Table Tennis History Journal 88 Excellent research for Historians, Collectors June and all Lovers of our Great Sport 2019
The Table Tennis Art of Gustav Rehberger From the Editor Table Tennis Dear Friends,
Welcome to issue 88 of the Table Tennis History Journal, for History historians, writers, collectors, and all lovers of our sport.
Journal We begin with an astounding drum racket hand dated 1856, with an inscription of a rally of 10,000 strokes! This is before Table Tennis, from the shuttlecock game. I also report some early images of a free-form racket and ball game.
Then a summary of a fine exhibition by the Shanghai ITTF Museum at the recent World Championships in Budapest. We also explore the powerful Table Tennis art of Gustav Rehberger, and meet an Angel of Florida Table Tennis, Caron Leff.
Alan Duke (ENG) reports part 1 of his research into Hamleys, and continues his research into early newspaper articles. Jorge Arango (COL) sends his 7�� installment on early pirated images, and Gerald Gurney (ENG) reports on some early Punch humour. Todd Allen (USA) discovered a cache of documents about Trude Kleinova Vogel and her husband Eric.
Our Philatelic Update includes several new stamps and postmarks, with grateful thanks to our contributors. Auction No. 88 Action, features some surprises and amazing bargains. Hope you enjoy the new issue. Feedback always welcomed. Next June 2019 edition scheduled for October 1, 2019.
For our sport … Table Tennis. For all. For Life. Chuck Editor and Publisher: Mystery solved! Recall the fascinating mystery of the World Chuck Hoey, Honorary Curator Championship medal discovered by a metal detector enthusiast in ITTF Museum & China TT Museum Utah (USA)? This was reported in edition 86 of the TT History [email protected] Journal. In the 1931 ITTF Archives I found a report by Montagu mentioning his stay in the USA from March until December 1930, when he escorted Russian filmmaker Sergei Eisenstein to Hollywood. Along his journey Montagu stopped in Utah to speak Publishing Schedule: at a gathering promoting the Labor Party. Montagu also received June 1 Submit articles by May 15 the bronze medal from the 1929 Swaythling Cup as non-playing Oct 1 Submit articles by Sep 15 captain. How it ended underground we will likely never know, but Feb 1 Submit articles by Jan 15 we now have sufficient information to say … quod erat demonstrandum (QED) In this issue …
World ITTF Ball & TT Art of Trude Record Museum Research Battledore Gustav Kleinova Battledore Exhibition 22-29 10-13 Rehberger Vogel 3 4-8 43-53 14-20 21 Alan Duke Back Page: Pirated Philatelic Meet Punch World Images Update Caron Humor Auction Championships Part 7 Leff 42 38-39 Action Budapest 30-37 40-41 54-67 70 Jorge Arango Caron Leff Gerald Gurney
2 New Discoveries - Old Treasures A World Record Battledore by Chuck Hoey
The new world record of 10,000 strokes, recorded on the vellum of a No. 4 size battledore by Payne, hand-dated May 14, 1856, in a shuttlecock rally between Fortes and Warren. I estimate the rally lasted over 4 hours!
A world record has been discovered on an old vellum drum racket (battledore) with long handle. The inscription on the vellum is dated May 14��, 1856, recording an amazing rally of 10,000 strokes in a game of Battledore & Shuttlecock. Recall that in 1891 the Jaques game of Gossima used vellum drum rackets, borrowed from the shuttlecock game.
Someone contacted me many years ago at the ITTF Museum in Switzerland to inform me that a pair of battledores in the Museum had the highest known number of strokes ever recorded, 2,536, in 1896. The above battledore smashes that record, and is now the title holder.
Please contact the editor and send photos if you have a battledore with a recorded rally & date. ITTF Museum, Shanghai
3 ITTF Museum Exhibition World Championships, Budapest
The ITTF Museum in Shanghai continued their series of temporary exhibitions with a fine presentation at the recent World Championships in Budapest. The exhibition had a comfortable open space feel and attracted many thousands of visitors.
The star of the show was the Sterling silver half-size St. Bride vase presented to Victor Barna (HUN) after he won his 3�� (of 5, a world record) World Singles title. This was displayed along with Barna’s ITTF Hall of Fame plaque. What a treat for the local fans!
There was also the popular Timeline history, which I originally designed and introduced at the 2005 World Championships in Shanghai, now updated through 2018 thanks to our friend Yao Zhenxu.
Congratulations to the museum team for their professionalism, exhibition design and dedication to the philosophy of taking the museum to the people. Great job! Chuck
4 Crowds of fans gather around display cases and the Timeline History
The Timeline History, a series of panels documenting all World Championships and Olympic Games, plus historical notes such as ITTF Presidents and major rules changes. Always a popular exhibit. 5 Panels describing the ITTF Museum, in English and Hungarian.
Next to the Timeline, panels about some of the great Hungarian players throughout history. 6 ITTF President Thomas Weikert and CEO Steve Dainton visit the museum exhibition
Above right: Digital displays of the interiors of the museums in Shanghai 7 Racket displays
8 New Discoveries - Old Treasures Peerless Parlor & Lawn Tennis - 1889
Very rare set of Peerless Parlor & Lawn Tennis dated 1889, sold for a bargain $300. This is one of several early experimental games with lawn tennis motif, designed for play on the floor or on the lawn. While not for table use it is an important game, dated one year before the Foster set. The racket has steel strings and is 15.25 inches (38.7cm) in length. The set includes the net, netposts, original wood box, but sadly only one racket has survived.
Below left is a copy of the patent for the racket, by G. D. Corey (USA), patent number 404,899, dated June 11, 1889, and that date is also stamped into the wooden racket handle.
A great find !
9 Early Racket & Ball Game
by Chuck Hoey
There is ample evidence of the ‘Battledore & Shuttlecock’ game, the predecessor of Badminton played free-form without a net. This was popular with children and adults. The famous artist Kate Greenaway (ENG) often showed scenes of children playing with small rackets and shuttlecocks, and there are many such lithographed cards made in the 19�� century. Jaques used vellum drum rackets borrowed from the shuttlecock game in his Gossima 1891. A few very rare early boxed sets of Battledore & Shuttlecock were produced in the USA, and one in France named Jeu de Raquettes.
I have found some evidence of an early racket & ball game, played free-form with small strung rackets as well as vellum drum battledores. Let’s have a look …
Here is an example of the free-form shuttlecock game, but note the red ball on the ground. This likely suggests that they played a free-form game using battledores and ball as well.
This highly decorative early New Years Greeting card shows the game of ball played free-form with small strung rackets.
10 This is an interesting example of the free-form racket & ball game, played with strung rackets. I would love to find that boxed set in the lower right, though it is curious that the artist shows the rackets bigger than the box!?
Another example of the free-form ball game played with strung rackets in this French advertising die cut.
11 Another image of the free-form racket and ball game. I wonder if there was a formal name for this game. For the shuttlecock version, boxed sets I have found were named ‘Battledore and Shuttlecock’
This example, published in New York, shows the ball & battledore game was played on both sides of the Atlantic.
12 This French boxed set of Jeu de Raquettes has two small strung rackets, with some superb colorful balls. But the box-lid shows a shuttlecock (under the R). The owners preferred the game using balls!
So what do these images suggest? The fine painting on the right by Edith Hallyar (ENG) shows one possibility of how the idea of tennis on a table was conceived: bored lawn tennis players stuck indoors due to the rain used their imagination …
What about bored kids stuck inside because of rain? With rackets and balls that they used to play outdoors, it seems plausible that they might have tried hitting the ball back and forth across a table - playing free- form Ball & Battledore indoors would probably be too risky. I have heard about an early engraving showing kids hitting a ball back and forth across a piano top, but have never seen this.
I suppose, with reluctance, we must allow for the oft-repeated tale of using cigar box lids for rackets and a ball carved from a champagne cork, but never any credible evidence of this; once reported then copied over and over again does not make a truth. Chuck 13 The Table Tennis Art of Gustav Rehberger
by Chuck Hoey
Interesting how many encounters happen to us by His powerful art was shown on the front and back chance. In fact I found some excellent museum covers, plus a lengthy article entitled ‘The Spirit of pieces quite by chance, a sort of destiny I like to Table Tennis’. imagine. Today’s featured artist was introduced to me by a chance happening: our distinguished Rehberger, who was himself a strong player (ranked colleague Diane Webb of England found some #23 in the US by 1939), really captures an intense, American programs and kindly sent them to me. powerful spirit in his art. He also illustrated the 1968 book by 10-time US Champion Dick Miles. One of the programs is for the 1962 US National Championships. It is filled with the Table Tennis I am pleased to share this amazing program with art of Gustav Rehberger (1910-1995). Originally our readers. Watch out for those huge smashes! from Austria, in 1923 he emigrated to Chicago, Hope you enjoy meeting Gustav. where he developed his precocious gift for art, as well as a great love for Table Tennis. Chuck
14 15 16 17 18 19 Source: Program for the 1962 US National Open
20 Trude Kleinova Vogel
Todd Allen (USA) has found a wonderful treasure trove of documents and memorabilia concerning Trude Kleinova Vogel, a Czech national team member who won 3 gold medals in the 1935 and 1936 World Championships. The papers also document the amazing life of Eric Vogel, her coach and 2ⁿ� husband, who was a design engineer and inventor, also a very talented jazz trumpet player. The materials were preserved by the mother of Todd’s wife, Ruth, who was a caretaker of Eric in his later years. Among the items is a pair of rare bats with name Kettnerova printed on the handles, the 1934 & 1935 World Woman’s Singles Champion. Todd and Ruth are donating the documents to the Institute of Jazz Studies & other museums. Bravo!
21 Part One (by Alan Duke)
Hamley Brothers is a name well-known to anyone familiar with the history of table tennis, but their involvement with the game does appear over the years to have been overlooked. Nevertheless their contribution can never be forgotten if for no other reason than they were the applicants for the original Trade Mark for the familiar Ping-Pong name (although the actual Mark illustrated doesn’t seem to have ever been used!):
The story is told that the company was founded back in 1760 when William Hamley went up to London from his home in Bodmin, Cornwall, and fulfilled his childhood dream of opening a toy shop, filling it with every variety of toy imaginable. Unfortunately with the many changes in ownership of the company, documentary evidence for the early years does not seem to have survived, but the store is known to have passed down through the family over the generations. There was an advertising campaign in 1969 celebrating 200 years (a little late!) under nine sovereigns, beginning in 1760. The earliest evidence that I have found for this date was in an advertisement in the Kentish Gazette of 21 May 1872:
The first known listing of the company is that of William Hamley (1803-1874; born Cripplegate, London, son of carpenter John Hamley), in 1830, at 231 High Holborn.
London Directory, 1830
[There was another William Hamley operating in 1811 from a wharf on the Paddington Canal as a Timber Merchant; he later moved to Little Windmill Street, Golden Square, finally joining forces there with John Bowser until the early 1830s. Was he perhaps part of the family?]
William had retired by 1871, with his business passing to his sons (the Hamley Brothers; see London Directory, 1878 ‘Timelines’, and ‘Last Will’ in Part Two), and then to William Junior’s younger son, John (and Edwin’s son Cedric, born 1899, also opening a branch in Croydon). The brothers opened a branch at 12 Oxford Street for a few years from 1874, then in 1881 more permanently at 64 Regent Street (near Piccadilly Circus). London Directory, 1882
22 HAMLEY BROTHERS
Another new branch was opened at 512 Oxford Street (Marble Arch) [left] in time for Christmas 1898, when Hamley’s was described as “a national institution. Everyone who knows their London knows Hamley’s, or ought to”.
Over the years the company’s premises suffered at times from damage caused by fires, a common hazard in those days leading to regular newspaper reports headed ‘Fires in London’. Following one such fire at 231 High Holborn in 1899, the premises at 86 and 87 (just to the east on the north side of the road, next to Rose Alley) were brought into use in 1900 as Noah’s Ark [right]. Around the same time Hamleys took
London Directory, 1888 over the conjuring business at 35 New Oxford Street (itself a casualty of a further fire in 1916). Reports of this later fire, on the morning of Sunday 17th December, described “all five floors … packed with Christmas stock of every description”, and how “at the end of an hour the place was practically destroyed, and the damage … unofficially returned at £12,000”.
Through the years the store prospered, with the opening in 1904 of a branch at 59 Knightsbridge (Albert Gate), and then in 1905 of The Toy Emporium London Directory, 1901 at 200 Regent Street (relocated a century later to its current location a couple of doors away at 188-196). It was honoured to count royalty among its customers, receiving Royal Warrants from Queen Alexandra (wife of Edward VII) in 1911, the Princess Royal (Louise, sister of George V), Queen Mary (wife of George V) in 1938, and Queen Elizabeth II in 1955. It claimed at various times to be the oldest, the finest, and/or the largest toy shop, in Britain if not the world. The company has been known as (and traded as) Hamley’s, then Hamley Brothers (Ltd from 1901), and now just Hamleys. Following their boom years the stores began to struggle during the hard times of the late 1920s, and were taken over by Lines Brothers in 1931. The company was sold to Debenhams in 1977, and since then there have been a London Directory, 1921 number of takeovers by a variety of large conglomerates. Considering the massive impact of the ping-pong craze in the first few years of the 20th century there were relatively few advertisements by the company in the popular press, and even fewer (if any?) surviving sets. But with regard to Ping-Pong, Hamley’s name frequently crops up in association with Jaques & Son, in a business arrangement of which the details are not known, but always just referred to as “Jointly Concerned”. Unfortunately, no records have yet been found which may have been able to throw some light on the nature of the concern. An early mention appeared in the Pall Mall Gazette of 22nd September 1900: “No doubt “Ping-Pong” balls will soon be a feature in every toy-shop; they may be obtained now at a penny a piece at Hamley’s, in Oxford-street” [TTH 85/28]. The first Hamley’s advertisement found for “Ping-Pong,” or Table Tennis appeared in Country Life Illustrated on 29th September 1900 [below left], just 9 days after the Trade Mark had been registered, making it possibly the earliest advert yet found for the game of that name. It was repeated in the edition of 13th October (although the Tether Ball
23 HAMLEY BROTHERS
prices had increased to 12/6 and 15/-), and in her regular column in the same issue, ‘Hermione’ referred to “the new game ping-pong (…practically parlour tennis). Ping-pong, I am assured, is to be the game of the future, and as it is always pleasant to be up to date in such matters, I am off to Hamley’s, Regent Street, for the xylonite balls required, together with battledores, and, I hope, the rules.” The same magazine followed this up on 10th November (right) with an advertisement for Hamley’s Games for Country Houses, one of which was “Ping-Pong,” or Table Tennis, with a very similar illustration, caption and text. For the 15th December edition of the magazine, an advert for Hamley’s Toys, Dolls, Games, etc., for Christmas included exactly the same details for Ping-Pong, but the caption to the illustration had been changed (left). Jaques were not mentioned in the advertisement, but surely this use of their Trade Mark ‘Gossima’ implies some sort of a relationship between the two companies? The April issue of The Royal Magazine (published In late March 1901, viz. an advert for ‘Pearson’s Magazine, on sale Saturday, March 30’) stated that “We have it on no less authority than the manufacturers, Messrs. Hamley, of Oxford Street, that the aristocracy are delighted with it …..” [TTC 72/26-29]. A different sketch appeared in Country Life Illustrated on 6th April 1901 [right] and 4th May [TTC 81/38]. These two advertisements were essentially the same, the only differences being the removal of the reference to ‘TABLE TENNIS’ from the heading in the later version, and corrections to a couple of prices. But then we encounter again the puzzle of the nature and date of the joint relationship! For on 16th April 1901, a Notice (dated 13th April) was published in The Times containing an apology from J Davenport for the use of the word “Ping Pong” in his advertisements [TTC 81/38]. But this apology was addressed to the solicitor acting for both Messrs. John Jaques and Son, Ltd, and Messrs. Hamley Brothers! [This must be confirmation that the firms were already ‘Jointly Concerned’.] Meanwhile, on 27th April the Oxford Times reported that “the firm of Jaques, the famous manufacturers of games of all kinds, introduced table-tennis a few years ago under the name of ‘Gossima,’ but it did not take at all. Last year they made the same thing
24 HAMLEY BROTHERS for a well-known London retail establishment, Hamley’s, I think, and they invented for it the name of “Ping Pong,” and lo! it rushed into popularity at once” [TTH 85/35]. [Could this be the reason for the ‘arrangement’, with each company seeking to utilise the strengths of the other; Jaques (“the famous manufacturers”) enjoying access to Hamley’s “retail establishment”, and vice versa?]
The box-lid [above left] is the standard design used by Jaques for their ‘Gossima’ and ‘Gossima or Ping-Pong’ sets, and then in conjunction with Hamleys, for ‘Ping- Pong or Gossima’ and ‘Ping-Pong’ sets. There were slight variations over the years, including one version with Hamley’s address in the scroll [above right].
On 4th May 1901, Hamley Brothers registered a Design for a net post [373636; TTC 71/12]. Then on 25th May in Country Life Illustrated [without the names shown below between the illustrations of the bats], and again on 1st and 8th June [below, with names added], they introduced the first of a series of advertisements publicising their new game ‘Ping-Pong For the Garden’.
This features what I shall refer to as illustration ① [see below for descriptions of the two versions]. It also included the advice for Garden Parties that “Six games can be played at the same time, on a medium-sized lawn”. That rather depends on the definition of ‘medium’, but perhaps it was appropriate for the targeted readership of the magazine!
25 HAMLEY BROTHERS
231 High Holborn (in the parish of St Giles)
In 1760, at 231 High Holborn the Cornishman William Hamley opened his first toyshop, calling it ‘Noah’s Ark’. This statement, either whole or in part, is encountered frequently in histories of Hamleys. But can it be substantiated? ‘Established in 1760’ has been claimed since at least 1872 in the store’s advertising. And William could well have been from Cornwall, as there were many Hamleys to be found in that area, but the first of that name I could find at 231 (on the south side of High Holborn on the corner with New Turnstile) was another William (probably a grandson), in 1830; and the first linking of the names Hamley and Noah’s Ark (not a unique name around that time), in 1843 [Illustrated London News, 23 December].
Prior to that Joseph Wilson (cabinet maker) was listed at 231 from 1779-1780, with Benjamin Pearsall’s Toy and Hardware warehouse located there from 1795 (and almost certainly from at least 1791) until his ‘Stock in Trade and Shop Fixtures’ were put up for sale, on the premises, on 21st December 1826 [Morning Advertiser, same day]. On 14th April 1827 [Morning Post], Ward and Co announced that the Noah’s Ark Toy Warehouse at 231 High Holborn had completed ‘their Summer Stock of an extensive assortment of all kinds of BRITISH and FOREIGN TOYS’. This is the first example of the Noah’s Ark name that I have found, and it continued to be used over the next couple of years [Morning Post, 7 June 1827 (above), 26 March 1828]. An 1829 London Directory lists W Ward and Co, Toy warehouse, at the address, but on 10th August that year [Morning Post] they were selling off the stock ‘at the Noah’s Ark old- established Toy-warehouse, No. 231, High Holborn. The Premises must be cleared by Michaelmas next’ [29 September]. Was it cleared perhaps for W Hamley, as he was listed as occupant the following year? [In the 1820s, there was a Ward and Co, tea dealers, at 2 Fish Street Hill (also referred to as Wm. Ward and Co. on one occasion). It’s interesting to note that, whilst recognising that both William and Ward are fairly common names, there was a William Ward (plus a Henry Ward) named as present at the signing of the marriage certificate of William Hamley and Susannah Ward in 1842. Coincidence, or was that how the two met?!]
26 HAMLEY BROTHERS
No. 231 remained as Noah’s Ark until the title was transferred to the “new premises” at 86/87 High London Directory, 1900 Holborn following a fire at the original building in 1899. A Sale by Auction [below] took place on 27 April 1899 of all the salvage recovered London Directory, 1900 from the fire at 230 and 231 High Holborn.
In its 1st June edition Country Life Illustrated also published a short ‘article’ on the new game (in reality an advertisement, even included in the advertisements section of the paper!) [TTC 3/15]; this featured illustration ②. Also on 1st June 1901 1 The Graphic published the first of a series of advertisements [left]. Throughout the couple of months that these advertisements appeared there were a few subtle changes to the layout and content, which are itemised in the following table, by comparison with this version 1 .
The two different illustrations can be summarised as follows: ①: Single, 4‐legged table, house in background; gentleman playing underarm.
②: Multiple, 6‐legged tables, with ball holders on the tables; gentleman has played overhead, lady (in frilly hat) is playing underarm [drawn by Beatrice Spiller].
1901 Publication Details Illustration ① used in layout that would then be employed, with changes as 1 June The Graphic noted, in the publications listed below. 1 Heading arrangement altered, name added to bat illustration (and inverted 15 June The Graphic commas to "Tournament" in price list), and RETAIL added to 86-87 High 2 Holborn. Heading arrangement changed again, the bat illustration and description removed (but not the reference to the illustration under PING-PONG BATS!), the substitution of PING=PONG SETS for THE GAME OF PING=PONG, removal of reference to full court The Illustrated 29 June marking for four players, and the addition of “BACK STOP NETS (for Garden play), London News complete with Poles and Ropes, 15/6 each.” And the appearance below the illustration of the wording ‘Hamley Bros. and Jaques and Son (Jointly Concerned).’ - the first advertisement found containing a reference to Jaques. [TTC 82/41] The Illustrated 13 July ‘Article’ (more free advertising!) accompanied by illustration ② [TTC 82/41-42]. London News
27 HAMLEY BROTHERS
Major changes to the heading, with the game now also aimed at Country Houses and 27 July The Illustrated the Seaside, with the introduction of illustration ②; Jaques's Croquet added; 10 August London News reference to bat illustration (and 3/6 version of Hamley’s Tournament Bat), 3 finally removed [TTC 82/42]. 27 July The Graphic Slight layout changes e.g. the Jaques’s Croquet reference [TTH 86/27]. 24 August The Graphic As above but with a return to illustration ①. 4 7 Sept. The Queen Games for Country Houses, with illustration ②, but few product details . [TTH90] 7 Sept. Country Life Similar to above. Games for Country Houses: Outdoor & Indoor, with illustration ②; product details 21 Sept. The Queen similar to ILN above; advert shared with Tennis-Cricket [TTH 90].
2 3 4
During the summer of 1901 Hamley’s continued to advertise in Country Life, plus a series in The Queen [the latter featured in TTH 90]. These were not solely for Ping-Pong, and indeed varied a great deal in the extent to which Ping-Pong was featured. For example, the advert in The Queen for 6th July 1901 gave merely a name-check to Ping-Pong, with Country Life of the same day going only a little further, with just a one-line listing for ‘Hamley Special Tables for the Garden’. On 3rd August, both magazines published very similar advertisements, again with just a brief mention. In September there were adverts for Country House Games (see table above), and then back to a brief mention in The Queen edition of 12th October. During the period of these advertisements, Francis James Hamley was busy applying for a United States Trade Mark for the name Ping-Pong. On 24th June 1901 (in London) he made a declaration that Hamley Brothers had “a right to the use of the trade-mark, …. that no other person, firm or corporation has the right to such use” [TTC 59/5 and 60/5]. He claimed that the trade-mark had been “used continuously in business by us since about August, 1900”. This Application was filed on 9th July, and registered (No. 36854) on 6th August. [Possibly, legally they did have sole ‘right’, as claimed, but by association with Jaques had granted them ‘permission’ to use the name?] In the States, Parker Brothers “had brought out Table Tennis, Indoor Tennis, and Children’s Tennis, all of which had sold only moderately. They had done much better in England, where the firm of Hamley Brothers, the country’s largest dealers in sporting goods and games, handles Parker products. Shortly after the turn of the century someone came to Hamley Brothers –– no one is sure who it was among the later claimants of the
28 HAMLEY BROTHERS honor –– with the idea of using a celluloid ball, to be hit by paddles, instead of the net-covered ball struck by small rackets. Hamley’s tried it out and won immediate success for the game, which they named after the sound of the balls being struck back and forth –– Ping-Pong. It was natural, in view of the close relationship between Parker Brothers and Hamley Brothers, that Parker’s should have the American rights to the game Ping-Pong, the name of which was duly registered at the patent office.” [75 Years of Fun; The Story of Parker Brothers, Inc. (TTC 51/13)] Following their summer advertisements for the garden game, Hamley’s reverted on 9th November 1901 to publicising the indoor game in Country Life, with an advertisement headed ‘Ping-Pong for the Winter Season’. This advert re-appeared on 30th November, then headed ‘Ping- Pong for Christmas Presents’, with the only other change being to the small text box headed ‘PING-PONG SETS’, which in the earlier advert claimed instead: ‘THE LATEST SOCIETY AMUSEMENT. No Indoor Game can afford more healthy, physical exercise.’ On 16th November, again in Country Life, ‘Hermione’ wrote about Hamley’s: “Now a particular word to the devotees of that great game Ping-pong. Its energetic pioneer, Mr. Hamley, permits himself no rest in its cause, and has quite recently brought out and patented a most handy table, supported by trestles that can be folded underneath for portable purposes. This is made of a special material, apparently some canvas preparation, which makes an infinitely better playing surface than wood. It is painted the regulation black, a clear white line running round the edge, and is to be had in five sizes, from 6ft. by 4ft. to 9ft. by 5ft., also minus the trestles for placing on an ordinary dining-table. Another addition, also of comparitively recent date, and one moreover highly appreciated, is ball pickers, whereof there are two varieties. The one resembling a small fishing net is perhaps the more easily manipulated, although the experienced are slightly in favour of an indiarubber cup, the edge cut into small claws, which draws the balls up by suction. Furthermore is there a prevailing fancy for covered balls, another reminiscence of the garden game. Vellum heads and wooden handles form the chief component parts of the rackets most approved of the faculty, although there is a very admirable gut racket calculated to do the best service. Inevitably, the quality and kind of racket must ever remain a detail to be decided by individual taste and fancy; and taking this indefiniteness into consideration, Mr. Hamley now includes two of each sort in his new and complete sets. He strongly advises, moreover, since the game has grown into such a science, the use of the telescopic clamps, these carrying the ends of the net a good six inches beyond the edge of an ordinary-sized dinner-table. There is a subtle side stroke which renders this addition of the utmost importance, and it is apparently the work of Mr. Hamley’s life to be prepared for all these and the like contingencies.”
[To be concluded in the next edition]
29 EARLY PIRATED IMAGES By Jorge Arango Continuation This is the seventh article of my series about early pirated images.
22. NOTHING NEW TO HIM
Above: Topeka State Journal, August 09, 1902. Below: Fort Worth Register, June 22, 1902 (Steve Grant’s book “Ping Pong Fever”). Both images must be pirated ones.
30 23. MUSHROOMS, ELVES AND SPIDER WEBS
The Delineator magazine, July, 1902.
Three images with mushrooms, spider webs and leaves for rackets. The lower right image is from the Youth’s Companion magazine, and reproduced in Journal, Oct. 04, 1902, but giving the credit. Which is the original one?
31 Above: An image from the Punch Magazine, colored in a computer. Below: A detail of the image, showing the mushroom and the elves with leaves as rackets.
32 Ping-Pong in Fairyland
Six postcard series, showing the mushroom, the leaves for racquets, and the cobwebs. They have different wordings, except the first one, above left corner, which is without any one. I know another wording, “A happy Christmas”, and perhaps there are more of them. I do not know if all the wordings were put on all the cards, but by all ways, these postcards are the most popular of the early postcards,
33 German postcards. The German postcards are the same of the English ones, and possible are pirated copies, although it could be they were reproduced from the original paintings, as there are missing the “Ping Pong in Fairyland” wording, and the initials of Ellen Andrews, which I think were later added to the English postcards. There are two versions according the back: green and brown (shown at the bottom). The brown ones have the labels “Druck u Verlag v. Wezel and Naumann ATG, Leipzig,” and Serie 341. The left-middle postcard is a very rare one, with the wording “Best Wishes for New Year.” I present three of the cards, which correspond to Fairies I.
Bottom cards: Left: Brown card. Right: Green card. The green cards corresponds to the middle-left card, and is the only one, which have the label “Wesel& Naumann ATG, Leipzig.” On the other hand, Chuck Hoey and Rex Haggett found the pirated images.
34 A series of eight oil paintings on silk. The age of these paintings is not known, but I think they are very old, taking into consideration, the postcard set was very difficult to get, and the best opportunity to do that it was when they were issued. Also, the set was sold by an antique shop. I think only in recent times the collectors had the opportunity to get this postcards series. Butterflies were added, and all the mushrooms are painted in white.
The images are the same of the fairies cards, with different colors, and two of them are repeated.
On the other hand, I consider these images very intriguing because I do not understand why the painting were made, and with other colors.
Pirated image of Fairies I:
Pirated images of Fairies II and VI
35 Pirated images of Fairies III and IV
Pirated images of Fairies V
The paintings are framed in pairs.
36 24. MISS DARWIN
Above: Daily Express, London, January 8, 1903 (Steve Grant’s book). Below: The Denison Review, April 11, 1903 (credit was given to Cincinnati Commercial Tribune.) The positions of the man and the ball, and the table, were changed. To be continued
37 Philatelic Update
Croatia, 47250 Duga Resa, 70�� birthday of Antun Stipančić
Belarus 1.2.2019, for the European games 2019 Minsk, 21-30 June 4 sheets with block of 4 of 1 sport, and a tree with pictograms, including Table Tennis. 1 sheet with the 4 different stamps, and pictograms background, with Table Tennis The postmark has no Table Tennis motif.
38 France 18.5.2019 ‘Sport - Couleur Passion’ The Table Tennis stamp (upper right) is dedicated for the European Table Tennis Team Championships in September 2019 in Nantes/France.
Gibraltar 25.4.2019, 18�� Natwest Island Games., 6-12 July 2019 Issued in sheets with 14 sports stamps. No Table Tennis motif in the postmark
German blue meter for the ITTF World Tour German Open in Bremen, 8-13.10.2019
39 Caron Leff An Angel of Florida Table Tennis
One of the best benefits of our sport is meeting people. As Founding Curator of the ITTF Museum in Switzerland, I have had the great privilege of meeting thousands of interesting people around the world. Many years ago I e-met the delightful Caron Leff of Florida, and soon realized what a great heart for Table Tennis she has. Caron was very generous to the Museum and was so knowledgeable & well-connected that I was proud to appoint her as an Ambassador of the ITTF Museum.
Caron has been active in Florida Table In 2006 she was inducted into the Florida Hall of Tennis for over 50 years. She has ‘been Fame, in recognition of all Caron’s tireless work for there, done that’ in most every aspect of our sport. Please join me in saluting Caron for her the sport in the sunshine state. service, and her great love for Table Tennis.
She founded the Miami TT Club with Fred Recently I acquired a 1986 program for the US Open Fuhrman in 1966, and also the Fort Myers Table Tennis Championships held in Miami Beach club with her talented husband Marv, who (with thanks to our colleague Diane Webb of England) is also a strong player. Caron & Marv were Caron wrote a page about the Miami Table Tennis good friends with Laszlo Bellak, and she scene, which I am pleased to share with our readers. told me many wonderful stories about their back porch gatherings to relax and Chuck reminisce with ‘the great Bellak’ & friends.
Caron began running local tournaments with Bard Brenner and Fred Fuhrman, and was active as a player from 1970 to 1975, reaching #3 State ranking in women's singles and #2 in mixed doubles with partner Richard McAfee. In 1995 she founded the Florida Hall of Fame with Terese Terranova.
For 20 years Caron wrote a series of articles entitled ‘Caron’s Corner’ for the national magazine, Table Tennis Topics. In the 1980.s through the 1990's she was the local liaison and media coordinator for a number of U.S. Opens held in both the Miami Beach and Fort Lauderdale Convention Centers.
Caron has great memories of working at the Table Tennis venue at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, and she is an avid Olympic pin collector. 40 41 Gerald Gurney (ENG) Reports Punch Ping Pong Humour
Punch, or The London Charivari, a weekly comic magazine,was founded in 1841, and it seems very likely that it published table tennis cartoons soon after the invention of the game.
While many of the Punch extracts have appeared in several early editions of this Journal, here are two examples to remind us of the early days, and how society embraced the game with such enthusiasm and humour.
42 “Read All About It” – PART 5 (Early January 1902) by Alan Duke Belfast Evening Telegraph 1 January 1902 Why not Giggle? The real fun about a game like ping-pong is that you can giggle while you play it. It should be permissible to fall over yourself, miss balls, tumble into the fire, and be thoroughly ridiculous and jolly. It is neither algebra or Euclid, but the glum-visaged organisers will try to make it both until the “ping-pong face” is worn by all players, and is recognised as a sadder thing than the look of a funeral mute. Golf and motoring have been made so technical that they are much harder than hod-carrying. A man who cannot spout by heart a lot of rubbish in connection with them is snubbed by the other devotees, who work like coal-heavers to learn a lot of stuff by heart, and who thereby miss all the enjoyment of the sport. You can’t play marbles nowadays without taking th [By 8 January, ‘STRONG’ had been corrected to ‘STRUNG’ - lessons from a professional, and if you want to spin a top but they continued with their spelling of ‘RAQUET’!] you must put on a special costume and gabble a special gibberish. Sometimes, when we feel merry, we should like to turn a somersault. But we daren’t. We are afraid there is some sort of correct somersault costume that we don’t know about. If we don’t put it on before we revolve ourselves, our social position, perhaps, will suffer. We call upon the ping-pongers of this country to arm themselves, and to resent the attempt to make the game so complicated that only a senior wrangler can ever learn the [See also 20 December 1901] rules. Abolish all the stupid phraseology and the silly-billy Daily Express 1 January 1902 by-laws, for it is these that kill a game. The real secret of A PLEA FOR SANE PING - PONG. ping-pong is to turn a man loose with a battledore and a ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– ball, and the oftener he falls over himself, steps on People take things too seriously. There was one someone’s face, or whangs himself on the nose by occupation that we sincerely believed was frankly mistake, the funnier it is. frivolous; but now the solemn-faced tribe have descended upon it, and invested it with so much gravity and so many Lancashire Evening Post by-laws and regulations that it may cease to be a game at 1 January 1902 all, and may become almost as hard work as that worst of all drudgeries, chess. The occupation that the rule-makers have captured is the game of ping-pong, or table tennis. It began as an amusement. Then a lot of fellows, who looked like coroners with spectacles and a firm conviction that life is Dundee Evening Telegraph 1 January 1902 a solemn thing, came along and divested it of all its delightful silliness and fun. These rule-makers and problem-formers who have already converted the diversion of bridge into a tragedy have left very little of the original ping-pong. It reads now more like algebra, or something you do for your living, than a merry pastime. To begin with, the game is handicapped by a lot of Do you ping, or do you pong? One or other you must gloomy writers, who pen dirges about it. They call it a do. Like other diseases, ping-pong is spreading. It is “serious club pastime,” which is the last thing there is any very easily caught. Spend an evening in a house where demand for. Then they call for a “central controlling they play, and you cannot escape infection. There is association to legislate upon the game,” and a “strong nothing to be done then but submit. As when you feel provisional committee,” and a lot of gloomy, stupid influenza coming on, go to bed. So when you realise personages who will formulate rule number ninety-six ping-pong has fastened its clutches upon you, don’t and a quarter, and hamper and harass everyone until he attempt to throw it off. As a cure for insomnia, it is the longs for the rest that work at his office would give him best thing the brain-worker can get. from the awful task of learning rules.
43 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES
LIKE GOLF, IT DEMANDS exercise may be had over it that one needs to stir one up. one’s complete attention; nothing more nor less. So long Next week we shall all be wishing each other “A Happy as the ball goes––tom-tom-tom-tom––between the two New Ping-Pong Year,” and the signs of the times point to rackets, gut or vellum, whichever is preferred, one can the possibility of 1902 proving a veritable ping-ponger of think of nothing else than the game––the whole game and a year! nothing but the game. Evidently the ravages of ping- pong in Cockneydom are terrible. Tables, by all Yorkshire Telegraph and Post 2 January 1902 accounts, are now placed in City restaurants, and Stock A Sermon on Ping Pong. Exchange patriots, in the intervals of bulling and bearing That zealous but unconventional clergyman, the Rev. the market, wield the racket and forget business cares in W. Carlile, of St. Mary-at-Hill, Monument, recently the thrilling excitement of a tussle. As is our wont, we in preached a sermon on ping-pong [and took up into the Scotland are not yet quite so wildly enthusiastic. But pulpit with him a racquet and ball to illustrate his there’s no saying what the New Year may not bring in. subject]. Mr. Carlile does not see why “love,” which is There is talk of starting ping-pong circles. Shakespeare the greatest power in the world, should stand for and Browning and Dante will soon be driven out of court “nothing.” “Deuce” might have been expected to cause as circle gatherers. They have simply no chance in these more than a passing diffidence to the preacher, but he got days. over it by saying that the Christian is always at ’vantage STAID, RESPECTABLE PEOPLE ––if he is a Christian. who formerly indulged in whist and––whisper it softly–– chess now horrify their old acquaintances by chanting the Belfast Telegraph 3 January 1902 praises of table tennis. Dundee is half-full of ping- pongers. In some west end houses ping-pong rooms are set apart for the game. The great object of every player is, of course, to prevent the ball secreting itself in the farthest corner of the room under the side-board. Table- cloths and cushions and stools and all kinds of things are employed to defend dangerous positions, but notwithstanding these the ball will occasionally elude everything, and rattle merrily away out of sight. But that is the essence of the game. The players thereupon throw themselves on the floor and grope about with the poker Shields Daily News 3 January 1902 and the tongs. Corpulency disappears in a week’s time, without harmful drugs, when ping-pong is indulged in “Ping-Pong” will be Ping-Pong no more if a new seriously. The game corrects all kinds of possible battledore which has just been invented comes into unpleasantnesses after plum-pudding and mince pies. general use. The new battledore has a wooden These seasonable luxuries simply cannot stand up to it. foundation covered with vellum, which entirely destroys In fact, ping-pong is the sound of the ping, from which the game has derived WORTH A GUINEA A GAME its title. The game is more popular than ever, and several to suffering diners-out. Hear the table-talk of two of the younger billiard enthusiasts have forsaken their players––enthusiasts who are breakfasting at 8 a.m. after former pastime for Ping-Pong. having finished the previous evening’s play at 1 a.m. “I The Sportsman 3 January 1902 always oil the handle of mine, you know, every morning.” “Yes; and do you know, I find it ever so good THE PING PONG ASSOCIATION. to keep my racket in a press all day?” “Yes. Well, I got ––––––––––– TO THE EDITOR OF THE SPORTSMAN. another tip from a professional––never use the same SIR,––I notice in many of the papers recently that a Ping racket two nights in succession.” “Indeed!” “Yes, Pong Association has been formed, and that clubs are indeed. All the best players have a racket for every night invited to affiliate. It may, therefore, be news to some in the week––including Sundays, I’m told.” And so they and of interest to others to know that Ping Pong is a glibly discuss points in the game. So far the literature of registered name, and may not be used with impunity by ping-pong is limited, but no doubt volumes on the subject the common herd. The Table Tennis Club to which I will soon appear. A corpulent “Colonel, retired,” will belong was started in October, 1900, as a Ping Pong write a handbook on the subject, and an enterprising Club, such was our ignorance in those early days. Some publisher will tabulate his sales of it week by week. months afterwards our dovecote was flattered, without Once it begins to boom, it previous warning, by a request through solicitors that we WILL GO LIKE WILDFIRE, would immediately abandon the name, or beg permission and another fortune will be made. Then an imaginative to use it under certain restrictions. Being unwilling to be lady will turn to, and deal with “The Anecdotal Side of under obligation to any trade firm in a matter of sport Ping-Pong,” illustrated, and a limited edition de luxe at a such as this, we complied with the peremptory request as guinea a copy will be issued. There are always people gracefully as we could, and changed our name to Table ready to profit by the short-lived enthusiasms of the men Tennis. I need hardly say we have not regretted the and women in the suburbs. But on its practical side there change, but for the benefit of those who might sin in is no doubt ping-pong is a good game. For winter ignorance, as we did, the facts seem worth stating. evenings it is most delightful. Just the amount of
44 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Reproduced below is Arnold Parker’s racquet touches the ball it must be drawn upwards ‘How I Play Ping-Pong’ article from sharply, the spin thus imparted causing it to fall rapidly the Daily Mail (the “page 7” item and “shoot.” If the racquet be drawn sideways, the ball referred to elsewhere in the same can be made to break in either direction. For a slow edition of that paper [TTC 66, page 28], service, hold the racquet so that its surface is parallel to and also as a note in TTC 78, page 21). the floor, and cut the ball as quickly as possible. It will rise very slowly and break almost at right angles.
Daily Mail 3 January 1902 HOW I PLAY PING-PONG.
BY THE CHAMPION OF ALL ENGLAND.
By causing the ball to spin a clever player can compel it to bounce from the table backwards or forwards as shown in this diagram. The strokes apart from the service can be divided into two main classes–(a) the half volley, (b) all other strokes. A half volley is a ball taken immediately after striking the table. You hit where you think the ball will be, not at the ball itself. It is, therefore, almost impossible to actually hit in half volleying; it is the ball which hits your racquet and bounces off. This is purely defensive play. To attack, the ball must be struck after it has reached the top of the bounce or The new stroke––a very baffling reply––about to be introduced by even later, for then only have you complete command Miss Bantock, the lady champion of all England. By a quick turn of over the ball. the wrist at the moment of striking, the ball takes a course which THE SMASH DIRECT. appears to be entirely opposed to the natural law. Constant practice of new strokes, thought out during I will first talk of the forehand stroke. By a forehand spare moments, is the secret of success at ping-pong, stroke I mean that the palm of the hand faces the ball. writes Mr. F. Parker (sic), champion of All England. Every day before playing at the recent tournament I thought of something new, and, when playing, sacrificed games for the sake of the stroke until success was assured. First of all I will describe the most important strokes, without any reference to what may be called the strategy of the game. To perform these strokes it is necessary for the racquet to be held as short as possible. I should recommend The lady has hit the ball too high in the direction indicated, and the result is a every one to try to play with the thumb and first finger on high rebound which enables her opponent to strike with such force that the flight of the ball cannot be followed. This manœuvre is considered absolutely opposite sides of the framework of the racquet, the other unplayable. fingers holding the handle, which should not project First comes the drive, when the ball falls on the right- beyond the palm of the hand. The racquet should be hand side of the table. made of vellum of good quality. Swing the racquet freely at the ball so that the handle is further away from your body than the bottom. Directly you feel the racquet touch the ball give a Sharp Pull upwards. This will help greatly to keep the ball within the court by the spin imparted. Next suppose that the ball falls on the left-hand court. Step sharply across, and swinging the racquet from A very rare stroke mentioned by the champion. The ball is actually made to bound back over the net. right to left parallel to the table, as if you were driving to the left, let the hand bend back so that the ball is actually The service claims attention first. I hold the ball a little sent short down the right-hand side with a screw that below the level of the table, and stand about a yard and a makes it almost impossible to take. half back. Throwing the ball up a little, I hit it straight When the ball bounces rather high it can be smashed towards the spot where I wish it to fall. Directly the straight on to the table, but if your opponent gets back so
45 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES as to take the return, turn your wrist so that the ball is game so as to keep your adversary well away from the gently hit at right angles to the flight or even somewhat table, start a series of short cross shots, so that he has to underneath; it will drop close to the net and come straight lean well over the table. When he has got quite used to it up or even bounce back over the net. and begins to feel happy and quiet, a hard drive will usually be effective.
THE “CROUCH SMASH.” Another sensational coup invented by A Ping-Pong Freak. The ball has been known to touch the top of the Ping-Pong champion. His opponent generally finds that this is the net and crawl along it before falling. practically unplayable. One of the most annoying things that can happen is for A very effective stroke in reply to a hard drive is that the ball to hit the top of the net and literally crawl over. shown in the illustration, which I may call the “crouch But that is nothing to a ball hitting the post hard, then smash.” As the ball comes towards you, crouch down dropping on the net, and finally on the edge of the table. and hit the ball with the racquet above the wrist just as it Playing against the boy who got third prize at the passes the edge of the table. This is a good return for a Queen’s Hall, I have once or twice turned away from the hard service, but is most difficult to accomplish. All table thinking the stroke was won, and found that he had these strokes can be done back-handed; in fact, some are taken it about a foot from the ground with his back to the much easier, as owing to the wrist having more play in table. the proper direction a greater twist can be imparted to the When driven to swing round a great deal to take a hard ball. drive, after hitting the ball do not stop and turn back, but In addition, a ball falling on the right-hand side of the continue the swing the same way so as to make a court can be driven with the back of the hand in any complete circle; you get square with the table much desired direction. I only use this stroke in case I am quicker by doing this. I have chiefly spoken of drives pressed by a hard ball. falling near the side lines. These are usually more Now for the, to my mind, most interesting part of the difficult to take than a ball straight down the centre. But game––namely, its strategy or science, as apart from the used occasionally so as to cause surprise, it is most “moves,” so to speak. effective. The spin imparted by practically all the strokes It will be gathered from the strokes described above mentioned not only makes the ball break off the table, but that I play both back and fore hand. This gives many curve very considerably in the air. So much so, that a more opportunities for deceiving an opponent. Variety is player who meets them for the first time frequently the secret of success, never let your opponent anticipate misses the ball altogether. your intentions.
By a swift movement while the ball is still in contact with the racquet it is made to “screw” or spin so that when it strikes the table it will bounce off in any of the indicated directions at the will of the player.
Playing in the tournament the other day I had some A LESSON IN STRATEGY. After a succession of corner-to-corner strokes amusing experiences. I drove three or four balls from the champion out-manœuvres his opponent by driving the ball to the opposite right to left, and then hit the ball straight down the side corner with a twist that causes it to leave the table at right angles. line by turning my wrist back. My opponent at the Now to describe a game as played at Hendon for four moment the ball hit the table on one side was holding his players. Fix a tape down the middle of the table, dividing racquet to take it the other. Again I had driven the ball it into four oblongs. I take the right half of one side and hard from left to right backhand. It was returned weakly my partner the left. In the first game I serve and play to the same place. Instead of driving backhand, I stepped every ball into my opponent’s left-hand court; it must be across as described above and hit the ball forehand to the returned to my partner’s half, and he must send it to our same spot. My opponent seeing me step to the left other opponent, who has to return to me. Any ball dashed across, thinking I should drive to the vacant space. returned to the wrong court counts as if it did not touch He was disappointed. The next time a similar thing the table. Vary the rotation every game so that every one occurred, only he, learning by experience, stayed where plays diagonally and straight. he was. What could I do but use the first stroke described I must add a little advice to beginners. Don’t get and hit hard across to the left. Again, I say, vary your disheartened if you find that for the first few games the strokes as much as possible. After playing a hard hitting ball never touches your racquet. It will come in time. Try
46 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES at first simply to hit the ball with the middle of the PING-PONG TROUBLES. racquet. The rest will come. Then commence to develop Ingenious observers with an eye to the picturesque have the strokes described above. When fairly accurate take found that ping-pong has (or may be expected to have) another, and so on until you begin to get ideas of your quite a number of curious consequences, mainly for the own, then develop them. beholder. “The ping-pong squint” is the discovery of one visitor to the tournament at Westminster. While another––the PING-PONG DICTIONARY. Westminster Gazette’s representative––has discovered ––––––––– BACKHAND PLAY.–The bat is grasped with the the deadly peril of the umpire, “the new ping-pong knuckles outward. Useful for half-volleying. disease––perpetual motion of the eyes.” Spectators, we BREAK.––See screw. are told, also get swollen necks by constantly turning the COURTS.–The ping-pong table, nine feet long by head from side to side in following the flight of the ball. five wide, divided in the middle by the net. Is ping-pong neck to succeed bicycle back and golf CROUCH SMASH. –– An invention of the elbow?––London “Leader.” champion. It is an overhand stroke made at the edge of the table, the player being in a Penny Illustrated Paper 4 January 1902 crouching position. DEAD BALL. –– The ball is “dead” after the second bounce from the time it leaves the player’s racquet, and cannot then be hit. DIAGONAL PLAY.––From corner to corner HAT of it? Well, it has become a craze. Whether diagonally. It usually means brief rallies. it will turn out to be more than this, time will DRIVE.––A hard, straight stroke with no screw. decide. Its inventor had in his mind a game which FOREHAND PLAY. –– The racquet is held with could be played in any decent-sized sitting-room, the palm of the hand facing the ball. Good for hence the feather-weight celluloid ball which might be drives. struck against an article of vertu without doing any HALF-VOLLEY.––Purely defensive. The ball is taken at the moment of bouncing, and damage. It was received warmly. Here, there, and rebounds almost by its own impetus. everywhere the “ping” and the “pong” of the battledores LET.––If, in serving, the ball touches the net, and were to be heard, and the merry laugh of those engaged in then lands in the right court, it is a “let,” and the new indoor pastime. Finding balls which had become counts to no one. In returns, a net ball counts hidden in the folds of the curtains, diving under couches as usual. and chairs after others which had been served too smartly PING-PONG. –– “The murmur of the racquets,” to be taken––these were the incidents of Ping-Pong’s from which the science derived its name. infancy, and are so now where the game is not played RALLY.––A long succession of returns. seriously. Seriously! Ah! there’s the rub. Some have RETURN.––The reply to service. SCREW.–– The spin on a ball imparted by a played it so earnestly as to desire for something more drawing motion of the racquet. Causes the ambitious than a game at home or at a friend’s house. ball to curve in mid-air and break at an angle. One name has proved insufficient. It is also called Table SERVICE.––The first stroke in each point. Tennis. Two Associations are in the field. Open Players serve alternately. tournaments have been played––at the Westminster SHOOT.–By giving top-spin (q.v.) to a ball it will Aquarium and and the Queen’s Hall––and, presumably, shoot instead of rising after a bounce. other championships will follow. The parchment-covered SMASH.––Impossible to take. The whole force of battledore has had to give way to wooden bats, some the body is put into a downward stroke. It is faced with cork. Other developments may be expected. somewhat dangerous to attempt this stroke, as the ball may miss the table altogether. What is at present quite certain is that there is less TOP-SPIN.–– Given by an upward movement of amusement for lookers-on in the open tournament game the racquet during the instant that the ball in which skilled players engage than in the more humble touches the vellum, keeps the ball low, and phase of it as played at home. Still, large numbers, causes it to shoot violently like a cricket-ball doubtless attracted by the novelty of the affair, attended on a wet pitch. at Queen’s Hall last week, when the Ladies’ competition UNDER-CUT.–– The reverse of “top-spin.” If was won by Miss Bantock and the Gentlemen’s by Mr. severe, will cause the ball to bounce back A. Parker. Mr. Robert Newman announces another again over the net. Checks the speed of the tournament for Jan. 27 and following days. ball, and may cause your opponent to miscalculate its whereabouts at the critical Dundee Evening Post 4 January 1902 moment.
Dublin Warder 4 January 1902
This article was a reprint of that published in The Field of st 21 December [TTH 87, page 50]. “Page Six” carried a reprint of the ‘Ping-Pong Dictionary’ –––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– published in the previous day’s Daily Mail [see left].
47 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Daily Express 4 January 1902 THE HATED NAME. Mr. C. G. Eames then moved that each club should THE PING - PONG EPIDEMIC. send two delegates to form a council. This resolution, Ping-pong is spreading. Latest advices report an seconded by Mr. M. J. Ritchie of the Royal Aquarium, outbreak at Port Elisabeth, South Africa, where it has was also carried. been traced to philanthropy. Up to this point the hated name of “Ping-Pong” had not ––––––––––––– even been breathed, but one gentleman, bolder than the rest, asked the chairman if a club known as a “Ping- Pong” club would be eligible to join the association. The chairman, with great presence of mind, declared that such a club would be warmly welcomed if—it changed its name. Emboldened by this discussion, Mr. Chambers made some severe remarks about the large amount of “trade” influence in the “Ping-Pong” Association, and trusted that the T.T. Association would carefully keep out that element. The twenty-nine representatives of the clubs then proceeded to propose the names of their delegates to the council, which will meet as soon as possible, and in its turn elect an executive committee. Outside the Council Chamber, in a less official and gloomy atmosphere, one of the leading club players complained bitterly of the action of the “Ping-Pongers” in
–––––––––– attempting to forestall the Table-Tennisites. “They deliberately took the Cavendish Rules,” he said, TABLE TENNIS TRIUMPH. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– “formed some sort of an association, and took the THE NEW T.T.A. SCORNS P.P.A. PRETENSIONS. Queen’s Hall, in order to be ahead of us. –––––––––––––––– There can be no question about the seriousness of “But look at the result,” he added triumphantly. table tennis now. An “Express” representative looked, and saw men with It can no longer be flippantly termed a parlour game or a quiet, set expression of victory filing down the stairs. even a pastime, for it is “the greatest of indoor British Western Times (Exeter) 6 January 1902 sports.” At least, so it was described at the great meeting last TEIGNMOUTH––Ping-pong is becoming so popular night at Anderton’s Hotel, when the Table Tennis here that the hotels are running a board as a substitute for Association was formed to make rules, “form a bagatelle. constitution,” and affiliate the T.T. clubs. The Athletic News 6 January 1902 The large gathering of terribly serious-looking men reminded one of a coroner’s inquest. The half-expected invasion of a disorderly band from the rival Ping-Pong Association did not take place. In lieu of this excitement Mr. Harrison, the Cavendish Club secretary, took the chair [although The Sporting Life reported that it was Mr A Harrison of Walthamstow TTC], and there were representatives from no less than twenty-nine table tennis clubs, all apparently anxious to join the association [including G H Mennell and G H S Barrow (Cavendish), A H Petch and F Petch (Upper Dublin Daily Express 6 January 1902 Clapton), C G and H Eames (Streatham Common), A Everybody is jealous of the character of his favourite Harrison and W Thorogood (Walthamstow), W G game. Mr. Kipling’s attack* on the devotees of cricket Middleton and E F Long (Chiswick), W H Brockenbury and football as “flannelled fools” and “muddied oafs” and G H Chambers (Ealing), W Harrison, A J Bryant, M J will make many thousands of people extremely angry. G Ritchie (Queen’s Club), etc.]. Many thousands of people are already angry at the Mr. Harrison, after stating that the meeting was an thoughtless use of the word “ping-pong.” The word, epoch-making event in the history of the game, though richly onomatopœic, is essentially undignified. It proceeded to describe the general aims of the association, suggests something childish––something non-intellectual. the chief of which would be to form rules, affiliate the Ardent students of that appallingly popular game, table clubs, and put the game on a sound basis. tennis, take their pleasure very seriously. They study Mr. Hutchinson moved that the affiliation fee for each curves and smashes as other men study “breaks” at club should be 10s. 6d. cricket. To call table tennis ping-pong seems to them an This resolution was seconded by Mr. Chambers, and unpardonable breach of taste––even of morality. Last subsequently carried unanimously. week in London a meeting of the “Provisional Table
48 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES Tennis Association” expressed “the utmost indignation” Evening Post 7 January 1902 at the use of the word ping-pong in connection with “what was expected to prove a serious national game.” PING-PONG FOR THE LODGER. These enthusiasts––enthusiasts are seldom gifted with a Up-to-date boarding houses are catering for the sense of humour––hope to see their harmless pastime, enthusiastic ping-pong player. The advertisement printed whose simplicity and accessibility are the secrets of its below is displayed at Highbury Station:–– immense and rapid popularity, elevated to the rank of Apartments or board residence. English family, liberal board, bath, ping-pong, parlour billiards, grand piano; football, cricket, and golf. The aspiration justifies the within two minutes’ walk of this station. objection to “ping-pong,” but is the aspiration tenable? After some study of the theory and practice of the game, PING-PONG DRESS. we cannot think that it is. We do not think that ping- It has been adjudicated at the two public ping-pong pong––for we, at least, accept that designation as tournaments in London that men in evening dress and accurate––has any large future before it in Ireland. All of ladies in white or very light dresses should not be us, indeed, play the game, but we do so always with a permitted to compete. The xylonite ball gets lost in the certain smiling appreciation of our own frivolity; a expanse of white, and absolutely baffles the opponent. certain conscious concession to “the child’s heart in the How (asks the “County Gentleman”) would a red ball–– man.” We recognise that it does not contain any of the such a hue as is used by golfers in the snow––suit the elements of a great game; we are especially certain of this emergency? fact when we are badly beaten by our little boys and girls. St. James’s Gazette 7 January 1902 No self-respecting man can have any regard for a game at which his small children compete with him on equal The Ping-Pong Craze. terms––and beat him. In order to confirm suspicion on “Pater” writes:––I once had hopes that I might learn–– this point, one need only reflect upon the utter inability of and like––ping-pong, but now I never take up a morning the game to lend itself to the purposes of literature or paper without recoiling in horror from the fateful subject. romance. Can we conceive ping-pong as the game that Ping-pong tourneys, jokes, stories, all more or less true, Nausicaa played with her maidens under the kindling eye weary me and drive me crazy. I do not care whether of Ulysses? Can we suppose that the Seipios would have string racquets or drums are the better. I do not want to played it, even after dinner and “discinct” [loosely read of the ping-pong face. For the sake of the dressed]? unenthusiastic, and the people with nerves, let us have a rest, or ping-pong will follow its victims into an early Daily Express 7 January 1902 grave––done to death.––“Mail.” In Kipling’s new poem* a lurid picture of what might Aberdeen Daily Journal 7 January 1902 happen were our shores invaded is painted. And he asks how this invasion will be repelled :— Will ye pitch some white pavilion, and lustily even the odds, With nets and hoops and mallets, with RACQUETS and bats and rods? ––Daily Express.
Nottingham Evening Post 7 January 1902 JOHN BULL: “Now let ’em all come, and I’ll ping- Table tennis would be far more interesting if the table pong ’em into the bloomin’ sea!” were marked out in the same manner as an ordinary tennis court. To accomplish this two dozen yards of
49 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES white tape three-eighths of an inch wide are all that is may look to be all right when it’s stretched over the necessary. The tape can be stretched out and kept in its frame, but when it dries it twists and cockles up.” position by knotting it underneath the table. The skill It looks to be merely a modern form of the old- required to play the game would then increase 90 per fashioned drum battledore with which girls who are now cent., and given a table of fairly large size, four could grandmothers used to bat their shuttlecocks. But in these play without inconvenience. painfully expert and specialist and professional days those old battledores look dreadfully antiquated affairs, Belfast Telegraph 8 January 1902 and nothing will do now for your really serious player but an implement very strictly limited in weight, most rigorous in its tension, and perfect in elastic rebound. And, besides, there are developments in the make of the vellum battledore that are said to facilitate the most remarkable achievements. The latest form of the thing is one in which the vellum is just slightly frosted over with emery, thus giving the surface something of the roughness of emery-paper. This enables the skilful player to put a great screw on the ball which may thus be made to bounce off the table in the most eccentric and unexpected direction, sometimes coming backwards like a boomerang. It is difficult to see any limit to the possibilities of play for a skilled hand and one of these battledores directed by a really great and resourceful intellect. Some of us may yet live to see ping-pong Rather a late plug for this article - but they do point out played with the tactical skill of a Moltke and the delivery that “Back Copies can now be had”! [TTH 87/42] of a Paganini. There are other battledores of an altogether different Daily News 8 January 1902 type. There is one, for instance, merely a little thin slab THE BOOM IN TABLE TENNIS. of close-grained wood, varnished or stained, and there is ––––––––– another also made of wood, but faced over with a thin Conferences about political party matters, about the slice of cork. This surface has something of the settlement of the Boer War, about education, and the roughness of emery, and is probably quite as capable of housing of the working classes are no doubt all very well imparting any desired spin to the little celluloid ball. in their way. They may be useful, of course, and for It is astonishing how difficult it sometimes is to get those who are interested in such matters they may have public interest in a new thing, and how rapidly a trade their importance. But the really momentous question of may be developed when once that interest has been the day is, How can we best promote the interests of the awakened. It looks as though this really excellent indoor great Ping-Pong movement? How can the game be most game has been in process of development and preparation widely popularised? What can be done to add interest to at the very least ever since the Middle Ages. The origin it, and to bring the rules by which it is governed into of it clearly is to be found in the French jeu de paume, in closer harmony with the eternal principles of right and which a ball was simply patted from one to another or up justice? Some of the greatest of living authorities, and against a wall by the palm of the hand. It became a many of the most gifted and accomplished players in the common thing to wear a glove upon the hand. Then the British Empire, have, I understand, been sitting in solemn glove was lined, and the next advance was to twist a cord conclave for the discussion of imperatively needed round the hand to make the ball rebound better. changes in the laws of the game, and anxiously debating Afterwards, in Italy, there was a little wooden proposals for some sort of national federation. It seems contrivance to be worn on the hand, with cat-gut probable therefore that ping-pong is about to enter on a stretched across the palm––evidently the germ of the new phase of interest and importance, and that upper and tennis racquet. As everybody knows, tennis was a middle-class society will have less time and attention to popular English game centuries ago, and was played in bestow on such troublesome and unpleasant matters as courts specially built for the purpose. Who first hit on the the South African War and the evils of the drink trade. idea of playing the game out on the lawn seems to be a Already the interest in this game is very remarkable. point of hopeless obscurity, but there is no question that it On all hands I am told it has been booming this was Major Wingfield who first put the outdoor game into Christmas wonderfully. The great City warehouses say playable form at a Welsh country house in 1874, and they could do any amount of trade, but they can’t get lawn-tennis speedily attained a popularity which quite supplied, and some of the manufacturers say that the eclipsed the game in the tennis court. It is interesting to difficulty with them is to find hands for the work. The note, however, that tennis, or the old game corresponding making of the vellum battledores is said to be rather a to it, was originally always played out of doors. The ticklish business, requiring a good deal of practice and town fosse, or the dry moat of the castle was the experience. commonest place for it. It first crept into the big rooms “It is no unusual thing,” said a leading maker, “for us to of the aristocracy, and then specially constructed courts have to throw out three or four in a dozen. The vellum were built for it. Major Wingfield brought it out of doors again, and arranged for playing it over a net on the grass.
50 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES But lawn tennis was only a summer game, and though it [Notes: Helmuth von Moltke (1800-91): Prussian was originated nearly thirty years ago, it was not until general and military tactician. Niccolò Paganini (1782- little more than a twelve-month ago that the idea of 1840): Italian violinist and composer. Juliet: Her playing something like it indoors caught on with the “What’s in a name” speech from Shakespeare’s ‘Romeo public. The present craze, of course, is only the and Juliet’. Daniel Lambert (1770-1809): Goal keeper popularity of tennis brought back again indoors, and with and animal breeder from Leicester, and the fattest man the game produced on a miniature scale for convenience. in the country. Tom Thumb (1838-83): Stage name of It is not quite so new as might be supposed. One dwarf Charles Stratton.] representative of the trade specially concerned in it says that he knew it fourteen years ago. Another gives eleven Wigan Observer 8 January 1902 years back as the time of its introduction. It was, he says, brought out under the name of “gossamer,” [sic] and was Ping-Pong. in the first instance played upon the floor, a row of books Everybody now plays Ping-Pong, so there is no need to or any other convenient substitute for the net being often apologise for quoting the following :–– “Who invented used. But it never caught on. It was first named Ping-Pong? Why (with conscious pride), we did !” said “gossamer” when a strip of the material known by that the secretary of Messrs. Jaques, who seem to be jointly name in the drapery trade was adopted instead of the responsible with Mr. Hamley, of Noah’s Ark fame, for barrier of books. The manufacturer was a little too reliant booming the word. upon Juliet’s philosophy as to unimportance of names. “Funny thing,” said the secretary, “but that game is 17 “Gossamer” conveyed no meaning to anybody; it gave no years old, at least. It was invented one night by one of sort of indication of the nature of the game. At the next the Jaques family after dinner, and played with serious attempt to bring it out a phonetic genius took an champagne corks and bats. Soon after this the celluloid idea from the “ping-pong” sound of the ball upon the ball was made, and the game, called gossimer (sic), was vellum battledores, and the name was registered. But put on the market. The gossimer of 17 years ago was the “ping-pong” gave no more idea of what the game was ping-pong of today––absolutely.” than “gossamer” had done, and, moreover, though the He turned up an old catalogue, and there was inventor was able to secure his right in the name, it was “Gossimer” sure enough, with a picture of a lady and not possible to protect the idea of the game itself, which gentleman playing it across a dinner-table with net, ball, was, of course, only an adaptation of lawn tennis. But the and parchment racquets all complete. The catalogue idea was a good one. Manufacturers took it up and made described it thus:––“An adaptation of the game of lawn the apparatus and sold “ping-pong” under the more tennis for use on an ordinary dining table and forms an catching title of table-tennis, which, of course, was exceedingly amusing and exciting game especially for generally intelligible. It needed nothing but that attention tennis players. It affords splendid exercise and is capable should be called to the fact that a miniature form of the of a great amount of skill, inasmuch as in the hands of exceedingly popular summer game could be played under good players the rallies frequently reach upwards of 40 the gas-lights over any dining-room table, and the thing strokes.” There is one curious thing about the age of the caught on as fast as it became known. word Bing Pong [sic?]. Jaques’ secretary says that when he In little more than a twelvemonth quite a large trade has was a child over 40 years ago he and his little playmates sprung up, and one or two new forms of industry have used to call battledore and shuttlecock “Ping-Pong.” been called into existence, and several patents have been Portsmouth Evening News 8 January 1902 taken out for accessories of the game, and price lists and illustrated catalogues are to be had everywhere. One ING PONG ! ! –– The “Fish Tail” Table Tennis most ingenious little invention has been made, and one P Racket, the latest and most successful. Post Free, which should specially commend itself to table-tennis 4s. 6d. Clement and Co., Landport. players who are beginning to get a little portly and aldermanic in person. It is a little “ball picker up.” The Bolton Evening News celluloid balls with which the game is played are all of 9 January 1902 one standard size, and some inventive genius––possibly The spread of Ping-Pong is one of one whose girth was considerable––hit on the happy idea Ping-Pong. the signs of the times, I suppose. We of fixing at the end of a light cane a little vulcanised are all so tired of Mr. Chamberlain india-rubber cup exactly fitting the ball. With the aid of and his South African war (I am talking of Londoners) this little simple contrivance the ponderous Daniel that we have flown to the other extreme. I was in a Lambert might have picked up his ping-pong ball as discount bookseller’s shop yesterday, and his easily as Tom Thumb or the most attenuated of mortals. contribution to the publishing news of to-day is that he After all, it is getting a very amusing and convenient has already had numerous inquiries for the still unissued world to live in, and heaps of money are being made out book that the winner of the Queen’s Hall Ping-Pong of ping-pong. Everybody is busy making it, and I am Tournament [Arnold Parker] is preparing for an expectant told that many of the items of the complete set are being world. I was also passing yesterday through an alley-way largely imported from Paris––especially the battledores–– in the immediate vicinity of Leadenhall-st., and I saw and are merely being put together in sets over here. One plastered in great letters over the door of a cafe the magic of the many manufacturers of the game stated a day or words “Ping-Pong.” Here at last seems to be a subject two ago that within the past two months his firm had worthy of Mr. Rudyard Kipling’s* denunciation. taken orders to the extent of £800.
51 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES A BALLAD OF TABLE-TENNIS. who ought never to have entered, and the process is not –––––––––––––– exhilarating. ….. (With a Ping-pong Obbligato.) –––––––––––––––– What brings delight to great and small:–– KAISER A PING-PONG DEVOTEE. ––––––––––––––––– Ping-pong. Ping-pong is captivating the world. Among its latest For villa or baronial hall:–– devotees are the phlegmatic Teutons, his Majesty the Ping-pong. Kaiser being one of the first to succumb to its What leaves its frizzling souvenir fascinations. In many a crystal chandelier, Quite recently, when the Emperor formed the principal And strips the humble chiffonier? guest at a hunting party, he was conspicuous, as he Ping-pong. always is, in providing entertainment after dinner. One It’s played with racquets and a net–– evening he gravely informed the company that he had a (Ping-pong) surprise for them, and left the room, returning a few And balls which emulate De Wet moments later with a box under his arm. He then (Ping-pong) proceeded to open it, and revealed a ping-pong set. For which the Axminster [carpet] we scan, “There it is,” exclaimed his Majesty; “a present from Perambulating on the plan my uncle, King Edward. It’s a beauty.” Adopted by primeval man–– Ping-pong. Dundee Evening Post 9 January 1902 Affording players splendid fun In a forthcoming tournament, the first of the kind in the (Ping-pong) It gives onlookers (I am one) district, shortly to be held in St Mary’s Hall, Newport, “ladies and gentlemen are not divided into classes, but are (Ping-pong) drawn indiscriminately by ballot” ….. A “mixed doubles” Occasion to be well employed, has also been arranged for, and this event will no doubt Of biped dignity devoid, produce much good play and general merriment. The In “scouting” errant celluloid–– thoughtful committee have arranged for tea to be served Ping-pong. each evening, and spectators, I understand, are to be ––Denis Duval in “The Onlooker.” admitted on payment of a small charge. Daily Express 9 January 1902 Eastern Evening News 9 January 1902 PING-TENNIS-PONG. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––– WHILE Mr. Kipling* sees a national danger in the THREE HUNDRED COMPETITORS FOR devotion of the masses of the people to outdoor pastimes CHAMPIONSHIP. instead of to the more serious business of life, a great –––––––––––––-- When there is question of catering for a popular fad the many others see a much more alarming significance in Royal Aquarium is always on top; and as it showed the the national abandonment of outdoor sports for the milder way in ladies’ cycle races, fasting men, and wireless and more ladylike game which goes by the name of Ping- telegraphy for parlour use, so it is now the Mecca of table pong. An Irish paper which does not devote itself tennis players. entirely to unqualified eulogy of the English recently Over 300 of them, male and female, representing two declares that it was quite in the order of things that the score clubs, as well as domestic cultivation of the game, favourite game of a country whose most popular song have entered for the championship contest now in rejoiced in the soul-stirring title of “Ta-ra-ra-boom-de- progress at the Aquarium. ay” should bear the name of “Ping-pong.” The sneer is How important this competition is may be judged from not undeserved; nor are the fears which are expressed that the fact that silver cups and other prizes to the value of the widespread acceptance of Ping-pong as a pastime for over £100 are to be awarded to the successful players, to all classes and occasions indicates something very like say nothing of the honour and glory of championship. national decadence entirely without foundation. Whether the Aquarium champions will be recognised as There is no question that this “tippety-tappety” game is champions of all England is open to question, and Mr. pushing out not only billiards as an indoor game, but Josiah Ritchie is truly a bold man to venture with a more manly outdoor sports, and that the modern man is charter of national honours into the debatable ground on much more satisfied to eschew the tingling joys of a which the Table Tennis Association and the Ping-Pong morning on the ice or a round on the links, and to prance Association are fighting their battle for supremacy. around the dining-table with the womenfolk, than one It is to be distinctly understood that the game played at likes to confess. It is easy to snear at Ping-pong––the the Aquarium is table tennis, not ping-pong. Yet half a very name is an irresistible inducement; but there is no dozen ping-pong clubs are openly recognised on the mistaking that it has taken a most surprising hold upon programme. the people. Old men and young men, business men and Meanwhile, the Aquarium was filled all yesterday their clerks, artisans, and even the great unemployed, afternoon with competitors, their sisters, cousins, and have fallen under its spell; and at the present moment it is aunts, and a sprinkling of the general public. There are only too true that wherever English people congregate rather more players and friends than mere spectators at there may Ping-pong be found. On the whole, it is rather present, but that is natural, for the first few days of the sad; and we must confess that we hope most sincerely competition must be devoted to weeding out the duffers
52 EARLY NEWSPAPER ARTICLES that the fad––it has become almost madness in some termed athletic, but they demand tact, patience, and parts––will fall as swiftly and surely as it rose. temper, all points that tend to the making of a nation. The sympathetic manner in which you are treating the Dundee Evening Telegraph 10 January 1902 subject of Ping-Pong in your admirable paper must be my Tell me, man with the sorrowful face, excuse for addressing you on this occasion. Your Man with the sad, sad eye, obedient servant, Why do you grieve so obviously–– January 7. T. TABES. Why do you groan and sigh? Daily Express 10 January 1902 “I’ll tell you why I grieve so sore, The tale will not take long; FAIR PING-PONGISTS. ––––––––––––––––––––––––––– In me you see a devotee THEIR ARTLESS WAYS AT THE Of that awful game ping-pong.” TENNIS TOURNEY. –––––––––––– Bradford Daily Telegraph 10 January 1902 “It is noticeable that most clubs prefer to be table tennis,” says an official document issued by the Three hundred unfortunate enthusiasts, remarks a management of the Aquarium in connection with the correspondent, have entered for a new ping-pong current tournament. So they do. People who take the tournament. In the event of no serum being effective game seriously enough to join clubs devoted to its against the malady, it may help as a warning to make practice are naturally contemptuous of a title so public the fact that there are two definite ping-pong essentially plebeian and popular as “ping-pong.” diseases: one an affection of the eyes, the result of At present the matches of lady competitors attract more looking at the rapid transit of the ball; the other ping- attention and elicit more applause than those of the mere pong nausea, the effect of repeatedly burrowing under men, however expert. The lady table tennis player is sofas for retrieving purposes. It may be added that well worth watching, if only as a study in feminine nausea is sometimes produced even in those who read repression of the desire to swear. and listen to the game. When a sweet girl champion ends a long rally by Hull Daily Mail 10 January 1902 banging the ball into the net from a really magnificent forehand drive, that ought to have discomfited her Oh, no, we never mention it–– opponent utterly, she does not say anything. She thinks a That name is never heard; good deal, one may judge. Our lips refuse to form or use The younger variety of lady player, in these trying The jingling double-word; circumstances, makes her tongue serve for expressing A nation’s serious sport our game annoyance. Not by speaking; still less by pointing it We mean to make ere long, opprobriously at her opponent. But “table tennis” is its name–– Older girls bite their lips, and look excessively meek, We do not know Ping Pong! as becomes those chastened by Providence without ––“The World.” adequate reason. The Southern Echo 10 January 1902 Sometimes, when a return slides erratically into space from the extreme edge of the table, the lady player raises THE KIND OF CLUB. her eyes to heaven, or as far in that direction as the roof “You say you have a ping-pong club in your town?” of the Aquarium will allow, and drops her arms limply. “Yes; the first fellow who mentions pingpong gets it.” That is the feminine equivalent of a male billiard player saying “ ’J’ever see such dashed hard luck?” The Globe 10 January 1902 But they play very well, these charming young ladies. “THE ISLANDERS.” The adjective is of rigour, in writing of girl players. Sir,––As a patriot and a Briton, I have been deeply Yet it is curious that most of the female experts who interested in the accounts given in the papers of a recent braved publicity on the tables of the Aquarium are either meeting of the presidents of various clubs established in quite young—in the pig-tail plait and three-quarter length the more intelligent of our suburbs to promote the frock period—or fairly mature in years. national game of Ping-Pong. While fully sympathising A high degree of skill in table tennis seems difficult of with the objects of that meeting, I would ask your acquirement during the flirting era, say, between nineteen permission to recall to the minds of your maturer readers and thirty. the names of two games notable in their day, the revival Still, waiting further and more forcible remarks from of which appears to me to be especially appropriate at the Mr. Kipling*, the British public is flocking to the present time, when all the energies of our country are Aquarium in big numbers, and when performers of real required to meet a distant war and nearer trade crises. I championship rank are competing it is difficult to get a refer to “Tiddlywinks” and “Flitterkins,” names which glimpse of the tables through the crowded ring of must bring a flutter to the hearts of many now, alas, no spectators. longer young, and which, at this stage, require no detailed description. The first was termed by a then living * Kipling’s poem ‘The Islanders’, with its references to “the flannelled fools at the wicket or the muddied oafs at the goals” philosopher “the game that has made England what she rd is,” and the second is like unto it. These noble, and I trust was first published on 3 January 1902, to much criticism. again to become national games, may not, perhaps, be
53 Auction Action
Very rare strung racket by F.A.O. Schwarz, the famous game shop in New York City, known for their high quality toys and games. This was found listed in the tennis category, so it could not be found via searches for Table Tennis or Ping Pong. The auction price was $262.
Our friend and colleague Fabio Mercotulli found a superb .A.O. Schwarz set with two other varieties of fine rackets. - see edition 85
54 Pair of early wood bats with short, stylized handles, perfect for pen- hold grip. A bargain at only $7.
Original Red Star Lines postcard, c. 1902. $40. Be careful, as there are reproductions of this card offered.
55 Fine pair of vellum drum rackets, £42 32.3cm, squared handles.
Ping Pong in Fairyland VI, art by Ellen Andrews. £30 with A Happy Birthday greeting. Undivided back. When I collected these for the Museum, number VI proved to be the toughest to find. 56 Lot of 3 boxed sets in the Graham Budd auction, £60 to open, 3.June
Nice pair of early plain wood bats with tapered handles. £8
57 June 1933 edition of the American Ping-Pong magazine. These are quite rare and seldom surface. The Ping Pong name was finally dropped because of commercial influences, and the United States Table Tennis Association (USTTA) was founded in 1933. Although somewhat stained this issue sold for $59.
Medal from the 1930 Championship of Wales, inscribed Nancy E. Jackson. According to Colin Clemett, Nancy married H. Roy Evans, the 2ⁿ� ITTF President, in 1934. £16 58 Pair of offset hardbats with stylized cork grips. Similar in shape to the bats used by Fred Perry in the late 1920s. $75
Michel Haguenauer square head bat, with well-preserved brown rubber. 25 Euro He won 2 silver and 5 bronze World Championship medals, and 8 French singles titles.
59 Set of 4 fine Jaques hardbats, two with leather wrapped grips, two wrapped in suede. £130
A rare Briggs Barna bat from the 1930s, with nailed grip and metal name insert. The Barna signature is scratched over with the apparent original owner name.
Buy it now for $349 or bidding starts at $199.
60 4-time World Singles winner Fine early photo of Bergmann at 18 Richard Bergmann publicity card years of age, inscribed: ‘Richard signed & dated 1947(48 £12.50 Bergmann, World Champion, Table Tennis, 1937’ This was the first of 4 World Singles titles he won.
Dunlop Barna hardbat with red teardrop logo, classic brown rubber pips, well preserved. Sold for only £10.50, a bargain! Other examples sold for £23 and a very low £5 61 Barna thick sponge with giant pips, 1950s. £499.
We see plenty of books in English about Ping Postally sent Chinese postcard from the Pong Diplomacy, but this is a Chinese edition, 1961 World Championships, sold for $49 focusing on the American team. $29 62 Butterfly Biriba bat with original Japanese label. $15 Biriba was the young Brazilian sensation
Early Butterfly bat in original wrapper and box. $125 USTTA logo on inside box. 63 Butterfly #533 English Style in original box with advertising paper $91
Butterfly ‘French Style’, with imprint signature of the North Korea 1961 imperforate Vietnamese player, Mai Van Hoa. $199 stamp $126
64 Large complete arcade game of Table Tennis by Midway. $500 Most often the maintenance booklet surfaces, and sometimes just the top piece, which has good colors. Very rarely does a complete working set come up for bids.
65 Cast iron sculpture $9
Two porcelain figures by Hollohaza (HUN) Painted: $30, unpainted: $20 66 Small racket with Swarovski crystal ball attached. $65
£5 for this cute photo.
Small boxed set by Wooden Games Workshop, with a multi- piece wood freestanding net and small bats. Ideal for children on any size table. $12 & higher - shop around.
67 Collector Directory Günther Angenendt Winfried Engelbrecht Germany Barry Hayward UK Langacker 10a 44869 Bochum, Germany Virgiliastr.21 D-45131 Essen 49.201.78.6795 19 Little Hardwick Road, Streetly +49-2327-77117 [email protected] [email protected] Philately: West Midlands WS9 0SD Pre-war World Ch programs; all TT items Stamps, FDCs, Sheets, Postmarks, books, [email protected] German boxed sets & bats; TT pins phonecards, tickets, stickers, W.C. Programs Website: www.tabletennislibrary.co.uk
Jorge Arango [email protected] Romualdas Franckaitis Lithuania Chuck Hoey Honorary Curator, ITTF Museum Cl. 10 No. 25-103 Ap.116 Medellin Columbia [email protected] [email protected] Philatelic & general TT items Art bats, unusual bats, historic photos, Gao Yi-bin [email protected] Important medals, museum quality items Michael L. Babuin, PhD USA No.9 Xin Wen Road 21-905 Phoenix Tree Garden PO Box 3401 Cary NC. 27519 Jiangning, Nanjing, Jiansu P.R.China 211100 Martin Holland [email protected] [email protected] +8625 5212 3334 TT stamps, FDC, postcards 44 Victoria Road, Barrow-in-Furness, Cumbria Pre-1905 books, old film copies, programs phonecards, coins, medals, pins, cancels England BA14 5JU TT postcards & trade cards
Oliver Born Germany Roman Gelman [email protected] Rolf Jaeger USA [email protected] [email protected] www.old-butterfly.de 24 Taverngreen Court, Baltimore, MD. USA Tennis and Table Tennis items Old Butterfly rackets, especially Korpa 21209 410 602 0267 Pins,,badges,medals Custom jewelry: www.tennisboutique.com
Keith Bowler In Memoriam David Good [email protected] Dean Johnson USA 710 N.Waverly, Dearborn, MI 48128 USA 3404 Holly Road, Virginia Beach, VA 23451 Fabrice Chantriaux France +1 313 278 5271 c.1900 sets, equipment, (757) 478 3605 [email protected] 10 Rue des Chevrefeuilles F-45130 Saint-Ay ephemera, memorabilia 02.38.88.82.11 Fax: 02.38.45.94.29 Jean-Francois Kahn France [email protected] Stamps, cancels, Scott Gordon USA [email protected] 49 rue Leonardo da Vinci, 77330 Ozoir la Postcards, posters, old papers on TT 5340 Shelato Way, Carmichael, CA 95608 Ferriere [email protected] +1 916 978 0117 www.hardbat.com films +33 1 40779762 TT philately: imperf stamps, Colin Clemett [email protected] Historic films,classic era hardbats, old books sheets, color proofs, minister/artist sheets, 2 Watermill Court, 10 Springwell, Havant errors, postmarks, meters, FDCs, specimens PO9 1ED UK Historical documents Gordon Gotal [email protected] Meduliceva 23 Zagreb 10000 Croatia Christian Klaus Möllersdorf, Austria Fabio Colombo Italy [email protected] +3851 4848 687 Exch: TT pins, medals, post- [email protected] www.colombofabio.com cards Acquire: WC & EC official badges TT stamps, cancels, postcards, autograph Table Tennis books, World Rankings. Author (Guest, organizer, player, press, etc) cards, FDCs, historic photos, magazines, Seeking STIGA Stipancic rackets Newspapers, score-lists, books, posters … Steve Grant Florida USA author Ron Crayden (ENG) in Memoriam [email protected] Jan Kleeven [email protected] Ping Pong Diplomacy, Early 1900s TT Margrietstraat 63 6373 NN Landgraaf Andre Demeure (BEL) in Memoriam Netherlands Pins, flags, pennants, stamps, Esko Heikkinen [email protected] Phonecards, stickers Jean Devys Residence La petite vigne, Vainamoisenkatu 9 B 17 Helsinki 00100 20 rue Edgar Quinet, A16 F-59100 Roubaix Finland +358 50 62532 TT history, Stiga bats Matti Kolppanen Finland France 33.320828444 Fax: 33.320650849 TT Kollekannaksent 12E, FI-02720 Espco philately, cycling [email protected] Gerald Gurney +44.1206.230330 [email protected] Guildhall Orchard, Great Bromley Colchester TT history, TT postcards Axel Dickhaus Germany ESSEX CO7 7TU England. All racket games, All Atzienbacherf Str. 88 D-51381 Leverkusen equipment, ephemera. Historian, author. Randy Koo Netherlands +49 (0)2171 32108 Fax: 49 (0)2171.731478 Worldwide exhibitions. Swimming items. Torenwacht 37, 2353 DB Leiderdorp [email protected] TT balls, phone cards Exch: boxed sets, postcards, books, rackets +31 071 5417413 [email protected] Stamps mint, postmarks, red meters, FDC Alan Duke [email protected] Rex Haggett [email protected] 2 Shapwick Close, Swindon WILTS. England 27 Meadow Close, Stratford-upon-Avon Hans Kreischer +34965698195 SN3 3RQ UK +44 (0) 1793 531234 Warwickshire, CV37 9PJ England Avenue les Comargues 21, Busot-Allicante History, music & photo record of TT items +44 (0) 1789 269352 Philately 03111 Spain [email protected]
Sergio Durazzano [email protected] Russ Hamilton Arkansas, USA Via Girardini 8, 33100 Udine, Italy [email protected] 214-673-6164 Kevin Lau USA [email protected] 0432.21105 Stamps & historical books C.1890-1902 vintage sets, books & unusual Philatelic, pins, coins, memorabilia, souvenir items & decorative items
68 Collector Directory
Caron Leff Ft. Myers, FL USA Laszlo Polgar Hungary Solazzi Tonino [email protected] [email protected] Table Tennis pins [email protected] Via Millefonti 6 / 5 10126 Torino, Italy Early World Ch items,Barna,Bergmann, 0039 3668744426 Table Tennis pins Francis Leibenguth France +33951966614 Bellak,Szabados,Anna Sipos,Rozeanu,Ehrlich www.tabletennispins.weebly.com 1 résidence des Hauts de Villebon 91140 and Dolinar. Table Tennis plus chess. Villebon-sur-Yvette [email protected] Hans-Peter Trautmann Germany Vintage bats (esp hardbats), vintage sets Alberto Prieto USA Siegfriedstr. 17 64385 Reichelsheim http://raquettes-collection.blog4ever.com [email protected] [email protected] Stamps mint, perf + imperf, sheets, color Jorgen Lindh [email protected] Robin Radford [email protected] proofs, minister/artist sheets, postmarks, Egnahemsgatan 13D S-43242 Varberg 7A Beauchamp St TAWA, Wellington, errors, red/blue meters SWEDEN 5028 NZ Phone: +64 04 232 5672 TT cartoons, comic strips, clip art Graham Trimming 44(0)1628 529609 Steve Luck, 12 Liskey Hill, Perranporth, Rosemount Juniper Lane Cornwall TR6 0ET Phone: 07860 446209 Jose Ransome Wooburn Green, Bucks HP10 0DE England [email protected] racket sports, ”Conifers” Church Lane ORMESBY [email protected] pre-1939 TT rowing, billiards, croquet, archery ... Middleborough TS7 9AU ENGLAND items, esp c.1900s. Acquire: Gossima 1891; 01642 322223 [email protected] early unusual items; early World Ch items. Fabio Marcotulli Venezuela [email protected] Geoff Reed In Memoriam Damir Uzorinac Croatia Barna rackets, TT items from all eras Prilaz Gjure Dezelica 20 10000 Zagreb Helmut Reinhardt [email protected] 38598474982 Hubert Menand Friedrich-Voss-Platz 19, Books, pins, stamps, cancellations [email protected] D-24768 Rendsburg, GERMANY President, AFCTT (French TT Collectors) [email protected] Russ Walker e-mail = ? 4316 Irving Ave N, MPLS MN 55412 USA Eldon Mohler [email protected] Ortwin Schiessl Austria +1-612-522-7905 1820 E.Warm springs Rd. Lascygasse 14-16, A-1170 WIEN Early 1900s equipment & boxed sets Suite 112 Las Vegas. NV 89119 USA [email protected] table tennis Fax: +1-702-453-8472 philately: Stamps, sheets, FDC, postmarks Diane & Harvey Webb England [email protected] Erik Kenneth Muhr England UK Lutz Schoenfeld Germany +44 (0)1424 216342 2 Highgate Hill, Hawkhurst KENT TN18 4LB selling Table Tennis items on ebay: pongiste English related photographs, programmes, 01580 752676 History of Table Tennis e-mail: [email protected] books, post cards. General - pin badges [email protected] Luigi Simeoni [email protected] Yao Zhenxu Rudolf Mueller Germany Via Ponte S.Pancrazio 2/a 37133 Verona Room 401 Unit 1 Building 2 Bahnhofstr. 58 D-57250 Netphen 02738- Italy 0039 045 532033 TT Balls, catalog No. 4 Dongsikuaiyu South Street 1461 Stamps, cancels, letter, error, red Chongwen District, Beijing 100061, China meters [email protected] Harry Sintemaartensdijk Netherlands +86-13911990508 [email protected] Julianastraat 8,2651 DP Berkel en Rodenrijs TT stamps, FDC, postcards, coins, pins, Jan Nusteleyn Netherlands 0031 105114621 [email protected] phonecards, postal material, tickets etc Weserstraat 21, 9406 VP Assen 0592- Tischtennis Aufklebers/stickers 356050 e-mail: [email protected] Jos Zinkstok Netherlands Stamps, mint perforated FDCs red meters, Tang Gan Xian P.R.China Neckarstraat 8 NL9406 VN ASSEN cancels WC, EC, EC-Youth, Top-12 [email protected] +31 592 350486 Fax: 0031 592 355861 Qin Hu 4-35-104, ChangShu 215500 [email protected] www.poveia.nl Robert Op de Beeck In Memoriam +86-512-52722359 TT stamps, FDC, pins TT cancellations, stamps, vignettes, on real postmarks, postcards, phonecards,tickets, used, letters/covers/cards, FDC Florian Pagel Germany [email protected] Older Banda, Stiga, Joola, Butterfly, Imperial Marc Templereau France [email protected] Anton Zwiebel In Memoriam 16 Hameau des cerisiers 38150 Roussillon Park Jeong Kye [email protected] Secretary, AFCTT (French TT Collectors PO Box 555 Busan 48931 KOREA South Assoc) https://afctt.wordpress.com Postmarks, stamps, postcards Collections : stamps, FDC, players postcards, autographs, programs Gregory Pinkhusovich Please update your e-mail address if Apt.10, h.2 Sheshet Ha-Yamim Str Michael Thomson changed Ariel 40700 ISRAEL +972-54-3394739 1 Kinnoull Terrace, PERTH [email protected] PH2 7DJ SCOTLAND UK 01738 622052 TTpins, badges, medals, coins [email protected] Jaques and history of Table Tennis 69 Congratulations to the new World Champions!
Another clean sweep for China! Ma Long Liu Shiwen Wang Chuqin, Ma Long wins his 3�� consecutive Men’s Singles title. Women’s Singles Men’s Doubles
Sun Yingsha, Wang Manchu Liu Shiwen, Xu Xin Women’s Doubles Mixed Doubles
Record setting media statistics! With thanks to ITTF Marketing Director Matt Pound
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