2012 London to London

tatives, doubles events. At that time,
doubles was not popular in England
and seldom played in tournaments. The
rules were to be those drafted in England,
which were already widely used
elsewhere in Europe.
On their return Ivor and Bill had to persuade
the members of the English Table
Tennis Association’s Executive Committee
to confirm the provisional invitation.
Eventually, this was achieved, in spite of
strong opposition from members of the
committee who were appalled by the
magnitude of the project and the financial
risks being taken.
Agreement was reached only after Ivor
had guaranteed that he would personally
cover any losses. Further possible
expense was avoided when his mother,
Lady Swaythling, donated the now famous
Swaythling Cup for the winners of
the team competition. The tournament
was staged mainly in the Memorial Hall
in Farringdon Street, although the first
international team match was played at
the Herga Lawn Tennis Club in Harrow
and others were played at various venues
in London.
The Foundation Meeting of the International
Table Tennis Federation was formally
opened at the Stadium Club and
was attended by delegates from Austria,
Czechoslovakia, Denmark, England,
Germany, Hungary, India, Sweden and
Wales. At this first session Ivor Montagu
was unanimously elected as Chairman
of the meeting, the reason being, according
to Ivor was that he was reasonably
fluent in the three main languages
used.
Apart from agreeing some administrative
details the only business conducted
was to rename the European Cham-
pionships that were in progress as the
World Championships for 1926-27. The
decision was justified on the basis that
the participants included several Indian
players, mostly students who were living
temporarily in London. The meeting
was then adjourned and re-convened
on the following Sunday 12th December,
in the library of Ivor’s father’s
house at 28 Kensington Court.
During the second session the draft
Constitution which had been proposed
by England was discussed in detail and
was accepted after a number of minor
amendments had been made, including
the adoption of both English and
German as official International Table
Tennis Federation languages. Elections
to the various offices set out in the Constitution
followed and resulted in the
following appointments:
Chairman: Ivor Montagu
English Language Secretary: C. H. Hallett
(Wales) German Language Secretary:
Jan Gerke (Czechoslovakia) Advisory
Committee: Dr A. H. Fyzee (India), Bela
von Kehrling (Hungary), Dr Richard Pick
(Germany), Dr Carl Linde (Sweden), Fritz
Zinn (Germany),It was decided to adopt
the Laws as used by the English as the
international Laws but to allow some
variations.
Following a proposal by Czechoslovakia,
seconded by Sweden, it was agreed that
lawn tennis scoring be included as an experimental
alternative to 21 point games but
it appears that this system did not prove
popular and the option
was deleted at the
subsequent Annual
General
Meeting.
However,
another
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