TUES 29 NOVEMBER 2011, 7.30 FOR 8.00 (APPX) WETHERSPOONS, HALIFAX. All Popps attendees and partners etc are invited to attend — the more the merrier. More choice than ever, eat if or what you like. Steaks, Xmas, Vegetarian etc at £4 – £6 including a drink are available. An indication of your availability will be [...]

POPPs C :  A Jack Collins, B Jake Clarke, Tom Sunderland Rainbow 2:  X Derek Greenwood, Y  Vannthia Im, Z Phil Eastwood Another excellent result for the C team playing two thirds of the team that turned out for Rainbow 1  last week who beat POPPs B so comfortably. On this showing the C team is significantly [...]

With Peter Mc chickening out after his holiday cruise championship (beaten by the British No 1, Brian Hill, (true) in a close match (false), Popps fielded an unchanged team. Kristian Fearnley opened the proceedings with his new style of cautious defence and well picked forehand smashes, winning in the 5th. Terry Allington, a bit slow to [...]

This was a great start for Popps A in the second division of the winter league. The two close season signings, Conner Pollard and Kristian Fearnley, won two of their three sets. Conner used his forehand topspin loop to overcome the tight defence of Lyndon Harris. Kristian battled hard against a determined Gary Taylor, winning the [...]

POPPs C got off to a great start beating Old Town Hoods in their first match of the season. POPPs C were made up of two new comers Jake Clarke and Jack Collins along with old war horse Tom Sunderland. Old Town Hoods consisted of Tom Willmore, Steph Penny and Dave Warburton. The strongest player of the [...]

OT Robins A: Phil Dean, B: Colin Anker, C: Jo Sweeney POPPS B X: Peter Davies, Y: Derek Greenwood,   Z: Terry Wassall A v X:11-2/11-13/11-7/11-7  H B v Y:9-11/5-11/7-11 A C v Z:7-11/11-9/5-11/3-11 A B v X:8-11/15-13/4-11/12-10/4-11 A A v Z:12-14/7-11/6-11  A C v Y:4-11/10-12/8-11 A B v Z:5-11/11-13/8-11 A C v X:11-9/9-11/11-7/4-11/11-7 H A v Y:8-11/11-5/11-3/7-11/12-10 [...]

After a rather mixed Summer League competition POPPs are raring to go in this their 4th season in the Halifax Table Tennis League. The summer is always a bit hit and miss (literally) as higher division teams are mixed in with lower division teams and not all our players are available. This meant that both [...]

MATCH REPORT In this eagerly awaited clash between the two Popps giants, Terry Wassall ignited the proceedings with a fiery performance against a slow to burn Phil Parry. Terry’s backhand smashes were a revelation and his forehand spasmodic but most effective.. Despite some smoulder from Phil, Terry got Popps B off to a dream start [...]

EXCELLENT RESULT FOR POPPS. 3 wins from Peter Mc, 2 from John Korner and 1 from Phil Parrywere enough to turn the tables on Evergeens who are a Championship seeking side who were leading 3 – 1 at one stage. All due to John’s tactics of promoting Phil to No 1. ! Result Popps A [...]

MARSH GET THEIR REVENGE. Most sets went to 4 or 5 games but each time in Marsh’s favor. Phil Parry, John Korner and Peter Mc managed 1 win each — not enough to take the match. Result Popps A 3 Marsh B 6

LIFE WITHOUT TERRY A Team meeting decided that we ought not take advantage of our Div 1 opponent’s youth and inexperience. So when Peter Mc started the proceedings and found himself 2-1 up and leading 10-6 in the 4th the embarassment was too much, and it was hastily decided to lift their moral a little. [...]

Popps A were put off their guard from the off when Embassy chose to play us on our home table. Again without Captn Terry, who is demonstrating to others his skill with balls, our motley crew got off to a fine start. 2 wins by Peter Mc and 1 by John Korner gave them an [...]

A day to celebrate. Terry Allington’s faith in his underlings is finally justified ! Peter Mc started the proceedings with a good win over Denise Scott. Although Phillip Parry then lost to her husband Ken he made up by winning against Denise and Kristian Fearnley. John Korner added to our score by beating Kristian but [...]

For this top of the table clash terry rested (or was he in hiding ?). However a close encounter ensued with a result much closer than the final score depicted. Several sets went against Popps at juice and Central admitted they had had a tough match. Our 2 winners were Phil P and Pete Mc [...]

Excitement had built up to a frenzy for this long awaited battle between the A’s and the B’s. In fact Terry A had got himself so excited that he felt he could not perform on the night (not the TT you’ll be pleased to know). However I am sure he did not let the fair [...]

Evergreens v Popps A Two great wins by Terry A. against Mick & Michael and a controlled blitz from Phil P. over Michael. But thanks to a lethargic performance from Peter Mc (no wins – but wait till he gives up the day job) – we lulled them into a (false !!??) sense of security [...]

13 June 2011 Popps A v Panther Captain Allerington rested himself this match Messrs Korner, McMullen and Parry took on the might of First Div Panthers. Peter Mc lead the charge winning the first game 15-13. Coincidentally Phil Parry and John Korner also took up the banner winning one each in their sets. However we [...]

POPPS A Peter Davis, Gwyn Wardman and A N Other (to be confirmed) POPPS B lost the the match against Evergreens 9 sets to nil without winning a game, such was the supremecy of their opposition. Peter Davis reports that: “One chap had an illegal serve which didn’t seem to matter! People seemed to put [...]

Marsh Con Club: John Schofield, Adrain Normanton and Rod Veal Popps B: Dennis McGuiness, John Taylor and Terry Wassall This was POPPs B’s first summer league game and it looks very much like business as usual! Your reporter had to leave before the end of the match but at that time Popps were losing 1 [...]

POPPS A: A: Terry Allington B: John Korner C: Derek Greenwood Central 2: X: Dave Blackburn Y: Brian Chapman Z: Steve Caulfield Good to be back – or was it? Good break – what break? More of the same – or is it less? A scratch team turned out in their mythical Popps ‘A’ shirts, [...]

POPPS ‘A’ (home) A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: Derek Greenwood      Tradesmen 2 (away) X: Sam Drake Y: Mathew Knapton Z: Alex ?  Apocalyptic is a BIG word – eleven letters, with probably as many meanings and as many people with suggestions for its appropriate use. To Popps ‘A’, this final match of the season seemed to sit appropriately under this [...]

NJs (home): A Ross Barnes  B:Jim Dawber  C Josh Gee     POPPS A (away): X Terry Allington Y Peter McMullen  Z Derek Greenwood A ‘night out with the lads’ – how often do mature (?), older men use this reference? Usually, it has to be said, to describe a memorable (in some ways) but not necessarily remembered evening on [...]

In the most recent fixture against OTR, Popps won 6-3, but there could be no complacency about our prospects tonight, given the considerable improvement of all those who play in this remote hilly kingdom. It will be easy to make the usual jokes about strange goings-on in this wild outpost in the Pennines, but as [...]

Ramsbridge: A: Donald Stott  B: Steve Hanson  C: John Schofield                    POPPS ‘A’: X: Terry Allington Y: Peter McMullen Z: Derek Greenwood A match to celebrate  – for ALL of us, as Donald Stott announces his retirement at the end of this match from competitive table-tennis. For all of us, age brings with it a set of uncompromising circumstances [...]

POPPS ‘B’:  A: Derek Greenwood B: Tom Sunderland C: John Taylor Northowram G:  X: Josh Gee Y: Rob Gee Z: Jim Dawker Yet another match against the myriad members of the various Northowram teams – the pre-match excitement always surrounds the matter of actually who might be playing for them? Their propensity for asking their third team [...]

NJ’s (home)A: Ross Barnes, B: Charlie Cliffe, C: Josh Gee      POPPs B (away) X: Derek Greenwood, Y: Joan Bottomley, Z: Tom Sunderland After the Popps ‘A’ team’s recent chaotic visit to Northowram, we were relieved to find only two tables occupying the playing area as opposed to the previous three. The ‘B’ team was reduced further [...]

Sowerby 2 (home) A: Andrew Whiteley, B: John Korner, C: Phillip Parry    POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: JohnTaylor Our annual trip out to the far hills of Sowerby provided us with a considerable degree of apprehension, based on the strength & quality of the Sowerby team & the timescale of the [...]

Popps (0) destroyed by teenage sensations, Tradesmen (9) Tradesmen are currently lying 2nd in the league and are the major threat to our ‘A’ team for promotion. Last December, they defeated Popps ‘B’ 9-0, with a young, laid-back team, who, according to Sports Journalist Terry Wassall, barely had to break into a sweat to demolish [...]

Popps register rare win against the Hoods, 5-4. Our first match against Old Town Hoods, back in September, the first of our season, resulted in a comfortable victory for Popps ‘B’, but it was not a sign of things to come. We had the experienced Derek, now a professional coach, playing for us, we had [...]

POPPS (home) A: Derek Greenwood, B: Peter McMullen, C: Terry Allington OTRs (away) X: Colin Anker, Y: Phil Dean, Z: Jo Sweeney 1: AvX – Derek v Colin: 11-1/11-8/11-5 HOME WIN 2: BvY – Peter v Phil: 11-9/11-8/6-11/11-5 HOME WIN 3: CvZ – Terry v Jo: 11-3/11-6/11-3 HOME WIN 4: BvX – Peter v Colin: [...]

Northowram G (home) .A: Robert Gee, B: John Wasilewski, C: Raj Panesar POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: Chie Hick We faced another awkward fixture at Northowram, awkward because of the tightness of the venue with three tables crushed into a space suitable only for two & awkward because of the [...]

On paper this looked easy for the A team, but they have to keep focused for the challenging matches ahead. Our visitors from the ancient Druid village of Old Town like to keep their old customs. The tribal leader, Jo Sweeney, presented us with a gift of a packet of chocolate buscuits. The A team [...]

The last time we played the experienced MJM team we had supersub Terry Allington playing in place of a sick Terry Wassall. Consequently POPPs came away with a few points. This time would be different! The POPPs B team consisted of the same team as last week, Tom, Joan and Terry W. MJM also had [...]

This match was delayed by 10 days to accommodate the Senior Citizens unavailability on the scheduled day. We could have taken the 9 points on offer but we prefer to play the matches even when we know we are on a hiding to nothing, as proved to be the case, losing 0 -9. Our top [...]

A: Martyn Halliday X: Terry Allington B: Mark Craven Y: Chie Hick C: John Wasilewski Z: Peter McMullen For us, confusion has always surrounded the three Northowram teams, as configurated by the forceful & inimitable Barbara Gee; which team is which, who plays where and when, issues which have clouded our team selection and planning [...]

POPPS A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: John Taylor SCs       X: Harry Wotherspoon Y: Alwyn Kershaw Z: Roy Oldroyd We faced our 15th league match of the season with good confidence, yet knowing it would be a tough match. This trio of players, a long-standing & effective trio, embraced a determined & somewhat dour [...]

Popps Hounded 8-1 in ruff encounter At the earlier fixture, Old Town Hounds beat us 5-4, after your correspondent squandered what looked like a winning lead which would have clinched it our way. However, we had the experienced Derek playing that night, so our match tonight will be a challenge, unless of course Popps ‘B’ [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WASHED AWAY BY SOWERBY 2 In the first encounter between these 2 sides, the experienced Sowerby team beat us 7-2, and that was only because they were not able to play their best team. We know this team well, as three of their players performed with distinction as part of our summer league [...]

Old Town Hoods A: George Wood, B: James Rickard, C: Dave Warburton  Popps ‘A’  X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen, Z: Derek Greenwood A bus to the top of the world (well, Calderdale, actually), proved to be an expectation too far, to visit our friends (& foes) at Old Town. A bus to Hebden Bridge [...]

POPPS ‘B’ : A Terry Wassall, B: Joan Bottomley, C: Robin Thomas POPPS ‘A’ : X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen,  Z: Derek Greenwood A gathering of friends – or is it? This twice-yearly ‘conference’ of strategy, method & guile has come round again, drawing a coterie of support & en-couragement from an attractive bevy of male [...]

The A team suffered its only defeat so far in the handicap doubles against Tradesman 2 in our division. Mark Knapton who plays in the second division  inspired the youngsters to great eforts, and we found their 18 points start too much to pull back.

On the 29th December the Mystery Doubles was held at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. Popps were represented by Derek and Terry A. Terry partnered Andrew Woodhead, a student now based in London. He is the son of Robert Woodhead a well known Halifax league player. Andrew is a cracking player and together with the [...]

A: Rose Tipton, B: Derek Wiiliamson, C: Colin Anker X: Terry Allington, Y: John Taylor,  Z: Derek Greenwood Another well-anticipated meander to the heights of Old Town beckoned, with a drizzly yet warm winter’s evening cushioning our body thermometer against the previous extremes of life ‘on top of the world’. Our vault across the entrance [...]

We are now reaching the stage where we are having our return matches, so the results are more predictable. Ramsbridge beat us 9-0 last time, although there were some close games. Joan has gone down with some strange virus, so we have parachuted in Alwyn Kershaw, who played with some distinction for our Summer League [...]

POPPS B was made up of the regular combo of Joan Bottomley, Tom Sunderland and Terry Wassall up against the Northowram Junior trio of Ross Barnes, Josh Gee and Rob Gee.  For the first half hour only Ross appeared for the Juniors so it looked like we may have had to rearrange but Rob and [...]

This was POPPs B’s last game before the Christmas break and, given the Tradesmen are second in the division just behind POPPs A, were not expecting anything other than a lesson in humility. And so it turned out. The Tradesmen’s trio of youngsters, Sam, Matthew and Alex, two of whom could barely see over the [...]

POPPS A teame – A: Terry Allington,  B: Peter McMullen,  C: John Taylor Sowerby 2 team – X: Andrew Whiteley,Y: John Korner, Z: Philip Parry The final challenge of the first half of the season, a potentially close match against opponents who, largely, knew each other well, having played as team-mates in the earlier Summer League. On [...]

Having beaten the Robins in a close match in November POPPS expected them to receive a handicap. Although POPPS had won 6 sets to 3 many of the games were very close and the overall points difference for the match not that great. In the event the Robins got a 54 point start which seemed [...]

On Friday 10th September the POPPs squad and theircarers descended on down town Halifax and the sophisticated surroundings and affordances of one of Wetherspoons’ finest hostelries,  Barum Top. We certainly know how to push teh boat out. A good time was had by all. Perhaps the highlight was the now traditional poem written in honour of the [...]

Popps hit by Northowam Blizzard: Northowram 9, Popps Nil Continuing in the grip of the wintry weather which afflicted the whole of the UK, the ‘B’ team made the trip to the friendly outpost of Northowram, where a bunch of helpful people were erecting the tables for the fixture, as the room is used during [...]

Terry Allington and  Chie won all three of their sets and Peter won two. A convincing win for the A team

Tradesmen 2 –  A: Matthew Knapton B: Sam Drake C: Kristian Fearnley POPPs A – X: Terry Allington  Y: Chie Hick  Z: Peter McMullen After an exciting season of daring do & a welcome absence of daring don’t, Popps ‘A’ have moved inexorably onwards throughout the season, shadowed threateningly by the eager power & enthusiasm [...]

Popps A 7,  Northowram Juniors 2 In the opening set Peter Mcmullen found Ross Barnes attack just too strong for him, and went down in straight games.Peter then showed his fighting spirit against Barbara Gee, using a mixture of deep chop and an excellent back hand flick, to win a five game thriller. Chie Hick [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN CLOSE ENCOUNTER Readers of this column, all 3 of them, will have noticed that the genre has evolved from basic factual accounts in the early days, through sociological analysis, via sheer fabrication of facts to avant garde portrayal and surreal representation of a mundane event, a table tennis match. A recent posting [...]

Popps Battered by Rampant Senior Cits, 9-0 This was a home match for SC. They normally play at home on a Tuesday, but had asked us to move it to the Monday. The situation is that the Senior Citizens have been invited to a rave on Tuesday and did not want to miss out on [...]

The Popps A team had their hardest game so far, in the league. Peter Mcmullen continues to impress, despite only just recovering from a serious leg injury. He  had fine wins over Martyn Holiday and John Wisilewsky, but fell away to the experienced Barbara Gee.  John Taylor struggled on the night, but played well against [...]

Popps B brought in Terry Allington as replacement for Terry Wassall, who was still feeling unwell. Tom Sunderland played the opening set against Martyn Holiday and produced some good shots, but still lacks the consistency needed to trouble a strong M.J.M team. I am sure he will do much better as he gains more experience. [...]

A: Colin A.                   X: Peter McMullen B: Phil B:                        Y: John  Taylor C: Jo Sweeney            Z: Derek Greenwood Climbing to the geographical pinnacle of Calderdale League 3 small-ball activity, an edifice with evidence of faith & thinness of oxygen, high on commitment with three teams ranged against the collective might of teenage tantrums, mid-life [...]

POPPS:  A Peter McMullen B: Derek Greenwood C: Chie Hick Z: Old Town Hoods:  X: Paul Penny Y: Dave Warburton (Terry Wassall substitute for absent OTH player) 1/ A v X – Peter v Paul: 11-2/11-2/11-9  HOME In this instance, it was Paul who was robbed, mugged & generally reduced to penury! Peter looked like [...]

Experienced Sowerby 2 beat Popps ‘B’ 7-2 Teams: Popps’B’ Tom Sunderland, Terry Wassall, Robin Thomas Sowerby 2: Phillip Parry, John Korner, Andrew Whitely Sowerby 2 finished bottom of Division 2 last year and are now in Division 3. Sowerby 3 have disappeared. What does this mean? Have they lost some of their better players or [...]

The Popps A team has been strengthened with the signing of Chie Hick. With her all action pen-holder grip, she secured all 3 sets. John Taylor is an example to us all, despite his health problems he has come back as good as ever. He played so well on the night. Terry Allington was his [...]

Popps Destroyed by Experienced Veterans. Popps: Nil, Ramsbridge 9 Popps Team: Tom Sunderland, Joan Bottomley, Robin Thomas Ramsbridge: John Schofield, Donald Stott, Steve Hanson Ramsbridge United is a new name on the list, but their players have been around for years, indeed Donald was around when the game was invented. We knew they were not [...]

A: Alwyn Kershaw X: Terry Allington B: Harry Witherspoon Y: Chie Hick C: Roy Oldroyd Z: Derek Greenwood 1: A v X – Alwyn/Terry 1-11/2-11/3-11 Good 1st game for Terry, imposing his metronome, with Alwyn struggling for shots & for crumbs under the table. 2nd & 3rd games were a walk in the park for [...]

POPPS ‘B’ SNATCH DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY: HOUNDS WIN 5-4 IN NAIL-BITING WIN Once again a trip to the quaint world of Old Town, which feels like a million miles from the urban sophistication of Halifax, with its proud new Poundland representing the cream of shopping chic, featuring designs by Stella McCartney, fake [...]

Massacre at Club Lane This fixture is always a slightly artificial affair, where the result is likely to be a foregone conclusion. However, it does present a chance for most of the team members to get together and on this occasion, to meet new members. So we had Chie Hick making her first appearance with [...]

The ‘B’ Team kicked off their season by a journey into the wilds of Old Town, always an unsettling experience despite some familiarity gained via previous visits. There is always the niggling fear that we could arrive one night to find our opponents suffering from Blue Tongue disease, passed on from the wild pigs which [...]

Popps(home): A) Terry Allington B) Peter McMullen C) Derek Greenwood Northowram (away): X) Jordan Barkass Y) Josh Gee  Z) Rob Gee  1: A v X – Terry v Jordan 11/4-11/2-11/8 – HOME WIN Good start by Terry, controlling the game & not allowing Jordan to get into his stride. First & second games easy for Terry [...]

Trevor Kershaw had an excellent win over Brian Chapman,using his topspin loop to break down Brian who has a strong counter hitting game. Suma are the new champions of the second division going through the summer league unbeaten, with their consistent play.

Evergreens demolished Popps 9-0 in the last encounter, and with 2 of our original team, and Robin replacing Dennis, a change in our fortunes was not anticipated. One of the problems with the Summer League is that some of the weaker Winter sides do other things in the Summer , such as going to naturism [...]

POPPS A Phil Parry,  Joun DAvenport, John Korner Marsh Con Club  Adrian Normanton, Tom Normanton, John Schofield Phil Parry v Adrian Normanton 3-11, 4-11, 3-11                          0-1 John Davenport v Tom Normanton 14-12, 11-4, 11-7                1-1 John Korner [...]

Popps A:    Terry Allington, John Korner, Trevor Kershaw Dolphins:    Ken Scott, Denise Scott, Alan Cowburn The opening set between Terry Allington and Ken Scott was between two players who practice together, Terry taking the opening game to seven. The wily Ken then started to change his tactics by pushing the ball back and using his [...]

Popps ‘B’ V Marsh Conservative Club. Tuesday 10 August 2010 Teams: Marsh: Adrian Normanton, John Schofield, and Robert Woodward (borrowed) Popps: Terry Wassall, Dennis McGuinness, Robin Thomas. Your correspondent was not present at our first encounter with Marsh, did not write the report and was not able to make the usual stereotypical comments about the [...]

The return match against Evergreens saw Popps A make one change, Trevor Kershaw replacing John Korner who had an ankle problem. In the first set Terry Allington was returning after 3 defeats against Suma. He faced the awkward Mick Curry with his heavy backspin push shot, and classic backhand flick. Terry used his watchful defence [...]

One of the Popps B team did not put in an appearance but Embassy kindly offered one of their players who had turned up for a bit of practice so Terry, Alwyn and Embassy’s Derek Briggs lined up for Popps B against Clive, Sam and Steve for Embassy. Embassy beat us 8 – 1 in [...]

The two Popps teams met again for this much anticipated local derby. For some reason there is no report on the first encounter earlier in the summer, probably because none of our regular scribes were playing. However, 9 – 0 to Popps A would probably be a good guess at the result. The good news [...]

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, [...]

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, [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

In their latest summer league match Popps B (as last week, Alwyn, Tom and Terry) met the formidable Marsh Cons – the dad and son pairing of Adrian and Tom Normanton plus John Schofield. Once again Popps B salvaged a smidgen of respectability by winning one set and avoiding a white wash. Whereas Alwyn was [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

Not knowing the Handicap allowance till the end of the match made it quite exciting. Peter Mc Started the battle with a hard attacking effort against David Blackburn.Davids retrieving from 20′ back was amazing and eventually won him the game 42-30 — still a satisfactory start for Popps. John T. had a similar result against [...]

POPPS ‘B’ v Old Town Hares Handicap Doubles QF played at the HX Centre, Tuesday March 30 2010. Popps B lost by 26 points. In the first round, POPPS ‘B’ defeated Div 1 Batts, courtesy of probably a fairly generous handicap. In round 2, they met a side lower than themselves in the league, Sowerby [...]

Popps A 420 Panthers B 375 Our top doubles partnership, Terry Allington and John did not get off to their usual good start, only managing 15-42 in the first game. We feared the worst against the First Division team who had Robert Wood, James Foster and Matthew Stevens playing for them. With Peter Mc suffering [...]

In our last encounter, up in the wilds of Old Town, we scored an easy victory with only 2 players, but would it be the same team? Could they have improved? We were about to find out. Match 1 saw Robin defeated by Jo Sweeny, whom he had previously defeated. But this time she was [...]

Lions 5 Popps A 4 Terry Allington continued with his amazing form winning all 3 sets in 3. His defensive strategy and cunning block shots were unbeatable. It was as if he had got the rabbit hypnotized in his headlights ! On the other side of the spectrum Peter Mc was lack-lustre and turned victory [...]

Popps A 9 Northowram MPM 0 Faint hopes of promotion maintained with another good 9-0 win. Terry Allington, Derek Greenwood and Peter McMullen all played their part in this match which keeps our chances still alive (Till next week when we grapple with the hungry Tigers once again !! )

Popps A 9 O.T.Hounds 0 Popps A kept their faint hopes of promotion alive with this result, not dropping a game in the whole match. This was a creditable performance and shows the continuing improvement of Popps; we just managed a 5-4 victory in the prevous encounter. John Taylor, Terry Allington and Peter McMullen all [...]

Lions are one of the contenders for winning the division this year so POPPs B expected a tough night and so it turned out to be. Terry W, John M and Alan W of POPPs took on Ben Speak, John Tallis and Hannah Kendal and generally gave a good account of themselves with 4 sets [...]

March 10, 2010 From past experience, we knew this would be a difficult fixture, but we could only do our best. Like John Terry, we would be playing away, although the pleasures would only involve ball and bat. Our opponents would have the advantage of knowing the table well and would know their way to [...]

8th March 2010. Popps A Pipped by Artful Hares Having been told their “No.1″ , Neil Coneron had to go home early to feed the cat (or was it the wife?) we agreed to let him play his sets early. With PeterMc beating Neil, Alan Wood doing extremely well in beating No 2 Phil Ward [...]

Oakland Raiders 348 v. Popps A 258 We expected Oakland Raiders, being favorites for promotion to the 1st Division, would hammer us. So Peter started the proceedings and gave a creditable performance (he said) narrowly loosing the 2nd game (2 games to 21), total score 31-42. The irrepressible Terry A then played Dave Whiteley and [...]

Old Town Hares are currently Division leaders so POPPs B (third from bottom currently) framed themselves to save face and attempt at least to win some games. So the formidable Hares trio of Simon, Phil and Neil faced the rather less than formidable POPPs B team of Alan W, Terry W and John M. However, Alan [...]

Terry A started proceedings but never really got warmed up in his first set against Barbara Gee and lost 3-0. Peter Mc then played and beat Rob Gee by the same score, followed by John T who did the same to Josh Gee. Score 2-1 to us. Barbara was next opponent for Peter who was [...]

Popps A (combined ages 201!) beat Senior Citizens (combined Ages 216!!!) 9 nil. A great way to celebrate being at the top of Div 3 (albeit having played more matches than the nearest challengers). Terry A lead the way with another flawless display of getting everything back —- an excellent example to all of us [...]

POPPs B played Northowram G on Monday 15th February and lost 0 – 9.  Unlike the last time we played the G family team (when we won 5 – 4) they were at full strength. The POPPs team of Alan, Joan and Terry W all played well and both Alan and Joan troubled the scorer [...]

This could be yet another predictable report where the result will not have been in doubt from the onset. As last time, we could have taken the result as read and departed earlier for the Old Shears. But we’re not like that and honour required us to play out this battle under the unyielding white [...]

POPPS B were beaten 9 nil. However Joan and Alan put on a worthy performance but were no match to the Seniors superior skills, tricky serves and dodgy spin. John was man of the match for POPPswithout a doubt having taken Roy Aldroyd to 5 sets (or is that in tennis?). John won his 1st game  in his other 2 matches but Alwyn & Harry [...]

Excellent debuts by both the Woods partnership.  Alan with a maximum for Popps, assisted by John T and Peter Mc  lead us to the 9 – 0 victory.  Norma, Alan’s wife, guested ( and starred ) for the visitors who were  one  short.   She provided a scintillating display of power hitting which the home team had to [...]

This match was played on 26th January with POPPS B the home team. We were looking forward to this match as it gave us a rare opportunity to play a higher division team and get some idea of the level of competition we need to aspire to. Given our lowly position languishing near the bottom [...]

POPPS ‘B’ IN WINNING MOOD AGAIN For the home match against this team in October, POPPS ‘B’ registered an historic first win. However, we did have the experienced John Taylor subbing, so we knew that things might be different this time. In addition, we would be playing away. Perhaps Sowerby had a strange table only [...]

In a match of fluctuating fortunes Terry A excelled with a flawless exhibition of immaculate control (or was it conception?). The hard hitting Tradesmen banged not only the ball but their heads too trying to find a way past his superb defence. He started the match off well with a 3-0 win against their No [...]

POPPS B: John Mitchell, Terry Wassall and Alan Partington Tradesmen 2: Marcus Reynolds, Sam Clayton and Matt Knapton Our first sight of the opposition was a bit disconcerting. The Tradesmen’s team looked more like the sort of group you would find knocking on your door in shorts during  ’Bob a job’ week. It is only a slight exaggeration [...]

Good to be back in action after the break, particularly with a win! We need a few 9 – 0′s however to be back in contention for promotion. Derek’s arthritus robbed us of a couple of points in this match but he will be back to normal as soon as the weather improves I am [...]

Northowram Edge to 5-4 Win Teams Northowram Martyn Halliday, Josh Gee, Robert Gee Popps ‘B’ Terry Wassall, John Mitchell, Robin Thomas Fighting their way through a cold wintry night, Popps entered the cold wintry room to see the walls covered with toddlers’ paintings and a set of rules: Be kind, share, don’t swear, play, don’t [...]

November 23rd. Old Town Hares  7, POPPS A  2 . No further details as I was in the wilds of Cambodia at the time.  December 14th.  POPPS A 4, Halifax Lions 5.  A topsy turvy, exciting, awe-inspiring (or was it ‘oh, uninspiring?) match. Other teams players came from miles around to watch, and even had [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN AGAINST THE ODDS Monday December 14 at the Chapel, Old Town The last time Popps ‘B’ ventured into the wilds of Old Town, they were incorrectly directed to the wrong venue by a mistake in the handbook. The resultant cold wait did not help their performance as two members phoned round to [...]

Popps ‘B’ Through to Next Round! Having eventually won their 1st round against blood-sucking BATS, courtesy of a generous handicap and after some rapid on-the-job learning, we were now due to meet a side below us in the league—barely possible you might think-so they would receive a useful handicap. Consistency and cool heads would be [...]

Wed 2.12.09 . Old Town Hounds 4 — Popps A 5 2 wins each from Derek and Peter and 1 from John helped us to a narrow victory, despite the fact that they had a “ringer” playing for them from their first team. A return to winning ways was very welcome and caused some singing in [...]

POPPS THROUGH TO NEXT ROUND! This should have been played a couple of weeks ago, but BATS, a 1st Division side, couldn’t raise a team: one member was in custody, one had swine flu and the other was hiding in a wardrobe, waiting for his girl friend’s husband to go to sleep. We refused their [...]

Lions finished mid-table last year, above Popps, so we knew this was a fixture which would be a challenge. Then we heard that Joan had gone down with pneumonia! We wish her a speedy recovery. Your team secretary roped himself in, only to find that John Mitchell had to pull out at short notice to [...]

Tuesday November 24, 2009. This team finished above Popps last year and currently are one place above us.  A win could take us above them, but would we be able to demonstrate some consistency against these experienced campaigners?  We arrived ready to play at 7.15 and waited for our opponents to turn up. They eventfully [...]

The match got off to a late start as the POPPs team, playing away, had taken the venue details from the Handbook which was incorrect. After a number of phone calls and, in Terry Wassall’s case, a stop at the Hare and Hounds pub and Old Town Cricket Club for directions, we all found our [...]

16th November. Northowram ‘Team G’ (M Halliday 1, J Wasilewski 2, B Gee 3)   6    v   HxTTC Popp A (T Allington 2, J Taylor 1, D Greenwood 0)   3 This was the A team’s first lost match this season playing the formidable full strength Northowram G Team. Unfortunately Derek had to withdraw with the occurance [...]

Now we know why this team is called ‘G’. Two of their members are from the Gee dynasty, although on this occasion, the legendary Barbara Gee was missing. From the Popps point of view, we knew we would put in an improved performance with the knowledge that Terry Allington would be playing for us, as [...]

Monday 2.11.09. Senior Citizens 1 v Popps A 8 The winning run goes on — bragging but we have to say it whilst we can — we have to play the best teams yet ! In this match, the Clash of the (elderly) Titans, Terry A lead the way with 3 excellent wins. Incidentally his [...]

And so inevitably, with two teams in the league, we would meet each other, and on the basis that we had selected the ‘A’ team to be the stronger combination, the result would probably be predictable. Table Tennis is not like football, where a minnow can despatch a big name in a cup tie, helped [...]

At first sight, the prospect of playing a side called Senior Citizens might bring up an image of doddery blokes with Zimmer frames, slopping their tea all over their trousers, but we knew this team should not be underestimated. They have already won a number of matches this year and have those great ingredients of [...]

‘B ‘Team achieves first win 9-0! Sowerby 3 finished 2nd in Division 3 last year, so our team approached this fixture with a degree of apprehension. However, we know that teams change their personnel and in addition, we had John Taylor, covering for a poorly John Mitchell. So if John could get us off to [...]

Table Tennis Report. Tradesmen V Popps ‘B’ Tuesday October 6, 2009   The B team entered its third match of the season still waiting for a win, and with Mark Knapton, last year’s number 2 in the Div 3 averages playing, they knew it would be difficult. Mark himself would arrive later, by agreement, so [...]

The POPPs B team (John M, Terry W and Alan P) took on Northowram MPM (Martyn H, Paul M, and Oliver B) and, after a spirited match, lost 3 sets to 6. The unlikely top POPPs player this time was Terry with two wins of 3 – 0 but, along with the rest of the [...]

The new season in the Halifax Table Tennis League started this week with a new look setup for the POPPs table tennis teams. Yes, teams, in the plural. We now have two teams which we have imaginatively named POPPS A and POPPS B. This reflects a welcome growth in the number of members who want [...]

When we considered taking part in the summer league, it was made clear that we would find the competition even tougher than  Winter  league 3, on the basis that we would come across some league 2 players. So it has proved and we have found life difficult in this league. However, the games have been played [...]

First our official complaints (not excuses I hasten to add) :–   1. They tried to dint our enthusiasm by telling us that they won  last winter Third Division  by a  margin of 30 points. Totally out of order. 2. Their No 2, David, topped Div 3 averages last year and he regularly runs marathons  [...]

Spartans won 7-2.  POPPs team David, Peter and Terry.  David was the only set winner for POPPs with a win of 3-0 against Spartan’s Steve Hanson and a hard fought 3-2 win over Michael Mullins. Peter took a game from all 3 players, Michael, Karthik Shetty and Steve. Terry failed to win a single game thus confiming [...]

Result POPPS 4-5 Tradesmen Team Peter 1 win, David 2 wins, John 1 win. A close match which went to the last game in which Peter was unable to get the better of his wiley opponent (Ken, Denise’s husband). Could have gone either way but we couldn’t complain in the end and the learning curve [...]

POPPs (Peter, John Taylor and Terry) faced up to the Evergreens (Mick, Dave and Mark) in confident but deluded mood. To cut to the chase, POPPs lost 9 sets to nil. We had our moments, some good rallies where a passing observer may have briefly assumed a hard fought close match was in progress, and [...]

SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR 7.29 and POPPS are confident of a whitewash victory due to the no show of the opposition who we believe to have heard of our fearsome reputation and decided there was little point in actually playing the game. 7.30 they’ve turned up and its downhill from here on. 9.30 it’s [...]

In keeping with tradition for summer league matches Popps lost to their opponents 2 sets to 8. There were five aspects to this defeat – it was very hot, the combined ages of Lions was probably about 135 years less than the Popps team of David, John and Terry, youngsters don’t respect their elders these [...]

POPPS played Keighley On Tuesday 23rd June. Due to illness POPPS found themselves a man short although fortunately were able to find a last minute replacement: Alan2. We onlly managed 1 win courtesy of Alan2, the final score being 8 – 1 to Keighley. David and Alan found themselves fighting a vertically rearguard action against [...]

Headline – Partington Wins his 1st Match–crowd goes crazy! ( All 3 of them ) However POPPS lose 6/3 – John and Peter put on their usual fine display of vintage table tennis with lots of encouragement to rookie Alan – who said on leaving the arena that his agent’s negotiations with the Chinese were [...]

Friday 29 May saw the majority of the team in the elegant surroundings of Villa McMullan at the 4th in a series of social events for the POPPS table tennis team since its formation in the autumn of 2008. Armed with various contributions of food and drink, the members arrived in a variety of garb [...]

Monday night saw Popps first match of the summer league, against Spartans. This, we are told, is a rather more relaxed and sociable affair compared with the cut and thrust and naked ambition of the winter league. Our team was made up of two of our stars. John and Peter, and Terry playing his first [...]

POPPS POOPED BY WARRIORS Popps lost out by just 1 point (378 v 377) courtesy of the handicappers who gave us a 279 start. The scores tell all. Warriors of course scored 21 in all the games and Pops scored as follows: John: 3 3 9 8 4 1 Peter: 12 11 3 4 1 [...]

Popps trounced the trembling Tradesmen by 6-3. (Please insert picture of naked lady holding ping pong bat here to increase circulation; currently at 3 including 1 demented dog). Popps stormed to a 4-0 lead in the match before the Tradesmen chiselled their way back into contention at 4-3. It needed a solid performance by John [...]

In a highly charged atmosphere at the Club Lane stadium last night the minnows of the 3rd division triumphed over their illustrious division 1 opposition. From the first pong, Popps took the wiff to the opposition and showed them no mercy as they swept to an overwhelming victory. John (aka the pieman) played number 1 [...]

This team gave us a heavy defeat last time, so could we improve now that we had gained more league experience? Could Derek capitalise on the return to fitness of his dodgy shoulder? Would John recover from an overdose of pie’n’peas and how would Robin perform after food and beverage excesses in Hong Kong. The [...]

Result: POPPS won overall and by 6-3 Popps had a handicap advantage of 63 but did enough to win comfortably even without the handicap. (by 100 plus). Peter, David and John all won 2 of their 3 matches. They all lost to the Lions number 1 player but only by fairly small margins which were more than [...]

Result:  POPPs won 7-2 A good display all round by POPPS who secured a hard fought victory after some closely fought encounters. John and David had been training on a new “winalot” diet and that was exactly what they did, winning all their matches. Peter was a little off colour, lacking that shiny coat and [...]

Surviving, as we barely manage to do, in the culvert ridden, monster infested nether regions of League 3 in the Halifax League, we already, in our first season, have had to face up to dramatic and enforced changes in our perception of table tennis (or ping pong) as a major obsession of the world’s leaders, [...]

Playing: PETER ‘Silver Streak’ MCMULLEN/JOHN ‘Pie Man’ TAYLOR/DAVID ‘Doggy Blanket’ MELBOURNE  v. Mick Curry/Dave Lewis/Brian Hanson Set 1: PETER v Mick – result 11-3/5-11/12-10/10-12 Game 1: Tentative start from Mick with Peter achieving an apparently relaxed approach with good focus, maintained throughout the game to victory for Peter. Good start that promised well. Game 2: [...]

This is the first poem written for the POPPs table tennis team by our Poet in Residence, Robin Thomas (who also happens to be Team Secretary, Social Secretary, Team Player, Team News Reporter and much else besides). The poem was read out as part of the entertainment at the team’s social evening last Wednesday as [...]

POPPs table tennis team enjoyed a social night out 4.03.09 at The Works, Sowerby Bridge.  Host: Robin Having negotiated the use of a private and spacious room off the main bar area of his local ‘real ale’ pub, Robin touristically informed us of all local facilities, available to residents and visitors; these included zimmer-frame hire, frequency [...]

POPP players were Peter. David and Derek. Old Town players were Derek, Phil and Sue Game 1: Phil v. David: result 12-10 11-9 11-9 First two games were evenly matched but in the third Phil turned on the pressure and proved a faster mover and better at returning the ball generally. David played well and [...]

Once again the new boys were in unchartered territory, with the handicap only to be revealed at the end of the match. Therefore all points would be valuable, the message being to keep doing your best, even in apparent defeat. Match 1 saw our Derek (Greenwood) against their Derek (Briggs). This was fairly even until [...]

The detailed report notes of this match were mislaid before completion and so this is a much shortened version. POPP players were Peter, David and Derek. Old Town players were Jo, Don and Cynthia Peter and David played consistently throughout and easily achieved three-game victories in all their sets. Don was potentially a good “long-table” [...]

This video was recorded to publicise the POPPs sponsored over 50s table tennis sessions held at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre Tuesday and Thursday mornings 10.30 to 11.30am (not as in the video opening captions!) – starring team members Derek and Robin sounding remarkably coherent. All are welcome. Make new friends, discover or rediscover a [...]

Popps turned out Terry, John and Peter for this return match against Ram 2. To cut a long story short we lost 2 sets to 7 and, although this was an improvement on our first meeting with Rams when we lost 1 – 8 last October, it was a slightly disappointing result. I think it is [...]

Playing: Terry/Peter/Derek   Game 1: Peter/Derek v Dave/Shamir   Knowing that this team were currently third in League 1, we approached the match with an inevitable bucketful of trepidation, tempered, only slightly, by the fact that they, like us, had lost their first round match. Both Peter and Derek struggled initially to get into the [...]

POPPS have now played all the teams in division 3 once so this is halfway through our first season. As the table below shows we are third from bottom at the moment, in 9th place. We had hoped to finish near the top of the bottom half at the end of the season. This is [...]

We don’t seem to be getting results for every week and when we do they are often incomplete. These are the results for Division 3 for the first matches of 2009 Division Three Old Town Hounds (D Williamson 3, P Ward 3, R Tipton 3)  9  v  Old Town Hoods (D Sweeney 0, D Coneron 0, [...]

Would Popps be suffering from post Christmas hangovers, weighed down with mince pies and turkey, or would they spring into the New Year like youthful lambs? In the event, it was more like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of a more worldly-wise Sowerby team, who demonstrated the virtues of patience, even to the [...]

The last match before the Christmas break was lost 3 – 6 to the Tradesmen and we came away reasonabley happy in the circumstances. I was not due to play and was suffering from a cold (although I’m pretty certain this didn’t make any difference to the outcome of my sets) and Derek was supposed [...]

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 highlights of this match were wins by John Taylor and Derek Greenwood, and a welcoming cup of tea and a kit kat provided by our hosts. After venturing out in the bitter night to the frozen wastes of Northowram, our team took time to warm up and adjust. John Taylor took one game off [...]

Just found a new table tennis coaching web site. It mainly consists of a number of short high quality videos on basic strokes. Worth a look – http://www.tabletenniscoach.com/main.html. Sponsored by the Northumberland Table Tennis Association. “This site provides excellent video tutorials ranging from basic to advanced skills. ETTA coach Bernie Morris talks you though the [...]

The last post here was about our defeat in the first round of the Halifax Table Tennis League handicap tournament. Coincidently, a week too late, a new post on Greg Lett’s table tennis web site offers some good advice and tips on how to play doubles. There is a possibility that a consolation tournament will [...]

POPPs were beaten by 7 points overall by SUMA 1 last night after a tense and, I must say, very tiring match. We all played 6 double games each to 42 and often had to play in consecutive games. Because of the format of the games and our modest success in some of them this often meant [...]

POPPs was well and truly beaten by Lions last night losing 8 – 1. The combined age and experience or our team (Derek, Terry and Peter), about 186 years between us, was not enough to overcome the youthful exuberance, speed and rather disconcerting flexibility of the Lions – Chie, Ben and Hannah – all who [...]

Division 3 results for week commencing 10th November 2008. Full leagues results can be found in the Results section. Northowram (B Gee 3, J Wasilewski  1, R Gee 0)  4   v  Sowerby 3 (a Whiteley 2, J Korner 1, P Parry 2) 5 HxTTC Evergreens (M Curry 3, D Lewis 3, M Higgins 3)  9  v  [...]

Taking place at the Halifax TT Centre, with Evergreens hosting, expectations were realistic in the POPPS camp, in view of the strong reputation of their opponents. In the opening set, John Taylor had the best result by winning his third game 11-4, but having struggled to find his form in the first two games, losing [...]

Results for week commencing Monday 3rd November. Full results an be seen in the Result page. Division Three HxTTC A.R.K. (K Broadbent 1, A Feetham 1, R Oldroyd 0)  2   v  HxTTC Evergreens (M Curry 3, D Lewis 3, B Hanson 1)   7 Old Town Hoods (J Sweeney 0, C Scott 0, P Dean 0)   0   [...]

What a lovely bunch Halifax Table Tennis League Division 3 players are! We played Old Town Robins on Monday and once again the match was played in an excellent spirit. This is not to say that we are not competitive -  there was plenty of huffing and puffing and tutting when errors were made or [...]

Looks like we haven’t been sent the results for week 3. This might be because we had a bye and they are only sent to teams that played. We will check on this and fill the gap if we can. Division 3 results for week 4 commencing 27th October are as follows: Old Town Robins [...]

Last night we played Old Town Hoods in our 3rd match of the season. Once again we were impressed with the friendliness of the teams in the league (or at least in division 3!) and we had a thoroughly enjoyable and sociable evening, made even better than usual because we won!! The final score was [...]

Table Tennis Things I know…. is an interesting post by Greg Letts on the excellent tabletennis.about.com web site. Greg feels he would be a very much better player today if a number of now seemingly obvious things had dawned on him earlier in his career. Most of us in the POPPs team are returning to [...]

It seems the results that come through each week to our secretary are not complete and do not refer only to that week.  There should be 5 results in Division 3 per week but not all of these come through immediately.  I will update these results posts retrospectively so that all the same week’s results [...]

The POPPs team played its second match on Tuesday, an away meeting with Rams 2 at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. This time the other 3 players in our squad of 6 took the stage – John, Peter and Robin – so this was their debut. The result was the same as last week with [...]

Full results for week 1 can be viewed on the Results page (new item in the sidebar menu Pages section). The results for Division 3 for week 1 commencing October 6th are as follows: HxTTC A.R.K (K Broadbent 3, A Feetham 2, R Oldroyd 3)  8   v  HxTTC Popp (D Greenwood 1, M Konrad 0, T [...]

The business plan for the next 3 years has just been published for comment. Essentially the plan is to try and secure sufficient funding for the centre to continue. You can view it by clicking on this link – HxTTC Business Plan. Comments, ideas and observations will be very welcome. You can either add your [...]

The first match is over and we acquitted ourselves pretty well. Our opponents were HxTTC A.R.K. The team was called Senior Citizens last year, finishing 3rd in the division, but renamed this year after their names – Alan, Roy and Keith. We couldn’t have asked for a more friendly bunch to play our first ever match against. We had [...]

Last night the POPPs team, joined by a sprinkling of partners, enjoyed a pre-season social at the Lord Nelson at Luddenden after which we repaired to the home of our Secretary, Mieszek, for a homemade barszcz and bread supper. The barszcz , a Polish beetroot soup, was absolutely delicious. The get together was primarily social [...]

We have now received the fixture list for the coming season. Our first match is next Monday, 6th October, at the Halifax table Tennis Centre. Personally I feel quite nervous about this and I may not even be playing! Working out the complete fixture details was quite complicated involving looking at 3 different pages to find [...]

I have just discovered the English Table Tennis Association’s (almost monthly) on-line magazine, or e-zine. Looks pretty good and, in addition to news and events there is a blog we can comment on and a Table Tennis Tips section. For instance the current August edition has a section on serving, including the use of the long serve and [...]

Alan has now started the Thursday morning sessions at the Halifax Table tennis Centre. These are for 10.30 to 11.30. If you live in the general area and have the time and inclination why not come along and give it a go. It’s a friendly group and great fun as well as being a good [...]

We have just learnt that the first matches of the season will be in week commencing Monday 6th October. Our home evening will be Mondays so, if the first week is a home week for us, we may well be playing our first match on the 6th. In the meantime one of our players has [...]

Every week we get advice and tips from Alan, perhaps too much for aged brains to absorb and remember! I thought it would be a good idea to keep notes of the main tips as we get them as a reminder. So a new section has been started on Coaching tips. This section may also [...]

Helen from POPPS attended our Tuesday session today and had a knock. Apart from various documents we need to fill in to get the team properly set up so we can apply for funding, she has also provided a couple of CDs full photos of session members for the web site. Some of these will [...]

Today a new page has been added to the site that lists articles about table tennis in news papers and other media that are available on line and may interest visitors to this web site. The page, called  Table tennis in the news, is listed in the Pages section in the side bar menu. Hopefully [...]

We have a full complement of 6 players now David has joined us. We have 2 members who are experienced players and 4 comparative beginners from which we have to field a team of 3 players each week. Given our intention to share the matches as evenly as we can between us, the overall strength [...]

After a fair bit of messing about (this web site uses a blogging and content management system called WordPress that I am struggling to learn) and consulting a useful book called ‘WordPress for Dummies’ we have got this web site up and running. We have made good progress in the last week. Some of us [...]

Every week we get advice and tips from Alan, perhaps too much for aged brains to absorb and remember! I thought it would be a good idea to keep notes of the main tips as we get them as a reminder. So a new section has been started on Coaching tips. This section may also [...]

I have just discovered the English Table Tennis Association’s (almost monthly) on-line magazine, or e-zine. Looks pretty good and, in addition to news and events there is a blog we can comment on and a Table Tennis Tips section. For instance the current August edition has a section on serving, including the use of the long serve and [...]

Table Tennis Things I know…. is an interesting post by Greg Letts on the excellent tabletennis.about.com web site. Greg feels he would be a very much better player today if a number of now seemingly obvious things had dawned on him earlier in his career. Most of us in the POPPs team are returning to [...]

Just found a new table tennis coaching web site. It mainly consists of a number of short high quality videos on basic strokes. Worth a look – http://www.tabletenniscoach.com/main.html. Sponsored by the Northumberland Table Tennis Association. “This site provides excellent video tutorials ranging from basic to advanced skills. ETTA coach Bernie Morris talks you though the [...]

Table Tennis Things I know…. is an interesting post by Greg Letts on the excellent tabletennis.about.com web site. Greg feels he would be a very much better player today if a number of now seemingly obvious things had dawned on him earlier in his career. Most of us in the POPPs team are returning to [...]

The last post here was about our defeat in the first round of the Halifax Table Tennis League handicap tournament. Coincidently, a week too late, a new post on Greg Lett’s table tennis web site offers some good advice and tips on how to play doubles. There is a possibility that a consolation tournament will [...]

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 [...]

This video was recorded to publicise the POPPs sponsored over 50s table tennis sessions held at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre Tuesday and Thursday mornings 10.30 to 11.30am (not as in the video opening captions!) – starring team members Derek and Robin sounding remarkably coherent. All are welcome. Make new friends, discover or rediscover a [...]

Friday 29 May saw the majority of the team in the elegant surroundings of Villa McMullan at the 4th in a series of social events for the POPPS table tennis team since its formation in the autumn of 2008. Armed with various contributions of food and drink, the members arrived in a variety of garb [...]

On Friday 10th September the POPPs squad and theircarers descended on down town Halifax and the sophisticated surroundings and affordances of one of Wetherspoons’ finest hostelries,  Barum Top. We certainly know how to push teh boat out. A good time was had by all. Perhaps the highlight was the now traditional poem written in honour of the [...]

After a rather mixed Summer League competition POPPs are raring to go in this their 4th season in the Halifax Table Tennis League. The summer is always a bit hit and miss (literally) as higher division teams are mixed in with lower division teams and not all our players are available. This meant that both [...]

After a fair bit of messing about (this web site uses a blogging and content management system called WordPress that I am struggling to learn) and consulting a useful book called ‘WordPress for Dummies’ we have got this web site up and running. We have made good progress in the last week. Some of us [...]

We have a full complement of 6 players now David has joined us. We have 2 members who are experienced players and 4 comparative beginners from which we have to field a team of 3 players each week. Given our intention to share the matches as evenly as we can between us, the overall strength [...]

Helen from POPPS attended our Tuesday session today and had a knock. Apart from various documents we need to fill in to get the team properly set up so we can apply for funding, she has also provided a couple of CDs full photos of session members for the web site. Some of these will [...]

We have just learnt that the first matches of the season will be in week commencing Monday 6th October. Our home evening will be Mondays so, if the first week is a home week for us, we may well be playing our first match on the 6th. In the meantime one of our players has [...]

Alan has now started the Thursday morning sessions at the Halifax Table tennis Centre. These are for 10.30 to 11.30. If you live in the general area and have the time and inclination why not come along and give it a go. It’s a friendly group and great fun as well as being a good [...]

I have just discovered the English Table Tennis Association’s (almost monthly) on-line magazine, or e-zine. Looks pretty good and, in addition to news and events there is a blog we can comment on and a Table Tennis Tips section. For instance the current August edition has a section on serving, including the use of the long serve and [...]

We have now received the fixture list for the coming season. Our first match is next Monday, 6th October, at the Halifax table Tennis Centre. Personally I feel quite nervous about this and I may not even be playing! Working out the complete fixture details was quite complicated involving looking at 3 different pages to find [...]

Last night the POPPs team, joined by a sprinkling of partners, enjoyed a pre-season social at the Lord Nelson at Luddenden after which we repaired to the home of our Secretary, Mieszek, for a homemade barszcz and bread supper. The barszcz , a Polish beetroot soup, was absolutely delicious. The get together was primarily social [...]

The first match is over and we acquitted ourselves pretty well. Our opponents were HxTTC A.R.K. The team was called Senior Citizens last year, finishing 3rd in the division, but renamed this year after their names – Alan, Roy and Keith. We couldn’t have asked for a more friendly bunch to play our first ever match against. We had [...]

The business plan for the next 3 years has just been published for comment. Essentially the plan is to try and secure sufficient funding for the centre to continue. You can view it by clicking on this link – HxTTC Business Plan. Comments, ideas and observations will be very welcome. You can either add your [...]

The POPPs team played its second match on Tuesday, an away meeting with Rams 2 at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. This time the other 3 players in our squad of 6 took the stage – John, Peter and Robin – so this was their debut. The result was the same as last week with [...]

POPPs was well and truly beaten by Lions last night losing 8 – 1. The combined age and experience or our team (Derek, Terry and Peter), about 186 years between us, was not enough to overcome the youthful exuberance, speed and rather disconcerting flexibility of the Lions – Chie, Ben and Hannah – all who [...]

POPPs were beaten by 7 points overall by SUMA 1 last night after a tense and, I must say, very tiring match. We all played 6 double games each to 42 and often had to play in consecutive games. Because of the format of the games and our modest success in some of them this often meant [...]

The last post here was about our defeat in the first round of the Halifax Table Tennis League handicap tournament. Coincidently, a week too late, a new post on Greg Lett’s table tennis web site offers some good advice and tips on how to play doubles. There is a possibility that a consolation tournament will [...]

Just found a new table tennis coaching web site. It mainly consists of a number of short high quality videos on basic strokes. Worth a look – http://www.tabletenniscoach.com/main.html. Sponsored by the Northumberland Table Tennis Association. “This site provides excellent video tutorials ranging from basic to advanced skills. ETTA coach Bernie Morris talks you though the [...]

The highlights of this match were wins by John Taylor and Derek Greenwood, and a welcoming cup of tea and a kit kat provided by our hosts. After venturing out in the bitter night to the frozen wastes of Northowram, our team took time to warm up and adjust. John Taylor took one game off [...]

The last match before the Christmas break was lost 3 – 6 to the Tradesmen and we came away reasonabley happy in the circumstances. I was not due to play and was suffering from a cold (although I’m pretty certain this didn’t make any difference to the outcome of my sets) and Derek was supposed [...]

POPPS have now played all the teams in division 3 once so this is halfway through our first season. As the table below shows we are third from bottom at the moment, in 9th place. We had hoped to finish near the top of the bottom half at the end of the season. This is [...]

Popps turned out Terry, John and Peter for this return match against Ram 2. To cut a long story short we lost 2 sets to 7 and, although this was an improvement on our first meeting with Rams when we lost 1 – 8 last October, it was a slightly disappointing result. I think it is [...]

The detailed report notes of this match were mislaid before completion and so this is a much shortened version. POPP players were Peter, David and Derek. Old Town players were Jo, Don and Cynthia Peter and David played consistently throughout and easily achieved three-game victories in all their sets. Don was potentially a good “long-table” [...]

Once again the new boys were in unchartered territory, with the handicap only to be revealed at the end of the match. Therefore all points would be valuable, the message being to keep doing your best, even in apparent defeat. Match 1 saw our Derek (Greenwood) against their Derek (Briggs). This was fairly even until [...]

POPPs table tennis team enjoyed a social night out 4.03.09 at The Works, Sowerby Bridge.  Host: Robin Having negotiated the use of a private and spacious room off the main bar area of his local ‘real ale’ pub, Robin touristically informed us of all local facilities, available to residents and visitors; these included zimmer-frame hire, frequency [...]

Result:  POPPs won 7-2 A good display all round by POPPS who secured a hard fought victory after some closely fought encounters. John and David had been training on a new “winalot” diet and that was exactly what they did, winning all their matches. Peter was a little off colour, lacking that shiny coat and [...]

Result: POPPS won overall and by 6-3 Popps had a handicap advantage of 63 but did enough to win comfortably even without the handicap. (by 100 plus). Peter, David and John all won 2 of their 3 matches. They all lost to the Lions number 1 player but only by fairly small margins which were more than [...]

This team gave us a heavy defeat last time, so could we improve now that we had gained more league experience? Could Derek capitalise on the return to fitness of his dodgy shoulder? Would John recover from an overdose of pie’n’peas and how would Robin perform after food and beverage excesses in Hong Kong. The [...]

In a highly charged atmosphere at the Club Lane stadium last night the minnows of the 3rd division triumphed over their illustrious division 1 opposition. From the first pong, Popps took the wiff to the opposition and showed them no mercy as they swept to an overwhelming victory. John (aka the pieman) played number 1 [...]

Popps trounced the trembling Tradesmen by 6-3. (Please insert picture of naked lady holding ping pong bat here to increase circulation; currently at 3 including 1 demented dog). Popps stormed to a 4-0 lead in the match before the Tradesmen chiselled their way back into contention at 4-3. It needed a solid performance by John [...]

POPPS POOPED BY WARRIORS Popps lost out by just 1 point (378 v 377) courtesy of the handicappers who gave us a 279 start. The scores tell all. Warriors of course scored 21 in all the games and Pops scored as follows: John: 3 3 9 8 4 1 Peter: 12 11 3 4 1 [...]

Friday 29 May saw the majority of the team in the elegant surroundings of Villa McMullan at the 4th in a series of social events for the POPPS table tennis team since its formation in the autumn of 2008. Armed with various contributions of food and drink, the members arrived in a variety of garb [...]

When we considered taking part in the summer league, it was made clear that we would find the competition even tougher than  Winter  league 3, on the basis that we would come across some league 2 players. So it has proved and we have found life difficult in this league. However, the games have been played [...]

The new season in the Halifax Table Tennis League started this week with a new look setup for the POPPs table tennis teams. Yes, teams, in the plural. We now have two teams which we have imaginatively named POPPS A and POPPS B. This reflects a welcome growth in the number of members who want [...]

The POPPs B team (John M, Terry W and Alan P) took on Northowram MPM (Martyn H, Paul M, and Oliver B) and, after a spirited match, lost 3 sets to 6. The unlikely top POPPs player this time was Terry with two wins of 3 – 0 but, along with the rest of the [...]

Table Tennis Report. Tradesmen V Popps ‘B’ Tuesday October 6, 2009   The B team entered its third match of the season still waiting for a win, and with Mark Knapton, last year’s number 2 in the Div 3 averages playing, they knew it would be difficult. Mark himself would arrive later, by agreement, so [...]

‘B ‘Team achieves first win 9-0! Sowerby 3 finished 2nd in Division 3 last year, so our team approached this fixture with a degree of apprehension. However, we know that teams change their personnel and in addition, we had John Taylor, covering for a poorly John Mitchell. So if John could get us off to [...]

At first sight, the prospect of playing a side called Senior Citizens might bring up an image of doddery blokes with Zimmer frames, slopping their tea all over their trousers, but we knew this team should not be underestimated. They have already won a number of matches this year and have those great ingredients of [...]

And so inevitably, with two teams in the league, we would meet each other, and on the basis that we had selected the ‘A’ team to be the stronger combination, the result would probably be predictable. Table Tennis is not like football, where a minnow can despatch a big name in a cup tie, helped [...]

Monday 2.11.09. Senior Citizens 1 v Popps A 8 The winning run goes on — bragging but we have to say it whilst we can — we have to play the best teams yet ! In this match, the Clash of the (elderly) Titans, Terry A lead the way with 3 excellent wins. Incidentally his [...]

Lions finished mid-table last year, above Popps, so we knew this was a fixture which would be a challenge. Then we heard that Joan had gone down with pneumonia! We wish her a speedy recovery. Your team secretary roped himself in, only to find that John Mitchell had to pull out at short notice to [...]

POPPS THROUGH TO NEXT ROUND! This should have been played a couple of weeks ago, but BATS, a 1st Division side, couldn’t raise a team: one member was in custody, one had swine flu and the other was hiding in a wardrobe, waiting for his girl friend’s husband to go to sleep. We refused their [...]

Wed 2.12.09 . Old Town Hounds 4 — Popps A 5 2 wins each from Derek and Peter and 1 from John helped us to a narrow victory, despite the fact that they had a “ringer” playing for them from their first team. A return to winning ways was very welcome and caused some singing in [...]

Popps ‘B’ Through to Next Round! Having eventually won their 1st round against blood-sucking BATS, courtesy of a generous handicap and after some rapid on-the-job learning, we were now due to meet a side below us in the league—barely possible you might think-so they would receive a useful handicap. Consistency and cool heads would be [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN AGAINST THE ODDS Monday December 14 at the Chapel, Old Town The last time Popps ‘B’ ventured into the wilds of Old Town, they were incorrectly directed to the wrong venue by a mistake in the handbook. The resultant cold wait did not help their performance as two members phoned round to [...]

November 23rd. Old Town Hares  7, POPPS A  2 . No further details as I was in the wilds of Cambodia at the time.  December 14th.  POPPS A 4, Halifax Lions 5.  A topsy turvy, exciting, awe-inspiring (or was it ‘oh, uninspiring?) match. Other teams players came from miles around to watch, and even had [...]

Northowram Edge to 5-4 Win Teams Northowram Martyn Halliday, Josh Gee, Robert Gee Popps ‘B’ Terry Wassall, John Mitchell, Robin Thomas Fighting their way through a cold wintry night, Popps entered the cold wintry room to see the walls covered with toddlers’ paintings and a set of rules: Be kind, share, don’t swear, play, don’t [...]

Good to be back in action after the break, particularly with a win! We need a few 9 – 0′s however to be back in contention for promotion. Derek’s arthritus robbed us of a couple of points in this match but he will be back to normal as soon as the weather improves I am [...]

POPPS B: John Mitchell, Terry Wassall and Alan Partington Tradesmen 2: Marcus Reynolds, Sam Clayton and Matt Knapton Our first sight of the opposition was a bit disconcerting. The Tradesmen’s team looked more like the sort of group you would find knocking on your door in shorts during  ’Bob a job’ week. It is only a slight exaggeration [...]

In a match of fluctuating fortunes Terry A excelled with a flawless exhibition of immaculate control (or was it conception?). The hard hitting Tradesmen banged not only the ball but their heads too trying to find a way past his superb defence. He started the match off well with a 3-0 win against their No [...]

POPPS ‘B’ IN WINNING MOOD AGAIN For the home match against this team in October, POPPS ‘B’ registered an historic first win. However, we did have the experienced John Taylor subbing, so we knew that things might be different this time. In addition, we would be playing away. Perhaps Sowerby had a strange table only [...]

This match was played on 26th January with POPPS B the home team. We were looking forward to this match as it gave us a rare opportunity to play a higher division team and get some idea of the level of competition we need to aspire to. Given our lowly position languishing near the bottom [...]

Excellent debuts by both the Woods partnership.  Alan with a maximum for Popps, assisted by John T and Peter Mc  lead us to the 9 – 0 victory.  Norma, Alan’s wife, guested ( and starred ) for the visitors who were  one  short.   She provided a scintillating display of power hitting which the home team had to [...]

POPPS B were beaten 9 nil. However Joan and Alan put on a worthy performance but were no match to the Seniors superior skills, tricky serves and dodgy spin. John was man of the match for POPPswithout a doubt having taken Roy Aldroyd to 5 sets (or is that in tennis?). John won his 1st game  in his other 2 matches but Alwyn & Harry [...]

This could be yet another predictable report where the result will not have been in doubt from the onset. As last time, we could have taken the result as read and departed earlier for the Old Shears. But we’re not like that and honour required us to play out this battle under the unyielding white [...]

POPPs B played Northowram G on Monday 15th February and lost 0 – 9.  Unlike the last time we played the G family team (when we won 5 – 4) they were at full strength. The POPPs team of Alan, Joan and Terry W all played well and both Alan and Joan troubled the scorer [...]

Popps A (combined ages 201!) beat Senior Citizens (combined Ages 216!!!) 9 nil. A great way to celebrate being at the top of Div 3 (albeit having played more matches than the nearest challengers). Terry A lead the way with another flawless display of getting everything back —- an excellent example to all of us [...]

Terry A started proceedings but never really got warmed up in his first set against Barbara Gee and lost 3-0. Peter Mc then played and beat Rob Gee by the same score, followed by John T who did the same to Josh Gee. Score 2-1 to us. Barbara was next opponent for Peter who was [...]

Old Town Hares are currently Division leaders so POPPs B (third from bottom currently) framed themselves to save face and attempt at least to win some games. So the formidable Hares trio of Simon, Phil and Neil faced the rather less than formidable POPPs B team of Alan W, Terry W and John M. However, Alan [...]

Oakland Raiders 348 v. Popps A 258 We expected Oakland Raiders, being favorites for promotion to the 1st Division, would hammer us. So Peter started the proceedings and gave a creditable performance (he said) narrowly loosing the 2nd game (2 games to 21), total score 31-42. The irrepressible Terry A then played Dave Whiteley and [...]

8th March 2010. Popps A Pipped by Artful Hares Having been told their “No.1″ , Neil Coneron had to go home early to feed the cat (or was it the wife?) we agreed to let him play his sets early. With PeterMc beating Neil, Alan Wood doing extremely well in beating No 2 Phil Ward [...]

March 10, 2010 From past experience, we knew this would be a difficult fixture, but we could only do our best. Like John Terry, we would be playing away, although the pleasures would only involve ball and bat. Our opponents would have the advantage of knowing the table well and would know their way to [...]

Lions are one of the contenders for winning the division this year so POPPs B expected a tough night and so it turned out to be. Terry W, John M and Alan W of POPPs took on Ben Speak, John Tallis and Hannah Kendal and generally gave a good account of themselves with 4 sets [...]

Popps A 9 O.T.Hounds 0 Popps A kept their faint hopes of promotion alive with this result, not dropping a game in the whole match. This was a creditable performance and shows the continuing improvement of Popps; we just managed a 5-4 victory in the prevous encounter. John Taylor, Terry Allington and Peter McMullen all [...]

Popps A 9 Northowram MPM 0 Faint hopes of promotion maintained with another good 9-0 win. Terry Allington, Derek Greenwood and Peter McMullen all played their part in this match which keeps our chances still alive (Till next week when we grapple with the hungry Tigers once again !! )

Lions 5 Popps A 4 Terry Allington continued with his amazing form winning all 3 sets in 3. His defensive strategy and cunning block shots were unbeatable. It was as if he had got the rabbit hypnotized in his headlights ! On the other side of the spectrum Peter Mc was lack-lustre and turned victory [...]

In our last encounter, up in the wilds of Old Town, we scored an easy victory with only 2 players, but would it be the same team? Could they have improved? We were about to find out. Match 1 saw Robin defeated by Jo Sweeny, whom he had previously defeated. But this time she was [...]

POPPS ‘B’ v Old Town Hares Handicap Doubles QF played at the HX Centre, Tuesday March 30 2010. Popps B lost by 26 points. In the first round, POPPS ‘B’ defeated Div 1 Batts, courtesy of probably a fairly generous handicap. In round 2, they met a side lower than themselves in the league, Sowerby [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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, [...]

The two Popps teams met again for this much anticipated local derby. For some reason there is no report on the first encounter earlier in the summer, probably because none of our regular scribes were playing. However, 9 – 0 to Popps A would probably be a good guess at the result. The good news [...]

The return match against Evergreens saw Popps A make one change, Trevor Kershaw replacing John Korner who had an ankle problem. In the first set Terry Allington was returning after 3 defeats against Suma. He faced the awkward Mick Curry with his heavy backspin push shot, and classic backhand flick. Terry used his watchful defence [...]

Popps ‘B’ V Marsh Conservative Club. Tuesday 10 August 2010 Teams: Marsh: Adrian Normanton, John Schofield, and Robert Woodward (borrowed) Popps: Terry Wassall, Dennis McGuinness, Robin Thomas. Your correspondent was not present at our first encounter with Marsh, did not write the report and was not able to make the usual stereotypical comments about the [...]

Popps A:    Terry Allington, John Korner, Trevor Kershaw Dolphins:    Ken Scott, Denise Scott, Alan Cowburn The opening set between Terry Allington and Ken Scott was between two players who practice together, Terry taking the opening game to seven. The wily Ken then started to change his tactics by pushing the ball back and using his [...]

POPPS A Phil Parry,  Joun DAvenport, John Korner Marsh Con Club  Adrian Normanton, Tom Normanton, John Schofield Phil Parry v Adrian Normanton 3-11, 4-11, 3-11                          0-1 John Davenport v Tom Normanton 14-12, 11-4, 11-7                1-1 John Korner [...]

Evergreens demolished Popps 9-0 in the last encounter, and with 2 of our original team, and Robin replacing Dennis, a change in our fortunes was not anticipated. One of the problems with the Summer League is that some of the weaker Winter sides do other things in the Summer , such as going to naturism [...]

Trevor Kershaw had an excellent win over Brian Chapman,using his topspin loop to break down Brian who has a strong counter hitting game. Suma are the new champions of the second division going through the summer league unbeaten, with their consistent play.

Popps(home): A) Terry Allington B) Peter McMullen C) Derek Greenwood Northowram (away): X) Jordan Barkass Y) Josh Gee  Z) Rob Gee  1: A v X – Terry v Jordan 11/4-11/2-11/8 – HOME WIN Good start by Terry, controlling the game & not allowing Jordan to get into his stride. First & second games easy for Terry [...]

The ‘B’ Team kicked off their season by a journey into the wilds of Old Town, always an unsettling experience despite some familiarity gained via previous visits. There is always the niggling fear that we could arrive one night to find our opponents suffering from Blue Tongue disease, passed on from the wild pigs which [...]

Massacre at Club Lane This fixture is always a slightly artificial affair, where the result is likely to be a foregone conclusion. However, it does present a chance for most of the team members to get together and on this occasion, to meet new members. So we had Chie Hick making her first appearance with [...]

POPPS ‘B’ SNATCH DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY: HOUNDS WIN 5-4 IN NAIL-BITING WIN Once again a trip to the quaint world of Old Town, which feels like a million miles from the urban sophistication of Halifax, with its proud new Poundland representing the cream of shopping chic, featuring designs by Stella McCartney, fake [...]

A: Alwyn Kershaw X: Terry Allington B: Harry Witherspoon Y: Chie Hick C: Roy Oldroyd Z: Derek Greenwood 1: A v X – Alwyn/Terry 1-11/2-11/3-11 Good 1st game for Terry, imposing his metronome, with Alwyn struggling for shots & for crumbs under the table. 2nd & 3rd games were a walk in the park for [...]

Popps Destroyed by Experienced Veterans. Popps: Nil, Ramsbridge 9 Popps Team: Tom Sunderland, Joan Bottomley, Robin Thomas Ramsbridge: John Schofield, Donald Stott, Steve Hanson Ramsbridge United is a new name on the list, but their players have been around for years, indeed Donald was around when the game was invented. We knew they were not [...]

The Popps A team has been strengthened with the signing of Chie Hick. With her all action pen-holder grip, she secured all 3 sets. John Taylor is an example to us all, despite his health problems he has come back as good as ever. He played so well on the night. Terry Allington was his [...]

Experienced Sowerby 2 beat Popps ‘B’ 7-2 Teams: Popps’B’ Tom Sunderland, Terry Wassall, Robin Thomas Sowerby 2: Phillip Parry, John Korner, Andrew Whitely Sowerby 2 finished bottom of Division 2 last year and are now in Division 3. Sowerby 3 have disappeared. What does this mean? Have they lost some of their better players or [...]

POPPS:  A Peter McMullen B: Derek Greenwood C: Chie Hick Z: Old Town Hoods:  X: Paul Penny Y: Dave Warburton (Terry Wassall substitute for absent OTH player) 1/ A v X – Peter v Paul: 11-2/11-2/11-9  HOME In this instance, it was Paul who was robbed, mugged & generally reduced to penury! Peter looked like [...]

A: Colin A.                   X: Peter McMullen B: Phil B:                        Y: John  Taylor C: Jo Sweeney            Z: Derek Greenwood Climbing to the geographical pinnacle of Calderdale League 3 small-ball activity, an edifice with evidence of faith & thinness of oxygen, high on commitment with three teams ranged against the collective might of teenage tantrums, mid-life [...]

Popps B brought in Terry Allington as replacement for Terry Wassall, who was still feeling unwell. Tom Sunderland played the opening set against Martyn Holiday and produced some good shots, but still lacks the consistency needed to trouble a strong M.J.M team. I am sure he will do much better as he gains more experience. [...]

The Popps A team had their hardest game so far, in the league. Peter Mcmullen continues to impress, despite only just recovering from a serious leg injury. He  had fine wins over Martyn Holiday and John Wisilewsky, but fell away to the experienced Barbara Gee.  John Taylor struggled on the night, but played well against [...]

Popps Battered by Rampant Senior Cits, 9-0 This was a home match for SC. They normally play at home on a Tuesday, but had asked us to move it to the Monday. The situation is that the Senior Citizens have been invited to a rave on Tuesday and did not want to miss out on [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN CLOSE ENCOUNTER Readers of this column, all 3 of them, will have noticed that the genre has evolved from basic factual accounts in the early days, through sociological analysis, via sheer fabrication of facts to avant garde portrayal and surreal representation of a mundane event, a table tennis match. A recent posting [...]

Popps A 7,  Northowram Juniors 2 In the opening set Peter Mcmullen found Ross Barnes attack just too strong for him, and went down in straight games.Peter then showed his fighting spirit against Barbara Gee, using a mixture of deep chop and an excellent back hand flick, to win a five game thriller. Chie Hick [...]

Tradesmen 2 –  A: Matthew Knapton B: Sam Drake C: Kristian Fearnley POPPs A – X: Terry Allington  Y: Chie Hick  Z: Peter McMullen After an exciting season of daring do & a welcome absence of daring don’t, Popps ‘A’ have moved inexorably onwards throughout the season, shadowed threateningly by the eager power & enthusiasm [...]

Terry Allington and  Chie won all three of their sets and Peter won two. A convincing win for the A team

Popps hit by Northowam Blizzard: Northowram 9, Popps Nil Continuing in the grip of the wintry weather which afflicted the whole of the UK, the ‘B’ team made the trip to the friendly outpost of Northowram, where a bunch of helpful people were erecting the tables for the fixture, as the room is used during [...]

On Friday 10th September the POPPs squad and theircarers descended on down town Halifax and the sophisticated surroundings and affordances of one of Wetherspoons’ finest hostelries,  Barum Top. We certainly know how to push teh boat out. A good time was had by all. Perhaps the highlight was the now traditional poem written in honour of the [...]

Having beaten the Robins in a close match in November POPPS expected them to receive a handicap. Although POPPS had won 6 sets to 3 many of the games were very close and the overall points difference for the match not that great. In the event the Robins got a 54 point start which seemed [...]

This was POPPs B’s last game before the Christmas break and, given the Tradesmen are second in the division just behind POPPs A, were not expecting anything other than a lesson in humility. And so it turned out. The Tradesmen’s trio of youngsters, Sam, Matthew and Alex, two of whom could barely see over the [...]

We are now reaching the stage where we are having our return matches, so the results are more predictable. Ramsbridge beat us 9-0 last time, although there were some close games. Joan has gone down with some strange virus, so we have parachuted in Alwyn Kershaw, who played with some distinction for our Summer League [...]

A: Rose Tipton, B: Derek Wiiliamson, C: Colin Anker X: Terry Allington, Y: John Taylor,  Z: Derek Greenwood Another well-anticipated meander to the heights of Old Town beckoned, with a drizzly yet warm winter’s evening cushioning our body thermometer against the previous extremes of life ‘on top of the world’. Our vault across the entrance [...]

On the 29th December the Mystery Doubles was held at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. Popps were represented by Derek and Terry A. Terry partnered Andrew Woodhead, a student now based in London. He is the son of Robert Woodhead a well known Halifax league player. Andrew is a cracking player and together with the [...]

The A team suffered its only defeat so far in the handicap doubles against Tradesman 2 in our division. Mark Knapton who plays in the second division  inspired the youngsters to great eforts, and we found their 18 points start too much to pull back.

POPPS ‘B’ : A Terry Wassall, B: Joan Bottomley, C: Robin Thomas POPPS ‘A’ : X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen,  Z: Derek Greenwood A gathering of friends – or is it? This twice-yearly ‘conference’ of strategy, method & guile has come round again, drawing a coterie of support & en-couragement from an attractive bevy of male [...]

Old Town Hoods A: George Wood, B: James Rickard, C: Dave Warburton  Popps ‘A’  X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen, Z: Derek Greenwood A bus to the top of the world (well, Calderdale, actually), proved to be an expectation too far, to visit our friends (& foes) at Old Town. A bus to Hebden Bridge [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WASHED AWAY BY SOWERBY 2 In the first encounter between these 2 sides, the experienced Sowerby team beat us 7-2, and that was only because they were not able to play their best team. We know this team well, as three of their players performed with distinction as part of our summer league [...]

Popps Hounded 8-1 in ruff encounter At the earlier fixture, Old Town Hounds beat us 5-4, after your correspondent squandered what looked like a winning lead which would have clinched it our way. However, we had the experienced Derek playing that night, so our match tonight will be a challenge, unless of course Popps ‘B’ [...]

POPPS A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: John Taylor SCs       X: Harry Wotherspoon Y: Alwyn Kershaw Z: Roy Oldroyd We faced our 15th league match of the season with good confidence, yet knowing it would be a tough match. This trio of players, a long-standing & effective trio, embraced a determined & somewhat dour [...]

A: Martyn Halliday X: Terry Allington B: Mark Craven Y: Chie Hick C: John Wasilewski Z: Peter McMullen For us, confusion has always surrounded the three Northowram teams, as configurated by the forceful & inimitable Barbara Gee; which team is which, who plays where and when, issues which have clouded our team selection and planning [...]

This match was delayed by 10 days to accommodate the Senior Citizens unavailability on the scheduled day. We could have taken the 9 points on offer but we prefer to play the matches even when we know we are on a hiding to nothing, as proved to be the case, losing 0 -9. Our top [...]

The last time we played the experienced MJM team we had supersub Terry Allington playing in place of a sick Terry Wassall. Consequently POPPs came away with a few points. This time would be different! The POPPs B team consisted of the same team as last week, Tom, Joan and Terry W. MJM also had [...]

On paper this looked easy for the A team, but they have to keep focused for the challenging matches ahead. Our visitors from the ancient Druid village of Old Town like to keep their old customs. The tribal leader, Jo Sweeney, presented us with a gift of a packet of chocolate buscuits. The A team [...]

Northowram G (home) .A: Robert Gee, B: John Wasilewski, C: Raj Panesar POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: Chie Hick We faced another awkward fixture at Northowram, awkward because of the tightness of the venue with three tables crushed into a space suitable only for two & awkward because of the [...]

Popps register rare win against the Hoods, 5-4. Our first match against Old Town Hoods, back in September, the first of our season, resulted in a comfortable victory for Popps ‘B’, but it was not a sign of things to come. We had the experienced Derek, now a professional coach, playing for us, we had [...]

Popps (0) destroyed by teenage sensations, Tradesmen (9) Tradesmen are currently lying 2nd in the league and are the major threat to our ‘A’ team for promotion. Last December, they defeated Popps ‘B’ 9-0, with a young, laid-back team, who, according to Sports Journalist Terry Wassall, barely had to break into a sweat to demolish [...]

Sowerby 2 (home) A: Andrew Whiteley, B: John Korner, C: Phillip Parry    POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: JohnTaylor Our annual trip out to the far hills of Sowerby provided us with a considerable degree of apprehension, based on the strength & quality of the Sowerby team & the timescale of the [...]

NJ’s (home)A: Ross Barnes, B: Charlie Cliffe, C: Josh Gee      POPPs B (away) X: Derek Greenwood, Y: Joan Bottomley, Z: Tom Sunderland After the Popps ‘A’ team’s recent chaotic visit to Northowram, we were relieved to find only two tables occupying the playing area as opposed to the previous three. The ‘B’ team was reduced further [...]

POPPS ‘B’:  A: Derek Greenwood B: Tom Sunderland C: John Taylor Northowram G:  X: Josh Gee Y: Rob Gee Z: Jim Dawker Yet another match against the myriad members of the various Northowram teams – the pre-match excitement always surrounds the matter of actually who might be playing for them? Their propensity for asking their third team [...]

Ramsbridge: A: Donald Stott  B: Steve Hanson  C: John Schofield                    POPPS ‘A’: X: Terry Allington Y: Peter McMullen Z: Derek Greenwood A match to celebrate  – for ALL of us, as Donald Stott announces his retirement at the end of this match from competitive table-tennis. For all of us, age brings with it a set of uncompromising circumstances [...]

In the most recent fixture against OTR, Popps won 6-3, but there could be no complacency about our prospects tonight, given the considerable improvement of all those who play in this remote hilly kingdom. It will be easy to make the usual jokes about strange goings-on in this wild outpost in the Pennines, but as [...]

NJs (home): A Ross Barnes  B:Jim Dawber  C Josh Gee     POPPS A (away): X Terry Allington Y Peter McMullen  Z Derek Greenwood A ‘night out with the lads’ – how often do mature (?), older men use this reference? Usually, it has to be said, to describe a memorable (in some ways) but not necessarily remembered evening on [...]

POPPS ‘A’ (home) A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: Derek Greenwood      Tradesmen 2 (away) X: Sam Drake Y: Mathew Knapton Z: Alex ?  Apocalyptic is a BIG word – eleven letters, with probably as many meanings and as many people with suggestions for its appropriate use. To Popps ‘A’, this final match of the season seemed to sit appropriately under this [...]

POPPS A: A: Terry Allington B: John Korner C: Derek Greenwood Central 2: X: Dave Blackburn Y: Brian Chapman Z: Steve Caulfield Good to be back – or was it? Good break – what break? More of the same – or is it less? A scratch team turned out in their mythical Popps ‘A’ shirts, [...]

Marsh Con Club: John Schofield, Adrain Normanton and Rod Veal Popps B: Dennis McGuiness, John Taylor and Terry Wassall This was POPPs B’s first summer league game and it looks very much like business as usual! Your reporter had to leave before the end of the match but at that time Popps were losing 1 [...]

POPPS A Peter Davis, Gwyn Wardman and A N Other (to be confirmed) POPPS B lost the the match against Evergreens 9 sets to nil without winning a game, such was the supremecy of their opposition. Peter Davis reports that: “One chap had an illegal serve which didn’t seem to matter! People seemed to put [...]

This was a great start for Popps A in the second division of the winter league. The two close season signings, Conner Pollard and Kristian Fearnley, won two of their three sets. Conner used his forehand topspin loop to overcome the tight defence of Lyndon Harris. Kristian battled hard against a determined Gary Taylor, winning the [...]

The first match is over and we acquitted ourselves pretty well. Our opponents were HxTTC A.R.K. The team was called Senior Citizens last year, finishing 3rd in the division, but renamed this year after their names – Alan, Roy and Keith. We couldn’t have asked for a more friendly bunch to play our first ever match against. We had [...]

Full results for week 1 can be viewed on the Results page (new item in the sidebar menu Pages section). The results for Division 3 for week 1 commencing October 6th are as follows: HxTTC A.R.K (K Broadbent 3, A Feetham 2, R Oldroyd 3)  8   v  HxTTC Popp (D Greenwood 1, M Konrad 0, T [...]

The POPPs team played its second match on Tuesday, an away meeting with Rams 2 at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. This time the other 3 players in our squad of 6 took the stage – John, Peter and Robin – so this was their debut. The result was the same as last week with [...]

It seems the results that come through each week to our secretary are not complete and do not refer only to that week.  There should be 5 results in Division 3 per week but not all of these come through immediately.  I will update these results posts retrospectively so that all the same week’s results [...]

Last night we played Old Town Hoods in our 3rd match of the season. Once again we were impressed with the friendliness of the teams in the league (or at least in division 3!) and we had a thoroughly enjoyable and sociable evening, made even better than usual because we won!! The final score was [...]

Looks like we haven’t been sent the results for week 3. This might be because we had a bye and they are only sent to teams that played. We will check on this and fill the gap if we can. Division 3 results for week 4 commencing 27th October are as follows: Old Town Robins [...]

What a lovely bunch Halifax Table Tennis League Division 3 players are! We played Old Town Robins on Monday and once again the match was played in an excellent spirit. This is not to say that we are not competitive -  there was plenty of huffing and puffing and tutting when errors were made or [...]

Results for week commencing Monday 3rd November. Full results an be seen in the Result page. Division Three HxTTC A.R.K. (K Broadbent 1, A Feetham 1, R Oldroyd 0)  2   v  HxTTC Evergreens (M Curry 3, D Lewis 3, B Hanson 1)   7 Old Town Hoods (J Sweeney 0, C Scott 0, P Dean 0)   0   [...]

Taking place at the Halifax TT Centre, with Evergreens hosting, expectations were realistic in the POPPS camp, in view of the strong reputation of their opponents. In the opening set, John Taylor had the best result by winning his third game 11-4, but having struggled to find his form in the first two games, losing [...]

Division 3 results for week commencing 10th November 2008. Full leagues results can be found in the Results section. Northowram (B Gee 3, J Wasilewski  1, R Gee 0)  4   v  Sowerby 3 (a Whiteley 2, J Korner 1, P Parry 2) 5 HxTTC Evergreens (M Curry 3, D Lewis 3, M Higgins 3)  9  v  [...]

POPPs was well and truly beaten by Lions last night losing 8 – 1. The combined age and experience or our team (Derek, Terry and Peter), about 186 years between us, was not enough to overcome the youthful exuberance, speed and rather disconcerting flexibility of the Lions – Chie, Ben and Hannah – all who [...]

POPPs were beaten by 7 points overall by SUMA 1 last night after a tense and, I must say, very tiring match. We all played 6 double games each to 42 and often had to play in consecutive games. Because of the format of the games and our modest success in some of them this often meant [...]

The highlights of this match were wins by John Taylor and Derek Greenwood, and a welcoming cup of tea and a kit kat provided by our hosts. After venturing out in the bitter night to the frozen wastes of Northowram, our team took time to warm up and adjust. John Taylor took one game off [...]

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 last match before the Christmas break was lost 3 – 6 to the Tradesmen and we came away reasonabley happy in the circumstances. I was not due to play and was suffering from a cold (although I’m pretty certain this didn’t make any difference to the outcome of my sets) and Derek was supposed [...]

Would Popps be suffering from post Christmas hangovers, weighed down with mince pies and turkey, or would they spring into the New Year like youthful lambs? In the event, it was more like lambs to the slaughter at the hands of a more worldly-wise Sowerby team, who demonstrated the virtues of patience, even to the [...]

We don’t seem to be getting results for every week and when we do they are often incomplete. These are the results for Division 3 for the first matches of 2009 Division Three Old Town Hounds (D Williamson 3, P Ward 3, R Tipton 3)  9  v  Old Town Hoods (D Sweeney 0, D Coneron 0, [...]

POPPS have now played all the teams in division 3 once so this is halfway through our first season. As the table below shows we are third from bottom at the moment, in 9th place. We had hoped to finish near the top of the bottom half at the end of the season. This is [...]

Popps turned out Terry, John and Peter for this return match against Ram 2. To cut a long story short we lost 2 sets to 7 and, although this was an improvement on our first meeting with Rams when we lost 1 – 8 last October, it was a slightly disappointing result. I think it is [...]

The detailed report notes of this match were mislaid before completion and so this is a much shortened version. POPP players were Peter, David and Derek. Old Town players were Jo, Don and Cynthia Peter and David played consistently throughout and easily achieved three-game victories in all their sets. Don was potentially a good “long-table” [...]

Once again the new boys were in unchartered territory, with the handicap only to be revealed at the end of the match. Therefore all points would be valuable, the message being to keep doing your best, even in apparent defeat. Match 1 saw our Derek (Greenwood) against their Derek (Briggs). This was fairly even until [...]

Result:  POPPs won 7-2 A good display all round by POPPS who secured a hard fought victory after some closely fought encounters. John and David had been training on a new “winalot” diet and that was exactly what they did, winning all their matches. Peter was a little off colour, lacking that shiny coat and [...]

Result: POPPS won overall and by 6-3 Popps had a handicap advantage of 63 but did enough to win comfortably even without the handicap. (by 100 plus). Peter, David and John all won 2 of their 3 matches. They all lost to the Lions number 1 player but only by fairly small margins which were more than [...]

This team gave us a heavy defeat last time, so could we improve now that we had gained more league experience? Could Derek capitalise on the return to fitness of his dodgy shoulder? Would John recover from an overdose of pie’n’peas and how would Robin perform after food and beverage excesses in Hong Kong. The [...]

In a highly charged atmosphere at the Club Lane stadium last night the minnows of the 3rd division triumphed over their illustrious division 1 opposition. From the first pong, Popps took the wiff to the opposition and showed them no mercy as they swept to an overwhelming victory. John (aka the pieman) played number 1 [...]

Popps trounced the trembling Tradesmen by 6-3. (Please insert picture of naked lady holding ping pong bat here to increase circulation; currently at 3 including 1 demented dog). Popps stormed to a 4-0 lead in the match before the Tradesmen chiselled their way back into contention at 4-3. It needed a solid performance by John [...]

POPPS POOPED BY WARRIORS Popps lost out by just 1 point (378 v 377) courtesy of the handicappers who gave us a 279 start. The scores tell all. Warriors of course scored 21 in all the games and Pops scored as follows: John: 3 3 9 8 4 1 Peter: 12 11 3 4 1 [...]

Headline – Partington Wins his 1st Match–crowd goes crazy! ( All 3 of them ) However POPPS lose 6/3 – John and Peter put on their usual fine display of vintage table tennis with lots of encouragement to rookie Alan – who said on leaving the arena that his agent’s negotiations with the Chinese were [...]

POPPS played Keighley On Tuesday 23rd June. Due to illness POPPS found themselves a man short although fortunately were able to find a last minute replacement: Alan2. We onlly managed 1 win courtesy of Alan2, the final score being 8 – 1 to Keighley. David and Alan found themselves fighting a vertically rearguard action against [...]

In keeping with tradition for summer league matches Popps lost to their opponents 2 sets to 8. There were five aspects to this defeat – it was very hot, the combined ages of Lions was probably about 135 years less than the Popps team of David, John and Terry, youngsters don’t respect their elders these [...]

SO CLOSE BUT SO FAR 7.29 and POPPS are confident of a whitewash victory due to the no show of the opposition who we believe to have heard of our fearsome reputation and decided there was little point in actually playing the game. 7.30 they’ve turned up and its downhill from here on. 9.30 it’s [...]

When we considered taking part in the summer league, it was made clear that we would find the competition even tougher than  Winter  league 3, on the basis that we would come across some league 2 players. So it has proved and we have found life difficult in this league. However, the games have been played [...]

The new season in the Halifax Table Tennis League started this week with a new look setup for the POPPs table tennis teams. Yes, teams, in the plural. We now have two teams which we have imaginatively named POPPS A and POPPS B. This reflects a welcome growth in the number of members who want [...]

The POPPs B team (John M, Terry W and Alan P) took on Northowram MPM (Martyn H, Paul M, and Oliver B) and, after a spirited match, lost 3 sets to 6. The unlikely top POPPs player this time was Terry with two wins of 3 – 0 but, along with the rest of the [...]

Table Tennis Report. Tradesmen V Popps ‘B’ Tuesday October 6, 2009   The B team entered its third match of the season still waiting for a win, and with Mark Knapton, last year’s number 2 in the Div 3 averages playing, they knew it would be difficult. Mark himself would arrive later, by agreement, so [...]

‘B ‘Team achieves first win 9-0! Sowerby 3 finished 2nd in Division 3 last year, so our team approached this fixture with a degree of apprehension. However, we know that teams change their personnel and in addition, we had John Taylor, covering for a poorly John Mitchell. So if John could get us off to [...]

At first sight, the prospect of playing a side called Senior Citizens might bring up an image of doddery blokes with Zimmer frames, slopping their tea all over their trousers, but we knew this team should not be underestimated. They have already won a number of matches this year and have those great ingredients of [...]

And so inevitably, with two teams in the league, we would meet each other, and on the basis that we had selected the ‘A’ team to be the stronger combination, the result would probably be predictable. Table Tennis is not like football, where a minnow can despatch a big name in a cup tie, helped [...]

Monday 2.11.09. Senior Citizens 1 v Popps A 8 The winning run goes on — bragging but we have to say it whilst we can — we have to play the best teams yet ! In this match, the Clash of the (elderly) Titans, Terry A lead the way with 3 excellent wins. Incidentally his [...]

Lions finished mid-table last year, above Popps, so we knew this was a fixture which would be a challenge. Then we heard that Joan had gone down with pneumonia! We wish her a speedy recovery. Your team secretary roped himself in, only to find that John Mitchell had to pull out at short notice to [...]

POPPS THROUGH TO NEXT ROUND! This should have been played a couple of weeks ago, but BATS, a 1st Division side, couldn’t raise a team: one member was in custody, one had swine flu and the other was hiding in a wardrobe, waiting for his girl friend’s husband to go to sleep. We refused their [...]

Wed 2.12.09 . Old Town Hounds 4 — Popps A 5 2 wins each from Derek and Peter and 1 from John helped us to a narrow victory, despite the fact that they had a “ringer” playing for them from their first team. A return to winning ways was very welcome and caused some singing in [...]

Popps ‘B’ Through to Next Round! Having eventually won their 1st round against blood-sucking BATS, courtesy of a generous handicap and after some rapid on-the-job learning, we were now due to meet a side below us in the league—barely possible you might think-so they would receive a useful handicap. Consistency and cool heads would be [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN AGAINST THE ODDS Monday December 14 at the Chapel, Old Town The last time Popps ‘B’ ventured into the wilds of Old Town, they were incorrectly directed to the wrong venue by a mistake in the handbook. The resultant cold wait did not help their performance as two members phoned round to [...]

November 23rd. Old Town Hares  7, POPPS A  2 . No further details as I was in the wilds of Cambodia at the time.  December 14th.  POPPS A 4, Halifax Lions 5.  A topsy turvy, exciting, awe-inspiring (or was it ‘oh, uninspiring?) match. Other teams players came from miles around to watch, and even had [...]

Northowram Edge to 5-4 Win Teams Northowram Martyn Halliday, Josh Gee, Robert Gee Popps ‘B’ Terry Wassall, John Mitchell, Robin Thomas Fighting their way through a cold wintry night, Popps entered the cold wintry room to see the walls covered with toddlers’ paintings and a set of rules: Be kind, share, don’t swear, play, don’t [...]

Good to be back in action after the break, particularly with a win! We need a few 9 – 0′s however to be back in contention for promotion. Derek’s arthritus robbed us of a couple of points in this match but he will be back to normal as soon as the weather improves I am [...]

POPPS B: John Mitchell, Terry Wassall and Alan Partington Tradesmen 2: Marcus Reynolds, Sam Clayton and Matt Knapton Our first sight of the opposition was a bit disconcerting. The Tradesmen’s team looked more like the sort of group you would find knocking on your door in shorts during  ’Bob a job’ week. It is only a slight exaggeration [...]

In a match of fluctuating fortunes Terry A excelled with a flawless exhibition of immaculate control (or was it conception?). The hard hitting Tradesmen banged not only the ball but their heads too trying to find a way past his superb defence. He started the match off well with a 3-0 win against their No [...]

POPPS ‘B’ IN WINNING MOOD AGAIN For the home match against this team in October, POPPS ‘B’ registered an historic first win. However, we did have the experienced John Taylor subbing, so we knew that things might be different this time. In addition, we would be playing away. Perhaps Sowerby had a strange table only [...]

This match was played on 26th January with POPPS B the home team. We were looking forward to this match as it gave us a rare opportunity to play a higher division team and get some idea of the level of competition we need to aspire to. Given our lowly position languishing near the bottom [...]

Excellent debuts by both the Woods partnership.  Alan with a maximum for Popps, assisted by John T and Peter Mc  lead us to the 9 – 0 victory.  Norma, Alan’s wife, guested ( and starred ) for the visitors who were  one  short.   She provided a scintillating display of power hitting which the home team had to [...]

POPPS B were beaten 9 nil. However Joan and Alan put on a worthy performance but were no match to the Seniors superior skills, tricky serves and dodgy spin. John was man of the match for POPPswithout a doubt having taken Roy Aldroyd to 5 sets (or is that in tennis?). John won his 1st game  in his other 2 matches but Alwyn & Harry [...]

This could be yet another predictable report where the result will not have been in doubt from the onset. As last time, we could have taken the result as read and departed earlier for the Old Shears. But we’re not like that and honour required us to play out this battle under the unyielding white [...]

POPPs B played Northowram G on Monday 15th February and lost 0 – 9.  Unlike the last time we played the G family team (when we won 5 – 4) they were at full strength. The POPPs team of Alan, Joan and Terry W all played well and both Alan and Joan troubled the scorer [...]

Popps A (combined ages 201!) beat Senior Citizens (combined Ages 216!!!) 9 nil. A great way to celebrate being at the top of Div 3 (albeit having played more matches than the nearest challengers). Terry A lead the way with another flawless display of getting everything back —- an excellent example to all of us [...]

Terry A started proceedings but never really got warmed up in his first set against Barbara Gee and lost 3-0. Peter Mc then played and beat Rob Gee by the same score, followed by John T who did the same to Josh Gee. Score 2-1 to us. Barbara was next opponent for Peter who was [...]

Old Town Hares are currently Division leaders so POPPs B (third from bottom currently) framed themselves to save face and attempt at least to win some games. So the formidable Hares trio of Simon, Phil and Neil faced the rather less than formidable POPPs B team of Alan W, Terry W and John M. However, Alan [...]

Oakland Raiders 348 v. Popps A 258 We expected Oakland Raiders, being favorites for promotion to the 1st Division, would hammer us. So Peter started the proceedings and gave a creditable performance (he said) narrowly loosing the 2nd game (2 games to 21), total score 31-42. The irrepressible Terry A then played Dave Whiteley and [...]

8th March 2010. Popps A Pipped by Artful Hares Having been told their “No.1″ , Neil Coneron had to go home early to feed the cat (or was it the wife?) we agreed to let him play his sets early. With PeterMc beating Neil, Alan Wood doing extremely well in beating No 2 Phil Ward [...]

March 10, 2010 From past experience, we knew this would be a difficult fixture, but we could only do our best. Like John Terry, we would be playing away, although the pleasures would only involve ball and bat. Our opponents would have the advantage of knowing the table well and would know their way to [...]

Lions are one of the contenders for winning the division this year so POPPs B expected a tough night and so it turned out to be. Terry W, John M and Alan W of POPPs took on Ben Speak, John Tallis and Hannah Kendal and generally gave a good account of themselves with 4 sets [...]

Popps A 9 O.T.Hounds 0 Popps A kept their faint hopes of promotion alive with this result, not dropping a game in the whole match. This was a creditable performance and shows the continuing improvement of Popps; we just managed a 5-4 victory in the prevous encounter. John Taylor, Terry Allington and Peter McMullen all [...]

Popps A 9 Northowram MPM 0 Faint hopes of promotion maintained with another good 9-0 win. Terry Allington, Derek Greenwood and Peter McMullen all played their part in this match which keeps our chances still alive (Till next week when we grapple with the hungry Tigers once again !! )

Lions 5 Popps A 4 Terry Allington continued with his amazing form winning all 3 sets in 3. His defensive strategy and cunning block shots were unbeatable. It was as if he had got the rabbit hypnotized in his headlights ! On the other side of the spectrum Peter Mc was lack-lustre and turned victory [...]

In our last encounter, up in the wilds of Old Town, we scored an easy victory with only 2 players, but would it be the same team? Could they have improved? We were about to find out. Match 1 saw Robin defeated by Jo Sweeny, whom he had previously defeated. But this time she was [...]

POPPS ‘B’ v Old Town Hares Handicap Doubles QF played at the HX Centre, Tuesday March 30 2010. Popps B lost by 26 points. In the first round, POPPS ‘B’ defeated Div 1 Batts, courtesy of probably a fairly generous handicap. In round 2, they met a side lower than themselves in the league, Sowerby [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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: [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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 [...]

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, [...]

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, [...]

The two Popps teams met again for this much anticipated local derby. For some reason there is no report on the first encounter earlier in the summer, probably because none of our regular scribes were playing. However, 9 – 0 to Popps A would probably be a good guess at the result. The good news [...]

The return match against Evergreens saw Popps A make one change, Trevor Kershaw replacing John Korner who had an ankle problem. In the first set Terry Allington was returning after 3 defeats against Suma. He faced the awkward Mick Curry with his heavy backspin push shot, and classic backhand flick. Terry used his watchful defence [...]

Popps ‘B’ V Marsh Conservative Club. Tuesday 10 August 2010 Teams: Marsh: Adrian Normanton, John Schofield, and Robert Woodward (borrowed) Popps: Terry Wassall, Dennis McGuinness, Robin Thomas. Your correspondent was not present at our first encounter with Marsh, did not write the report and was not able to make the usual stereotypical comments about the [...]

Popps A:    Terry Allington, John Korner, Trevor Kershaw Dolphins:    Ken Scott, Denise Scott, Alan Cowburn The opening set between Terry Allington and Ken Scott was between two players who practice together, Terry taking the opening game to seven. The wily Ken then started to change his tactics by pushing the ball back and using his [...]

POPPS A Phil Parry,  Joun DAvenport, John Korner Marsh Con Club  Adrian Normanton, Tom Normanton, John Schofield Phil Parry v Adrian Normanton 3-11, 4-11, 3-11                          0-1 John Davenport v Tom Normanton 14-12, 11-4, 11-7                1-1 John Korner [...]

Evergreens demolished Popps 9-0 in the last encounter, and with 2 of our original team, and Robin replacing Dennis, a change in our fortunes was not anticipated. One of the problems with the Summer League is that some of the weaker Winter sides do other things in the Summer , such as going to naturism [...]

Trevor Kershaw had an excellent win over Brian Chapman,using his topspin loop to break down Brian who has a strong counter hitting game. Suma are the new champions of the second division going through the summer league unbeaten, with their consistent play.

Popps(home): A) Terry Allington B) Peter McMullen C) Derek Greenwood Northowram (away): X) Jordan Barkass Y) Josh Gee  Z) Rob Gee  1: A v X – Terry v Jordan 11/4-11/2-11/8 – HOME WIN Good start by Terry, controlling the game & not allowing Jordan to get into his stride. First & second games easy for Terry [...]

The ‘B’ Team kicked off their season by a journey into the wilds of Old Town, always an unsettling experience despite some familiarity gained via previous visits. There is always the niggling fear that we could arrive one night to find our opponents suffering from Blue Tongue disease, passed on from the wild pigs which [...]

Massacre at Club Lane This fixture is always a slightly artificial affair, where the result is likely to be a foregone conclusion. However, it does present a chance for most of the team members to get together and on this occasion, to meet new members. So we had Chie Hick making her first appearance with [...]

POPPS ‘B’ SNATCH DEFEAT FROM THE JAWS OF VICTORY: HOUNDS WIN 5-4 IN NAIL-BITING WIN Once again a trip to the quaint world of Old Town, which feels like a million miles from the urban sophistication of Halifax, with its proud new Poundland representing the cream of shopping chic, featuring designs by Stella McCartney, fake [...]

A: Alwyn Kershaw X: Terry Allington B: Harry Witherspoon Y: Chie Hick C: Roy Oldroyd Z: Derek Greenwood 1: A v X – Alwyn/Terry 1-11/2-11/3-11 Good 1st game for Terry, imposing his metronome, with Alwyn struggling for shots & for crumbs under the table. 2nd & 3rd games were a walk in the park for [...]

Popps Destroyed by Experienced Veterans. Popps: Nil, Ramsbridge 9 Popps Team: Tom Sunderland, Joan Bottomley, Robin Thomas Ramsbridge: John Schofield, Donald Stott, Steve Hanson Ramsbridge United is a new name on the list, but their players have been around for years, indeed Donald was around when the game was invented. We knew they were not [...]

The Popps A team has been strengthened with the signing of Chie Hick. With her all action pen-holder grip, she secured all 3 sets. John Taylor is an example to us all, despite his health problems he has come back as good as ever. He played so well on the night. Terry Allington was his [...]

Experienced Sowerby 2 beat Popps ‘B’ 7-2 Teams: Popps’B’ Tom Sunderland, Terry Wassall, Robin Thomas Sowerby 2: Phillip Parry, John Korner, Andrew Whitely Sowerby 2 finished bottom of Division 2 last year and are now in Division 3. Sowerby 3 have disappeared. What does this mean? Have they lost some of their better players or [...]

POPPS:  A Peter McMullen B: Derek Greenwood C: Chie Hick Z: Old Town Hoods:  X: Paul Penny Y: Dave Warburton (Terry Wassall substitute for absent OTH player) 1/ A v X – Peter v Paul: 11-2/11-2/11-9  HOME In this instance, it was Paul who was robbed, mugged & generally reduced to penury! Peter looked like [...]

A: Colin A.                   X: Peter McMullen B: Phil B:                        Y: John  Taylor C: Jo Sweeney            Z: Derek Greenwood Climbing to the geographical pinnacle of Calderdale League 3 small-ball activity, an edifice with evidence of faith & thinness of oxygen, high on commitment with three teams ranged against the collective might of teenage tantrums, mid-life [...]

Popps B brought in Terry Allington as replacement for Terry Wassall, who was still feeling unwell. Tom Sunderland played the opening set against Martyn Holiday and produced some good shots, but still lacks the consistency needed to trouble a strong M.J.M team. I am sure he will do much better as he gains more experience. [...]

The Popps A team had their hardest game so far, in the league. Peter Mcmullen continues to impress, despite only just recovering from a serious leg injury. He  had fine wins over Martyn Holiday and John Wisilewsky, but fell away to the experienced Barbara Gee.  John Taylor struggled on the night, but played well against [...]

Popps Battered by Rampant Senior Cits, 9-0 This was a home match for SC. They normally play at home on a Tuesday, but had asked us to move it to the Monday. The situation is that the Senior Citizens have been invited to a rave on Tuesday and did not want to miss out on [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WIN CLOSE ENCOUNTER Readers of this column, all 3 of them, will have noticed that the genre has evolved from basic factual accounts in the early days, through sociological analysis, via sheer fabrication of facts to avant garde portrayal and surreal representation of a mundane event, a table tennis match. A recent posting [...]

Popps A 7,  Northowram Juniors 2 In the opening set Peter Mcmullen found Ross Barnes attack just too strong for him, and went down in straight games.Peter then showed his fighting spirit against Barbara Gee, using a mixture of deep chop and an excellent back hand flick, to win a five game thriller. Chie Hick [...]

Tradesmen 2 –  A: Matthew Knapton B: Sam Drake C: Kristian Fearnley POPPs A – X: Terry Allington  Y: Chie Hick  Z: Peter McMullen After an exciting season of daring do & a welcome absence of daring don’t, Popps ‘A’ have moved inexorably onwards throughout the season, shadowed threateningly by the eager power & enthusiasm [...]

Terry Allington and  Chie won all three of their sets and Peter won two. A convincing win for the A team

Popps hit by Northowam Blizzard: Northowram 9, Popps Nil Continuing in the grip of the wintry weather which afflicted the whole of the UK, the ‘B’ team made the trip to the friendly outpost of Northowram, where a bunch of helpful people were erecting the tables for the fixture, as the room is used during [...]

Having beaten the Robins in a close match in November POPPS expected them to receive a handicap. Although POPPS had won 6 sets to 3 many of the games were very close and the overall points difference for the match not that great. In the event the Robins got a 54 point start which seemed [...]

This was POPPs B’s last game before the Christmas break and, given the Tradesmen are second in the division just behind POPPs A, were not expecting anything other than a lesson in humility. And so it turned out. The Tradesmen’s trio of youngsters, Sam, Matthew and Alex, two of whom could barely see over the [...]

We are now reaching the stage where we are having our return matches, so the results are more predictable. Ramsbridge beat us 9-0 last time, although there were some close games. Joan has gone down with some strange virus, so we have parachuted in Alwyn Kershaw, who played with some distinction for our Summer League [...]

A: Rose Tipton, B: Derek Wiiliamson, C: Colin Anker X: Terry Allington, Y: John Taylor,  Z: Derek Greenwood Another well-anticipated meander to the heights of Old Town beckoned, with a drizzly yet warm winter’s evening cushioning our body thermometer against the previous extremes of life ‘on top of the world’. Our vault across the entrance [...]

On the 29th December the Mystery Doubles was held at the Halifax Table Tennis Centre. Popps were represented by Derek and Terry A. Terry partnered Andrew Woodhead, a student now based in London. He is the son of Robert Woodhead a well known Halifax league player. Andrew is a cracking player and together with the [...]

The A team suffered its only defeat so far in the handicap doubles against Tradesman 2 in our division. Mark Knapton who plays in the second division  inspired the youngsters to great eforts, and we found their 18 points start too much to pull back.

POPPS ‘B’ : A Terry Wassall, B: Joan Bottomley, C: Robin Thomas POPPS ‘A’ : X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen,  Z: Derek Greenwood A gathering of friends – or is it? This twice-yearly ‘conference’ of strategy, method & guile has come round again, drawing a coterie of support & en-couragement from an attractive bevy of male [...]

Old Town Hoods A: George Wood, B: James Rickard, C: Dave Warburton  Popps ‘A’  X: Terry Allington, Y: Peter McMullen, Z: Derek Greenwood A bus to the top of the world (well, Calderdale, actually), proved to be an expectation too far, to visit our friends (& foes) at Old Town. A bus to Hebden Bridge [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WASHED AWAY BY SOWERBY 2 In the first encounter between these 2 sides, the experienced Sowerby team beat us 7-2, and that was only because they were not able to play their best team. We know this team well, as three of their players performed with distinction as part of our summer league [...]

Popps Hounded 8-1 in ruff encounter At the earlier fixture, Old Town Hounds beat us 5-4, after your correspondent squandered what looked like a winning lead which would have clinched it our way. However, we had the experienced Derek playing that night, so our match tonight will be a challenge, unless of course Popps ‘B’ [...]

POPPS A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: John Taylor SCs       X: Harry Wotherspoon Y: Alwyn Kershaw Z: Roy Oldroyd We faced our 15th league match of the season with good confidence, yet knowing it would be a tough match. This trio of players, a long-standing & effective trio, embraced a determined & somewhat dour [...]

A: Martyn Halliday X: Terry Allington B: Mark Craven Y: Chie Hick C: John Wasilewski Z: Peter McMullen For us, confusion has always surrounded the three Northowram teams, as configurated by the forceful & inimitable Barbara Gee; which team is which, who plays where and when, issues which have clouded our team selection and planning [...]

This match was delayed by 10 days to accommodate the Senior Citizens unavailability on the scheduled day. We could have taken the 9 points on offer but we prefer to play the matches even when we know we are on a hiding to nothing, as proved to be the case, losing 0 -9. Our top [...]

The last time we played the experienced MJM team we had supersub Terry Allington playing in place of a sick Terry Wassall. Consequently POPPs came away with a few points. This time would be different! The POPPs B team consisted of the same team as last week, Tom, Joan and Terry W. MJM also had [...]

On paper this looked easy for the A team, but they have to keep focused for the challenging matches ahead. Our visitors from the ancient Druid village of Old Town like to keep their old customs. The tribal leader, Jo Sweeney, presented us with a gift of a packet of chocolate buscuits. The A team [...]

Northowram G (home) .A: Robert Gee, B: John Wasilewski, C: Raj Panesar POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: Chie Hick We faced another awkward fixture at Northowram, awkward because of the tightness of the venue with three tables crushed into a space suitable only for two & awkward because of the [...]

Popps register rare win against the Hoods, 5-4. Our first match against Old Town Hoods, back in September, the first of our season, resulted in a comfortable victory for Popps ‘B’, but it was not a sign of things to come. We had the experienced Derek, now a professional coach, playing for us, we had [...]

Popps (0) destroyed by teenage sensations, Tradesmen (9) Tradesmen are currently lying 2nd in the league and are the major threat to our ‘A’ team for promotion. Last December, they defeated Popps ‘B’ 9-0, with a young, laid-back team, who, according to Sports Journalist Terry Wassall, barely had to break into a sweat to demolish [...]

Sowerby 2 (home) A: Andrew Whiteley, B: John Korner, C: Phillip Parry    POPPS A (away) X: Peter McMullen, Y: Terry Allington, Z: JohnTaylor Our annual trip out to the far hills of Sowerby provided us with a considerable degree of apprehension, based on the strength & quality of the Sowerby team & the timescale of the [...]

NJ’s (home)A: Ross Barnes, B: Charlie Cliffe, C: Josh Gee      POPPs B (away) X: Derek Greenwood, Y: Joan Bottomley, Z: Tom Sunderland After the Popps ‘A’ team’s recent chaotic visit to Northowram, we were relieved to find only two tables occupying the playing area as opposed to the previous three. The ‘B’ team was reduced further [...]

POPPS ‘B’:  A: Derek Greenwood B: Tom Sunderland C: John Taylor Northowram G:  X: Josh Gee Y: Rob Gee Z: Jim Dawker Yet another match against the myriad members of the various Northowram teams – the pre-match excitement always surrounds the matter of actually who might be playing for them? Their propensity for asking their third team [...]

Ramsbridge: A: Donald Stott  B: Steve Hanson  C: John Schofield                    POPPS ‘A’: X: Terry Allington Y: Peter McMullen Z: Derek Greenwood A match to celebrate  – for ALL of us, as Donald Stott announces his retirement at the end of this match from competitive table-tennis. For all of us, age brings with it a set of uncompromising circumstances [...]

In the most recent fixture against OTR, Popps won 6-3, but there could be no complacency about our prospects tonight, given the considerable improvement of all those who play in this remote hilly kingdom. It will be easy to make the usual jokes about strange goings-on in this wild outpost in the Pennines, but as [...]

NJs (home): A Ross Barnes  B:Jim Dawber  C Josh Gee     POPPS A (away): X Terry Allington Y Peter McMullen  Z Derek Greenwood A ‘night out with the lads’ – how often do mature (?), older men use this reference? Usually, it has to be said, to describe a memorable (in some ways) but not necessarily remembered evening on [...]

POPPS ‘A’ (home) A: Terry Allington B: Peter McMullen C: Derek Greenwood      Tradesmen 2 (away) X: Sam Drake Y: Mathew Knapton Z: Alex ?  Apocalyptic is a BIG word – eleven letters, with probably as many meanings and as many people with suggestions for its appropriate use. To Popps ‘A’, this final match of the season seemed to sit appropriately under this [...]

POPPS A: A: Terry Allington B: John Korner C: Derek Greenwood Central 2: X: Dave Blackburn Y: Brian Chapman Z: Steve Caulfield Good to be back – or was it? Good break – what break? More of the same – or is it less? A scratch team turned out in their mythical Popps ‘A’ shirts, [...]

Marsh Con Club: John Schofield, Adrain Normanton and Rod Veal Popps B: Dennis McGuiness, John Taylor and Terry Wassall This was POPPs B’s first summer league game and it looks very much like business as usual! Your reporter had to leave before the end of the match but at that time Popps were losing 1 [...]

POPPS A Peter Davis, Gwyn Wardman and A N Other (to be confirmed) POPPS B lost the the match against Evergreens 9 sets to nil without winning a game, such was the supremecy of their opposition. Peter Davis reports that: “One chap had an illegal serve which didn’t seem to matter! People seemed to put [...]

OT Robins A: Phil Dean, B: Colin Anker, C: Jo Sweeney POPPS B X: Peter Davies, Y: Derek Greenwood,   Z: Terry Wassall A v X:11-2/11-13/11-7/11-7  H B v Y:9-11/5-11/7-11 A C v Z:7-11/11-9/5-11/3-11 A B v X:8-11/15-13/4-11/12-10/4-11 A A v Z:12-14/7-11/6-11  A C v Y:4-11/10-12/8-11 A B v Z:5-11/11-13/8-11 A C v X:11-9/9-11/11-7/4-11/11-7 H A v Y:8-11/11-5/11-3/7-11/12-10 [...]

POPPs C got off to a great start beating Old Town Hoods in their first match of the season. POPPs C were made up of two new comers Jake Clarke and Jack Collins along with old war horse Tom Sunderland. Old Town Hoods consisted of Tom Willmore, Steph Penny and Dave Warburton. The strongest player of the [...]

This was a great start for Popps A in the second division of the winter league. The two close season signings, Conner Pollard and Kristian Fearnley, won two of their three sets. Conner used his forehand topspin loop to overcome the tight defence of Lyndon Harris. Kristian battled hard against a determined Gary Taylor, winning the [...]

With Peter Mc chickening out after his holiday cruise championship (beaten by the British No 1, Brian Hill, (true) in a close match (false), Popps fielded an unchanged team. Kristian Fearnley opened the proceedings with his new style of cautious defence and well picked forehand smashes, winning in the 5th. Terry Allington, a bit slow to [...]

POPPs C :  A Jack Collins, B Jake Clarke, Tom Sunderland Rainbow 2:  X Derek Greenwood, Y  Vannthia Im, Z Phil Eastwood Another excellent result for the C team playing two thirds of the team that turned out for Rainbow 1  last week who beat POPPs B so comfortably. On this showing the C team is significantly [...]

Today a new page has been added to the site that lists articles about table tennis in news papers and other media that are available on line and may interest visitors to this web site. The page, called  Table tennis in the news, is listed in the Pages section in the side bar menu. Hopefully [...]

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 [...]

Playing: Terry/Peter/Derek   Game 1: Peter/Derek v Dave/Shamir   Knowing that this team were currently third in League 1, we approached the match with an inevitable bucketful of trepidation, tempered, only slightly, by the fact that they, like us, had lost their first round match. Both Peter and Derek struggled initially to get into the [...]

POPP players were Peter. David and Derek. Old Town players were Derek, Phil and Sue Game 1: Phil v. David: result 12-10 11-9 11-9 First two games were evenly matched but in the third Phil turned on the pressure and proved a faster mover and better at returning the ball generally. David played well and [...]

POPPs table tennis team enjoyed a social night out 4.03.09 at The Works, Sowerby Bridge.  Host: Robin Having negotiated the use of a private and spacious room off the main bar area of his local ‘real ale’ pub, Robin touristically informed us of all local facilities, available to residents and visitors; these included zimmer-frame hire, frequency [...]

This is the first poem written for the POPPs table tennis team by our Poet in Residence, Robin Thomas (who also happens to be Team Secretary, Social Secretary, Team Player, Team News Reporter and much else besides). The poem was read out as part of the entertainment at the team’s social evening last Wednesday as [...]

Playing: PETER ‘Silver Streak’ MCMULLEN/JOHN ‘Pie Man’ TAYLOR/DAVID ‘Doggy Blanket’ MELBOURNE  v. Mick Curry/Dave Lewis/Brian Hanson Set 1: PETER v Mick – result 11-3/5-11/12-10/10-12 Game 1: Tentative start from Mick with Peter achieving an apparently relaxed approach with good focus, maintained throughout the game to victory for Peter. Good start that promised well. Game 2: [...]

Surviving, as we barely manage to do, in the culvert ridden, monster infested nether regions of League 3 in the Halifax League, we already, in our first season, have had to face up to dramatic and enforced changes in our perception of table tennis (or ping pong) as a major obsession of the world’s leaders, [...]

Monday night saw Popps first match of the summer league, against Spartans. This, we are told, is a rather more relaxed and sociable affair compared with the cut and thrust and naked ambition of the winter league. Our team was made up of two of our stars. John and Peter, and Terry playing his first [...]

POPPs (Peter, John Taylor and Terry) faced up to the Evergreens (Mick, Dave and Mark) in confident but deluded mood. To cut to the chase, POPPs lost 9 sets to nil. We had our moments, some good rallies where a passing observer may have briefly assumed a hard fought close match was in progress, and [...]

Result POPPS 4-5 Tradesmen Team Peter 1 win, David 2 wins, John 1 win. A close match which went to the last game in which Peter was unable to get the better of his wiley opponent (Ken, Denise’s husband). Could have gone either way but we couldn’t complain in the end and the learning curve [...]

Spartans won 7-2.  POPPs team David, Peter and Terry.  David was the only set winner for POPPs with a win of 3-0 against Spartan’s Steve Hanson and a hard fought 3-2 win over Michael Mullins. Peter took a game from all 3 players, Michael, Karthik Shetty and Steve. Terry failed to win a single game thus confiming [...]

First our official complaints (not excuses I hasten to add) :–   1. They tried to dint our enthusiasm by telling us that they won  last winter Third Division  by a  margin of 30 points. Totally out of order. 2. Their No 2, David, topped Div 3 averages last year and he regularly runs marathons  [...]

Now we know why this team is called ‘G’. Two of their members are from the Gee dynasty, although on this occasion, the legendary Barbara Gee was missing. From the Popps point of view, we knew we would put in an improved performance with the knowledge that Terry Allington would be playing for us, as [...]

16th November. Northowram ‘Team G’ (M Halliday 1, J Wasilewski 2, B Gee 3)   6    v   HxTTC Popp A (T Allington 2, J Taylor 1, D Greenwood 0)   3 This was the A team’s first lost match this season playing the formidable full strength Northowram G Team. Unfortunately Derek had to withdraw with the occurance [...]

The match got off to a late start as the POPPs team, playing away, had taken the venue details from the Handbook which was incorrect. After a number of phone calls and, in Terry Wassall’s case, a stop at the Hare and Hounds pub and Old Town Cricket Club for directions, we all found our [...]

Tuesday November 24, 2009. This team finished above Popps last year and currently are one place above us.  A win could take us above them, but would we be able to demonstrate some consistency against these experienced campaigners?  We arrived ready to play at 7.15 and waited for our opponents to turn up. They eventfully [...]

Popps A 420 Panthers B 375 Our top doubles partnership, Terry Allington and John did not get off to their usual good start, only managing 15-42 in the first game. We feared the worst against the First Division team who had Robert Wood, James Foster and Matthew Stevens playing for them. With Peter Mc suffering [...]

Not knowing the Handicap allowance till the end of the match made it quite exciting. Peter Mc Started the battle with a hard attacking effort against David Blackburn.Davids retrieving from 20′ back was amazing and eventually won him the game 42-30 — still a satisfactory start for Popps. John T. had a similar result against [...]

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 [...]

In their latest summer league match Popps B (as last week, Alwyn, Tom and Terry) met the formidable Marsh Cons – the dad and son pairing of Adrian and Tom Normanton plus John Schofield. Once again Popps B salvaged a smidgen of respectability by winning one set and avoiding a white wash. Whereas Alwyn was [...]

One of the Popps B team did not put in an appearance but Embassy kindly offered one of their players who had turned up for a bit of practice so Terry, Alwyn and Embassy’s Derek Briggs lined up for Popps B against Clive, Sam and Steve for Embassy. Embassy beat us 8 – 1 in [...]

On Friday 10th September the POPPs squad and theircarers descended on down town Halifax and the sophisticated surroundings and affordances of one of Wetherspoons’ finest hostelries,  Barum Top. We certainly know how to push teh boat out. A good time was had by all. Perhaps the highlight was the now traditional poem written in honour of the [...]

POPPS A teame – A: Terry Allington,  B: Peter McMullen,  C: John Taylor Sowerby 2 team – X: Andrew Whiteley,Y: John Korner, Z: Philip Parry The final challenge of the first half of the season, a potentially close match against opponents who, largely, knew each other well, having played as team-mates in the earlier Summer League. On [...]

POPPS B was made up of the regular combo of Joan Bottomley, Tom Sunderland and Terry Wassall up against the Northowram Junior trio of Ross Barnes, Josh Gee and Rob Gee.  For the first half hour only Ross appeared for the Juniors so it looked like we may have had to rearrange but Rob and [...]

POPPS ‘B’ WASHED AWAY BY SOWERBY 2 In the first encounter between these 2 sides, the experienced Sowerby team beat us 7-2, and that was only because they were not able to play their best team. We know this team well, as three of their players performed with distinction as part of our summer league [...]

This match was delayed by 10 days to accommodate the Senior Citizens unavailability on the scheduled day. We could have taken the 9 points on offer but we prefer to play the matches even when we know we are on a hiding to nothing, as proved to be the case, losing 0 -9. Our top [...]

POPPS (home) A: Derek Greenwood, B: Peter McMullen, C: Terry Allington OTRs (away) X: Colin Anker, Y: Phil Dean, Z: Jo Sweeney 1: AvX – Derek v Colin: 11-1/11-8/11-5 HOME WIN 2: BvY – Peter v Phil: 11-9/11-8/6-11/11-5 HOME WIN 3: CvZ – Terry v Jo: 11-3/11-6/11-3 HOME WIN 4: BvX – Peter v Colin: [...]

13 June 2011 Popps A v Panther Captain Allerington rested himself this match Messrs Korner, McMullen and Parry took on the might of First Div Panthers. Peter Mc lead the charge winning the first game 15-13. Coincidentally Phil Parry and John Korner also took up the banner winning one each in their sets. However we [...]

Evergreens v Popps A Two great wins by Terry A. against Mick & Michael and a controlled blitz from Phil P. over Michael. But thanks to a lethargic performance from Peter Mc (no wins – but wait till he gives up the day job) – we lulled them into a (false !!??) sense of security [...]

Excitement had built up to a frenzy for this long awaited battle between the A’s and the B’s. In fact Terry A had got himself so excited that he felt he could not perform on the night (not the TT you’ll be pleased to know). However I am sure he did not let the fair [...]

For this top of the table clash terry rested (or was he in hiding ?). However a close encounter ensued with a result much closer than the final score depicted. Several sets went against Popps at juice and Central admitted they had had a tough match. Our 2 winners were Phil P and Pete Mc [...]

A day to celebrate. Terry Allington’s faith in his underlings is finally justified ! Peter Mc started the proceedings with a good win over Denise Scott. Although Phillip Parry then lost to her husband Ken he made up by winning against Denise and Kristian Fearnley. John Korner added to our score by beating Kristian but [...]

Popps A were put off their guard from the off when Embassy chose to play us on our home table. Again without Captn Terry, who is demonstrating to others his skill with balls, our motley crew got off to a fine start. 2 wins by Peter Mc and 1 by John Korner gave them an [...]

LIFE WITHOUT TERRY A Team meeting decided that we ought not take advantage of our Div 1 opponent’s youth and inexperience. So when Peter Mc started the proceedings and found himself 2-1 up and leading 10-6 in the 4th the embarassment was too much, and it was hastily decided to lift their moral a little. [...]

MARSH GET THEIR REVENGE. Most sets went to 4 or 5 games but each time in Marsh’s favor. Phil Parry, John Korner and Peter Mc managed 1 win each — not enough to take the match. Result Popps A 3 Marsh B 6

EXCELLENT RESULT FOR POPPS. 3 wins from Peter Mc, 2 from John Korner and 1 from Phil Parrywere enough to turn the tables on Evergeens who are a Championship seeking side who were leading 3 – 1 at one stage. All due to John’s tactics of promoting Phil to No 1. ! Result Popps A [...]

MATCH REPORT In this eagerly awaited clash between the two Popps giants, Terry Wassall ignited the proceedings with a fiery performance against a slow to burn Phil Parry. Terry’s backhand smashes were a revelation and his forehand spasmodic but most effective.. Despite some smoulder from Phil, Terry got Popps B off to a dream start [...]

TUES 29 NOVEMBER 2011, 7.30 FOR 8.00 (APPX) WETHERSPOONS, HALIFAX. All Popps attendees and partners etc are invited to attend — the more the merrier. More choice than ever, eat if or what you like. Steaks, Xmas, Vegetarian etc at £4 – £6 including a drink are available. An indication of your availability will be [...]