Congratulations to Sue Hayes, winner of Table Tennis England's Pride of Table Tennis award for Southern Region Female Volunteer of the Year. This is a richly deserved award for Sue who has been at the forefront of table tennis coaching and administration for four decades.

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Sue was nominated by the Buckinghamshire County Table Tennis Association for who she is currently General Secretary, National Councillor and acting County Teams' Secretary. The citation for her nomination reads as follows:

 

"Sue has been a busy volunteer at Cippenham since 1997 in various roles and a committee member there for 15 years until she joined the Bucks County Committee as Secretary in 2015. She continues to play an important part in many of the activities at Cippenham and in the management of the County's interests. She has qualifications which she puts to good use as a Level 4 Senior Coach, Tutor Assessor, Tournament Organiser, Referee and County Umpire and also as an Internal Verifier."

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Before moving to Slough and joining Cippenham in 1997 Sue was involved with the Hastings League services as their Match Secretary from 1984. In 1987 Sue moved across to the Eastbourne League and chaired that organisation from 1991 to 1997, qualifying around that time as a coach and as a County Umpire.

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It took Sue very little time to make an impact at Cippenham, joining the Management Committee in 1999 and winning the Outstanding Contribution Award the same year. In 2004 Sue became the Club's Deputy Chairman and retained that position until 2019 when she relinquished the post to allow her to spend more time caring for her ageing mother.

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Much of Sue's involvement over the past two decades has been in the field of coaching where she uses her Level 4 coaching qualification as one of the Club's lead coaches. Sue is also a qualified Tournament Organiser and Tournament Referee and organises and/or referees some of the Club's many open tournaments.

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This is not the first Table Tennis England award that Sue has received as she has twice been the national Female Coach of the Year, in 2001 and 2008.

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Table tennis runs in Sue's blood. Both of her parents were England international players in the 1950s and her son David played for Ireland in the World Championships of 2007. Daughter Catherine was the ETTA Young Volunteer of the Year in 2006.

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