BRIEF HISTORY OF RIPOLLET TABLE TENNIS CLUB

The origins

It was in 1950 when some members of the Parish Centre of Ripollet were gathering together by the firewood. They were having a pleasant chat when someone suggested placing a Ping-Pong table in one of the small rooms of that centre.

In order to face the fore coming expenses, they agreed to charge 0.50 cents per an hour game, and those who would not bring their own ball or their own racket they would be charged 1 peseta per hour.

One of the enthusiast players made a cupboard with some shelves in it, meant to keep the players' rackets.

The first years

During the first years, individual and double tournaments (both men and women) were organised, addressed mainly to the members of the Parish Centre. The number of enthusiast players increased more and more, and they started to participate in amateur matches with other Clubs. At the time competitions took place on Sunday afternoons.

Foundation of the Club

When people noticed the Table Tennis success in Ripollet, some enthusiasts of the small ball decided the creation of our Club.

Mr Francesc Barneda (first President), Josep Sanahuja, Josep Maria Llargués, Aleix Panis y Joan Mañosa lay the stone foundation of this entity, which is now the fourth oldest of the town. This happened in the season 1953-1954:" The Tennis Table Moral Club of Ripollet" became eventually part of federate sport.

The first men players

The most outstanding players of the first generation were: Josep Maria Llargués, Aleix Panis, Jaume Sucarrats, Jaume Vila, Francesc Miquel, and Carmelo Vera.

Ramón Argenté (our second and current President), Medir Mogas, Josep Maria Casamitjana and Ramón Riera represented the second generation of players.

At the time, Ramón Argenté started to work and promote tennis table at the schools of Ripollet. He also worked as a coach. Fruit of his task was the incorporation of new players defending the Club colours: Joan Roviralta, Salvador Riera, Carles Riera, Antonio Amate, Josep Soto, Joan Pàmies, and Salvador Malla, among others.

The first women players

From the very beginning, Ripollet has been renowned for having very good table tennis women players. Nuria Dausà, Marta Figueres, Silvia Mañosa, Montserrat Ciffoni, Maria Roca, Dolors Font, Rosa Miquel, Montserrat Raurell, Eulalia Navinés, As delegates, Maria Palau, and Maria Masachs were spearhead of female table tennis in our town. In the 1965-66 season, our club had already two women teams in official competitions and they played a decisive role in the championships in Barcelona . This women team designed and made the Club flag.

Acknowledgements

From these pages, we wish to thank sincerely those players, collaborators, and board of direction who worked so enthusiastically during the first years of existence of our Club. Thanks to them, we can show and enjoy our present situation.

The new era

In 1982, the Club took up a new era of growth and promotion. Especial work sessions with teenagers started in a more professional way and the number of male and female players increased continuously.

Our Headquarters

The Parish Centre premises became smaller for our needs, and we were compelled to look for new premises. Firstly, the Municipality offered us provisionally some premises in the residence association in Can Clos. We set up 5 tables there, besides the 2 tables we had already installed in the Parish Centre. Finally, when the new Sport centre was built up, the Municipality of Ripollet and Generalitat of Catalunya allowed us to have our new headquarters in this Sport centre where the training sessions take place. There is all kind of facilities: changing rooms, showers, an office and 13 tennis tables.