The TTV Board is delighted to announce that Greg Bristowe has been appointed by way of casual vacancy, as per rule 27.3 of the TTV Constitution, to fill the vacant position of Elected Director.

Greg was previously an Appointed Director of the TTV Board, with his term expiring on 10 August 2020. He has been a Director since 2015.

He is well-known to many people in Victorian table tennis circles as a stalwart of the Croydon & Districts Table Tennis Association, and volunteers a very significant amount of his time to the sport in this State.

He is Chair of both the State Selection Panel and Metropolitan Championships committees, as well as being a member of the Tournaments Committee and a previous member of the State Veterans Team.

Greg’s term will run until the 2022 AGM – please join us in welcoming Greg for a further term as a TTV Board Director.

There are now 2 (two) vacant positions available in the Appointed Director roles – more information will follow shortly regarding these.

Meet the Board – Greg Bristowe

In light of Greg’s appointment, we had a quick chat and asked him to answer a ‘Fast Five ‘ series of questions to help us get to know him a bit better, understand his goals for TTV, and learn some interesting things about him which you may not have known.

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

“I come from a family that has always played sport, with my parents and two brothers all playing table tennis, two sisters playing netball and other sports as well. We have all been involved in various ways no matter what sport we were involved with.

“I also have a love for history and statistics in sport, and have looked at previous times compared to current times with whichever sport I may be looking at. I am the current historian of Croydon & Districts Table Tennis Association (CDTTA), and have gone back through 1000’s of pages of documents and index player cards to update their records, which is still an ongoing hobby.

“Professionally, I have worked at three multinational companies over the last 24 years, all involved with logistics and supply - however all in completely different fields.”

What brought you to Table Tennis Victoria?

“I joined the TTV Board back in 2015. I had been on the Croydon Board for over 10 years at that stage, and I felt that it would be mutually beneficial to gain experience from the State Board and for me to bring aspects I had gathered from Croydon to the TTV Board.”

What goals do you have for table tennis in Victoria?

“I want to see growth in the sport in terms of participation and performance.

“Regarding participation, I think it’s extremely important to get even more children into the sport at an early age. It is often said, that without children, the future of the sport is on borrowed time, and it is so true. I also believe alongside this, we need to look into other ways of increasing participation, other than the typical ways that have always been done.

“Regarding performance, historically Victoria has usually been the strongest State in Australia. However, over the last 10-15 years, not as much – even with our top players. I would like to see Victoria pushing forward and increasing our playing level, not just at the top, but the second and third tiers as well. Especially for Open, Para & Juniors.”

What are your outside interests?

“I am an avid Collingwood member and support the Melbourne Storm in the NRL. I enjoy watching Formula One, and hope one day to go and see the Monaco Grand Prix.

“I have also travelled overseas a little and hope to do that again sometime soon. A highlight of mine has been visiting the Grand Canyon back in 2018.”

Can you tell us a few things that might surprise us about you?

“Though it’s not about me directly, my Dad’s parents use to own 10 acres in Kallista and they had the TV Show ‘The Sullivan’s’ film some of the Papua New Guinea part of the WW2 scenes on their property.

“My other grandfather represented Australia in football (soccer), and also played for Sunderland.

“The other interesting bit of information is that Kylie Minogue went to my Primary School for a brief time, and her brother was in my class.”