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Well, it's been a very busy 2 weeks. 3rd, 4th and 6th February were divisional singles night. Divisional 2 singles was on the 3rd, Division 1 on the 4th and Premier Division Singles was on 6th. To enter, a player must play for a team in our league in the division the singles competition is for. So, as I currently play for Jacobaeus A and we play in the Premier, I can only enter the Premier Divison Singles which was held on 6th of February.

On our night some players had to pull out at the last minute for either work or personal reasons - entry closing date was 31st January and the draw was done straight away so the organisers could get things printed and groups sorted. That meant on the night last minute changes for the organisers and one of the groups was done away with and players added to other groups to fill the gaps. In the end there were four groups of four in a round robin format. The winner of each group went throught to the semi's were it became sudden death. I'd been taking some photo's in the warm up but I scored the first match in our group - it went the distance 3:2. Then I played and after that I was either playing or taking photo's. Thank fully none of the players objected and I tried to be as unobtrusive as possible. By the end of our group stages I'd lost all my games 3:0. The other 3 players in my group all beat each other 3:2 (they all had playing averages this season of 60% or better - mine was 16.67%). Which meant they'd all won two matches and also won the same number of games within those matches. And they'd all got the same record in head to heads so for the first time I can remember it went down to actual points scored in games.

The actual winner from my group was a guy called Majid Tubasum - a left handed counter hitter. He'd beaten me 11:7. 11:6, 11:8 and it was his first season in our league. His team ended up providing 3 of the four semi finalists, one of whom was also in his first season in our league. The other player from their team was the top seed for the event on the night and had previously winner our Closed Singles and Vets singles competitions. The fourth player was someone who'd helped review the prototype plastic ball. Although lacking 3 or 4 of the players currently in the top 10 in the win averages, the majority of players in the top half of our divisional averages are all capable of beating each other. Anyway, if someone wants an idea of the standard of play in the division I play in, these are the videos from the semi finals and finals. In the league this season, Khamal beat me 3:1, Charles beat me 3:0 and Keiron beat me 3:2.

Semi Final 1



Semi Final 2



Final



Unfortunately from bitter experience, I've learned uploading local league matches can result in well, not very pleasant comments from a small minority of people out there. In the past I've had comments saying it's embarrasing the players showing how they play, or another left a comment saying they were only 10 and could easily beat the players in the video - when I checked the poster's profile on their home page they were actually in their 20's. To avoid these types of comments and save other viewers time, I post a message at the start of each video that they are intended for our local league players or people interested in watching local league table tennis. The vast majority of viewers respect that and some really enjoy seeing "real life" local matches if for no other reason than it gives them an opportunity to gauge themselves against other players around the world. I think when you play at our level it actually takes some guts to put yourself in this type of spot light.

From a viewing statistics point of view, the videos over a period of a year or so will get maybe a couple of 100 views, unless it's our Prem Final in which case it may break the 1000 mark, so these videos get very few views comparatively but I think it's still important to put them out there to raise our leagues profile and for some of the playes from our division 1 and 2 which can get over shadowed in competitions by our premier league players, it gives them an opportunity to take centre stage and raise our leagues profile as a league for all ages and abilities. A win win scenario for us.

Our season has pretty much run it's course.

Two weeks ago, we were 6 pts behind the third from bottom team. In those two weeks, we lost 10:0 - we were taken apart by the current Champions and also 8:2 last night. In the same time the closest team to us won 9:1 (against the bottom team) and 6:4. We're over 20 points behind now with 3 games to go. And those 3 games are all against top five teams.

We're as good as down.

Not to worry though, it's been a sobering and strangely masochistic journey.

I'm not sure if our team will stay together or not yet. Our number 1 player is averaging 50%. He's too good for division 1 and says he enjoys the social side of our team - which is true. But other premier teams will come sniffing round and will try and sign him up for next season.

Our fourth player has only played a few times this season. He's not won a game and struggled in division 1 last season, so I'm not sure what he wants to do next year. We'll be definitely trying for promotion again.

There's a long time between now and next September, which is when our winter season starts so who knows what will happen.

In between then, we've still Preston Championships tomorrow and three more league games to play this season. Games we're going to enjoy.

What about you Debater? Do you want to play this division again next year?

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My averages are currently around 20%. That simply isn't good enough to justify a place in our premier division.

In Division 1 I was averaging over 80%. The gulf is huge. We've spoken to players throughout the season and they all say if you survive the first season your game will advance massively.

Yes I would like to continue to play premier division but I'm realistic enough to know I'm not good enough. I also like the social side of the game and enjoy the friendship of my team mates so would not look to leave my club.

Sometimes you have to accept that a sport you enjoy and want to be good at is also a sport which no matter how hard you try, you just can't be good at. It's frustrating. It's disappointing. And to a degree it can be demoralising.

But I know this season, taking in to account all the circumstances, I gave it my best shot. Table tennis is simply a sport where my ability and aspirations don't match up.

If I want to achieve tangible success in something, I need to target my resources and time elsewhere.

I think most people would regard 'reaching the top grade' as quite a milestone, and would think you're quite good at the sport.

Of course it may not meet with your own expectations, but putting it in perspective of the table tennis community, the majority would never reach the top grade, despite many of them trying.

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This video was a year in the making and is a celebration of who we are and what we do. It's an acknowledgement and a tribute to all the hard work and dedication that goes in to running Preston Table Tennis Club and our members who play in it.

This video will show how our league is organised, the type of things we do, the hard work volunteers put in, the development of our youth through coaching and the introduction of our Colts Junior team, our ties with outside bodies and most importantly the people who work hard behind the scenes to make this league the success that it is and the people who play in our league. What motivates them to play table tennis, their aspirations, why they play in Preston and what they think about our league and table tennis. It includes interview footage of Scott Johnson who is a hard bat player and forum member here.

This video starts the Saturday before last year's championships, although it could easily have started months earlier as Tony well knows. It ends 6 days later with volunteers moving 8 of our tables to UCLAN for the Cadet and Junior 6 Nations tournament.

Welcome to Preston Table Tennis.

Really nice video! Sounds like yours is a great club!

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One of my jobs on our leagues committee it to try and raise our leagues profile - it's one of the reasons for this blog.

Well, I applied to IMDb for them to list our latest video "Why play table tennis" which I've embedded above and it seems it's been accepted and listed as a documentary on IMDb - a huge film / tv website with according to Wikipedia, over 51 million registered users.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3580486/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1

I'm chuffed to bits both for our league and myself. Now to try and build further on this and spread the word of why table tennis is such a great game to play.

On a table tennis front, I also took time out last Friday to take down some blades and some rubbers and test them out for myself, trying different permutations and seeing what they were like for feel, speed, serving, return, push, block, top spin drive and hitting. Someone kindly agreed to knock with me whilst I was doing this. After 90 minutes of scoring each combination in the above categories and discussing what the person I was knocking with also felt (a different perspective and from someone on the receiving end) and I've got my "new setup". I've gone back to my Andro Carbon Light Off+ blade, Rakza max on FH and 802-40 supersoft 2mm on my backhand. One of the reasons for the move back to the 802-40 supersoft 2mm thickness (I've been using 1.5 or 1.7mm Challenger Attack) is because I've really been struggling with the challenger recently. When I'm coaching young kids (I help with beginners/leaners) I have to use double inverted because using the challenger really throws their timing off. However, switching between inverted on my backhand and the challenger is also really hurting my game as the technique is different. I'm not giving up short pips and years ago I 802-40 in 1.8 was my preferred rubber and it seems to be the best compromise for me. Someone once said years ago when I used it regularly that they didn't realise I'd been using short pimples it played that similar to inverted and I am now finding it much easier to switch between my coaching bat and my match bat.

Also although it's a fast blade, and neither rubber is exactly slow, I felt this combination gave me the best "feel" for the ball and my practice partner felt it gave the most versatility of all the other setups I used ie I could do more with it. That surprised me because if I was just reading the advertsing literature I'd have expected this combination to be a speed demon with a degree of spin and nothing else. That wasn't the case though.

All I need to do now is put on a new sheet of Rakza and 802-40 and I'm away. Whether it's confidence, placebo effect or what ever. The two sessions I've had with my "new setup" have re invigorated me and my desire to play again. And the recognistion the video has got has been the icing on the cake

Wow, that is great recognition for the good work!

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Our season is coming to an end. Our last home match was against Gryf A last night. We've one rescheduled away match to play. I'll review the season in a couple of weeks.

For now, this is video footage of each of my team playing Colin Parkinson from Gryf. Colin got to the final of our Premier Divisional Singles in 2013. He played two brilliant 5 setter matches to get there and was shattered for the final. He lost comfortably 3:0 and even though he didn't play anywhere near as well as he's capable he still agreed for the video to be uploaded on to our leagues YouTube channel - that doesn't always happen.

In return I said I'd film him again and last night was the ideal opportunity. It also gives me team mates a chance to see themselves on video. Colin is currently averaging 58% in our premier division. He is a defender which is rare for our league and uses Tibhar Grass D.Tecs ox on his backhand and Tibhar Super Defence 40 1.7mm on his forehand. His blade is an Andro Fibrecomp Def.

Match 1 Colin vs John (our number 1 player who's averaging 46.67% and who uses a premade stiga setup with Stiga Premium on both sides - but not for much longer John . John is really a counter hitter/blocker who prefers to play top spin attacking players so this was a bad match up of styles for John.



Match 2 Colin vs George, our number 2 players who's averaging 12.28%. George uses a Stiga Tube blade with Palio Biotec on his forehand and RITC 837 OX on his backhand. George plays up to the table using his LP's to try and control the play and set up his forehand, which he uses when he's playing well / confidently . LP's vs LP's this is probably the only time this match up happens in our division.



Match 3 and I was the last one to play Colin. My win average is 17.54% and I'm a counter hitter. Equipment is what it says in my signature. Say no more except thanks to my team mates for agreeing to be filmed and these be posted here and the Gryf players - we had some end of season fun tonight.

Last match of the season

Well this week our season came to a close. Officially this was team cup final week, as the league fixtures were supposed to be completed by now but we had to reschedule one of our games after our opponents couldn't get a full team together for the original date. We were playing a team who have one of the top players in our league playing for them and all the others average over 50%. Their top player hadn't played us first time round and we'd lost 7:3 so tonight would be a tough match but one we looked forward to. Always good to play the top players, especially when we don't know we'll be next back in this division to play them again.

First up, their number 1 against our number 2. Their player is currently 4th in the premier division averages - their are videos of him on our leagues YouTube channel. Left hander who topspins fast and hard off both sides and also hits hard with his forehand. Although our number 2 got close in the third game 13-11 he lost the match 3:0.

Second match up, was our number 1 vs their number 3. Their player uses LP’s on his backhand which he uses to set up a tops pin forehand. Fortunately for us, he didn’t have much luck and his forehand wasn’t working as it could. Our number 1 player ground out a gritty win 11-9 in the decider. Match score 1-1.

Third match was me against their number 2. Very spinney top spinner off both forehand and backhand. Tends to stand pretty square on to the table, seldom backing off and whereas some players can be predictable as to where they’ll hit the ball, he can go either side off both wings. I’d spoken to one of our coaches earlier in the day and he said give him no spin, slow short, tight serves. Give him nothing to work with. He’ll make mistakes trying to generate his own spin and pace. That advice worked to a degree until he started rolling the ball back deep into either my forehand or backhand corner, I’d roll the next one back with light top spin - often reaching for the ball rather than moving to play it properly and he was then in to the type of point he wanted. So the short no spin serve merely transferred the problem to the third shot of the rally. I lost the first 2 games 11-3, 11-8. I got more aggressive in the third and he went off the boil as I took the initiative. I won the third game 11-8. Fourth game, he bullied me. He took control. He did the attacking on his terms and I was feeding off scraps. He won the fourth comfortably 11-5. In hindsight I was too proud and stayed too close to the table. Next time I'll take a couple of steps back. It’ll give me more time to see the ball and pick the direction and because his attacking shots were landing deep taking a step back will allow me to return the ball at the top of the bounce with more margin for error and more time to play the shot rather than rushing to play a block off the bounce with little time to adjust the bat angle correctly.

Fourth match was our number 2 against their number 3. Two LP players on the BH. Again it went to 5 and for once, our number 2 had lot’s of luck and their player very little. Strange how when you’re struggling for form, luck also deserts you. Our number 2 beamed happily as he walked back to greet us having won 11-9 in the fifth.

Fifth match was me against their number 1. Again my tactic was to give him nothing to work with or hit it hard. And too a degree it worked. I kept the first game close but lost it 11:9. Strange thing was, when I was facing his serve at 10:9 down I wasn’t concentrating on positive thoughts about what I’d done to get so close. I was wondering how long it would be before he’d power another top spin drive or loop past me. I guess this is an example of reputation winning points. Disappointingly in hind sight I’d lost this match before I’d even started playing him. Hero worship is too strong a word. And he is a far better player than me, but at 10:9 down I was close enough to think what I needed to do to win the point, not what I needed to do not to lose it. He also won the next two games 11-6, 11-8.

Doubles was a reverse of what happened in last weeks match. This time we were 2:0 up and cruising. I think we got a little careless or wreckless depending on your point of view and lost the third and fourth games. All the momentum was now with them but we recomposed ourselves and got to 10:9 up with them serving. I knew the colour of their players LP’s was black and he was serving. Normally if it looked like he was serving longish with them with a no spin serve I’d step round as my opponent serves and attack it hard with my forehand. But should I do that? In doubles you have a partner. Should I play to set up my partner, should I just get the ball back on the table and give my partner a chance to get in to the rally. In the end, conscious of not wanting to make a mistake I watched the rolled serve come in and pushed it back. I knew it would pop up, but their player had missed a very similar chance to kill that type of return just a couple of points earlier. I relied on my opponent making a mistake. Possibly bottled it, or maybe just too conscious of not wanting to let my partner down by making an obvious mistake. Either way, my return popped up and their player killed it with ease. 10:10 and we didn’t recover. We lost 12:10 in the decider. Gut wrencher. Match score 4:2

Our number 1 went on next against their number 2. Like me he struggled to pick the direction of this opponents attacks and gauge the amount of spin he was putting on the ball. That’s rare for our number 1 who blocks as well as anyone I’ve seen in this division. Like me he lost 3:1 and we were 5:2 down on the night.

Next was me against their number 3 who’d already lost two matches 11-9 in the decider, had little luck but had won the doubles with his partner 12:10 in the decider. I was hoping that result wasn’t going to restore his confidence. This was also my last match of the season in the premier and I was the only one of our team not win a game so far tonight. I really didn’t want to end the season on a disappointing note. By a combination of controlled rolling and occasional hitting and my opponent continuing to make mistakes off his forehand I won the first two games 11-9, 11-4. I started the the third game playing the same way. He didn’t. He made himself be more aggressive and persisted with his forehand. It started to go on. I started to back off and become too passive. This mistakes I’d been feeding off dried up. 11-5 to him. It wasn’t long before I was 7-3 down in the fourth game too. At this point though I gave myself a mental telling off. I’m a counter / hitter. I’d been countering most of the match. I’d stopped hitting off either wing. I consciously put the score in that fourth game to one side and used it to practice attacking again. Sure I missed some. Suddenly switching back to being aggressive is never easy but I also started to hit some winners too. I might have clawed the fourth game to being close by continuing to play conservatively but I know I would have lost it and it would have been too late to recover in the fifth. Now having lost the fourth I’d at least got an aggressive mindset back. I’d started getting lower too and looking for the ball rather than looking down on the ball. When I get lower, I can use my legs and arm to and body to come up the back of the ball and generate more pace and top spin. When I’m stood tall I tend to try and do that all with just my arm and that’s a big ask and poor technique. In the fifth game I was soon 3:0 up and crucially I won the best point of our match with a clean backhand winner after both of us had been on the front foot at different times through the point. I didn’t look back after that. I probably hit more winners off both sides in that last game than in the whole of the match previously I took the decider 11-1 having dominated it throughout. It was to say the least a very very satisfying end to my season. Patience, then game awareness to change my tactics and a strong desire not to lose and to impose my game on my opponent. As I shook hands with my team mates our number 1 player just smiled and said I didn’t miss a thing in the last game. I smiled back.

Despite the last two matches of the night going to 4 games the final score was 7:3 to our opponents. They deserved their win and we were satisfied that all of us had finished with a win each and we could see improvement in our games. We said our goodbyes to our opponents and on the way back to our cars we discussed the positives which had come out of this season. A season I’ll round up in my next post.

But for now, it was over.

Lessons learned:
1. Sometimes you can get too wound up in trying to stop your opponent from playing. In doing so, you can end up giving up your strengths and weapons. That's not to say don't have a plan B, but maybe, sometimes save plan B until you know for sure plan A isn't working. Plan A being your preferred game style.
2. Play the right shot for the ball you're given. It's better to make a mistake playing the "right shot" than to play the wrong shot correctly. You can always improve your technique, but it's hard to learn what is and isn't the correct tactic or shot to play.
3. Believe in yourself - if you can't believe in yourself, how can you expect anyone else to believe in you

Review of my 2013 / 2014 season.

Well, it's over. Looking back at the targets I set myself how did I / we do?

Expectations at the start of the season:

“Team targets:

As a newly promoted team, we are favourites for relegation. The gulf between playing division 1 and premier division is just that big - we went straight down last time we played in the premier division and had a record of drawn 2, lost 20 won none. That losing mentally carried over in to the start of the next season back in division 1 when we didn't win any of our first 7 games. In other words, we carried big mental scars from playing a season in the premier division and had got used to losing.

Our team target is simply to be positive when we play, both tactically and mentally; believe we have the right to play in the premier and try our hearts out.

My goals:

This time round it's to do myself justice, learn and play with confidence not an air of apology for being at the other end of the table to my opponents. Doing myself justice will be measured by achieving a 33% win ratio. May not sound like much of a target, but last time round I averaged 16%.

In between matches I'll continue to practice hard and constructively.”

Reality:

Team targets:

We were relegated. But this time we didn't finish bottom. We had a record of won 2, drew 2 lost 18 and a points total of 60 points – our number 1 player accounted for 30 of those points, me 13 and our number 2 player 9. The remaining 8 pts were doubles wins by me and our number 1 player.

The third from bottom team had 83 pts so there was a 23 point gap between us and staying up. Sounds a lot and it is except the third from bottom team won 3 games this season and 2 were against us – scores of 8:2 and 7:3. Reverse those scores and we would have finished with 70pts and they would have finished with 73pts. That's what has hurt us this season. Our biggest win has been 6:4. Winning big like 8:2 makes a massive difference to a teams chances of survival and we could never quite give our number 1 player the support he needed.

My target

That said, our number 2 player won 1 match in the first half of the season and 8 in the second half. Improvement was there as was an increasing confidence – we just ran out of time.

My final averages were a win percentage of 20.63%. My averages for the first half of the season were 15.15% when I won 5 games. For the second half of the season they increased to 24.14% when I won 8 games. Of those 8, 5 were against players who'd beaten me first time round. And only two of the players who I beat first time round played me second time round – one I beat, one I lost to. Again that's positive progress – beating players I'd never beaten before.

Another positive factor for me were matches that went to a decider. In the first half of the season, 12 of my matches went the distance and I lost 9 of them (75% loss rate). My average points won in that deciding game were 9.33 and my opponents 10.75 so I lost a lot of very tight matches. In the second half of the season I'd reversed that trend. Four matches went to a decider and I won 3 of them (75% win rate) with me averaging 10.25pts in that deciding game and my opponents 6.5. This would suggest my concentration, tactics and determination are improving when it gets tight. I'm pleased with that.

In terms of which game I was most successful in winning, in the first half of the season, I won 42.42% of the first game in a match, 21.21% of the second, 24.24% of the third, 36.84% of the fourth and 25% of the fifth. In the second half of the season, my first game win % had dropped to 24.14%. That makes me think my opponents knew a bit more about me second time around having worked me out from the first time we played. But my second game win rate was up to 31.03%, third game 34.48 and fifth game 75%. Unfortunately where as I had problems with games going to five in the first half of the season, now I was losing a lot more games in 4.

In terms of defeats:

3:0 was the most common score line for me- happened 25 times in the season.
3:1 happened 15 times and
3:2 happened 10 times

In terms of wins:

3:0 happened 4 times
3:1 happened 2 times and
3:2 happened 6 times

I was credited with a forfit on one occasion after a team turned up with only 2 players – I've not recorded that game otherwise it would throw out points averages.

These results show that there is still a huge gap between my ability and regular premier league performers. I tended to have to win the hard way, good players could brush me aside in 3. But again it's not all gloom and doom. My average points won per game (ie game 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5 (when a match went that far) was above 8 in every game so it wasn't like I was getting hammered 11:2, 11:4, 11:6 on a regular basis. I was usually competitive enough for my opponents to have to take me seriously.

So to sum up what have I learnt about playing in the premier division:

1. Serves are much better both in terms of disguise, variety and amount of spin variation
2. Returns need to do more than just get the ball back if you don't want to eat celluloid third shot of the rally
3. Depth and placement of the ball is much better in the premier division. Balls are landing deep and in to corners or straight in to your pocket, very few land mid table.
4. Speed / power. This is a big one. It is much more powerful and faster game in our premier division than division 1. Often you don't feel like you have time to compete and that can panic me into trying to win things too quickly myself.
5. Consistency. Players are far more consistent. The ball comes back a lot more and that puts a premium on footwork and recovery. Both areas I'm improving on.
6. Players expect to beat us. If we could manage to get our noses ahead rather than just keep it close, we could see the pressure it put on some of our opponents. Lot's are great front runners but it's a different ball game when the unexpected happens and we start to do well.
7. You can't be passive playing in our premier division. Even if you're blocking or defending, you've got to do it with a purpose rather than simply getting the ball back and waiting for a mistake. If you get the chance to be positive and the shot is on, you must go for it. And by go for it I don't mean try and hit a clean winner, I mean take the initiative. If it's a winner fine, but set up the next one for a winner, and if that comes back set it up again for a winner. I've lost a lot of games this season being too passive, passing up the chance to be aggressive for fear of making a mistake and hoping instead it will be my opponents. Or doing the reverse and being wreckless and rushing to win a point with a low percentage shot for fear of the rally developing.
8. Don't be bullied. Players tend to play quickly when they are winning and in the zone. There have been a few occasions where I've felt myself speeding up my own game, especially in between points because that's what my opponent wants me to do. I'm not saying deliberately waste time, but I am saying, especially on your own serve, learn to compose yourself before you serve and know what you're trying to achieve before you serve. Once the point has begun, don't overcomplicate it – you won't have time.
9. Have a better awareness of what you actually do as opposed to what you think you do. I spoke to one of my team mates after I posted the videos of our match a couple of weeks ago. He didn't realise that was the way he played. He thought his forehand had more power and he never realised how much he played a chicken wing shot with his backhand. The length of serves is also another big one. The number of times I've asked kids if they can serve short – which they invariably say yes to but when I ask them to demonstrate their short serve it's at best a half length serve and typically the second bounce is a foot or more past the end of the table. Perceptions and reality can be totally different things. Be aware of the reality of your game

Equipment:

I changed my forehand rubber from Yasaka Rakza 7 to Xiom Musa at Christmas. The pace of the games was simply too fast for me. The faster I hit it, the faster it came back and points were passing me by. The Musa gave me some more control but it became hard work to hit through people, even with better placement. Finally, I treated myself to a full equipment review. Got all my blades out, narrowed them down to four and then tried a couple of different types of rubbers on them and listened to the feedback I got from someone who's opinion I respect when he knocked with me with each setup. I now have a setup I'm comfortable with for the style of game I want to play. Normally I'd say don't mess with equipment mid way through a season, but this time I'm glad I did and did it properly.

Highlights of the season:

Beating some players who beat me in the first half of the season and who I've never beaten before. Passing my first for sport level 1 coaching course and getting through a season riddled with injury and illness missing just one match. Enjoying the commaradarie of my team mates. It makes it so much more fun when you're playing with people who don't judge you but do support you.

And the future:

Being involved with coaching Mondays, helping out with our social sessions Fridays, playing a match in between, all the video work and Committee work is simply too much. In our economic climate with work targets and pressures and family commitments all the table tennis stuff is simply too much. Especially when I add on my own KPI and targets for table tennis. What is supposed to be a hobby ended up being more like a job with self imposed targets and time lines and review periods. I managed to turn what should have been fun in to unnecessary pressure and disappointment and frustration. I wasn't able to train / practice like I'd planned and I felt the pressure of failing to achieve what I considered to be a realistic target of 33% win rate.

For me, from now on, I'm not setting any other target than to enjoy my table tennis. That doesn't mean to say I'm not going to try and improve, or train better or sort out the fact I stand too tall and try and do too much work with just my arm. But it does mean I'm not going to tie myself down rigidly to targets and time scales like I've done this season. Table tennis is a hobby intended to help me relax me, not a a career with the associated pressures and demands. Next season I'll be structured for sure and I'll work to improve but I'll not be anal about it.

As for committee work, that's got to go and in May I'll step down. There are other good people in our league who can take on the work I've being doing.

It's been a long, hard season and I've thoroughly enjoyed our journey with my team mates. Right now though I need and want a rest.

Love the stats Debater, very useful!

With a new mindset for next season, and hopefully a little more time on your hands, it will be interesting to see how you go. Not that i would want to give you any pressure at all, but i suspect your percentage probably won't be much different, possible even better, even without the practice sessions.

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Back in 2008 I interviewed my club secretary and I've only just got round to editing it together. I didn't realise it at the time but he's been playing table tennis in our league since 1946. He has a different perspective on many things to me but sometimes it's sobering to hear how it was for players before things like out table tennis centre came in to being and I never realised the net used to be different heights. These are some of the question I asked him

I'd be interested to know how Howard's experiences compare to your own, or your league/club.

00:04 When did you start playing
00:23 What other sports did you play
00:31 Why did you start playing in the Preston league
01:14 How many clubs have you played for
01:29 How much did it cost to play when you started in the league
01:53 Has the way the league is funded changed
02:33 Has the time matches finished changed
03:06 Has the social side of the game changed
04:28 How long have you been involved in running a club
04:54 Has the club secretary's job changed
05:24 How do you decide your club's player ranking list
06:26 Do you stand any messing from players
07:16 Has the standard of behaviour changed
07:50 Has the attitudes towards women, youths and senior players changed
08:46 How has the age of players in the league changed
10:06 What coaching did you receive and how has coaching changed
15:20 How have table tennis rules changed over the years
16:33 21 up or 11 up
17:27 How have the styles of play changed
18:06 Has it changed where you get your equipment from
18:59 How often do you change your equipment
19:08 Variation in equipment, good thing or bad
20:33 Most important attribute of a table tennis player
20:44 Most important shot in table tennis
20:58 Hardest shot for you to play
21:35 Favourite table tennis shot
21:46 Has tthe standard of play changed
25:03 Proudest moment playing table tennis
27:32 What one thing would you change about our league
29:05 Why are you still playing table tennis