Popps were well beaten by Old Town Hounds but Peter, playing at No.1 for Popps, saved our faces by winning 2 of his sets. It could have been closer with 2 other sets going to 5 games but the Hounds showed dogged determination and managed to sniff out a victory in both. We took the lead at the start with Peter winning the first set of the evening but we flattered to deceive and soon found we were in for a tough evening. Neither Terry or Mieszek managed to win a set for Popps but both looked the part from time to time and were not disgraced. Mieszek was suffering badly from a heavy cold (in fact technically not a cold but this is not a medical report) and played well in the circumstances. It was noticed that in between their sets the Hounds players consumed some sort of strange fluorescent string. We were on the point of checking this against the ETTA list of proscribed substances but it turned out to be liquorice boot laces. It cannot be certain this is what made the difference between to the 2 teams but Popps, always willing to learn from better teams, will be paying more attention to their dietary preparations in future. We have a lot to learn about table tennis nutrition and perhaps this is an area we can improve on. As an experiment we are thinking of Baileys and vegetarian samosas for a between sets boost. Any suggestions gratefully received.

Like the English rugby, football and cricket teams, Popps are becoming expert in finding positives from defeats. This is a well honoured tradition dating back to Dunkirk of course.  We all agree that we are doing pretty well given out lack of experience and that we play as well as many of our opponents some of the time at least. What we need is more consistency and then some of our narrow defeats in games and sets will become victories. My personal response to this has been to moderate my game a little and be rather more conservative and circumspect. I can’t say this has made that much difference yet and I wonder if this is the right approach. One thing I am sure of. A major part of the problem is lack of technique. I am tempted to let up on attacking shots because, although some come off very well and win points, many (most?) just go off the end of the table or just clip the the net (occassionally they land on an adjacent table!). Sometimes a shot is missed because it wasn’t really on. But if it is on I can’t see any advantage in not going for it. Of course, you need to make the right judgement about what is on and what isn’t and that comes with experience and being realistic about your abilities. I’m not sure my attacking shots will improve by not playing them when I should be and I feel this is what I am beginning to do. So, my New Year resolution for the second half is to improve shot selection, go for an attacking shot whenever it is the right shot to go for and don’t pull back or be hesitant, and improve consitency by improving technique rather than holding back when the chances appear.