Stories, tall tales and anecdotes

Many years ago when matches were played to 21, I was playing for a school team against some local office workers. So I was 17 and my opponent was about 30, tall, wide and covered with tattoos . He was known locally as having a bit of a temper and always played in bare feet. I won a close 1st game then lost heavily in the 2nd. The 3rd was not going well. I was 20:15 down but at least it was my serve. I proceeded to win the next 5 points by either nets or edges. 20:20 and yes his serve. I wasn't great at returning serves. He serves I push the ball and it clips the top of the net and drops over. My match! My opponent slams his bat down on the table, he looks very very angry, he stomps barefoot round the table. I stand still in terror thinking I am about to get his opinion about what just happened. He looks me straight in the eye, his face bright red, he calmly and gently shakes my hand and says well played!

Nice starter Nigel.

At work they put in a pretty nice table and a friend of mine and I started playing at work. We literally had never played before we played our first match together. We used tennis scoring because we didn’t know anything. Well we start to get a bit better learn some rules and then find others to play with. Eventually we get to a point we’re we have both bought good bats and  are beating nearly all challengers. We would go through these times of him not being able to beat me and I not being able to beat him. 

Well, he’s been in this losing streak against me for 7 or 8 matches straight and it looks like he’s going to break the streak 7-2 for him, he’s talking trash (all in good fun) and then I tie it 10-10, then to my adv. I pop one up a bit to high and he smashes harder than I’ve ever seen him do it before, he comes running up after the smash and ... we’ll say he says some choice words in my face. Then he hears the ball land on the table and sees me smile. My quick reaction managed to lob the ball so high it took good couple of seconds for it to land. Normally I’d get a bat to it but never back on the table, which just made the win that much sweeter.

A hundred or more matches have gone by since then and he’s still a bit bitter about it! 

Every year we play most of the time against the same teams and players. We know eachother pretty well. Even when a team promotes it's probably the same team that comes back from the series above. The story had been going around that one of our opponents had a sex change during off-season. Someone everyone liked playing against. When the new season started we noticed a new team in our league and after a few weeks in, the word spreaded that thet weren't very keen on playing that "man-woman". We also heard that when they actually played them in their home-venue, some remarks were made... We decided something had to be done.

We knew that 4 months later the "away-match" was played at the home venue of our beloved opponent. We gathered almost all of our leaguemembers + a 100 member of the LGBT community. It was the best TT-event of the year. The opponents actually turned arround  and are now ok with the fact of changing sexes.

Most most memorable moment in a match I have had so far was in a local league game a few years ago. My team was playing against a team that had a guy with a formidable smash. No one seemed to hit the ball as hard as this guy. It would often be a topic that would come up over half time match drinks. Well on this particular evening he proved it. The match was tense and close. I was scoring. One of my team mates was playing this guy. He popped the ball up a bit too high and wham, the smash came thundering across the table passed my team mate and hit the light switch on the wall behind and plunged us all into total darkness.

We laughed and laughed for a good long time. Great fun.

I was a junior at university where we had a table. It was only ping pong no one knows about the wonders of spin, I was in the best 3 players of the whole university if not the best. This was at least 15 years ago back in my home country Sudan where table tennis is not that popular, best TT players gather at a commercial sports hall where there few tables and some billiards and small gym. Didn't know that when I went there to play billiards with my ex girlfriend who is also in my same university class. There is this guy who is for some reason kept harrasing me over my mediocre skills on billiards. Just kept commenting every time he passes, at one point I told him that this is not my cup of tea but if ever meet him on the ping pong table he will cry for mercy. He said in a very loud voice: CHALLENGE !! I will play ping pong with you and the loser will buy the other a drink , only one condition , he declared, I will play with the blade handle in my mouth. Me and my ex looked at each other wondering if he is serious ? Long story short, he won :D. It is was the old system where we play 5 serves each, he had a professional blade and when he hits the ball with a specific way using his hand it generates a lot of spin which is something I faced for the very first time in my life. So basically he wins two rounds of serves it is  so it is10 points for him , I win a lot of points by serving long to the corners but eventually I made a serve error and I gave him that point he needed to win. He bought me a drink after introducing himself as: "his name", Sudan's No.1 table tennis player 

The incident dates back to the 1980s when I was serving as a lecturer in English in a small town near Poona. The local Lions Club had started an annual table tennis tourney in 1976 and it used to be held in our college. By good luck I used to be the winner ever since the beginning. but that year, I think, 1980 or so I got busy with my doctoral research and couldn't play regularly. As a result, I lost to a student of mine whom I had actually coached. After his victory over me the guy began to behave strangely in the class as well as college strutting about with his bevy of girls and all that. He had started bragging too that I was nobody compared to him. What stung me most was the casteist slur he and the Director of Physical Education, his mentor, used to pour saying that by defeating me, "our boy" had ended the Brahminical hegemony on the tournament. Arrant nonsense. But that egged me on to "show them" the next year. Accordingly, I joined a regular gym and club in Poona and started practising, playing with players of some renown. In a sense it was a blessing in disguise as it brought me out of the age of our hard rubber bats and introduced me to rubbers like MarkV and Sriver. After rigorous practice and training I was now ready for the D-day. Which came in its due course. I was hoping to meet the guy in the final but due to the machinations of our Director who drew the lots I was scheduled to meet him in the semi-final. Anyway, I was meeting him and meet him I did. He had brought his entire bevy of girls to show to them how he beats his master! Poor boy! From the start it went so bad for him with my heavy top spin loops, backhand flicks and most of all my newly acquired spinny serves at the club that before he knew he had lost first game 9-21. The next two games told the same stories with him losing 8-21 and 5-21! The boy was so frustrated and angry that he broke his bat into pieces and vowed never to play again -- a vow he has kept so far! My sweet revenge was complete! It still gives me goose flesh almost  40 years after. I told the Director," My dear man, a sportsman is a sportsman and doesn't belong to a caste".    

My physician was a significant figure in helping me recover from a wrist fracture and stay above depression when my brother died. Upon learning I played and had a table at home (which was a present to myself in my brother's memory), he fashioned a paddle out of his prescription pad and tape, during an appointment. He showed me his grip, how he created spin with a ball made of tape and told me he'd spent 8 hours a day on the table during his psych residency, using table tennis to get people to talk. Soon after this story was shared with me, the PTA of the elementary school where I teach in Brooklyn, New York called for afterschool club ideas. I submitted a table tennis club proposal, with only my personal equipment. The school did not even have one ping pong ball, let alone a table and paddles! Having become friendly and playing a few times on my table and his,  my physician, was dining out with my husband and I when the email approving my proposal was received! Through Donor's Choose, I had 2 junior tables, 30 paddles and a thousand balls given to my school within 48 hours! This year is my 6th year with both a fall and spring club.  We now have a full sized table and a couple of serving robots. Many kids of all interests have been introduced to this wonderful endeavor, and it's one of the most popular clubs in the whole school. Sadly, my physician has passed away, but every season, when I begin the club's schedule, I tell this story of how this sport is principled, good for the brain, can be played for life, and may just be a way to get kids to talk! 

Wow Nigel, you have really started something here...

Julie that is a very touching story.  The power of this game never ceases to amaze me!