Type the magic words ‘table tennis’ into the Google search engine and it immediately threatens 51,900,000 results. Quite impressive, in a non-impressive sort of way, though I expect if you typed in ‘Jordan’ you would get quite a few more. (And most of them wouldn’t be about motor racing or breakfast cereals either.)

So where to start? The undisputed king of table tennis on the web, at least in the English speaking world, has to be Larry Hodges, editor of the American equivalent of Table Tennis News and no mean player himself, as his website does not hesitate to tell you. Larry seems to have about 300 jobs at any one time, most of them related to table tennis, so how he has found the time to create www.larrytt.com, a veritable cornucopia of TT treasures, is anyone’s guess. Larry’s world encompasses many delights, but the pick of the bunch has to be his collection of pictures of celebrities playing table tennis. Chairman Mao (using the Western grip!); Sean Connery playing topless (Pictured above); Michael Howard MP...they’re all here. One particularly pleasing photo features tennis god Roger Federer having a go at the miniature game: you can just tell from the stance and the grip that he shouldn’t give up the day job. It’s just nice to know he’s not brilliant at everything.

The ‘Fun and Games’ section of www.larrytt.com is also worth a look, featuring as it does a number of video and animation curiosities, including a ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’ (or is it the other way round?) style TT game between two excitable Japanese martial arts types and a sequence in which American hardbat guru Marty Reisman whacks several balls at cigarettes stood on their ends on the table. (I’m not sure whether this is a piece of anti-smoking propaganda or just Marty showing off.)

The hardbat tendency is well served by the web, with a number of sites, including ‘Classic Hardbat TT’, sounding off how about how it was better in the old days before the evil sponge arrived, when everyone played in long trousers and rallies lasted longer than the omnibus edition of EastEnders.

Sayeth Mr Classic Hardbat TT: “A game such as classic hardbat TT, that could draw in excess of 10,000 to packed venues all around the world, should never have been allowed to die.” Perhaps it’s time somebody set up www.gluedup.com to make the case for the defence.

Of course, the bedrock of table tennis on the web is the club site. These pop up all over the world, from Alaska to Zimbabwe, and range from endearingly amateurish create-your-ownwebsite- in-a-day-type efforts to sophisticated affairs with video clips and

sleek logos. Most of them, not surprisingly, are full of results, match reports and photos of people with bad hair accepting ugly trophies, but one or two merit a closer look, with some really good writing. One such is the Halifax & District TTA site www.stanform.btinternet.co.uk which features a moving profile of Yorkshire looping legend Kevin Beadsley, telling how ‘Beado’ never quite lived up to his great potential, despite being 19-16 up against Des Douglas in the 1983 Cleveland Open and letting it slip  (One of my abiding memories of Kevin was how for a time he modelled his whole demeanour on that of ‘The Fonz’ from Happy Days - if it wasn’t for the broad Halifax accent it might have worked.)

Another club site worth a look is Ormesby’s www.ormesbytabletennisclub.org.uk , not least for the ancient photo of a slimline Alan Ransome! Alan is seen holding aloft the European Club Cup in 1972, with a youthful Nicky Jarvis, a hairy Trevor Taylor and an understandably sweaty Denis Neale by his side. What a team - and what an achievement. But enough of all our yesterdays. One thing the web is good for is bringing you bang up to date on some of the great players from the past. Type in ‘Chester Barnes’ and you will get quotes from Chester in his role as valued assistant to Martin Pipes, one of the country’s top racehorse trainers. Do the same with ‘Skylet Andrew’ and you will discover how he won ‘Entrepreneur of the Year’ at the Black Enterprise Awards for his work as an agent to top footballer’s such as Sol Campbell.

Of course, with the web, it doesn’t take long before you find yourself deep in the Twilight Zone. One site I encountered on my travels introduced ‘The Art of Pingpongcountry’ www.pingpongcountry.de. In this highbrow German video installation, people were

invited to run around a table tennis table while country music was played. What is it they say about the German sense of humour? Sounds like the sort of thing I used to have to do on training camps when Don Parker was in charge, although with The Don it was always bloody ‘Rumours’ by Fleetwood Mac that was in the ghetto blaster. Finally, and on a more worrying note, I also chanced upon an invitation to play table tennis nude at the Broadlands Sun Association in Norfolk, complete with pictures. Now please - no jokes about pimples or high toss serves. 

Article by Paul Rainford