The Southern Districts Invitational Teams Tournament, annually held at the Goulburn Table Tennis Centre, has been put in doubt by the ongoing COVID-19 lockdowns.
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Goulburn Table Tennis Club treasurer, Nicola Fraser, said it looked "highly unlikely" that the popular competition would go ahead as scheduled at the end of October.
"We're unsure where that will sit or whether we'll have to postpone that," Fraser said.
"We'll have to have a Zoom committee meeting in the next week or so and make a decision on that, because a lot of the teams come from Sydney LGAs, the Illawarra region, Kiama, and Canberra.
"It's looking highly unlikely at this stage that we'll be able to proceed with that, but we'll have to see what the committee says."
The 2021 tournament would be the fifth edition of the event to take place in Goulburn. Last year, 24 teams - including four local sides - participated in what has become a highly-anticipated fixture on the table tennis calendar.
Like most sporting organisations in NSW, the GTTC has not been able to hold a competition of any kind since mid-August, when the statewide lockdown came into place.
To have to shut down the local competition for the duration of the lockdown was "very disappointing" for the committee, Fraser said, but she acknowledged the importance of protecting the public health first and foremost.
One of the hardest aspects of the GTTC's hiatus is the loss of funding, particularly as the club continues to pay rent.
"The members pay fees to play competition, and if the competition has to be abandoned, then those monies have to be refunded," Fraser said.
"Which basically means you're cutting short your club revenue, because if you're only playing one competition a year instead of two, effectively you're cutting out your competition fees by half a year. That does make a significant difference to our income.
"But the Workers Club last year were very good and gave us a rent subsidy on the time period when we weren't able to access the club. We'll approach them again this year for the same kind of consideration."
But more than the club's coffers, Fraser is concerned about the wellbeing of the members.
Players at the club range from teenagers through to those in their seventies and eighties. Table tennis not only provides them with a physical outlet, but an opportunity to socialise every week, which she says many dearly miss.
"In some ways it's a mental health issue for most of our members," Fraser said.
"They look forward to playing, competition is good for the morale and physical fitness. Most people at the club don't do much else other than table tennis, and of course the social aspect is very good for people as well."
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