BAZ'S
BITS
BAZ'S
BITS
Articles from our Press Secretary Barry Snowden
GIRLS JUST WANNA HAVE FUN
Northowram No.3 are Frank Sykes, Andrea Widdison and Barbara Gee, but with respect to fellow committee member Frank it is the two ladies whom I would like to talk about here. My friendship with Barbara goes back a number of years and we are one of the most successful mixed doubles pairings in Halifax League history with six wins in ten years. Barbara began playing at Sowerby Bridge Methodist Mission at the age of 13 and played regularly with her brother, former representative player John Hargreaves. She was introduced to league action by fellow Mission members Freddie Dibb and former Halifax Ladies champion, Methodist preacher Betty Oates. She still remembers her first season with affection despite the fact that she played in Division Three and never won a single game. She remembers one game in particular, against a character named Jack Dale, Barbara lost 21-0 and knowing how bad it feels she has never done it to another player, even when she has been in a position to do so. As a teenager working at Lloyds Bank she would spend many lunchtimes playing table tennis in the canteen with local league players Trevor Wilkinson, Russell Spencer and Tony Scott. Barbara still uses the bat she bought from Eric Duckett about 20 years ago for the princely sum of 12/6d (Junior players ask your parents). Barbara has over 20 Halifax titles to her credit and has supported the League almost all of her adult life. I am looking forward to resuming our partnership at the forthcoming Championships.
Andrea is originally from Cornwall and began playing when she was 12 years old at Penzance tennis club. She began playing table tennis because the tennis club got a table. This activity has often been the norm for tennis clubs who wanted to continue playing sport during the winter when they could not be outdoors playing tennis. In fact former Wimbledon ladies singles champion Ann Jones was an International table tennis player of the highest calibre, playing in many World and Open Championship finals at our sport. Already a Cornish representative player at tennis and badminton, Andrea began playing table tennis in the Cornwall league for Penzance tennis club and it was not long before she confirmed her extraordinary versatility by representing her County at table tennis too. She modestly says that in those days you only had to own a bat to play for the county but having experienced county championship play myself over the last two seasons I can tell you that she is being modest. Andrea moved away from Cornwall to go to college and stopped playing the game but she moved North and when settled in Northowram she began playing for Lightcliffe United Reform Church in 1987 and in the intervening period she has won a number of Halifax doubles titles and one singles title which was a thrilling effort in 1997. It took Andrea a while to adapt her style, as the modern game was far removed from the one she stopped playing when she attended college. Her determination shone through however and Andrea took the Halifax title in 1997. The one thing that both Northowram ladies have in common is that they both enjoy the game, which in the end it is what it is all about. None of us miss the cold draughty church halls or leaking canteen roofs but the reason we all go out on the most miserable of nights is to enjoy ourselves and it is no different for Andrea and Barbara because “these girls just wanna have fun”
THE DEMISE OF THE CANTEEN & CHURCH HALLS
It's sad to see the demise of the works canteen, church hall and youth club in the league nowadays and as Stan touched upon in an earlier edition of Halifax Table Tennis News, the number of venues has dropped to an alarming number.
If my memory serves me correct although it was 30 years ago my first season was in 1971/72 season and I played for YMCA No 9. There was a No 10 team who were in the same division, Vandals RUFC, 2 teams from Wellesley Park TTC, Post Office Engineers, Kingfisher at Mytholmroyd, Firths Carpets, South Ward Working Mens Club, Halifax Courier, Rowntree Mackintosh and Crossleys Carpets.
I’m sure I will have got some of those wrong but after all I’m a veteran now and my memory is not what it used to be but what I do remember is that I tasted my first success that season as with team mates Steve James and John Hewitt we won the league and after dropping my opening two sets of the season to Firths carpets, I completed the remainder of the season unbeaten. Which included I hasten to add two wins over Kevin Beadsley. Although to be fair Kevin was only about 4 at the time.
We are spoilt having a table tennis centre, which stands up well against other one-purpose centres I have played at this season. I have been fortunate to play for Yorkshire at St Neots TTC, which had six tables and is slightly inferior to Halifax and I played British League at Milton Keynes TTC, which also has six tables. This centre has heating and showers which is a plus but also has the luxury of being purpose built by Tesco for the use of the local community as part of a planning application agreement.
The Halifax TTC is a credit to the volunteers who have turned the centre through many hundred hours of work into one of the top venues in this area and the last time I was playing a match there which was the veterans Yorkshire Cup semi final there were league fixtures being played by teams from the Keighley and Bradford leagues. This shows how popular the venue is as top Leeds players also travel to the centre to practice as none of the mentioned towns and cities have a facility, which can compare with Club Lane and in it we have a centre of which we can be proud.
I started this article by saying I was sad at the demise of works canteens, church halls and youth clubs as match venues. Well no one enjoys good facilities more than myself but I have been a long believer that I learned my trade in canteens and cold draughty church halls in the seventies and eighties and anyone who came across me or any YMCA teams during these decades will no doubt remember having to compete with the junior disco going on in the next room.
I spent many a match unable to hear the umpire as Tiger Feet by Mud bellowed around the room much to the annoyance of my opponents. The YMCA lost something when he moved the table tennis room into the attic although at least every January we could enjoy the panto going on in the hall below where we were playing. Oh no we couldn’t.
I first came across Stan in a works canteen (he was riffling a vending machine at the time.) No, seriously my brother and his cousin played for Pratts which became PBI and they played their matches in the works canteen in Haley Hill and we would both go along to watch. There were two canteens and Stan and I would always bring our bats and have a knock in the other canteen. We never missed a match although it might have had something to do with the fine spread that the canteen laid on for the teams.
When you play at many different venues on different types of tables and floors in varying conditions I feel you learn more about the game. This is where I feel some of our younger player may miss out gaining valuable experience as they are always playing in tournament conditions and when they are being coached they are being coached to play the same type of players.
Fast attacking players who all play the same style so if they have the misfortune to have to go to one of the few church halls or canteens or somewhere that the conditions are not up to championship standard and their opponents do not play the fast attacking style of play that they are used to the youngsters struggle and if there were more differing types of venue I feel that it would help the youngsters in particular to develop a more all round game.
WILL YOUR ANCHOR HOLD (Boys Brigade)
In my article which featured Andrea Widdison and Barbara Gee I was fascinated to learn where and how they started playing and so I thought about my early days and where I first played. My elder brother John played and so I became interested through him, but my first real experience of the game was at the Boys Brigade as a proud member of the 4th Carlton Company of the Halifax Battalion. I enjoyed playing table tennis on games nights and quickly became quite useful. Things really looked up when former Halifax representative junior player Gary Thompson joined our Company along with his brother Russell who also played a little bit. We entered the national Boys Brigade Team Championships for three years on the trot and performed creditably. On our debut in 1970 we reached the quarter- finals, but bowed out when a mixed up of dates saw us missing Gary who was attending a training camp and we lost 5-4 to a company from Peterborough. The following year we reached the finals weekend, which were staged in Edinburgh at the new Meadowbank Stadium, which had been built for the 1970 Commonwealth Games. It may look a bit tired now, but back in 1971 it was real state of the art. Despite losing in the semi final to a company from Leicester, playing in a sports facility inside a Commonwealth games stadium was an experience I enjoyed and was keen to repeat.
In 1972 we reached the same stage and once more lost out to the same team, who had two County junior players in their squad. This alas, took place in Newark but it was still great fun. Lately I discovered that I was not the first local league player to play in this event, veteran Alan Wright had played in it two years before me. Alan was in the 24th Lee Mount Company and had started playing table tennis in the Boys Brigade at the age of 13. The year was 1968 and this was the only year that Alan played in the competition. He has fond memories of reaching the semi final stage, which that year was played at Louth, Lincolnshire, and despite falling at the penultimate hurdle Alan thoroughly enjoyed the experience. When Alan left the Boys Brigade at 15 years old he had a season out of the game before starting to play again at Ovenden Youth Club. For the last 30 years Alan has been a much travelled Nomad in the Halifax League playing for numerous clubs with a great deal of enthusiasm plenty of zest. Alan has established himself as one of the top veteran players in the town and is a regular representative for the Halifax in the Veterans Yorkshire League. Like a fine wine Alan has matured over the last couple of seasons, the highlight of which was being a member of 2000/01 double-winning Corn Flakes team alongside Mark McGorlick and Paul Stansfield. In 2002 Alan was selected as a late replacement for the injured David Adams to play for Xystus in the Veterans British League Division Five and played a vital roll in Xystus winning the league at the first attempt. Dennis Hartley of Sowerby is another player who learned his early craft by playing table tennis whilst in the Boys Brigade. Dennis is the brother-in-law of former Halifax representative player Philip Mancey and first played at Luddenden Foot Institute about 28 years ago. Dennis was a member of the 3rd Halifax Luddenden Foot Company and practiced for many hours in the Brigade room. I first met Dennis in 1969 in a field just outside Douglas, Isle of Man at the Halifax Battalion of the Boys Brigade Annual Camp. There was always a table tennis table in the café marquee and I was still a complete novice. However, I fancied myself a bit, but was brought down to earth with a bump by this guy from Luddenden Foot who drubbed me whenever I played him. I could not get used to his awkward style. Two years later in Prestatyn, North Wales, same tent, same table and unfortunately the same result, despite the fact I was now playing in the local league I was still troubled by Dennis’s style. Dennis played for 6 years at Luddenden Foot Institute until it closed in the late 1970’s but thankfully he returned to the game four years ago. Playing for Sowerby he has no doubt given a lot of his opponents the same trouble he gave me all those years ago.
I would be interested to find out if there are any more Boys Brigade old boys out there or indeed where did any of you start playing.
Play fair. Baz.