Table Tennis Collector 38 - ITTF

The ETTA Magazine
The page opposite features a number of extracts from the official magazine of the English Table Tennis Association
from the late 1930s imaginatively entitled ….. Table Tennis. They have been kindly submitted for publication
by Gerald Gurney. As a postscript to the article he wrote to accompany these (below right) Gerald enquired
whether anyone knew when the magazine was first published. That got me scrambling up in my cabinet
where I keep all my table tennis memorabilia and into the many files of magazines (I was fortunate to acquire
the entire collection of Terry Vance at 2001 auction and I am now missing only a few copies and all those are
pre-1950). This then prompted the piece I have written (below) about the various incarnations of the ETTA
magazine through the years—GT.
f course, we are all aware of the
O nine issues of Table Tennis and
Pastimes Pioneer, published between
January and March 1902, and
which is now reproduced in full on the
ITTF Museum website.
What is less certain is when the next
magazine was published. The earliest
magazine in my collection is Table
Tennis Illustrated vol. II, no. 5
from October 1931. It claims to be
published with the authority of the
ETTA, the TTAW (Wales) and the
IFSTTA (Ireland). It claims also to be
the only official magazine devoted to
table tennis and, as if to prove it, contains
articles from such luminaries as
the Hon. Ivor Montagu, C. Corti
Woodcock and H.M. Bunbury
(Chairman, ETTA). It was registered
at Stationer’s Hall and had a distinct
north-west bias with many of the advertisements
being from the Manchester
area. I think we can safely
assume that this magazine must
have commenced in 1930.
Next in my collection is the March 5,
1932 edition of The Table Tennis
World. My only example is vol. 1, no.
9 and as it is a fortnightly publication
is should be safe to assume that this
started in the autumn of 1931. The
proprietor and editor was the England
international Eric Findon.
Now the answer to Gerald’s question.
Table Tennis, the official organ of the
ETTA was first published on 22 November
1936. I am not fortunate
enough to have the first issue in my
collection but I do have number two
and over twenty others pre-WW2.
Each volume was eight issues and
initially each issue was eight pages.
For volume 3, in October 1937, the
format changed to sixteen pages inside
a cover. This format continued
for the two remaining years before
war intervened.
The re-emergence after the war
brought a new style. There was a
smaller format—only just over half its
original size. However, the paper was
glossier, the cover contained some
colour but the number of inside
pages remained sixteen.
Volume 8 in the autumn of 1949
brought an increase in size but still
not quite as big as the original and
still the same sixteen pages. The
number of pages steadily increased
to twenty-eight (plus the cover) until
bang!—October 1966 and a totally
different style.
This was the start of Table Tennis
News with numbering starting again
from one. At first this was in the style
more of a newspaper rather than
magazine and it was folded horizontally
for distribution. All the colour
was gone in a more austere publication.
The first issue began with the
following statement: “In an honest
endeavour to keep faith by providing
a news service, whilst at the same
time working within the narrow confines
of a budget squeeze no less
acute than Mr. Wilson’s, the Table
Tennis News is launched as an ETTA
publication”. [Mr. Wilson was British
Prime Minister at the time]. It goes on
to report that the 1966 European
Championships, held in England, had
been a financial failure.
Table Tennis News re-emerged two
years later with its seventeenth issue
in a style more akin to a magazine. It
more closely resembled its current
size, was of twenty pages including a
cover, and re-introduced a small
splash of colour into its title banner.
The May 1970 issue dealt the final
death blow to articles appearing on
the front cover and ever since this
has been the preserve of photographic
images. The front cover received
another makeover in October
Gerald writes:-
Some time ago I came across a
short run of 1930s magazines; these
were published (with 16 pages) from
October to May, under the editorship
of J.W.A. Connolly, sports writer of
the Sunday Express, and cost only
3d (less than 1.5 pence), and, most
remarkably, were “available from all
newsagents”.
They make fascinating reading—not
least for the advertisements: Jaques
tournament tables, “the most perfect
in the world”, and Ayres “super
championship” tables could be
bought for less than £10. Barna
“master rackets—Beware of imitations”
were 3s/9d (less than 20
pence), and Meteor three-piece balls
were 2s/6d (12.5 pence) a dozen.
I have selected a few items to give a
taste of those early days.
1983 and again in November 1985
since when there have been several
minor modifications and updates to
reach the glossy publication it is today.
Nowadays Table Tennis News is a
colourful magazine of 36 pages plus
the cover but for glossiness is not in
the same league as its ITTF counterpart
Table Tennis Illustrated (does
the ITTF know that this is a secondhand
name dating from 1931?).
There have been other table tennis
magazines in England. The Table
Tennis Review, edited by 1931 England
international Arthur Waite, ran
from about 1946 to at least 1955. It
had a smaller format than the ETTA
publication but contained a large
number of new items and articles of
great interest. Then between 1980
and 1982 there was the monthly Table
Tennis available from newsagents
across Britain.
No. 35 38 The Table Tennis Collector Page 10