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The Royal Albert Hall in London should
once again prove to be a fantastic venue |
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Table tennis returns to the iconic Royal Albert Hall for the first time in over three decades for the most exciting new event of modern times. The Dunlop Table Tennis Masters will be contested by the cream of the world’s top players including Timo Boll, a top Chinese player, Kalinikos Kreanga, Paul Drinkhall and others depending on form over the next few months. The return of table tennis to the majestic surroundings of the Royal Albert Hall will create excitement across Planet Table Tennis. The prestigious London venue, opposite Hyde Park’s Albert Memorial and just a stone’s throw from Harrods, is generally regarded as the world’s most atmospheric indoor arena and has tremendous historic significance for table tennis as the venue that played host to major events in the heyday of Richard Bergmann and Johnny Leach.
The auditorium is quite unlike any other in the world and those who have been for the initial
site-visits have been abuzz with excitement. The seats are “on the round”, completely encircling the playing area and creating a gladiatorial atmosphere with a tremendous sense of intimacy. The Dunlop Masters will be broadcast on Sky Sports in the UK and will be beamed to dozens of nations around the world.
The Dunlop Masters is a six-man competition for huge prize money encompassing two quarter-finals, two semi-finals and a final. The event will begin at 7pm and will conclude around 10.30pm. But don’t just expect to see world-class table tennis: the organisers are planning features and special guests that, we are told, will take the breath away. Specially installed big screens, featuring action replays and interviews with the players as they happen on court, will add to the sense of occasion.
For the hard-core table tennis aficionado, The Dunlop Masters will be the event that provides the ultimate test of form in the months leading into the Olympic Games in Beijing in the summer of 2008. It will be fascinating to see how the world’s leading players cope with the unique atmosphere of the Royal Albert Hall and the pressure of a live audience expected to exceed 5,000 spectators. It will also be intriguing to see how Drinkhall, a youngster expected to challenge for gold in 2012, fares against the world’s best.
All profits from the Table Tennis Masters will be donated to TTK, the table tennis initiative of the
Greenhouse Schools charity. Alex Murdoch, Chairman of the ETTA, said: “We are delighted that the legacy of The Dunlop Masters will be to provide new funds for the development of table tennis amongst young people. We look forward to working closely with Greenhouse to make this the most spectacular event of recent times.”
The Royal Albert Hall is in the heart of central London and offers excellent transport links by road, rail, underground and bus. |
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A Fabulous Cause
All proceeds from the Table Tennis Masters will be donated to TTK, the table tennis initiative of
Greenhouse Schools, which provides coaching, mentoring and holiday programmes to young
people from some of the nation’s most socially deprived areas.
TTK operates table tennis programmes in 12 inner city schools in London and two in Cardiff.
The goal of the project is not only to encourage mass participation but also to enable the very
committed young people to train as much as 10-15 hours per week. We currently work with
thousands of young people per week.
Each school has a full-time coach who works both in term time and in the holidays. They have
been selected to have sufficient patience to deal with beginners, while at the same time the
technical expertise to progress the better players.
The coaches include many ex-British internationals with the result that the progress being made by the players has been quite extraordinary.
The programmes have a positive impact on attendance and behaviour, and also provide the opportunity to guide/mentor the young people taking part. |
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“Arena that displays the special brilliance of our sport”
Tennis at the Royal Albert Hall is a regular feature of that sport’s calendar. The senior players led by the ubiquitous John McEnroe thrill large crowds year after year. I wonder how many of those players and spectators realise that it was table tennis that led the way in introducing sport to this great arena.
The earliest record I can find of table tennis being played at the Royal Albert Hall was in 1939 when the early rounds of the English Open Championships were played there, with the finals at Wembley. Richard Bergmann, who at that time was representing Austria, won the Men‘s Singles while England‘s Jean Nicholl won the Women’s event. The man they called the “Clown Prince” of table tennis, Laszlo Bellak, partnering fellow Hungarian Victor Barna, won the Men’s Doubles. Some 21 years later the championships returned but in the meantime an unusual sponsor came forward with a series of tournaments with the finals at the Royal Albert Hall.
The Daily Mirror was associated with our sport from the very early years. In fact they put up a car as a prize for one of their tournaments way back in 1922. The car was a Calthorpe incidentally. In 1950 and from 1953 to 1957 they organised tournaments and were able to attract very large entries from all over England. The 1950 Men’s Singles was won by Len Adams who beat Peter Skerratt, and none other than Diane Rowe won the Women’s Singles as well as the Junior Singles.
Some 6,000 spectators gathered at the Royal Albert Hall for the Mirror Finals in 1953. Over 12,000 players had competed over many months for the chance of a finals night appearance. Billy England took the men’s event and Ann Haydon, who later achieved success at Wimbledon, the women’s event. The finals were completely overshadowed by a stupendous international invitation event. Barna played Bergmann in a quite unforgettable semi-final. I quote “It was magnificent cut and thrust stuff - all too rarely seen nowadays. Here was table tennis as it should be played. Here was grace, cunning, art, control, fighting spirit and attacking skill, pitted against defensive genius. It truly stirred the blood.” In the other semi-final Johnny Leach scraped home against Aubrey Simons and then got a real thrashing in the final from Richard Bergmann. Fast forward to 1960 and the return of the English Open Finals, and some sparkling English successes. Ian Harrison won the Men’s, Leach and Micky Thornhill took the Doubles. Cathy Best and Di Rowe won the Women’s Doubles, and Harrison and Rowe won the Mixed. In 1962 the English Open Championships went to the Corn Exchange in Brighton. Although Brighton attracted some of the world’s best performers and visits there were always memorable, there is always a special place in my memory for my visit to the Royal Albert Hall. It is an arena ideally suited for the world’s best players to display our sport in all its special brilliance.
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Event Information and Ticket Prices
Adult Child
Stalls and Stage £15.00 £7.50
2nd Tier and Choir £10.00 £5.00
Circle £7.00 £3.50
Circle (restricted view) £5.00 £2.50 |
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For more information on the Dunlop Table Tennis Masters please go to:
www.tabletennismasters.org
Or you can contact Gemma Barnes on:
T: 020 7603 5111 or
E: info@tabletennismasters.org
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