TTT30 Spring 2023

A Late Return - Table Tennis à la carte
By William Rees, Parthian Books 2021, 71pp, £7.99
Review by Steve Leven
Club and tournament players will enjoy this vignette on competitive table tennis,
recognising the scenario in which the action is set as well, possibly, as a description of
themselves or others in the pen portraits of the players. The author is a seller of
English-language books based in the south of France, but the premise of the book - a
late return to the game for him after picking up a bat for the first time in forty years -
is merely a backdrop to his description of a one-star Vets tournament.
He and his clubmates travel to the venue by high-speed car, driven by Alain, who is also the tournament
favourite and revered by the author as a role model, on the table at least. The other passenger, David, warms
up for the match in his customary way - with a nap in the car whilst the others are practicing in the hall. The
author describes his mental ups and downs in navigating the group stage, winning from behind and losing
from ahead. He is always wondering what his - absent - coach would be thinking or telling him.
At just 70 pages of spaced-out text, this is definitely a book you will be able to finish in the breaks between
games at your own tournament. On a pence-per-page basis, it's a rather expensive volume, although well
produced. There are some line drawings presumably depicting the author himself, but it would have been
good if there had been some photographs of the players described to emphasise their character and show us
how unlike, and yet how similar, they are to ourselves. The book was published in 2021 but in the absence of
any reference to COVID-19, and surely there would have been some mention of face masks, for example, one
can assume that the tournament was played before the pandemic.
Sadly, in these days when the spotlight is on women and girls' participation in ours and other sports, there is
only one female given a mention - the rather schoomistressy tournament organiser - but even she gets only a
passing mention and no name check. Hopefully the game in France is taking the same if not greater measures
as in England to ensure that such tournaments in the future are played on a more level gender playing field.
European Games:
23 rd June-2 nd July 2023: Hutnika Arena, Krakow-Malopolska, Poland
The third European Games are to take place in June and July this year. As in previous year’s it is a Great Britain
team and not an England team that participates. The GB men’s team will be playing but the GB women, despite
the enhancement to England players by Welsh and Irish players, will not be part of the tournament.
As well as team events there are five individual events as part of the programme with the opportunity for the
winners of the Mixed Doubles to automatically qualify for the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024.
We await further selection details.
TTT: Issue 30: Spring 2023
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