TTT31. Summer 2023

❖ There was another World Championships held right at the end of the year in Paris from 2 nd -10 th
December 1933. For the first time there was a Women’s team event with the magnificent Corbillon
Cup for the champions. The French Table Tennis Association President, Marcel Corbillon, donated the
trophy. The first winners were Germany with Hungary the runners-up, Czechoslovakia third, our ladies
just missed out on a medal, finishing fourth. France and Holland were the other countries who fought
for the honour of winning the cup for the first time. Dora Emdin, Nora Norrish, Margaret Osborne and
Wendy Woodhead made up the female England team.
Andy Millar, Herbert Hales, Margaret Osborne, Dora Emdin, Eric Findon,
Corti Woodcock, Wendy Woodhead, Don Foulis, Nora Norrish, Ken Hyde
13 teams challenged for the Swaythling Cup, with all, apart from India, from Europe. It was not such a
successful tournament for the Men’s Team as was expected or hoped for. They finished a disappointing
seventh with the team of Eric Findon, Don Foulis, Herbert Hales, Ken Hyde and Andy Millar. Corti Woodcock
was the non-playing captain.
The individual events did produce medals as our players reached two semi-finals. Dora Emdin in the Women’s
Singles took home one bronze and the other went to Kathleen Berry who with Hungary’s Laszlo Bellak reached
the semi-finals in the Mixed Doubles. The main events were won by Victor Barna playing for Hungary and
Czechoslovak, Maria Kettnerova.
England Senior International Caps Project
For a little while I have been working on creating a record of all players who have played for England at senior
level and are eligible to be awarded an England cap, i.e. for each team match they play in.
The first part of the work was to establish a record for those who played pre Second World War and thanks to
Gunther Angenendt and John Ruderham amongst others, a virtually complete record has been created.
The next step was to create a discrete record of World Championships caps and again this has been achieved
as far as possible. This also names the ‘Great Eight’ who have achieved the wonderful landmark of representing
England 50 times or more at the Worlds – Lisa Bellinger (Lomas), Richard Bergmann, Desmond Douglas, Paul
Drinkhall, Jill Hammersley (Parker), Adrian Haydon, Johnny Leach and Diane Rowe (Scholer).
The final part is going to take a while – 1945 to the present day – and I will work through this gradually, nearly
80 years’ worth of records. Information will mainly be gleaned from magazines, programmes, website reports
and, I hope, from anyone who has been or still is an international at senior level. If players, family, friends,
officials, supporters, anyone have details which could help would you please contact me to help build a unique
record and show appreciation and respect to all our top players.
If anyone would like a copy of the work to date and/or updates as the work progresses let me know.
Table Tennis Times 31: Summer 2023
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