Teams: Popps: ‘A’ Terry Allington, John Davenport, and Alan Wood
Suma: David Blackburn, Brian Chapman, Derek Harwood.

After their successful winter season, Popps ‘A’ were brought down to earth after this defeat by Suma.

In the first set, Terry A and David Blackburn set the standard with a marathon which lasted an hour. A long, pushing game ended with David winning in four games. The umpire was given three cheers after the final point!

The second set brought to the table John Davenport, Popp’s new loan signing from Huddersfield. John is a tall athletic young man, with a fine all-round game. He faced a determined Brian Chapman with his mixture of backspin and flat topspin. John played well to win in five games.

Alan Woods is Popps most improved player in my view, but in the third set he faced the experienced Derek Harwood, who uses strange rubbers on his bat to fool you with his spin. Alan showed great fighting spirit to force a fifth game, but Derek produced some great forehand shots to give Suma a 2-1 lead.

The way the match was being played it seemed likely to finish at midnight so it was decided to play on two tables. The Suma team played with great confidence now and Popps were always second best. The Popps team gained some consolation, when Suma admitted this was one of their hardest matches.

This had been another enjoyable match, and I am sure we can only improve by playing the better second division sides.

Popps B (0) v Spartans (9) July 12 2010

Popps Team: Alwyn Kershaw, Dennis McGuinness & Robin Thomas.
Spartans: Steve Hansen, Mick Mullins, Karthick Shetty

Spartans are a Division 2 side in the winter league and had already delivered a convincing defeat in our earlier match, so Popps were not expecting any miracles.

Last time, Spartans were missing a player and roped in a starving beggar from the street outside, who was promptly beaten by Terry Wassall. Perhaps Spartans would turn up with a full side this time round and of course we would be missing the erratic but occasionally flamboyant Terry. Dennis and Alwyn are both on fast learning curves as they pick up their games after a gap, while Robin’s game hasn’t seen much of a learning curve since kindergarten days, playing with a sandpaper bat on the kitchen table.

Why are they called Spartans? Are they a tough, athletic race who lives a hard life, training all the time and occasionally attacking Persia? Now we would find out.

Given our rather poor record in this league, perhaps the team would do well to study some videos of Matthew Syed, (former UK No 1 & Commonwealth Singles Champion, now an award-winning sports journalist) so as to develop a more effective defensive style. Most of them are too old to put in the sort of hours of practice advocated in Matthew’s learned treatise ‘Bounce’, even if they did nothing else, so perhaps they should learn to become so adept at defence that they force their opponents to go for ill-advised smashes. Such an approach would force these guys to move at a speed they will not have experienced since their younger days, for example running to the bar when last orders are called.

Alwyn against Steve saw Alwyn initially creeping ahead in a tentative way as both players sounded each other out like mating stags, both utilising spin and keeping the pace slow. Though level at 10-10, Steve tightened up his game to win at 12-10. He improved in G2, despite an excellent return from Alwyn, who then missed a couple. Steve opened up an unassailable lead, from 6-2 to 11-5. In G3, Alwyn tried to toss up the ball to tempt Steve towards rash smashes. It worked on some shots, but Steve was now improving his forehand and moved to 10-5. Alwyn then gave him the point with a botched serve. 11-5 meant a 3-0 win for Spartans.

Dennis, bronzed and fit after his world tour of Malta then met Mick, a surprisingly effective operator despite various major NHS repair jobs on his limbs and one pending. After a lengthy ritual of removing his track suit bottoms, Mick trailed initially to Dennis, but the game was scrappy with Mick having a bit more consistency to move to 11-8. Mick’s backhand started to work while the fast serve from Dennis sometimes failed and Mick edged to 11-6 to win G2. Both players made mistakes in G3, Dennis missed some simple forehands and Mick also slipped up on some scrappy forehands, but despite not being very mobile, he used his skill and experience to outwit Dennis to win 11-8 and the set 3-0.

If I’ve got this right, Karthick is happy to be called ‘Kar’ and he took on Robin in M3. His game was characterised by a good spin serve and an effective back-hand flick which he executed at the right moment, winning 11-6, 11-5 & 11-4, with your correspondent starting off badly and steadily going down hill. Kar is by profession a psychiatrist and one would imagine him having a field day trying to analyse the weird bunch of strangely dressed characters making odd shouts at moments of triumph and despair who come under the description of TT players.

Alwyn then took on Mick in what turned out to be the longest match of the night. Mick took time to settle down, making some silly mistakes. Alwyn moved ahead. Alwyn wasted a couple of strange serves and then tried to tempt Mick by tossing up the ball. Alwyn over-hit a couple of balls and it was level at 10 each. A good final serve from Alwyn took him to 13-11. In G2, Alwyn continued his tossing regime to mixed effect and a powerful smash from Mick elicited a big, almost primeval shout from Alwyn. Of course, he lives in Outlane, a rather primitive and savage part of Yorkshire, where men shout at each other as the night falls over the fells. Sometimes, naked witches dance in the glow of raging camp fires. You should go there. But back to the game. A Mick fluke took him to 9-8, it moved to 10 each and Mick held his body together to lurch to 12-10. G3 stayed level at 7, 8, 9, 10 and 11 and could have gone either way, but Mick again contrived to win 13-11. By this time, the combined World Cup Football reporting teams had arrived to commentate in the mounting excitement. Garry Linacre nearly choked on his baboon flavoured crisps. In G4, Alwyn moved to a dramatic 7-1 after a good start as Mick appeared to tire. He briefly rallied, but Alwyn cruised ahead to win 11-5.

By this time, Adrian Chiles was wetting himself as the two old stagers battled it out in the deciding encounter. Mick’s smashes started to work and Alwyn started to lose concentration. Two good smashes by Alwyn were not enough to rescue the situation and Mick won the game at 11-5 and the set at 3-2.

Robin then had a brief encounter with the steady Steve, who reeled off 11-6, 11-3 & 11-3. His game was a few leagues above Robin’s, with a difficult spin serve and a strong all-round game. Robin seemed to accelerate the end of the game, as hunger pangs kicked in. The earlier the finish, the sooner the supper.

After a good start, Dennis flopped badly against Kar. They were well matched at first, at 5-5 in G1, but Kar’s smashes were starting to work. He won at 11-9. Dennis started well in G2 and it was level at 5-5. Dennis missed a back hand and Kar moved ahead, whilst confusing Dennis with his serve. Kar won G2 at 11-6 and in G3, Dennis had no answer. He frequently over-hit or hit the net and generally lost his concentration, going down 11-1.

Match 7 showed a flicker of excitement as Robin took a game of Mick. However, he could not sustain the effort and Mick won 3-1.

Alwyn returned to the table for a grilling from Kar, losing the first game 11-4. Alwyn won some smashes, but Kar timed them better, waiting for the chance to execute his slick back hand flick to good effect. Kar not only played smart table tennis, but won the prize for the smartest attire, with a fetching colour coordinated tracksuit, making the rest of the players looking like down and outs at a city soup kitchen having been clothed at the annual Oxfam sale. He won G2 11-5, as Alwyn’s inconsistency dogged him. G3 looked more promising at 5-5, but Alwyn skied one shot into the adjacent court and made a complete mess of a serve and a back hand. Kar went on to win 11-6.

In the final match, Dennis endeavoured to salvage some honour against Steve, but without success. Whist both players made mistakes, Steve was more consistent and won 11-6 in G1. He moved into an early lead in G2 as Dennis tried to find a strategy which would work. He didn’t. Steve had a couple of effective smashes as Dennis skied the ball. 11-3. In G3, Steve went for his shots more and missed some, but he had momentum. Dennis tried to steady things, but hit the net a couple of times. Steve’s lead developed from 5-1, to 9-3, eventually winning at 11-4.

So Spartans won 9-0, with Popps picking up the odd game. However, as usual in this league, the match was played with good sportsmanship and humour. You’ll be pleased to hear that there were no dangerous tackles, no swearing, no yellow cards, no red cards, no heads sinking into hands, no crude victory celebrations, no attacks either on or from the crowd, no WAGS (although Mick had his lovely wife watching him whilst playing a computer game), and no attempts to sink football studs into a player’s chest. After all, this was not the World Cup; it was the courteous, sportsmanlike game of Table Tennis. OK, we didn’t have Nelson Mandela to grace the proceedings, but many of the players were probably as old or even older.

Tuesday 6th July 2101. POPPs B Terry W, Dennis and Tom:  Evergreens Mick, Dave and Michael

I was somewhat surprised to learn that it is not only POPPs members who read this blog!  My advice to our other readers is ‘get a life’. There must be something you could be doing that is more worthwhile than reading this. In any case,  there is  no guarantee that anything reported here is accurate. Consider this to be a disclaimer. On the other hand, if you do read any of these reports, please leave a comment and say hello!

It is traditional to end these reports with a statement to the effect that the match was played in excellent spirit. Just for a change I thought I’d begin with this. So, as usual, the match was played in excellent spirit. There was a good deal of badinage and laughter (mainly them laughing at us it must be said).   As usual, POPPs B got a bit of a hammering.

It was hard to tell which was the best Evergreen player. Michael was the most unorthodox, playing almost anything that came to him with a backhand, and he won all of his 3 games to nil. Terry took him close a couple of times getting to 4, 8 and 9 but Michael’s effective all purpose backhand push/drive/smash kept catching him out. Michael even contrived to play this when the ball was clearly on his forehand side! And, despite it being very warm, he kept his rather fetching 1950s jumper on all night. Dave and Mick were much more orthodox and both had effective forehand and backhand top spin drives and pretty good smashes when the opportunity presented itself. David had a rather nautical air about him with a blue top and a submarine commander’s beard. He certainly torpedoed us and we went down with all hands. Which rather reminds me of a Wren I used to know. As far as we could tell, Mick was quite normal. Which is more than can be said for the POPPs trio.

Both Dennis and Terry managed to get a game off Mick, 11-7 and 11-9 respectively. These were our only successes of the night. Terry got close in the 4th game losing 11-13 and so failing to take the set into a deciding 5th game. The only trouble Mick seemed to have was when Terry’s forehand drives and occasional smashes, despite appearing to be aimed cross court, went down his backhand side of the table leaving him  somewhat stranded. Not all of these were miss-hits. On the other hand Terry had more difficulty than the other POPPs players in getting Mick’s serves back – a good variety of top and backspin with a bit of side thrown in now and then. The fact that he almost disappeared below the table when winding himself up for a backspin serve didn’t help. Dave, like Michael, won all his sets to 3 nil with none of the POPPS players getting closer than 9. Dave had a good all-round game and was quite happy standing back from the table and driving everything back waiting for the inevitable mistake.

It is evident from patches in  Tom’s  and Dennis’  sets that they are both good players recently returned to the game and gradually getting back into it. Dennis impressed with his speed and reactions round the table leaping about like a jack-in-the-box and often hitting winners (and near misses) in full flight with both feet off the ground. As we all agreed as we packed up to go home, all we need is a few years more experience and things can only get better. Pity the combined age of the team is about 220 years!

Monday June 28, 2010. Popps Team: Terry Wassall, Robin Thomas, Alwyn Kershaw.

We do not know much about Suma or what it stands for. We know that Suma 2 played in the 2nd Division last year, so assuming the same personnel we, as the ‘B’ Team, would expect a hard fight. But then one would obviously ask, does the name mean that all their players are Suma wrestlers and would be playing in large nappies? Where would they stand in terms of the shirt regulations of the ETTA ? If they were to lose the fixture, would they become suicidal? Would they attack Pearl Harbour? We would find this out in due course.

In the event, Suma turned out to be health food Company with a local factory, although the players were not employed by Suma. In addition, Suma were short of a player—been eating the health food maybe, so immediately conceded 3 matches-although it didn’t make any difference to the outcome.

Their team consisted of Dave Blackburn (a previous attendee at the coaching sessions) and Brian Chapman.

In the first encounter, Alwyn took on Dave whose experience showed from the start as he moved swiftly ahead. Alwyn tried to steady things down and caught up to 7-4 and Dave was occasionally over-hitting, but he edged to win 11-6. In G2, Alwyn tried to slow things down by tossing the ball up. Dave mirrored this style for a few shots. Alwyn moved ahead by careful play and via a fluke and later by a well-placed shot which dropped off the edge of the table. 11-6 to Alwyn.

Perhaps we had over-estimated Dave and Alwyn traded blow by blow as they reached 7-7, 8-8, even 10-10. But Dave seemed to be still in control and moved to 12-10. In G4, it seemed that Dave wanted to stamp his authority on the game and smashed aggressively, plus using a cunning serve, to move to 7-2, then to 10-3, winning the game at 11-4,

Terry now faced Brian Chapman, who turned out to be a steady player with a useful top spin return. Terry was still organising his forehand smash and missed a few, to a chorus of ‘unlucky’ from Dave & Brian, but I’m not sure that luck comes into it. Brian won 11-4. In G2, Terry started to get the end of the table in his sights and executed some winners. Brian reached 5-1 quite quickly, but Terry produced a useful forehand smash to start catching up. He almost caught up with a trio of smashes, but Brian prevailed at 11-9. In G3, Brian built up a swift lead. Terry had a mixture of effective and wild smashes; Brian kept it steady and rolled to 11-4, to win the match 3-0.

The next game was played as an exhibition match between Dave & Robin. Dave, an experienced player who has operated in more senior circles, adopted a fairly generous approach giving his opponent an occasional chance of a smash, but he won the match 11-5, 11-5 & 11-5. In the next match between Alwyn and Brian, Alwyn at one point led 10-9 and looked like winning. However, Brian kept his nerve and Alwyn helped with a disastrous shot which caused him to erupt into a loud shout and Brian stayed ahead to win 12-10. In G2, Alwyn lost some momentum and returned a number of serves into the net. Brian crept ahead, whilst always complimenting Alwyn on successful shots and eventually won 11-2. At this point Brian thought the game was over, but of course there was at least one game to go. Would Alwyn use this as an opportunity to fight back and prove himself? Well, no, as it happens. He lost a bit of consistency, spoilt one serve and missed a smash, all enough for the steady Brian to cruise ahead to win 11-4 and the match.

The next game between Dave & Robin was not an exhibition match, but counted towards to match score. Dave was more ruthless on this occasion, moving to 11-2, 11-3 and 11-1 as Robin gave him even more help than usual with some shambolic serves. Brian then took on Terry in an exhibition match. (Are you getting confused? I’ve totally lost the plot.) G1 was balanced at first, with Brian being the steadier player. However at 7-6, Terry could not obtain any more points and Brian moved smoothly to 11-6. Terry kicked off G2 with a useful fluke smash which moved him ahead. Both players produced useful attacking shots and Terry held on to win 14-12. By this time Terry was improving his % of winners, though not enough to hold Brian back. Terry attacked when he should have been defending, going for some shots which most mortals would have avoided. On the other hand, he achieved some spectacular winners. Well, there’s the measure of the man, no half-measures, go for you shots, live on the edge, live with the consequences, a swashbuckling, genre-defining and distinctive take on the game. Brian kept it steady and won 11-6. Terry kicked of with a bizarre serve which went nowhere and allowed Brian to build a lead. Terry caught up well as a smash bounced of the table nearly decapitating Alwyn, but Brian, as usual, steadied himself to win 11-6.

Brian then took on Robin as part of the match proper and was fully in charge, reeling off 11-4. 11-4 and 11-5. The next exhibition match was played as a Doubles and the Dave/Brian combination outfoxed the Alwyn/Terry team to win 11-5, 11-6, 11-6.

Suma had by then won the encounter even with only 2 players. However, the last game between Dave & Terry was played in a competitive spirit. Dave has a way of talking to himself when he makes a mess of a shot. “Oh Davy” he says in an exaggerated accent, like a mother admonishing a naughty son, a bit like Mavis in Coronation Street. Terry tried to play a steady game, for a couple of nano seconds, but swiftly reverted to macho type. Dave won 11-7. In G2, Terry fought back with some good smashes, while Dave missed a few. Terry hung on to register a useful win at 11-9. However, ‘Davy’ reimposed his superiority in G3 by winning 11-2 and finally wrapped up G4 at 11-7.

Suma were generous in their appreciation of our rare touches of talent, but their experience showed, so that even with only 2 players they were able to win 6-3, even winning the exhibition matches. However, Popps, though up against it, performed better than our wimpy footballers in the World Cup. Our players are not paid as well, do not get involved in night club brawls, do not sleep with their team mate’s girl friends and do not swear at the crowd. So when the MBEs are being dolled out, let’s hear it for Popps ‘B’ for setting an example of good sportsmanship, athletic excellence, finely tuned bodies and at least giving it a bit of welly. And our coach can speak proper English.

Monday 21 June
Team: Alan Wood, Derek Greenwood & Terry Allingto

Result EMBASSY 4   POPPS ‘A’ 5
This was another good win for Popps, with Terry winning 3, Alan one and Derek one.

In the first set, Terry faced the experienced Clive Sherratt with his baseball hat and playing in stocking feet. As usual, Clive played all 3 sets in one go, but Terry out-pushed him to win 3 games to one.

Alan and Derek both played well to beat Sam from Embassy. It was the gritty Steve Rathmell who caused us most of the trouble with his razor-like back hand, which troubled everybody.

It was a very enjoyable evening, played in a good spirit  on a boiling hot evening. Thanks must go to Derek for playing when his partner Gail was not too well.

Terry Allington

Popps B entertained (in more than one sense of the word) Embassy in their latest match. The venerable Popps trio of old hands (attached to equally old bodies), Terry, Alwyn and Tom, faced up to their formidable and slightly nicotine stained opponents, Hugh, Clive and Tom. Clive played all three of his sets at the beginning of the match as he had to get home to do some on-line A level marking before a midnight deadline.  He was undoubtedly the best of the Embassy trio and dispatched the entire Popps team in short order, playing with one hand on his hip and  just poking the ball back with ease. Both Alwyn and Terry lost in 3 straight games. Tom managed to take the 3rd game before losing patience in the face of Clive’s relentless defence and going down 3 games to 1. Having taken about 30 minutes to smoke the Popps team  Clive took an early departure to return home to his A level marking no doubt to spread more despair and despondency amongst his A level students.

We didn’t fair much better against Hugh who also won all 3 of his sets. Alwyn managed to take the 3rd game 11-8 but Hugh ran out a comfortable winner taking the next game and winning the set 3 – 1. Terry showed some signs of improvement as he gradually got back into his game after a 3 week lay-off but had no answer to Hugh’s consistent defensive returning sprinkled with the occasional effective back hand drive. Terry did manage at least to show remarkable consistency in losing 5-11, 5-11, 5-11. Not to be outdone Tom then lost to Hugh  4-11, 4-11, 4-11.  Good to see the competitive spirit is alive and well within the Popps team.

Sam was our only hope of winning a set or two. He was definitely Embassy’s No. 3 (extra mild and tipped you may remember) but still no slouch. Alwyn did manage to win his set against Sam in 5 games, 11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 7-11 and 11-7. Sam had some excellent attacking shots, both forehand and backhand, but lacked the patience and consistency of his team mates. In both the games Sam won he was behind 8 -10 but managed to drag himself into the lead at the fag end of the games to win them, so he could have lost 0-3 with less determination. Alwyn played carefully and accurately using his attacking shots sparingly and won mainly by eliciting errors from Sam and the occasional satisfying smash. This was the best set of the evening. It turned out to be our only success. Both Tom and Terry, who not doubt should be sponsored by Disney, lost to Sam in 3 straight games. The fact that Sam seemed to be wearing a sailor outfit similar to that worn by Donald Duck’s nephews only added to the feeling of being in cartoon. Terry continued to improve and perhaps was a little unlucky not to win a game  losing 13-15, 11-13 and 9-11.

As usual the match was played in good humour with a fair bit of Mickey taking and laughter. It would be nice to have a bit more success than we are but it is all useful experience and jolly good fun too.

Dolphins were able to deal with our ‘B’ team with relative ease, but against our ‘A’ team, they would be up against a different level of foe. Whereas the ‘B’ Team was devoured by the hungry Dolphins as they ploughed through the waves, our ‘A’ team would be harder to be chewed up by the Dolphins.

In the event, our strong ‘A’ team was able to defeat Dolphins by 7 sets to 2. Popps ‘A’ had new signing John Davenport on display for the first time. John normally plays in the Huddersfield league as a colleague of John Taylor’s. He comes with a good reputation and he is using his appearances with us to keep in touch before the next winter league in Huddersfield. Incidentally, John has had the all-clear from the medics and is making a gentle return to playing TT. We wish him well.

John Davenport duly won his 3 matches. He conceded one game to Alan Cowburn, but eventually won 11-7, 11-9, 9-11 and 11-3. He tamed the usually difficult Ken Scott 11-7, 11-8 and 11-3 and clearly was able to deal with Ken’s legendary top spin. John then beat Denise Scott 11-9, 11-6 with the last game going to 14-12 as Denise tried to stay in the set.

John Korner had mixed fortunes. He lost G1 10-12 to the steady Denise, won the next 2 11-8 and 11-6, but allowed her to come back 7-11. In the final game, he prevailed at 11-9. He struggled against the tall figure of Alan Cowburn, going down 4-11, 10-12, and 3-11. He showed great determination in winning a five game set against the wily Ken, 11-6, 4-11, 9-11, 11-5 and 11-4, when Ken may just have started to run out of steam.

Trevor Kershaw won 2 out of 3. He met a fresh Ken who won 9-11, 8-11, 11-3 and 11-13, a pattern which shows how players have to learn to read their opponent’s game as a match progresses. He lost one game to Denise, but won overall 3-1, the score being 11-9,7-11,11-4 and 11-5. In a close, but 3 game set against Alan, Trevor won 13-11, 11-8 and 12-10.

So overall, a good win for Popps ‘A’, with John Davenport making a useful impact on his first appearance with our team. How refreshing to see this bunch of sportsman playing an active part in sport rather than drinking numerous pints of lager, scoffing boxes of high fat pizza and watching World Cup football in pubs crowded with ale-swilling, beer-bellied, face-painted louts wearing Leeds United shirts.

This was the first match of the summer season for Popps ‘A’ team, and for the first time featured two star signings from Sowerby, who concentrate on bowls, tennis and boozing during the summer months, hence the welcome addition of Phillip Parry and John Korner to play alongside the experienced Terry Allington. Representing Evergreens were: Michael Curry, Dave Lewis and the legendary Mark Knapton, the high-hitting lob specialist.

It was a close match and Evergreens managed to win by 5-4. Terry won 2, and Phillip and John won one each. The set of the night was Phillip’s fine win over the Evergreens No 1, Mark Knapton. In the fifth game, Phillip produced some great forehand smashes to edge out Mark, who had previously beaten Terry in straight games.

So, from the first fixture, Popps ‘A’ realised that they were up against some strong teams in this league. However, the Summer league is more about fun than fierce competition and our teams look forward to some enjoyable games, as the days lengthen, as the sun warms the damp earth and as the countryside listens to the sound of leather on willow, the contented lowing of the cattle and the gentle hum of the honeybees as they probe newly opened flowers. (Who writes this stuff?)

Terry Allington/Robin Thomas

These Dolphins normally hunt in the choppy waters of the Winter League’s Division 2, whilst our ‘B’ Team operate in the murky depths of the pond, devouring the odd stickleback, but generally being at the mercy of the bigger fish. Given the concentration of talent into 2 leagues, we knew we would be up against it. It then turned out that Dolphins had Ken & Denise Scott, surely the Posh “n” Becks of local table tennis, plus the powerful figure of Alan Cowburn.

We had the slightly rusty Terry Wassall, Dennis McGuinness, slowly returning to his former skill level and your team sec, showing how expensive coaching can be easily wasted on the wrong material.

Alan kicked off against Terry. After the usual tentative start by both players, Alan imposed himself on the match. His top spin returns were effective and Terry over hit some shots and Alan won 11-3. G2 was much more balanced, with Terry executing some successful smashes to lead at one point, but Alan held it together to win 13-11. Alan played with control to ease ahead in G3, while Terry produced one or two wild shots. Alan won 11-6, to take the match.

Dennis then made his re-entry into competitive TT against the fearsome Ken, with his trademark looped topspin. Although Dennis was rapidly getting into gear, he was caught out of position a couple of times and Ken eased to an 11-4 win in G1. Dennis continued to have difficulty with Ken’s spin and G2 matched the G1 score. Ken just allowed Dennis to make mistakes in G3. Dennis rallied to 4-5, but Ken, in true Dolphin style, kept flipping it back and ran out 11-5.

Robin won the only game of the night for Popps against Denise, playing aggressively to win 12-10 with some effective smashes, but Denise held her game together to win the next 3, 11-8, 11-9 and 11-3 as Robin ran out of concentration.

Terry then worked hard in G1 against Ken to lose 11-8, but his energy fell away as Ken won the next two games 11-2 & 11-5.

Alan then took on Robin, who produced some spectacular shots which may have involved a degree of luck, plus a number of suicidal ones. Alan shares the Dolphin trademark top spin, honed to perfection at secret topspin training camps in the Yorkshire Dales, and it continued to work well. He won G1 11-8, but Robin’s effort dwindled as he won the next 11-2 and 11-5.

Dennis met Denise in the next match and it looked promising as Dennis moved to 6-5 with a good smash. But Denise turned it round by steady play to win 11-6. G2 was much more competitive with the two of them trading blows and staying level at 10-10. But Denise held her nerve and executed a well-timed smash to win 12-10. At this point, your correspondent’s handwriting start to confuse the 2 Dens, but Denise emerged to win 11-8. Robin’s match against Ken can be described briefly: 11-4, 11-5 & 11-6 to Ken who bamboozled him with a new side spin serve and his usual top spin.

This match was played on a very warm evening and whilst Denise kept her glowing fragrance, some of the men were starting to hum with heat. Terry may have been affected by heat and exhaustion as he slumped to 11-3 to Denise. He summoned unexpected reserves of energy to take G2 to 13-11, an encounter which could have gone either way, but faded a little in G3 to go down 11-9.

In the final match, Alan took on Dennis, who was rapidly returning to form after a gap of a few years but was not dealing with Alan’s spin service. He managed some longer rallies, but often lost the crucial point. Alan won 11-5 and raced away in G2 to win 11-2. Dennis played much better in G3 and was level at 7-7.  Alan managed to tempt Dennis out of position on a couple of occasions and moved him around, to win 11-8.

As expected, Dolphins were the dominant creatures in the pond with Popps being snapped up in their menacing jaws or being flipped off the table. Denise played steady intelligent TT, while Ken & Alan used their top spin to good effect. Dennis is on a rapid learning and fitness curve, Terry needs to rediscover the halcyon days of his bus depot feats and Robin should perhaps stick to the written word. The game was, as usual, played in a friendly and positive style, with Dolphins being generous with encouragement. However, it did not stop them eating us up and spitting out our bones while their flippers united in happy applause. They then swam off into the ocean, occasionally breaking the surface with spectacular jumps and leaps as they cruised into the sunset, leaving Popps floundering in their wake.

For POPPs B first match of the Summer League season they faced up to Spartans, a division 2 team in the normal season. Their full team did not turn up so Steve Hanson and Rod Veal were joined by Joe Broadbent from the Rams team. The POPPs B contingent was made up of two new members, Tom Sunderland and Alwyn Kershaw, and regular B team player Terry Wassall who acted as captain for the night.

As expected, it turned out to be a tough night for POPPs. Tom started proceedings by taking on Steve and lost in 3 games, 9 -11, 5-11, 3-11. Steve countered Tom’s  patient pushes by pushing back so some fairly long rallies ensued. Every now and then one or the other would sense an opportunity to attack and play a more aggressive shot, Steve getting a higher percentage on the table and generally looking more comfortable in attack than Tom. Alwyn then took on Joe and got off to a steady start by losing the first game 7-11. However, his accuracy and consistency improved in the second to take it 11-5 aided by a fair number of ambitious backhand smashes from Joe that rarely connected with the table. Joe steadied down in the 3rd game and played more conservatively but Alwyn’s game continued to improve taking the game to 10 all but unfortunately just couldn’t press home his advantage to win it, losing 10-12. Joe then won the 4th fairly easily 5-11 to take the set 3 games to 1. Terry then played Rod to complete the first 3 sets winning 3 games to nil, 11-1, 11-8 and 11-7. Terry was always fairly comfortable and was probably helped by the fact that Rod was playing with a new set of rubbers and was still getting used to them. Apparently he had to change them as the previous rubbers were declared illegal by having the wrong sorts of pimples. I’m amazed that the Pimple Police spotted this but no doubt some ultra-competitive barrack room lawyer spotted them, measured them with a micrometer and found them to be a nanothingy too long (or short, or wide or simply unseemly in some respect). 

This was to prove POPP’s only win of the evening. Alwyn lost to Steve in 3 straight games who was playing better as the night progressed. Tom lost to Rod in 3 games despite keeping in touch for the first 2 games and taking the 3rd game to 10 all. This turned out to be an excellent game with some remarkable rallies mixing attack with defense and the momentum swinging either way. Rod took the game 14-12 and the set 3 games to 1. Terry’s match against Joe was swiftly and efficiently lost 3 games to nil. The first 2 games looked as if he had a chance getting to 8 all and 9 all in each but this was thanks to some ambitious attacking shots that caught Joe by surprise on a number of occasions. However, Joe had the trickiest serve of the night and produced a bamboozeler whenever he was in a bit of a tight corner and went on to win both games without conceding another point. The third game was a formality as Terry became even more ambitious, flailing out in all directions. This tactic certainly produced the most spectacular winning shots of the evenings. However, after each spectacular winner, 2 or 3 further points had already been lost even before the applause had died. Joe took the game 11-5 and the set 3 games to nil.

The last 3 sets continued the pattern. Alwyn lost to Rod in 3 straight games despite leading in all three. On each occasion Rod dug in and just got everything back until Alwyn made a mistake. The last game went to 10 all with Rod running out the winner 14-12. Terry then took on Steve, again losing in 3 straight games. The second game was very competitive with neither player making a conclusive break. The game was level pegging all the way up to 15 all when Steve took the final points to win 17-15. Finally Tom played Joe who won in straight games.

In many ways this was a satisfactory evening. The match was played in good spirits and we had quite a few laughs. This is primarily what the Summer League is all about. We all acquitted ourselves reasonably well against better and more experienced opposition. Tom and Alwyn both improved aspects of their play throughout their games and with a little more experience and confidence will be converting more of their close games into wins rather than near misses. We all need to learn that patience and playing within our limits is probably the secret to success at our level. This is a lesson I have not learnt over 2 seasons so far and probably never will.