Posts in category: TTI News

It was an honour and a privilege to have been invited as a guest with my wife to share in your 75^th Anniversary Dinner celebrations.

It turned out to be one of those very “special” nights in table tennis which are both heart warming and life affirming and I offer my sincere congratulations to President Joe Hickey and Chair Pat Hunter for leading and organising such a marvellous tribute to the many dedicated and talented administrators and players who have made such a great contribution to table tennis in Ireland.

President Joe Hickey, faced with a daunting task, delivered an outstanding speech which will surely form an important part of the Association`s archive, ensuring  the marvellous work carried out by so many down through the years is properly recorded for posterity.

On a personal level it gave me great pleasure to share in the recognition of those legends of Irish table tennis who received special presentations from Ken Strong: Tommy Caffrey, Karen Senior/Walker, Tara Fusco, Andrew Dennison and John Murphy and those two Referees par excellence, Tony Phillips and my old friend Tony Martin.

It was an evening to renew old acquaintances and pick up the threads of friendships forged over many years and cemented by the common bond of our love of table tennis.

 A special word of praise also for another old friend, Pat O Brien and his marvellous collection of memorabilia.

Finally, a word in honour of the venerable, the mighty Joe  Veselsky.  How good it was to see him again and when I pass on Joe`s best wishes to former twice World Champion, Johnny Leach, next week on his 90^th birthday I will also be able to tell Johnny that Irish Table Tennis is in great shape, in very good hands and ready to take on the challenge of the next 75 years.

Congratulations and best wishes to all,

Richard Yule.

Pat Hunter (Chair ITTA) welcomed Richard Yule to Dublin on the occasion of the 75^th Anniversary Dinner.

“It is my great privilege now to introduce our Guest speaker – Richard Yule, who all of us of a certain vintage will remember very well from his days as a top player.   Richard has been a great supporter of Irish table tennis, having been NPC at the European Championships in Stuttgart in 1992  but also having been a frequent visitor as a player.  He won numerous titles in Ulster, and on 27^th November 1979 – hard to believe it is almost 33 years ago – he won the Norwich Union Irish Trophy in the ESB Sports Complex in Dublin.  On that occasion he defeated Nicky Jarvis in the final.  I should mention that Ireland’s top five players took part in this televised event, and included the legendary Tommy Caffrey, a very young Colum Slevin, our President Joe Hickey, Derek Weir, and Kevin Keane.

Richard’s playing CV is quite remarkable – he was part of the Scottish team that won the team event at the 1974 Spanish Open, as well as winning the Men’s Singles and Mixed Doubles in that event.

Richard achieved a rare treble of National League team titles by winning the French National League in 1975 (with team A S Messine), the English National League with Sealink Milton Keynes in 1980 and the Scottish National League with Aberdeen in 1982.   At the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships in Cardiff Richard won the Bronze medal in the Men’s Singles.

Richard has won 8 Scottish National Singles Titles, as well as a host of National Doubles Titles.   He retired from playing at National level in 1985 in which time he had amassed 285 Scotland caps, a record at the time for a Scottish Sportsman. 

He had played in 6 World Championships, 7 European Championships and 6 Commonwealths.  Chester Barnes, Nicky Jarvis and Dennis Neale were all England’s No1 when they were defeated by Richard.

Richard worked in Edinburgh for the Scottish Sports Council before becoming the Director of Coaching and Development for the Scottish Table Tennis Association. Since 1995 Richard has been the Chief Executive of the English Table Tennis Association, and has been heavily involved in many major events, the most recent of which have been, of course, the London 2012 Olympic Games and the World Cup in Liverpool in September.

We are delighted that Richard and his wife Violet have been able to travel to Dublin and join us in our 75^th celebrations, and I ask you all to give them both a good Irish welcome”.

The TTU November newsletter is down available to download. Please click here

A Passion for Table Tennis by Amy Barry (75^th Anniversary Dinner of ITTA)

Extravagant embraces,sentimentality recounted.Trophies, photographsand memorabiliaexplored.Years of shared experience,friendship built on love,excitement,enchantment of the game.
In his youth,winning tournaments,a national champion.Eyes raging,veins throbbing at his temples,mental and physical exhaustion,the majesty of his playing!Waves of attacks, clever strategies,a cool eye and a clear head,manoeuvring throughaggressive opponents,the energy of a man possessed.
He collapses on the chair,exhausted,like a man who has swamfrom shipwreck to shore,but tomorrow,the day will start all over again,the sun will shine,he will play, with fiercely contained passion.
We say goodbye.Shake hands; the familiar ‘Grip.’Reflecting,our still kept youth in this game of Table Tennis.

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The 75th Anniversary of the Irish Table Tennis Association was celebrated at a dinner on Saturday 3rd November, 2012 and our President, Joseph Hickey, delivered a presentation focussed on our history, having earlier in the evening referred to people who had died in a toast to ‘Absent Friends’. Other reports and photographs will appear later.

In Picture: Mrs Pat Hunter, Chair and Mr Joseph Hickey, President, ITTA

Good evening honoured guests, ladies and gentlemen.

Some weeks ago, when I agreed to speak this evening, I was quite content about the idea of delivering a 15-minute speech on the 75-year history of the Association. However, as the weeks went by and I started to gather information, I realised what a difficult task I was undertaking.

In talking and listening to people like Joe Veselsky, Alex Thackaberry, Ken Strong, Tony Martin and former international Don Mahony, I had my eyes opened to a wealth of information on the history of Irish Table Tennis.

Over our 75 years about 80 men and 50 ladies have played for Ireland at senior international level.  How could I properly represent great names of the past like Harry Thuillier, Victor Mercer, Harry O’Prey, Ernie Allen, Sean Clerkin, Deirdre Fearon and Joy Geary.

Then there are the more recent stars like Kevin Keane, Kyra Stewart,  Jennifer Reid Thompson, Tara Fusco, Jing Yi and Andrew Dennison.

And where do you place the magnificent Karen Senior Walker or Anne Leonard?

And then you have current stars like Liu Na who competed at the London Olympics and John Murphy, already a 5-time winner of the Irish Men’s Singles and still competing at the highest level?

There are also the people who have served the Association as an administrator, coach or umpire, be it at National, Branch, League or Club level.

On the Chain of Office there are the names of 15 people who have served before me as the President of this Association. Most, if not all of them, served previously as our National Chairman, or Secretary, or Treasurer, and on their Provincial Branches.

You also have people like Jim Marsh, Tommy Rowesome, Pat Conneely, Anna Kelly, John O’Donoghue, Ted Mahaffy, Joe Finnegan, Kiron Choudhury, Tom Mitchell, Vinnie O’Neill, OIiver Adamson and many others, too numerous to mention, who have given so much of their time and energy to our sport.

And finally, you have people like Liam O’Ceallaigh, Vivienne Barry, Alan Strong, Arnold Morgan, Louise Long, Arthur Brett, Richard Butler, and Brian Finn who have served, and continue to serve, the Association at National or Provincial level.

In addition, there are many others not here this evening, working away throughout the country at Branch, League or Club level.

Regretfully, I concluded that if I were to give the speech I would like to give, I would need probably an hour and even then I would have to leave out people.

Fortunately, the list of senior internationals, Non-Playing Captains and Presidents is recorded for posterity on the magnificent Swaythling Club trophy produced and presented by Pat O’Brien. Many of you were here for the unveiling of this trophy last year, but, if you have not yet had an opportunity to look at it, and indeed the selection of other material on the tables, you should certainly do so.

Turning back then to the task on hand. You know that 2012 is the 75th Anniversary of the decision to establish a 32-county Irish Association.

However, I very quickly realised that 2012 represents several more anniversaries. It is also the 90th anniversary, it is the 60th, it is the 55th, the 45th, the 40th, the 35th, the 20th, and the 5th and, finally, 2012 is a special year for other reasons.

The first anniversary we are celebrating today is the 90th anniversary of the foundation of the respective Associations in what was then called the Irish Free State and Northern Ireland. Back in 1922, this island was a much-troubled place but it is perhaps a measure of how life continues in almost all circumstances, that the establishment and continuation of table tennis was a matter of some importance.

15 years later, due mainly to the efforts of Cyril Boden who was the Secretary of the Free State Association and his counterpart in the North, Norman Wilson, a meeting was held in Dundalk attended by the 2 secretaries and Messrs. Kemp, Leadbetter, Neeson, Drum and Greer.

The first international match of the combined 32-county team was against England some months later.

Norman Wilson who had only been appointed Secretary of the Northern Ireland Association was obviously an exceptional individual as, in addition to his great work in Ulster, he later became Secretary of the Association and served as our President for 12 years from 1955 until 1967
 
Cyril Boden was also recognised as an outstanding figure, as he followed Norman Wilson as our President and served until 1971. Cyril Boden continued to be involved in table tennis and when I became Treasurer of the Leinster Branch in 1980, Cyril Boden was one of 2 honorary auditors and I had the pleasure of meeting him. I found him to be an absolute gentlemen but, modest man that he was, I had no idea I was meeting with one of the Founders of the Irish Association.

Turning back now to anniversaries, 2012 is the 60th anniversary of an important milestone. 1952 saw the reigning World Champion win the Irish Open. That man was of course Johnny Leach who won the World Singles title in 1949 and 1951. Our guest this evening Richard Yule tells me that he will be attending Johnny’s 90th birthday shortly and Richard, you might pass on our birthday wishes from his many admirers here in Ireland.

Next we turn to the 55th anniversary. 1957 saw a 14-year-old boy turn up at the Irish Close Championships. By the time the tournament was over, he had won the Boys’ Singles, the Men’s Singles and the Men’s and Mixed Doubles. The boy in question was of course, Tommy Caffrey, who, in the intervening years, has graced our game with his wonderful play and sportsmanship. Earlier this week, an article appeared on the ITTA website describing Tommy’s memories of his time in table tennis and I would encourage all of you to read it. Tommy you are quite simply a legend and I would ask people to show their appreciation.

2012 is also the 45th Anniversary of the founding of the Swaythling Club of which our own Joe Veselsky and the aforementioned Johnny Leach are the surviving honorary Presidents. Other distinguished names to share this honour include Victor Barna.

Of course no history of the Irish Association would be complete without a reference to Joe Veselsky. A profile on Joe was published earlier this year and is a fascinating history in itself.

Joe was formerly the captain of the Slovak team which won the Europe Cup in 1947 and captain of the Czeckosvakian team which won the World Championships.

He came to Ireland in 1949, became a successful business man, played with Sean Clerkin and Don Mahony in the  Premier Division of the Leinster League with the all conquering Anglesea team and became NPC of the Irish team. Throughout the 50s, 60s and 70s Joe was responsible for persuading many foreign teams to come to play in Ireland in either the Irish Open or exhibition matches.

Most of this is known to people. However, I would like to share with you a secret about Joe that was deliberately not revealed in his profile because Joe would not have allowed it. About 25 years ago a person from Leinster was elected as Secretary of the Irish Association. However, this election disturbed the informal sharing of National posts which had been in place for many years.

Before it even became an issue, Joe took the matter into his own hands and resigned as President of our Association. This story was told some years after the event by Eddie Limberg who was a major figure in Ulster and Irish table tennis and succeeded Joe as our President.

Joe, for this personal sacrifice, and indeed your wonderful contribution to our sport, I want to say a big thank you and ask everyone to show their appreciation.

1977 is the 35th anniversary of the first Irish team to play in the European Club Championships. That team was Dublin’s Pioneer Club and I am delighted to see that my  team mates Pat O’Brien, Michael Rice, Eamonn O’Donoghue and the captain, Tony Martin, are with us this evening.

The aforementioned Tony Martin has served as an official with the Leinster League, the Leinster Branch and the National body for over 40 years. During that time he served as the National Secretary for over 20 years. Tony will be honoured later this evening for his work as a Tournament Referee.

A second, Tony, Tony Phillips, will also be honoured for his work as a tournament Referee. Tony has been a huge figure in Ulster table tennis for many years and was awarded an MBE by the Queen for his services to sport in 2010. That says it all.

These presentations will be presided over by Ken Strong who has also provided magnificent service to this Association for 40 or so years between his work on the Ulster Branch and as our Chairman, National Secretary and more recently as International Director.

Ladies and Gentlemen, taken together, the 2 Tonys and Ken have served this Association collectively for about 120 years and I would ask you to show your appreciation for their extraordinary contribution.

20 years ago Ireland hosted the World Veterans here in Dublin. What a massive undertaking that turned out to be. The main organising Committee consisted of 3 people. Joe Veselsky, whose stature in the game was an important ingredient in getting the event for Ireland, Ray O’Connell, who sadly passed away some years ago was responsible for finance, and our Deputy Life President Alex Thackaberry was involved in almost everything else. Thankfully the event was a great success but the people who were involved have some great stories about the work it required.

Alex, for your work on the World Veterans and the 40 or so years of service you have given the Leinster Branch and the Irish Association as Treasurer, Chairman, President and now Deputy Life President, I want to say a big thank you to both you and Kitty for your contribution to our sport and invite everyone to show their appreciation.

The World Veterans has been a happy hunting ground for Ireland over the last 10 years with Bert Levinge winning gold medals in singles and doubles in the over 70s and over-80s categories.

Speaking of Veterans, Teresa Devaney is deserving of recognition for her great results in recent years in Ireland and the UK.

Going back to anniversaries, 2012 is the 5th anniversary of Colum Slevin winning the Gold medal at the European Over-40s Singles Championships, which was followed a year later by a World Bronze.

Colum of course has been our most successful Irish player over the last 25 years winning national and international medals including 2 European Club Championships. Colum is playing table tennis in Germany this weekend but we are pleased that his wife Birgit is here with is. We have all watched Colum throughout his extraordinary career so I need say no more.

There is one more name I have to mention from our history. Most of us can close our eyes and picture in our minds the legendary Jim Langan. His record in international competition was superb. His record in home tournaments was absolutely extraordinary and, at his peak, only Tommy Caffrey managed wins against him. Jim unfortunately died far too young but his achievements as a player will be remembered and cherished for many years in to the future.

I would now like to make a few remarks about the future of Irish Table Tennis. Names already making their mark playing the game include Paul McCreery, Ashley Givan, Hannah Lynch Dawson, Katie and Elayna McGlone, and Kate Whelan. Off the table, younger volunteers are becoming involved with 20-year-old Jamie McConkey already on the Board.

In recent years, efforts have been made to expand the numbers playing the game at underage level with the introduction of Challenger events and sponsored tables and coaching. Last year the Association supported 40 different projects and so far this season, it has supported 28 projects in 16 schools and 12 clubs.

This work, and indeed many other activities, is all managed, with the assistance and direction of our Board, by our paid staff of Darren Coombes and Rhona Daly, whose recruitment some years ago has increased our capacity to nurture the game in Ireland. 


As a result of these efforts, and the work of our volunteers around the country, Irish teams have achieved gold medal results in the various 6 Nations events and the British league including a first ever Ladies team gold in the 6 Nations by Amanda Mogey and Ashley Givan and 3 of the 4 gold medals available at the British Primary Schools Championships, which also featured teams from England, Scotland, Wales, the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man.

Hopefully many of these players will go on to greater things and when someone else gives this speech at the 100th Anniversary, it will be full of their great deeds.

2012 also saw a breech of what is sometimes referred to in the corporate world as the glass ceiling, with the election of Mrs Pat Hunter as our Chair, the first woman ever to hold this office. Pat, you bring with you to this post, many years of experience in Ulster table tennis and business and I wish you every success in the years ahead.

Finally, as I look around the room, I see some of my old opponents like Alistair Cairns, Derek Weir, Tom Heasley and Gerry Greene. They are a reminder to me that table tennis is a sport where players of all abilities have the joy of victory and the disappointment of defeat. Through our shared passion for table tennis, we all learn the importance of Kipling’s poem about meeting with triumph and disaster, and treating those two imposters just the same.

But table tennis has given us even more that. Many people have met their wives, husbands, partners or friends through their involvement in table tennis. If you look beside you or around the room, you will see people who are perhaps teammates or former teammates, fellow competitors, or fellow umpires or administrators. You will see people whom you know. People with whom you have a shared history.

When you put all of these shared histories together, and you add in the histories of our absent friends, you have, ladies and gentlemen, the history of the Irish Table Tennis Association.

JH

President

Irish Table Tennis Association

3rd November, 2012

Donegal Topspin ace Pat McCloughan won the Frank Spalding Ulster Masters Closed tournament in Downpatrick when he defeated Willie Cherry, Jeremy Lappin and Maurice Rooney in the top four shoot out. The event was held in the De La Salle Sports Hall and proceeds went to the RVH Childrens Scanner appeal.

After dispatching the hard hitting Lappin and the entertaining Maurice Rooney in straight sets McClaughan was pitted against No1 seed Willie Cherry, the only player to have represented Ulster at all levels, from cadet to veteran.  Stylish Pat plays with great spin variation while Cherry relies on spectacular power shots from both backhand and forehand. Pat was also seeking revenge after losing to the former Commonwealth player in their last outing and in this highly charged encounter gained the upper hand from the off with a tactical game that forced Cherry to make uncharacteristic mistakes whilst his own topspin placement was superb and he ran out a comfortable 3-1 winner. Fermanagh champion Lappin secured bronze when he got the better of an exhausted Rooney in a gruelling five setter.

Performance of the day must go to Civil Service Defender Rooney after his giant killing acts on three of the favourites Jack Cash, Norman Nabney and Martin Pickles.  However the loudest cheers of the day were saved for Downpatrick player Stevie Galbraith when he beat Donegal attacker Paul Gallagher in a thrilling consolation final.

Frank Spalding Top 12

1 Pat McCloughan

2 Willie Cherry

3 Jeremy Lappin

4 Maurice Rooney

5 Mark McAllister

6 Norman Nabney

7 Roy Coard

8 Brian Martin

9 Martin Pickles

10 Barry Dickson

11 Jay McAllister

12 Ronnie Drain

As part of the 75^th Anniversary celebrations of the foundation of the Irish Table Tennis Association, it was decided to invite Tommy Caffrey, one of our greatest ever players, to share with us his memories of playing table tennis over the last 50 or so years.

Tommy began playing table tennis at the age of 9 and it was immediately clear to those watching him, that he would go far.

In 1957, at 14, he took part in his first Irish Close Championships in Drogheda, and after winning the Boys Singles, Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles & Mixed Doubles, he became know as the Irish “Boy Wonder” of Table Tennis. Following that, Tommy earned the first of what would be 151 Senior Caps.

In 1963, he won his first Irish Open in Balbriggan, winning a second 4 years later in 1967. He continued to appear on the Irish senior team up until the early 90s and thereafter, continued as a leading light in Veterans table tennis, including a 10-year stint playing in the British veteran’s Table Tennis League.

The award for the outstanding player of the Interprovincial Championships, in which Tommy has participated in for over 50 years, is called the “Tommy Caffrey Award”.

Here, in his own words, is his story.

MEMORIES

By Tommy Caffrey

I was nine years old when I came out of a church in Stamullen, Co. Meath.  I was standing with my back against a building wall and I could hear the constant bouncing of a ball inside.  After about twenty minutes a man called Sonny Whyte came out of the building, I rushed up to him and asked if I could go in.  He then asked me if I had any money on me, and he followed that by “Its members only in here”.  I told him that I had none and he said “I’m only joking son, step in”.  When I did go in I fell in love with everything in there.  The long green shiny table, the net and its posts, the ball and most especially the bat.  It was a magic place for me and I only left at closing time. 

Straight away I knew this game was for me and I pestered the folks once I got home to allow me to join the club.  That soon happened and I must say the members there were most kind by giving me lots of games.  One member in particular called Eithne McCourt always brought along a box that I could stand on so as I could see over the net.  It certainly helped.  On a Sunday afternoon soon after I joined, there were so many members in the club that day that they decided to run a handicap competition.  The members there could never even begin to know the excitement that aroused in me.  It was the most wonderful feeling I could imagine and it would be very hard to forget that day of days in lovely Stamullen.  I don’t remember how I got on in that competition but that didn’t matter in the slightest as I learned that day that it whetted my appetite for the game and competition in particular.

Time quickly moved on and soon I was ten and growing.  Members were talking to each other about my progress.  I could sense they felt I was on my way to something big.  I knew as well as they did that I was improving very rapidly.  If anybody loved their sport as much as I loved mine, then I’m convinced that success at a very high level lies ahead.  Stamullen Table Tennis club was experiencing a change.  A change that they all liked.  They now had a member they felt was way above average and in no time at all would be destined for the top in Irish Table Tennis.  I’ll always love them there.

As the improvement in my game continued apace, my Father converted a workshop at the back of the family home in Gormanstown into a fully fledged table tennis hall.  I will never forget the way he did it.  It was beautiful compared with what it used to be.  The colour scheme was class.  The top was painted a lovely shade of green (which much later I called “German Green” as it was the same green as the German shirts at my first Worlds in 1959), and the plinth was black setting the whole thing off to a tee.  It was the marker for wonderful days to come as I began to play day and night with my forever friend Oliver McKenna.  He didn’t love it as much as me, but great pal that he was and is, he persevered unselfishly for me.  The word got around the village about the table tennis hall.  People started to arrive in the evening time to see what was going on.  Shyness on their part soon disappeared and in no time most of them were picking up a bat and having a go.  Boy, did they get keen!  The whole thing mushroomed into something we didn’t see coming.  Soon a club was formed and several teams were entered into the Fingal League.  The hall was just seventeen feet long so on match nights there was only room for the visiting team inside.  The home team had to make do with looking in the windows to see how the match was going.  Those days formed my youth and it’s almost too painful now to even write about it.  It all ended when it was suggested that I join the Balbriggan Table Tennis Club. 

In the Balbriggan club I met two wonderful people in Leslie Cashell and Freddie Harper.  They pointed me in the right direction.  Back then the Leinster League had twelve divisions.  We were playing in Division 1A, the highest division in the land.  Not alone did we win the League several times, but we also won the Cup Competition as well.  Our team of Freddie Harper, Larry Caffrey (Brother) and me would die for one another.  I always knew that Freddie wanted me to win so much, it made for great team spirit.

The major breakthrough came for me when at 14 I entered for the Irish Close Championships held in Drogheda in 1957.  For a time after this tournament I became known as the Irish “Boy Wonder” of Table Tennis.  I won the Boys Singles, Men’s Singles, Men’s Doubles & Mixed Doubles.  During the Ulster Open that same season at halftime during a football match between Ards V Bangor, it was announced that Irish “Boy Wonder” Table Tennis player Tommy Caffrey was in attendance.  To my amazement loud applause filled the ground which left me with a warm feeling for a very long time.

I received my first International Cap after my performance in that Drogheda Tournament.  It was to be my first of 151 Senior Caps.  Soon after that I remember watching with brother Larry, the final of the English Close Championships on BBC television between English No 1 Ian Harrison and No 2 Brian Merritt.  It was a thrilling match in which Brian Merritt beat the favourite.  I knew I was due to meet the winner two weeks later in the home Internationals.  All Table Tennis players are familiar with the saying “He hit him out of the Hall”, that’s exactly what I did to Brian Merritt in a packed Wellington Hall in Belfast.  From love-all right to the end my attacking game was accurate and relentless.

The very next season that followed was a great one for me as well.  At the European Championships in Zagreb, I won 12 out of 14 matches in the team event.  It should have been 13 out of 14 as I thought I had beaten the East German player called Schnider.

We had shook hands and all at the end of the match only to be called back by the umpire who said the German’s ball had struck.  No team member on either side had seen the “touch”, most of all the East German Team Manager who told me I was the “true winner” of the match.

On my way to the English Open in Brighton, Joe Veselsky told me that Victor Barna’s office was opposite the entrance in Victoria Station.  Joe asked me to say “Hello” to Victor before I stepped on the train to Brighton.  I did more than that; I asked Victor if he would play doubles with me in a tournament anywhere.  He smiled and said “Maybe”.  A year later I was back in Victor’s office asking the same question.  “It’s fixed” he said.  “I’m going to Cork later in the season, can we play together in the Munster Open”.  I could hardly contain myself on the way to Brighton.  If mobile phones were around then I’d have made a hundred calls!

The Munster Open came around and I wondered if he would arrive at all.  He was in the hall before I was.  There he was in white slacks having a knock with quite an audience around him.  For once, the doubles was going to be more important to me than the singles.  I was ready for it.  I can’t recall the matches we played up to the semi-final, but I know we had a close call against Michael and Dessie Gibney.  When they weren’t fighting with each other they could be extremely good.  “Phew”, it was good to get that one out of the way.

Our opponents in the final was a partnership that had never played together before, despite that, were doing nicely.  English No 1 Ian Harrison had teamed up with Irish International Wesley Pappin.  Look across the net at Wesley Pappin and one word jumps out at you – Competition.  He was every inch a competitor in the way he looked.  He was probably the most stylish player I can recall in Ireland when I was a young international.  I’d a huge respect for him.  Victor Barna and I went on to win it.  Much of the match is a blur to me, but win it we did.  Victor was well past his best by now.  Back then I was at an age when, believe it or not, it didn’t mean all that much to me playing doubles with 22 times World Champion Victor Barna, but now it means a huge amount to me.  Victor was Head of Dunlop’s in England and his assistant manager was English International Michael Thornhill.

It saddened me greatly when I heard of Victor’s sad demise which happened at Lima Airport in Peru.  Victor, wherever you may be, thanks for the memory.

Then came the biggest one of all!  The Irish Open in Balbriggan in 1963.  I had the jitters leading up to this one.  So much was expected of me in my home town.  For the very first time I was nervous.  When I arrived for finals on the Saturday evening, there was a queue going down the Main Street.  There was another queue going up Skerries Street and around into High Street.  People failed to get in.  I’ve never seen the town Hall so packed before or since.  They were even sitting all along the front of the stage with their legs dangling down against the wainscoting.  Oliver Adamson being one.  Along came the quarter-final and my opponent was Scottish No 2 Ian Barclay.  I was afraid but I played really well to beat him in three straight sets.  In the semi-final I came up against New Zealand No 1 Alan Tomlinson.  He was on a European Tour.  I had a three sets to one win against him.  Then I was afforded the comfort of watching the other semi-final between Johnny Leach and Brian Wright, both from England.  What a wonderful match this turned out to be.  The former World champion Johnny Leach coming back from a near impossible position to beat English No 2 Brian Wright.  People were able to see how Leach captured the World title on two occasions.  Experience and a whole lot more helped win this one.  The final was due to be umpired by local man Jim Corcoran, but it seems the occasion was too big for him and asked the organisers to find a replacement for him.  In stepped Dublin man Joe Kirwan.  I think Joe at the time was a member of the famous Crofton Club.  I always considered Joe to be a most professional umpire.  It would be nice to see him back again, but it would take a good one to entice him back.  He is now very involved with Boxing.  I felt quite at home with Joe now in the Umpire’s Chair.  He was always a top Ref and had a lot of common sense which calmed me more than a bit.  Joe got the final underway and I must have surprised everybody in the Hall.  I was rampant right from the off.  I could hardly miss.  I found a new confidence in my game not unlike the way I handled Brian Merritt in the past.  I was unstoppable and what’s more, I knew it.  That feeling could not have come at a better time.  Johnny Leach had simply no answer.  He was a great champion of the past and I had to respect that.  It could have been so easy to get carried away.  I didn’t let that happen and was determined not to.  But I will say this.  It was unforgettable.

I got a second Irish Open four years later in Omagh.  In the semi-final I beat English No 2 Tony Piddock and in the other semi-final our own Jim Langan beat another English International player in Bobby Stevens.

In the final Jim and I had what I can only describe as an elongated first set which I eventually won 32 – 30.  As is usually the case, I ran away with the next to win my second Irish Open.  It felt great to get a second Irish Open, but as I said earlier, Balbriggan was unforgettable. 

There are other finals that come to mind.  One being the Leinster Open played at the wonderful Abbey Lecture Hall.  For me, this venue was unique, right in the heart of Dublin’s City Centre in Lower Abbey Street.  In the Semi-final here I beat Hungarian International Joe Zamoggi.  Michael Thornhill, the English International player, was already awaiting the winner of this “Semi” in the final.  At one point in the final during a prolonged rally, Michael fell through the surrounds catching Mrs James Marsh with the handle of his bat, causing a deep gash above her left eye.  She bled profusely from her wound and was taken out of the hall for treatment.  Mrs Marsh recovered well in the days that followed.  I went on to beat Michael in the final by three sets to one. 

Another of which was the final of the County Antrim Open in Ballymena.  In a packed Town Hall, I had a thrilling victory against Belgian No 1 Norbert van de Walle.  He was one of the best defensive players in Europe at the time, and we sent the spectators’ home happy that Saturday night with everything you could want to see from a final with an attacker and defender battling it out over five close sets.

I’m going back now to the European League days, one of the highlights for me was an away victory for Ireland against Switzerland in a little town called Zug.  I took both my singles matches as well as the Men’s and Mixed Doubles to clinch the match by four games to three.  We were without Jim Langan for the match and a win for Ireland was not expected without his services.  If that was one of the highlights, then one of the most depressing nights came against Luxembourg.  This was a home match played in Crossgar in which everything looked good as we led by three matches to one, only to lose out in the end by four matches to three.  I far from enjoyed the meal afterwards.  It was as low as I ever felt after a table tennis defeat.  I remember looking up at a clock as I drove home through Drogheda and the time said 5.20 am.  I had to catch a train at 7.20 am for work in two hours time.  What madness! 

I often thought of writing something about my time in the game with Jim Langan and then I thought, it’s no good, you do it all or not at all.  But here I’ll give two contrasting stories about him.  The first was a European League Match in Holland.  I remember on the night an English player called Judy Williams came to the Hall to say “Hello” to us and wish us well.  She had gone to live permanently in Holland and told us she wasn’t staying to watch the match as she wanted to watch a domestic football match on television in her apartment.  We thanked her and said goodbye.  The Irish team comprised of Jim, Karen Senior, myself and Joe Veselsky was non playing captain.  The match was about to get under way.  The first match on court was Jim against Dutch no 1 Bert Van Der Helm.  During the first set a member of the audience started to sound a bugle and I could see Jim wasn’t too happy about this.  When the first set ended I saw Jim approach the umpire and talk with him at length.  Then he came over to Joe Veselsky and it was clear that all was not well with him.  Jim asked the umpire if he would talk with the member of the audience and ask him to stop sounding the bugle as it was upsetting him.  The umpire came back with a message for Jim.  The member of the audience told him that the bugle was part and parcel of sport in Holland and that he could sound it as often as he liked.  Jim then told the umpire that each time he sounded the bugle he (Jim) would break a table tennis ball.

This is how it ludicrously continued.  The person would sound the bugle and Jim would put his thumb through a ball.  In the first minutes this was a form of amusement for the audience, but then it turned sour.  The audience were all seated on tiered seating on the same side of the hall and started to look decidedly unhappy.  They then started chanting “Crazy Irish Boy”, “Crazy Irish Boy”.  The match had come to a stop.  In stepped Judy Williams once again.  The football on television was interrupted saying there was trouble at a Table Tennis International Match between Holland and Ireland and that ugly scenes were ensuing.  It was just the most awful situation imaginable.  The crowd were starting to rise up from their seats and surge forward toward Jim.  It was boiling point.  Then in the nick of time a gentleman grabbed a microphone and persuaded the crowd to return to their seats.  This man was the hero of the hour.  It seemed he acted on his own initiative and succeeded in defusing a really scary situation.  The match was abandoned with the points awarded to Holland. 

This other facet of Jim is the one I much prefer.  We had just eaten a meal in a restaurant in Hannover and had come out onto the street.  I’m sure there were few colder places in Europe that night than the streets of Hanover.  The icy wind was as cold as I ever experienced.  Just to the side of the entrance there was a man sitting on the ground with his back against the wall of the restaurant.  Jim made his way over to him and said “stand up there, boss”.  The poor man I’m sure had no English and stayed sitting.  Jim succeeded in lifting him to his feet and balanced him with his back against the restaurant wall.  With that Jim took off his overcoat and put it around the man’s shoulders and said “you’ll feel warmer now, boss”.  That was Jim at his very best.  He had a Heart of Gold.

Of course, I am still playing!   It would be hard for me to forget one night I was walking out of the hall at IWA when Tony Martin called me back and asked me if I’d be interested in playing in the British veteran’s table Tennis League.  Veterans Table Tennis was just getting under way in Ireland then and I jumped at the idea of getting back on the road again.  It would be great I thought, going to battle again against all the familiar faces of England, Scotland and Wales and the unfamiliar ones of Jersey, I.O.M and Guernsey.  In the blink of an eye, that journey has ended too.  I gave it ten wonderful years.

In that time I took trains to all kinds of places after landing at East Midlands, Manchester, Birmingham, Liverpool, Stansted, Bristol, Leeds/Bradford and Gatwick.  I know we rave here about Killarney and rightly so, but the British Countryside is much underrated.

My very first trip I flew to East Midlands Airport and made my way by train to Derby.  I made my way to hotel Peregrine and was just about to see Crosbie, Stills and Nash on television when the alarm bell sounded, which meant everybody out to the fire assembly area.  Eventful enough for starters!  With me on the trip were Norman Nabney and Kieran Burke.  My greatest achievement in the British League was winning all ten matches on that Saturday and Sunday.  It took a bit of doing and I remember being as nervous in the very last match I played against Eddie Herrity as I was all those years ago in Balbriggan’s Irish Open.  In those ten years, I gave it everything and thoroughly enjoyed it.  Thanks to Norman Nabney, Kieran Burke, Kariem Sabir, David Pemberton, Pat O’Brien and Oliver Adamson who shared the journey with me. 

All in all, happy memories of olden days, with, hopefully, more to come for me in the future.

Tommy Caffrey