Table Tennis.

Table Tennis is great fun. It can also be a very competitive game. I usually play at least twice per week at a place called "Clee Sports Centre". In fact I've regularly played local league ("club level") since the early 1970s. The leagues I've played in include Grimsby and Cleethorpes (25 years), Doncaster (about 4 years), Leeds (1 year) and Scunthorpe ( 1 match!). I played 4 matches in the Huddersfield League too, but not as myself! In Grimsby I've played mainly for "NALGO" club and also "Parkside".

My favourite table tennis rubber is Butterfly Sriver L, medium-thick sponge. Basically I'm a counter-hitter or counter-attacker but I try to play a "Total" or "All-Round" Game. Wish I could put more spin on the ball! Need to improve my footwork and my "short-game". My deadliest shot is a wristy backhand flick. Can block well against loop at times.

Time to blow my own trumpet. In Doncaster I helped win the 4th Division Title, and a 3rd Division Runners-Up medal. I also reached the semi finals of the "Lower Division Singles" (all in the 1970s). My Grimsby CV includes two 2nd Division titles, three 3rd Division titles and one 5th Division title (those were the days!). In 1999 I won the 3rd Division Individual "crown". 2000 saw us win "The Cup" (handicap tournament). Matt Dean was our star in the cup, taking many games off our higher division opponents. I've also got the dubious distinction of playing 4 times for Grimsby Veterans third team. Gladly league relegations only number five that I can recall. Right now I play for NALGO E in Division Two along with Ken Chesman, Trevor Winslow and recent signing the legendary Kev Cooper. Don Newton is Club Secretary. Trevor's wife Val specialises in grabbing us tables at our local carvery. By my reckoning our team lies sixth in the table and we aim at least to maintain this status.

Marble Football.

When I was a youngster in the 1960s I devised my own miniature football game called "Marble Football". Eventually this developed into a mutant form of "Subbuteo". The players were of course marbles or taws. A "Mum Rolette" semi-transparent ball provided, well, The Ball! I built goals from lego and used tiddlywinks etc. as pitch markers (my preferred pitch was 54 inches long). As in Subbuteo I employed a "Shooting\Offside Area", bordered by a line one third of pitch length. At one time I tried to align my rules with those of Subbuteo, but only did this up to a point. Of course, The Rules are still up for "Development" (they are half drafted in a paper folder somewhere). As in Subbuteo there is a "Possession Rule". However, every "move" of an attacker is followed by a move from a defender of choice plus one from the goalkeeper (a marble). These defenders cannot touch the ball (apart from the goalie in the goal area).

I also recall playing "Coin Football" in the sixth form. Each human player had one player: a penny (now would be a 2P) coin. The "ball" was a tanner (now would be a 5P). The goalposts were marked in pen or pencil on a desk - the pitch! (Our thumb-nails were used as goal-posts). We just took it in turns, no holds barred (no possession rule). A lad called Andrew Allen introduced the tactic of "tackling" whereby a "player" would "close down" the "ball" rather than hitting it. This was a good way of "smothering" an opponent. I made sure that such "tackling" was retained in "Marble Football". Andrew used a phrase, "Put up your dooks" when ready to shoot so you could place your thumb nails over the "goalposts!

Back to Marble Football: I ran my own "league" for many years. My star side was "Real Brown United", actually a mixture of brown and red marbles. "Yellow..." then "Golden Wanderers", "Green Spartans", and "Skyblues" were other sides. In the late 1960s I played my cousin Martin quite often. He had teams like "Yellow Vampires", "Bluelings" and "Grey Mirrors". We later discovered he has a colour defect, hence he often questioned whether I was using his players! His "Grey Mirrors" were actually sky blue! Still, he later became the manager of a semi-professional football team (the real thing) so he must have learnt something. Playing the real thing on my Mum's path with her cat with a tennis ball might have helped too. As he remarked, the cat was better than both of us! It was a poor Marble Football Player though: just pouncing on all the players and scattering them everywhere.