The house I grew up in with 6 siblings had a front room which we turned into a "games room". This room included a dart board (with the obligatory holes in the wall around it); a "den" in one corner made by my younger sister and I and a large multipurpose foldaway table. Amongst other things, this table was used for dining; school homework; playing cards; board games and, most memorably of all for me, was used as a table tennis table.
We always had table tennis bats in the house as well as ping pong balls but never actually owned a bespoke table. This was no barrier to our inventiveness so when in the mood for a game we cleared the table, pulled the flaps out from underneath to bring it to it's maximum size, and used books in the middle of the table as a net. This made the game all the more interesting as the unevenness of the "net" made for a lot of ridiculous ricochets much to the annoyance of the player on the receiving end. The other peculiarities of our table were the cracks where the foldaway parts were. This meant that when the ball hit the crack it skewed off at a mad angle usually resulting in the player who had hit the crack winning the point. The loser of said point would then rant that the other player had deliberately targeted it. This was the era of John McEnroe so there would be rants about replaying the point etc. In hindsight, I believe the oddities of the table actually made me a better player.
When I was 14, there was a competition advertised on a noticeboard at school. It was for a Manchester U-15 table tennis tournament to be held in a couple of months time. It invited applicants and gave information including details of a local sports centre where applicants could practice in the build up to the tournament. I liked the sound of it so I applied, ignoring the "geek","dork" "bushy eye-browed little freak" etc taunts of my school mates. My application was accepted, then I started to practice at the sports centre.
At my first practice session I was asked if I had played on a tournament table before. I scoffed and replied "course I have". The truth was I had never even played on a real table tennis table before never mind a tournament one! I was paired up with another lad and we practiced for a while before starting a game. I could not believe how easy this felt. We obviously used to have our "book net" too high at home as this net seemed really low to me and the table was as smooth as silk. No foldaway cracks or angry brothers on the other side of the net was also helping of course. Anyway, I won quite a few games in practice over the next few weeks then it was time for the big tournament.
The tournament was played on a Saturday in a large school hall in Manchester. On arrival I had never seen so many table tennis tables in one place before and there were hundreds of boys and girls assembled. We were split into 2 large groups (boys and girls competitions were separate) and gave our names, school name, age etc. The organisers carried out a draw and I was told which table to go to and the name of who I would be playing. I had to wait a while for my first match. It was best of 3 games, first to 21. I won the first match 2-0 so progressed to the next round.
The noise in the hall was deafening as the tables were all tightly packed together. Eventually, I completely stunned myself (and our PE teacher) by reaching the semi finals. The lad I played in the semis was easily the toughest I had played so far. It was 1 game all, then 20 all in the final set. The rallies had been long and I started to tire. I was physically fit enough but had no real experience of controlling my upper arm strength and wrist action (?!). Somehow, I got through by the skin of my teeth to the final. I was told I was now guaranteed at least a medal. I was very excited.
We had to play the final almost immediately after the semi. I was knackered! The other lad in the final was of Chinese origin and a couple of the other lads whispered to me that he was "shit hot". They weren't wrong as he smashed me off the table. I lost 2-0 and only won about 6 points in the whole match. My nerves got the better of me a little as well as we had the whole hall watching us. It was a disappointing end to what had been a great day. They held a short presentation at the end and I felt very proud going up to receive my runners up medal and certificate. I still have the certificate to this day (saddo!) but lost the medal along the way somewhere but after this tournament I hardly picked up a table tennis bat again, not even on the "wrong pong" table at home.
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