2012 London to London

Photo: ETTA Archives
Programme
Cover
England, Germany, Hungary, India,
Sweden, Wales “and such other Nations
as may before November 1st be accepted
by majority vote of the above named”.
No replies were received from any but
the named Associations but of these all
except Sweden sent teams. However,
a Swedish player entered the men’s
singles and Sweden was represented
by a delegate at the Foundation
Meeting held in conjunction with the
Championships.
An organising committee was formed,
consisting of Ivor Montagu, who was
also to be the Referee, Bill Pope, then
the Secretary of the English Association,
and Philip Warden, a founder member
with Bromfield and Payne of the revived
Ping Pong Association.
Photo: ETTA Archives
Programme
In spite of their organising duties both
Ivor and Bill
felt able to
play in the
tournament
but, perhaps
fortunately,
neither of
them survived
the first round
of the men’s
singles.
Ivor lost to Raja
Gopal Suppiah
of India, who
went on to
reach the semifinals,
and Bill
lost to Zoltan
Mechlovits
of Hungary, the eventual runnerup.
Furthermore, they were no more
successful in the men’s doubles, with
different partners, again losing in round
one. Warden entered only the minor
men’s singles but he too was eliminated
in his first played match.
It had been clear from the initial meeting
in Berlin that the primary purpose was
to stage an international men’s team
competition and that the individual
events were of secondary importance;
this was reflected in the schedule. The
Championships ran from Monday 6th to
Friday 11th December and the individual
events did not start until Thursday 10th
December.
The organisers had originally supposed
that there would be only singles events,
as doubles were seldom played in
English tournaments but it turned out
that they were popular in most of the
other countries taking part, so men’s
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London to London 27