email address for your Association contact is correct. This will arm your representative with as much knowledge as possible about the entrants’ performances prior to the final grading.

Please make sure your entries are submitted as early as possible to give the Organising Committee sufficient time to process them and get them back to you, especially if you do not have an email address.

If your Association cannot send a representative to the Grading Meeting, please contact Greg on 0411 237 351 or email me your players’ results, (both local and open tournament).

Each team entered will cost $105 with the closing date for team entries is Wednesday 22nd May at 6.00pm.

Please note the morning starting times for the matches are:

• Saturday 8.30 am
• Sunday 9.00 am
• Monday 8.45 am

Players should be at the Centre at least 20 minutes prior to the starting time so that matches can commence on time. Associations are asked to ensure that all players have been instructed on how to complete a score sheet and are familiar with the rules of table tennis. We also suggest that clubs give players the opportunity to practice umpiring at their home club pennant, using flip boards scorers, prior to the championships.

Associations may provide a scorebook for each team to record match results. A score sheet for each match will be provided. The home team is responsible to collect the score sheet from Tournament Control 15 minutes prior to the scheduled commencement time.

The winning team is responsible for ensuring that the results are recorded correctly (no need to add up the points) and returning the score sheet to tournament control at the conclusion of each match.

Plastic three Star 40mm White balls with be used for all events.

Please include players' Ratings Central ID number on their membership profile, this will assist in making the grading process easier and fairer.

Table Tennis Victoria seeks to rank its table tennis athletes according to their skill level, particularly within age categories, to assist with event seeding and for other selection and recognition purposes.

Each player’s skill level is described by a mean and standard deviation. i.e. 1000 +/- 50: 1000 being the mean and +/-50 being the standard deviation

These points are used to seed players in Individual events at the Metro Championships and will assist with the grading of teams.

When a player’s results have not been recorded to Rating Central, the player may not have a recorded skill level or points.

Clubs are requested to provide estimated points for players not recorded on Rating Central.

They should do this by utilizing their knowledge of the player and comparing it to other players with known points.

Event directors may specify a general points level for players which may not be based on knowledge of that player.

Where a player’s points on the system are inconsistent with their level of skill (usually a result of no results being recorded recently), their standard deviation shown with their points on “Rating Central” will be high – which shows a lower level of confidence in the accuracy of the points. The standard deviation can be used when seeding players.

If clubs believe the points allocated to a player are significantly different to their skill level (as compared to similar players), they can point this out on the notes section of the entry form, to the Grading meeting chairperson, or by a separate email, prior to grading day. This information will be viewed on a case-by-case basis.

The requirement to ensure your teams have players of a similar standard, wherever possible, is encouraged. Unless your club has just a single team entry, multiple team entries do need to be evenly graded to ensure that when the team is graded, they are placed into appropriate levels.

As you may be aware, Table Tennis Victoria has decided that players who compete in Open, Youth, Junior, or Veterans Age singles at the tournament will have State Team Points awarded. The State Team Points will be given to the age groups that a player competes in. The points allocation is as follows: 

• All age events, Open, Youth, Junior, Veterans Singles will be given State Team Points as if a normal tournament (i.e.: 32 for a win, 24 for Runner up, etc)

Individual Entry Form >

The Junior & Senior events will be played at Croydon & Districts Table Tennis Stadium

The Veterans (incl Over 30's) will be played at Greater Dandenong Table Tennis Stadium

All Tournament matches played on Monday 10th June

Players MUST qualify for a team event and have made themselves available for selection in a Metro Championships team this year to be eligible for participation in the individual events.

Event Schedule to be advised

Individuals Entry Form >

Team Entries are submitted through the club's revsport portal.

RevSport User Guide - Entering Teams >

We currently have four team Perpetual Shields and one individual Perpetual Sheild. These will stay at the Kilsyth Sports Stadium.

Presentation of awards for Individual Tournament will be awarded at conclusion of each event is held. The presentation of the Teams event will be conducted at the conclusion of the their grades events - though some team presentations may be conducted earlier if they finish much earlier than all other grades.