Latest / The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast / I AM JOINED IN THE STUDIO BY FELLOW RADIO PRESENTER STEVE B AS WE TALK ABOUT TABLE TENNIS.

Transcript

I AM JOINED IN THE STUDIO BY FELLOW RADIO PRESENTER STEVE B AS WE TALK ABOUT TABLE TENNIS. · The Folkestone & Hythe Sports Podcast

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: So I'm joined in the studio today by Steve B.
• 0:02
  Speaker 2: Hello, Steve.
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: How are you? Morning.
• 0:03
  Speaker 2: I'm fine. Thank you.
• 0:04
  Speaker 1: Yeah. Good. Good.
• 0:06
  Speaker 2: Uh, right.
• 0:07
  Speaker 1: So we're going to talk table tennis. And so let's
• 0:09
  Speaker 1: go back to the days. I mean, did you play
• 0:12
  Speaker 1: table tennis as a youngster or did you come into
• 0:14
  Speaker 1: it late in life?
• 0:15
  Speaker 2: I came into it late in life, but most people
• 0:17
  Speaker 2: have played table tennis at some point of certainly older
• 0:20
  Speaker 2: people because of youth clubs and schools and companies tended
• 0:24
  Speaker 2: to have tables in certainly around folks than most of
• 0:26
  Speaker 2: the big companies at a table. Saga had one and, um,
• 0:30
  Speaker 2: The Stargram, the old insurance company, had one on the
• 0:33
  Speaker 2: top floor. And hospitals. And really, a lot of companies.
• 0:38
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I think... I mean, going back to the days,
• 0:41
  Speaker 1: and we're of about the same ilk, same era, if
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: you went down the youth club, you just couldn't wait
• 0:46
  Speaker 1: to get on the tennis table, could you? And there
• 0:49
  Speaker 1: wasn't so much sport around, and so it was the
• 0:51
  Speaker 1: one thing that you could kind of let a little
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: bit of steam off. So that's interesting you're saying about companies.
• 0:57
  Speaker 2: So.
• 0:59
  Speaker 1: So your progression, how did you get into table tennis locally?
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: Did you think, oh, I need to play, I want
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: to join a club or I'm playing it at work
• 1:08
  Speaker 1: and I need to take it, you know, a bit
• 1:09
  Speaker 1: more regular?
• 1:11
  Speaker 2: No, none of that really. I mean, I was, I
• 1:13
  Speaker 2: played local cricket, of course, for a long time. And
• 1:17
  Speaker 2: one of the guys who... was running the cricket team, said,
• 1:21
  Speaker 2: it's a shame we don't see ourselves in the winter
• 1:25
  Speaker 2: because we only play cricket in the summer. So why
• 1:29
  Speaker 2: don't we start doing something in the winter where we'll
• 1:30
  Speaker 2: still get together? And he suggested table tennis. He had
• 1:33
  Speaker 2: played for table tennis in a company called Richmond Dairies,
• 1:37
  Speaker 2: which I've never heard of.
• 1:38
  Speaker 1: Oh, Richmond Dairies. I'll tell you what, Richmond Dairies, they
• 1:41
  Speaker 1: were down in Cheriton. I'm sure they were. And this
• 1:44
  Speaker 1: is a lovely little story to digress in a little bit.
• 1:46
  Speaker 1: But they were down there at the other end of Cheriton.
• 1:49
  Speaker 1: And the place has been completely knocked down now, and
• 1:51
  Speaker 1: they've built flats there, and the name of the road,
• 1:54
  Speaker 1: believe it or not, is called Milky Way.
• 1:57
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, I think I've seen it.
• 2:00
  Speaker 1: That's where it is. I'm sure that's where the old
• 2:02
  Speaker 1: Richmond dairies used to be. Anyway, so, sorry.
• 2:04
  Speaker 2: So it all started for me when he said, well,
• 2:07
  Speaker 2: let's make a table tennis team. And I'd never played
• 2:11
  Speaker 2: table tennis other than, you know, holiday or something. The
• 2:15
  Speaker 2: team started... In the bottom division of the local league,
• 2:18
  Speaker 2: which was Division 5 at that stage. And to my astonishment,
• 2:24
  Speaker 2: we won promotion to Division 4. And I thought, I
• 2:27
  Speaker 2: won't be able to play at that level. It's much
• 2:28
  Speaker 2: too hard, really. But I just got better and better
• 2:31
  Speaker 2: and better. And for many years now, I've played in
• 2:34
  Speaker 2: the Premier Division, the top division.
• 2:36
  Speaker 1: Oh, wow.
• 2:36
  Speaker 2: Although I'm getting a bit slower now. But we are
• 2:41
  Speaker 2: fortunate with our team.
• 2:41
  Speaker 1: I can't believe that for one minute.
• 2:43
  Speaker 2: Our current team plays out of Saltwood. That's our home base.
• 2:47
  Speaker 2: There's a lot of tables. You can get three tables
• 2:49
  Speaker 2: in Saltwood Hall. And we normally have two. We've got
• 2:52
  Speaker 2: five or six teams in our club. And we're fortunate
• 2:56
  Speaker 2: enough to have the best local player playing in my team.
• 2:59
  Speaker 2: So with him and my son, if he comes down
• 3:01
  Speaker 2: from London, we're pretty good. So we hang on in there. Okay.
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: Well, we're just going to take a little break now
• 3:07
  Speaker 1: because I've got some friends that are outside and I
• 3:09
  Speaker 1: just want to let them in. But I've got this
• 3:11
  Speaker 1: song in the playlist lined up. Now, I was trying
• 3:13
  Speaker 1: to find a song about table tennis in the playlist
• 3:16
  Speaker 1: and there isn't one.
• 3:17
  Speaker 2: I'm not surprised.
• 3:19
  Speaker 1: But I've come up with this. You're going to love this.
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: This is Enrico Iglesias and it's cool. The actual song
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: is called Do You Know? But in brackets here, we've
• 3:27
  Speaker 1: got the ping pong song.
• 3:28
  Speaker 2: Oh, I see. Okay.
• 3:35
  Speaker 1: Do you know, do you know? Do you know what
• 3:43
  Speaker 1: it feels like loving someone that's in a rush to
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: throw you away? Do you know what it feels.
• 3:52
  Speaker 2: Like to be the last one you know?
• 3:57
  Speaker 1: Do you know what it feels like to be the
• 4:00
  Speaker 1: last one you know? There we go, that's the ping
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: pong song. And we've got Steve B here with me.
• 4:24
  Speaker 1: And what do you think of that then, ping pong?
• 4:26
  Speaker 1: They don't like it, do they?
• 4:27
  Speaker 2: Well, in reality, it's a different game. It's with different rules.
• 4:32
  Speaker 2: But it's been called ping pong because of the noise
• 4:35
  Speaker 2: the ball makes on the table.
• 4:36
  Speaker 1: Right.
• 4:37
  Speaker 2: Proper table tennis players like me don't like the.
• 4:39
  Speaker 1: Word ping pong. Right, Steve, let's talk about the actual
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: Folkestone League. Now, you're a member of the league. You
• 4:47
  Speaker 1: play for a team. So tell us about the structure,
• 4:50
  Speaker 1: how often you play. I mean, it's not the sort
• 4:52
  Speaker 1: of thing you can just play overnight in as much
• 4:54
  Speaker 1: that you've got to have the space and the facilities available.
• 4:57
  Speaker 1: to put up a two or three table tennis table,
• 4:59
  Speaker 1: so gone far away.
• 5:00
  Speaker 2: Well, the structure of the league is, it was much
• 5:03
  Speaker 2: bigger back in the 80s, I think. We had, I think,
• 5:07
  Speaker 2: nine divisions with about probably eight or nine teams in
• 5:11
  Speaker 2: each division, so 80 teams back in Folkestone. We've now
• 5:14
  Speaker 2: got 25 teams in three divisions. Right. So that's two
• 5:18
  Speaker 2: divisions of eight and a nine. And you play the
• 5:22
  Speaker 2: other teams three times during the season.
• 5:24
  Speaker 1: And who do you actually play for?
• 5:25
  Speaker 2: I play for Saltwood.
• 5:26
  Speaker 1: Oh, yeah, you said you play for Saltwood. So I
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: know I can picture the village hall up in Saltwood. So,
• 5:31
  Speaker 1: I mean, what do you do? You keep the tables
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: tucked around the back?
• 5:34
  Speaker 2: Tables are in the hall. They're stored. They're stored around
• 5:37
  Speaker 2: the back, not outside. Yeah, yeah. And then we just
• 5:40
  Speaker 2: get them out when we play and put them away
• 5:41
  Speaker 2: at the end of the evening. Yeah.
• 5:43
  Speaker 1: And your opponents, when you play an away game, tell
• 5:46
  Speaker 1: us where you go. Post link.
• 5:49
  Speaker 2: Kirsten Village Hall has a couple of teams play out
• 5:52
  Speaker 2: of there. We have one team that plays at the
• 5:55
  Speaker 2: Cricketers in Dover. Although they should be playing in the
• 5:58
  Speaker 2: Dover League, but they like to play in Folkestone because
• 6:01
  Speaker 2: they always did. We have one that plays down in
• 6:03
  Speaker 2: Dover Road Social Club.
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: Ah, yeah, of course, yeah.
• 6:06
  Speaker 2: One there. I'm trying to think where else we go. Well,
• 6:09
  Speaker 2: there is a funny story about the team that plays
• 6:11
  Speaker 2: in the Cricketers. I'll just mention that.
• 6:12
  Speaker 1: So the Cricketers, is that the pub next to the Crabble?
• 6:15
  Speaker 2: It's in River, yeah.
• 6:16
  Speaker 1: Yeah, that's right, yeah.
• 6:18
  Speaker 2: And they play on, I think it's a Thursday evening.
• 6:21
  Speaker 2: That's their table tennis night. And they're frightened to tell
• 6:24
  Speaker 2: their wives when they don't have a match. Oh, yeah.
• 6:27
  Speaker 2: So they tell their wives they've got a match every Thursday.
• 6:29
  Speaker 2: They put their tracksuits on and go down the pub. Oh, right.
• 6:32
  Speaker 2: And then come back later. Yeah. Which is most odd.
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: It's the sort of game I'd love to play. I've
• 6:37
  Speaker 1: got to sign up for them, yeah.
• 6:38
  Speaker 2: Saltwood's got a number of teams. We've probably got the
• 6:41
  Speaker 2: most teams, but we've got some teams in Postling. We've
• 6:44
  Speaker 2: got that team in River. I'm trying to think where
• 6:48
  Speaker 2: else we go. Great Stone. There's a couple of teams
• 6:51
  Speaker 2: that play down at Great Stone on the marsh.
• 6:53
  Speaker 1: So where do they play in Great Stone?
• 6:54
  Speaker 2: They play in one of the village halls. I don't
• 6:56
  Speaker 2: know because I've never played them because they don't play
• 6:58
  Speaker 2: in the division I play in.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: And, I mean, the structure of the game within the league, Obviously,
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: it's singles. Do you get doubles mixed?
• 7:07
  Speaker 2: Yeah, you get doubles. You have to play nine games
• 7:09
  Speaker 2: of singles, which is each of your three playing the
• 7:13
  Speaker 2: other three. That's the nine. And you play a doubles
• 7:16
  Speaker 2: game at the end. So of the three players in
• 7:19
  Speaker 2: each team, two of them play doubles.
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: So that's what happens on a match night, is it?
• 7:23
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 7:23
  Speaker 1: So that's quite a long evening, then, it can be,
• 7:26
  Speaker 1: if there's a few rallies.
• 7:27
  Speaker 2: Well, it doesn't take... It normally starts half past seven
• 7:30
  Speaker 2: and finishes half past ten. Yeah. Our team tries to finish...
• 7:34
  Speaker 2: I tend because the pub's over the road. So they
• 7:38
  Speaker 2: wait for us. They wait for us to go in there.
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: Well, no, it would very well because of the village hall.
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: I compare the Boxing Day Fun Run up there.
• 7:46
  Speaker 2: Oh, you're right.
• 7:47
  Speaker 1: And the place is absolutely rammed. We have 1,000 runners
• 7:50
  Speaker 1: up there.
• 7:50
  Speaker 2: Wow.
• 7:52
  Speaker 1: So if someone is trying to get into a team,
• 7:57
  Speaker 1: if you like, what advice would you give them? You know, connections.
• 8:02
  Speaker 1: Can they come along on it? I don't suppose you
• 8:04
  Speaker 1: have a training night, but.
• 8:06
  Speaker 2: No, we don't have a training night, but in the
• 8:08
  Speaker 2: summer we don't have any league matches, so we do
• 8:10
  Speaker 2: have a practice night on Wednesday usually. And funnily enough,
• 8:13
  Speaker 2: somebody's just written to me asking whether they're thinking of
• 8:17
  Speaker 2: playing table tennis, and I've told them to come down
• 8:18
  Speaker 2: on Wednesday.
• 8:19
  Speaker 1: Oh, I see.
• 8:20
  Speaker 2: And have a look. Yeah, yeah. And see what they're like.
• 8:22
  Speaker 2: Because people say, oh, I used to play, haven't played
• 8:25
  Speaker 2: for 30 years.
• 8:25
  Speaker 1: Yeah, yeah, I bet.
• 8:26
  Speaker 2: And it's very hard until you see them play to
• 8:28
  Speaker 2: see what standard they'll be, to see if they'll fit
• 8:30
  Speaker 2: in a team.
• 8:31
  Speaker 1: Yeah. And what about, I mean... You say that most
• 8:35
  Speaker 1: of the players, if you like, are probably senior that
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: have come back to it, used to play in their
• 8:38
  Speaker 1: youth years ago. But are there any juniors these days?
• 8:42
  Speaker 2: Yeah, there are. And people's kids have come into it.
• 8:47
  Speaker 2: Like my son, who's a very good player now, who
• 8:49
  Speaker 2: lives in London, but he started because I was playing.
• 8:52
  Speaker 2: When he became 13, he beat me.
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: So you had to up your game a bit.
• 8:57
  Speaker 2: Didn't you? I couldn't. I can't get near him now.
• 8:59
  Speaker 2: I wouldn't get a point off him.
• 9:01
  Speaker 1: But we were talking off air just now, and I've
• 9:05
  Speaker 1: been watching some of the Paralympic table tennis, and I
• 9:10
  Speaker 1: was absolutely amazed. I must admit, I haven't covered table
• 9:13
  Speaker 1: tennis before, so I haven't taken it to that next level.
• 9:17
  Speaker 1: But these guys in the Olympics, there's people with one
• 9:21
  Speaker 1: arm playing against people with, One leg and on the
• 9:24
  Speaker 1: crutch as well, getting round.
• 9:25
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 9:26
  Speaker 1: And the quality is so good, isn't it?
• 9:28
  Speaker 2: One of the local league players has got one arm effectively.
• 9:31
  Speaker 2: He's got a very bad second arm and he uses
• 9:33
  Speaker 2: the arm he's got to throw the ball up and
• 9:36
  Speaker 2: then hit it.
• 9:37
  Speaker 1: I see, because normally you would throw the ball up
• 9:39
  Speaker 1: with one and hit it with the other one. Yeah, right. Oh, yeah,
• 9:42
  Speaker 1: but this was amazing, yeah. And we were saying that
• 9:46
  Speaker 1: there was one guy, I don't know what match it was,
• 9:48
  Speaker 1: but he won his game and he jumped up on
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: the table. and was giving it large like this, and
• 9:54
  Speaker 1: he didn't care. And the referee, or the umpire, or
• 9:58
  Speaker 1: whatever you call him, came up and gave him a
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: yellow card. Yeah. So you get a yellow.
• 10:02
  Speaker 2: Card in table tennis. A red card.
• 10:04
  Speaker 1: A red card.
• 10:05
  Speaker 2: Bad behaviour. Yeah. You know, shouting. I mean, I had
• 10:10
  Speaker 2: to give somebody a yellow card for shouting and stamping
• 10:13
  Speaker 2: as he was serving because he was putting off the
• 10:15
  Speaker 2: opponent and he was moving the table with the force
• 10:17
  Speaker 2: of his stamp. He said, stop doing that.
• 10:20
  Speaker 1: Oh, dear.
• 10:21
  Speaker 2: Because they've seen somebody on television do that. Oh, okay.
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: So that's the point. We're trying to get all these
• 10:27
  Speaker 1: questions in. We're running out of time. So you said
• 10:30
  Speaker 1: you was referee and you've got a qualified referee?
• 10:33
  Speaker 2: County umpire, yeah. Umpire.
• 10:34
  Speaker 1: They call them umpires. So do you just have one
• 10:37
  Speaker 1: umpire per game? Yes. Yeah.
• 10:39
  Speaker 2: I mean, at the top level, they have a scorer
• 10:43
  Speaker 2: doing the score, but in a normal game, a local game,
• 10:46
  Speaker 2: the umpire calls out the score or has a little
• 10:50
  Speaker 2: little display and just turns the point.
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: Yeah yeah yeah but i can imagine that really it's
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: quite a gentle gentleman's um behavior sport isn't it they
• 11:00
  Speaker 1: kind of they most of them behave.
• 11:02
  Speaker 2: Themselves yes most of them but not all of them
• 11:04
  Speaker 2: yeah you do get the odd character who who gets
• 11:07
  Speaker 2: a bit iffy yeah claims the ball hit the edge
• 11:10
  Speaker 2: when it didn't right yeah.
• 11:12
  Speaker 1: I suppose it's It's going to happen in all sports, really,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: isn't it? Yeah, right.
• 11:16
  Speaker 2: Normally, if you hit the edge with a shot and
• 11:18
  Speaker 2: the opponent, because you bounce off in a funny direction,
• 11:21
  Speaker 2: you say, oh, sorry. You're not actually sorry because you
• 11:24
  Speaker 2: won the point, but it's a convention that you say sorry. Yeah, yeah.
• 11:27
  Speaker 2: But there are characters, when it goes near the edge,
• 11:30
  Speaker 2: who say, oh, sorry, trying to indicate that it hit
• 11:33
  Speaker 2: the edge when it didn't.
• 11:35
  Speaker 1: A bit of mind games.
• 11:36
  Speaker 2: Yeah, yeah. But it's general. Most people are very friendly.
• 11:39
  Speaker 1: Yeah, I can imagine, yeah. So, you were saying about
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: the season. Do they have a season?
• 11:45
  Speaker 2: Yes, a league season, which is about to start, actually.
• 11:48
  Speaker 2: It starts at the 21st of September. It goes through
• 11:51
  Speaker 2: until about March, April. And then there's a tournament usually
• 11:55
  Speaker 2: at the end of the season or close to the
• 11:57
  Speaker 2: end of the season. A couple of other tournaments during
• 12:00
  Speaker 2: the season. And veterans tournament in January, usually where you've
• 12:04
  Speaker 2: got to be over 40 to play in that.
• 12:06
  Speaker 1: Over 40, yeah.
• 12:07
  Speaker 2: In the county scene, they have an over 80s. Over 70s,
• 12:13
  Speaker 2: over 75, over 60s. They have a lot of age
• 12:16
  Speaker 2: competitions in the county championships.
• 12:18
  Speaker 1: Right. Well, it's great that you can still compete in
• 12:21
  Speaker 1: a sport at that age. Certainly one gentleman springs to
• 12:25
  Speaker 1: mind locally, Brian Murrell. He's still playing hockey for England
• 12:29
  Speaker 1: over 80s.
• 12:30
  Speaker 2: Yeah.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: And he plays down at the local hockey team. And
• 12:35
  Speaker 1: I've never got him in here. I've been desperate to
• 12:37
  Speaker 1: get him in here, but he won't come in here.
• 12:38
  Speaker 1: But he was telling me up at the Three Hills,
• 12:41
  Speaker 1: he said, oh, he said, I'm dreading this week. We've
• 12:43
  Speaker 1: got to play a load of youngsters. I said, who
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: have you got to play then? He said, we've got
• 12:46
  Speaker 1: to play the Welsh over 70s, he said.
• 12:51
  Speaker 2: Right.
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: So last little thing, is there what I would call
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: a pathway? If you get a youngster coming along and
• 12:56
  Speaker 1: you think, oh, my word, he's really, really good and
• 12:59
  Speaker 1: he proves himself locally, is there another level we can
• 13:02
  Speaker 1: jump to?
• 13:03
  Speaker 2: Oh, yes, definitely. He can play for Kent if he's
• 13:05
  Speaker 2: good enough. And Kent play county championships against the other local...
• 13:09
  Speaker 2: They don't go as far as Yorkshire or anywhere, but
• 13:11
  Speaker 2: they go, you know, Middlesex, Essex, Sussex, Surrey. And you
• 13:15
  Speaker 2: can play in the county championships. Then you get seen
• 13:17
  Speaker 2: if you're good enough. And then you get picked for,
• 13:20
  Speaker 2: you know, higher England-type level. Not that I know much
• 13:24
  Speaker 2: about it, having never been anywhere near that level. But
• 13:26
  Speaker 2: I have played a couple of games for Kent. Yeah.
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: Have you? Yeah. Oh, that's good. Yeah.
• 13:31
  Speaker 2: In fact, I boast that... And I boast on air
• 13:33
  Speaker 2: now that I've played two sports for Kent in my.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: Have you?
• 13:36
  Speaker 2: Cricket? Badminton.
• 13:38
  Speaker 1: Badminton? Oh, another racket sport.
• 13:40
  Speaker 2: I used to play a lot of badminton when I
• 13:42
  Speaker 2: was young enough to move.
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: Well, Steve, we have run out of time there and
• 13:49
  Speaker 1: the clock is ticking. It's running away with us. But
• 13:52
  Speaker 1: I just want to thank you for coming in. And
• 13:54
  Speaker 1: I think we're going to have to get you back
• 13:55
  Speaker 1: in again in a few weeks' time, perhaps when the
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: season starts, because there's so much that we haven't spoke
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: about today. And I just want to say that that's
• 14:04
  Speaker 1: it from me and Steve. I'll be back on Thursday
• 14:06
  Speaker 1: when I'll be joined by Dave Walbrook, who'll be telling
• 14:08
  Speaker 1: me all about his forthcoming 100-kilometre walk along the Thames Towpath,
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: raising money for South Kent Mine. So thanks for listening, everybody,
• 14:18
  Speaker 1: and have a great weekend. Steve, get out and enjoy
• 14:20
  Speaker 1: that sunshine.
• 14:21
  Speaker 2: I'll be back here tomorrow.
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: Oh, you will be, yeah. You never stop.
• 14:24
  Speaker 2: Rewind on Monday morning.
• 14:26
  Speaker 1: Excellent.