Fritwell now has 2 teams competing in the Banbury League for the 2025/26 season. So what is the Banbury League and how does competitive Table Tennis work?
The Banbury and District Table Tennis Association, ( https://banbury.ttleagues.com/ ) was formed in the 1940s. It organises Table Tennis for clubs located within 15 miles of Banbury. The Banbury League has teams from as far north of Banbury as Shipston, and as far south as Fritwell. Other villages which have teams include Tadmarten, Bloxham, Mollington and Ratley. Bodicote, which is probably the closest club to the centre of Banbury, is also the biggest club in the League with 7 teams.
There are 3 Divisions in the League, with Fritwell teams in Divisions 2 and 3. Each Division has around 8 teams and each team in a Division plays every other team in that Division twice, home and away.
There are 3 players in a team, and a league match consists of 9 singles (with the 3 players from each team playing each of their opponents) and one doubles game. A “game” is the best of 5 sets, each played to 11 points. Once all the games are played the individual games won are counted. So a draw would be 5-5, with each team getting 5 points (both getting a point for each of the games they won). A win where the victorious team won 6 games would be 6 points to the winning team, 4 to the losers, and so on up to a game where the victors win 10 games and score 10 points leaving the losers empty handed.
