History Notes (3) ..... In the beginning ...

In response to our previous History Notes items we have received a fascinating E-mail from 82 year-old ex-Newport player, John Tremayne. With his permission we reproduce it here, more or less verbatim. Readers from Newport may find it particularly interesting.

Dear Sirs ... I don't know if any of the following is of interest to anyone these days, but having come across your web-site by accident (while searching for Newport & District Table Tennis League) ... and seen a section devoted to history ... I was moved to send you the following ...

A Newportonian, W. J. "Bill" Pope was a founder member of the ETTA and was its Hon. General Secretary from 1927 to 1929, and from 1935 until his death in 1950. He was also Hon. Secretary of the International Table Tennis Federation from 1926 until his death in 1950 when he was succeeded by H. Roy Evans.

With Bill Vint and Ivor Montagu (Chairman of the ETTA and son of Lord Swaythling, donor of the Swaythling Cup) he [Bill Pope] organised several major international championships including the "World Championships" and the "English Open". His organising genius managed to fill major venues like the Wembly Arena for these championships when they were half empty for many other sporting events.

The 1950 English Open was entitled the W. J. Pope Memorial Championships, of which I have a programme. In August 1950 the Hon. Ivor Montagu wrote a booklet as a memorial tribute to the contribution Bill Pope had made to the emergence of table tennis as a major international sport. I have a copy of that booklet too.

Bill Pope was my uncle, which accounts for my interest in his contribution to world table tennis.

I played table tennis myself in the Newport & District League, winning the First Division Individual Championship at the age of 17 in the 1939-40 season, and continued after the war (without ever reaching my pre-war standard) until the 1960's. I played with people like Ron Baglow, Roy Hammett, Mel Harris, and Jack Paister ... all Welsh Internationals playing in the Newport league.

I was fortunate in winning the First Division title because players who may well have beaten me, particularly Fred Gabb, were not present. Fred lost an eye in the war, I believe. Otherwise he may well have become Wales' best player ever.

Now, approaching my 83rd birthday, I have started playing again in the Didcot & District League. It is not the same game as the one I remember. Enjoyable, but would have been more so if many of the modern 'Improvements' in materials had left table tennis alone

Yours sincerely ..... John Tremayne. ..... Email:  john@jtremayne.wanadoo.co.uk  

In a follow-up Email John adds some of his personal recollections of the pre-war period, and expands upon  his comments regarding the modern game ...

Because of my uncle's unique position, in the 1938-40 period, I met (and played with ... in friendly non-competitive games) several English and foreign international players including the legendary Victor Barna. Barna stayed with my parents on occasion and with my uncle frequently.

There must be very few current players who have had the pleasure of playing him (at tennis as well as table tennis). I wonder what he would have made of the modern game.

As a traditionalist I deplore the new scoring system, the new size for the ball and the emphasis on materials in the table tennis bat. Much better to have a level playing field, though I do remember that rule-4 used to read:  "The racket may be of any material, size, shape or weight"!

Regards ... John Tremayne.