(WELCOME Philip Yang - Grimsby\Cleethorpes)
My earliest recollection of playing Table Tennis was on a kitchen table. TT nets and hard bats were cheap then. The tables I played on in various houses were about a quarter the size of an official one, if that. When I was about eleven I was winning all my games. Then a new friend beat me and I burst into tears! I hate admitting this now, but the upside was that his dad took me aside to give me some tips. In fact he taught me how to hold the bat correctly with my forefinger running across the base of the blade (Western Grip).
I then remember playing a few games at school. The
full table seemed enormous then, and mostly we pushed the ball about. In the
sixth form there was a school team player who had a great backhand flick. He
sort of turned over the ball in a lovely curve, all from the wrist. I copied
this and it remains my best shot at fifty eight. At about sixteen I impressed
with my retrieving and pushing. One guy complained that he would hit a hard
shot, and then, very late, my arm would stretch out to lob it back. I had no
attack however.
College really got me started as a regular player. Our
common room had a table and hard bats. We played “Winner stays on” and after a
short while I was playing most of the time! I must have got cocky (as in
bigheaded) because my fellow students dubbed me Alvin (Lee) after the rock
star. In 1971 I reached the final of the polytechnic closed championship,
winning my first medal. Actually I only received the medal when the PE
Department tracked me down playing lawn tennis. I hadn’t realised a medal was
on offer... In the final I was well beaten about 21-10, 21-12 by a very steady
pusher. Something to learn from.
As I reported earlier, I made my league (Division 8!)
debut for the polytechnic soon after. I
played about four matches under the name Alex (to save on league
subscriptions)! In my third match or so I came up against some decent chop
players, who gave me a heavy mauling. I felt like quitting the game and not
making a fool of myself any more. Instead, however, I consulted a TT book and
learnt how to play against chop.
My next memory was in the late 1970s when I was a
secondary school English teacher. Some sixth formers approached me and asked if
I would form a new league team with them. We had three years of enormous success:
they learnt and improved at a phenomenal rate. I well recollect my first league
match for them, against a “Coal Board” team. My first opponent, knowing we were
new, insisted on crashing every ball away with every shot of his warm-up!
Intimidation or what? I was annoyed. He made me determined to win, if I could.
I could and did! A year or so later a higher division player used the same
tactic against me in the closed championship quarter-final. During the knock-up
I hardly touched the ball. First game, I won 21-9, on my way to the semi...
Another story I like to tell is about when I missed
our match at the local fire station. The lads told me the alarm went off during
play and hordes of fire-fighters shot down the poles and past them!
In 1982 I moved to Humberside (East England) and
joined the local league there. Yes I’m heading for thirty years in that league,
most of them in Division Two. That’s another story. This year I’m having my
third crack at Division One. That will be like going into the English
Association Football Premiership. Another “Learning Curve” for me.
©
Paul Butters, Yorkshire. Monday 20\9\2010 at 20.10.
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