KEVIN BEADSLEY
A profile on arguably the best player Halifax has ever produced.
Kevin Beadsley is without a shadow of doubt the best modern day player that Halifax has ever produced. To fully appreciate how good Kevin was in his prime you only have to glance at his outstanding tournament record, which would leave top local league players green with envy. The list is endless and would fill pages of this magazine so I will give you an abridged version. He was English Boys Champion in 1975 and represented England in several events before falling foul of the authorities. Kevin also won several open tournaments and every League Closed Championships that he played in. In the days before the Grand Prix circuit was born the tournaments were graded in stars, i.e. 1*, 2* and 3*. International competition was commonplace in the 3* tournaments and this made it doubly difficult for the home based players.
Kevin
started playing in 1970 after regularly attending matches at Mackintosh’s where
his mother Betty was a keen player. It did not take long for Kevin to make his
mark in the local league, representing the now defunct Wellesley Park Juniors.
His improvement was rapid indeed and within four years he was Halifax Men’s
Champion and a year later England No.1 Junior. In 1972 he was voted Butlins Boy
of the year, causing ex-World Champion Johnny Leach to remark that Kevin was the
best prospect he had seen in the game since Chester Barnes!
However all roads have a bump in them and Kevin’s road in Table Tennis was to be no different. He was thrown out of the England set-up for consistently bad timekeeping and hogged the headlines for several wrong reasons in the 1980’s. All the aforementioned surely contributed to him not fulfilling his enormous potential. One example of this is the Cleveland Open in 1983. Facing the legendary Desmond Douglas (England’s top-player and European top-twelve Champion at the time) who had not lost to an English based player for ten years in any competition, Kevin found himself 19-16 up in the fifth and deciding game. The tournament had come to a standstill and spectators gathered round to see if Kev could pull it off! In the event Douglas managed to scrape home but Kevin felt he had made a point. His career was stop-start afterwards and he never really attained the same heights again. His highest England Senior ranking of 11 was nothing short of incredible when you think of how little practice he was putting in at the time. It is worth mentioning that among his scalps are ex-European Champion John Hilton, current England International Alan Cooke and several highly ranked players who are still at the top of the tree today. He was also a formidable doubles player, winning several Championships with Alan Fletcher, Steve Mills and Nigel Eckersley.
Those who are lucky enough to have witnessed Kevin play in his younger days, myself included, will remember his ultra-consistent forehand loop and brilliantly controlled backhand retrieval shots which were made possible by his fantastic footwork and anticipation. I have been fortunate enough to witness several top International players at close quarters and I can honestly say that none of them could match his footwork and forehand consistency. With more commitment and dedication Kevin Beadsley would surely have become a household name!
The popular Veterans circuit has tempted Kevin back into action once more. Who knows? He could take the scene by the scruff of the neck and make headlines once again! In any event he would give the youngsters a fine example of his left-handed looping style game, which sadly is becoming a dying art.