King Ping Pong

Ping pong ping pong – bounce boyng bounce…

A quirky BBC2 documentary devoted a full 60 minutes (of admittedly late-night viewing), to following the rise and rise ping pong tonight. Yes, ping pong! Teenagers of the world grab that remote and tune in.

Or so I would have thought before watching anyway. As it turns out - not so. This bouncing sport is apparently cherished by a veritable glitterati of intelligentsia. The reason - playing table tennis leads the mind into a Zen-like sphere of super consciousness, according to fans anyway.

Unlike other more gruelling physical sports, ping pong demands skill while also ensuring that the player is not so exhausted as to be unable to think and plan strategy. Team the biting logic of a chess player with the quick physical reactions of a juggler, put these together in the mind of a Buddhist monk and there you have it – a ping pong champion.

A great player may not always have the best batting stroke or sharpest reactions, according to one expert, but they will definitely be able to think six shots ahead of their opponent at all times.

Among the ranks of fan-club intelligentsia were a couple of notable writers. Sir Harry Evans often described as ‘the’ journalists’ journalist made an appearance describing the fun to be had from batting a ball around on a table. Henry Miller was also a dedicated follower.

Chairman Mao rocketed the game’s status to new levels when he made table tennis the national sport of China. This ensured Chinese dominance of the competitive circuit from the 1950s onwards.

The onomatopoeic route of ping pong also came up, exciting info for budding writers following in the footsteps of Evans and Miller in getting hooked. Early table tennis bats were hollow making a sound like a drum when the ball hit them which varied depending on the bat. Out rang the well known ping or pong, or as described by some of its other names whiff whaff or flim flam. Unfortunately the description is no longer accurate, the design of bats changed and so did the sound.

Sponge is another big innovation in the sport, in combination with speed-glue it has shortened rallies. But is this at the expense of spectacle and achieving the Zen-like meditative concentration levels that players talk of - some people worry so.

Back in the day, players would battle through single gruelling rallies that could last for up to two hours - oh for those bygone ping pong days.