TABLE TENNIS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 142, 12 March 1938, Page 10 (Supplement)

TABLE TENNIS

Its Remarkable Growth HUNGARIAN SUPREMACY Badminton has progressed to a remarkable degree in recent years in .Britain, but the only word that describes the great strides that table tennis has made is "phenomenal.” The two sports are fighting bard for supremacy, but, looking into the future, there appears to be only one winner, and that is table tennis. Badminton, a fine sport, suffers from lack of accommodation. It is seldom that a game is played under ideal conditions. Lights have to be just right an'd a high roof and a good run back are essential. These are not easily found. Table tennis can be played illmost anywhere, provided there is sufficient space and the lighting Is halfdecent. Furthermore, the outlay for equipment is nominal. For a while this new-old game suffered from its childhood tradition of "ping pong.” People automatically associated the two, but anyone who has witnessed a first-class game of table tennis will readily agree that there is little in common between the presentday game and the gentle art that was practised in the home after tea things were cleared away.

The growth of table tennis in recent years has been one of the most remarkable things in the annals of sport. Its devotees all over the world run into hundreds of thousands. Every big city in Europe and America has its clubs and leagues, and in this Britain is no exception. Within the last two years Scotland has also fallen into line. There are several .leagues in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Stirling, Dundee and Aberdeen. Inter-city matches are arranged, and at the beginning of this season a national association, called the Scottish Table Tenuis Union, was formed. Table tennis demands a very high standard. It is a game only for the very fit, for it is only when one is thoroughly tuned up that one can hope to attain the eagle eye and agile footwork which are the two main attributes in the game. In. Scotland there are about twenty leagues at the moment, compared with nearly 150 in England. In Birmingham alone there are 28 leagues. To say that table tennis has become the game of the whole world is no exaggeration. In 1936 at Baden, in Austria, where the world championships were held, no fewer than 37 nations were represented. And the game is still growing. Many other countries are in much the same stage of development as Scotland. Particularly is this so in the British Empire, where Canada, Australia and South Africa are taking it up. The game is also becoming a big favourite with the Scandinavian countries. Soon these countries will be challenging the world’s The modern game of table tennis originated in Hungary round labout 1924, and players in that country have dominated international championships for many years, but gradually their supremacy is going. The first signs of this occurred in 1927, when Fred Perry, Britain’s No. 1 tennis player, won the world title. The Hungarians still have their stars, however, including Viktor Barna, five times world champion; Czabados and Beliak, but Czechoslovakia, France and England have been coming more into the picture, and in the last two years America has come to the front with a rush. The present woman champion is Miss Kuth Aarons, U.S.A., although the title was declared vacant at Baden after her final with an Austrian girl was stopped before the finish because the match had deteriorated into a defensive battle, which might have lasted for hours. That is the only weakness in table tennis so far. Among the star players there is a tendency to play safe, with the result that there are some marathon rallies or “rests,”as they are termed. On one occasion in a national championship two players took two hours to score a point. The official gesture in stopping the women’s final was an effort to combat this safety play. Anyway, Miss Aarons has not been defeated for her title, an'd it is unlikely that she will be dethroned for some time, for in truth she-is the Helen Wills-Moody of table tennis. An Austrian, Bergman, won the world’s singles title at Baden, but it is generally conceded that Barna is still the world’s greatest player. It was unfortunate that he was stale when the championships came round. This is not surprising, for there is no player in the world who has done more for table tenuis than the Hungarian. He has toured in a dozen countries, giving exhibitions, and he has been helped materially by the fact that the table tennis authorities have approached the amateur question sanely, with the result that there is little humbug about players being paid for their services. Barna naturally has been, the highest paid player, and his tours have netted him a fortune. In Paris recently he received £5 a game for exhibitions, and he usually receives about £2 a day when he tours in other countries. On these occasions he takes a full Hungarian team with him.