The Malta Table Tennis Association organised again this year the relatively new, but very popular, Team Grand Prix League.

This competition is held after the Malta National Table Tennis League has ended and is designed to provide valuable experience to the many young players who are now playing the sport in Malta. Also it provides competitive play for many players who wish to carry on playing after the National League has finished.

In order to give these young players the chance to play more experienced players in a competitive environment the rules of the Team Grand Prix League differ in many ways to the National League.

Teams entering the competition may only consist of one National League Division 1 player, may only consist of one National League Division 2 player and furthermore players who played together in the National League, irrespective of division, cannot be part of the same team.

These changes mean that the younger and less experienced players, who are usually in division 3 of the National League, get the chance to play with and against players they would hardly ever meet in competition. Players also get the chance to play their normal team mates.

Top players also gain valuable experience in motivational skills, as to win this competition team captains must get the best from all their players.

This year 16 teams entered the Team Grand prix League.

The competition was then played over two rounds, at first the teams were seeded and split into four groups of four where all teams played the other teams in their group.

The second and final round was again made up of four groups of four but this time the teams of each group were made up depending on their results of the first round.

At the end of this second round there is then a final order of 1 to 16.

Matches are played as a best of nine sets where all three players of one team play all three players of their opponents. A point is awarded for each set won which makes every encounter important to the overall result in each round.

Because this competition is open to all players and all players play the same amount of matches, irrespective of results, this competition is also an official MTTA ranking event.

The MTTA run a comprehensive ranking system, all players have an individual ranking value from points won in the National League and various ranking tournaments throughout the year.

The teams that make up the Team Grand Prix League were seeded initially as per the combined points value of their best 3 players, (teams may register a maximum of 4 players and a minimum of 3).

The overall winners, Team San Gwann, comprised of players Claudio Tufigno (Malta National Team), Paul Dawson, Charles Sammut and reserve Catherine Caruana. Second placed team, Owner’s Best, comprised of players Edward Baldacchino (Malta National Champion) and promising Juniors Matthew Micallef and Andrew Gambina.