TABLE TENNIS

A Comprehensive History of Table Tennispresented by the ITTF MuseumStay tuned ... this page under development
Like many other sports, Table Tennis began as a mild social diversion. It wasprobably played with improvised equipment in England, during the last quarterof the 19th century. Though Table Tennis evolved, along with Badminton and LawnTennis, from the ancient game of Tennis (also known as Real tennis, Court Tennisor Royal Tennis), the game was developed after Lawn Tennis became popular in the 1880s.
Ancient woodcut showing jeu de paume game, published in 1576
Game manufacturers tried many experiments to market an indoor version of LawnTennis, including board and dice games, Tiddledy Winks variations, card games,racket and balloon games and others. The first use of the name "Table Tennis"appeared on a board and dice game in 1887 by J.H.Singer of New York.This probably accounts for the mysterious entry in the George S. Parker gamecatalog of the same year: "Table Tennis: This game is laid out like a Lawn Tenniscourt, played and counted just the same, all the rules being observed."
The earliest evidence extant of an action game of Tennis on a table is a setmade by David Foster, patented in England in 1890: Parlour Table Games, whichincluded table versions of Lawn Tennis, Cricket and Football. This game featuredstrung rackets, a 30mm cloth covered rubber ball, a wooden fence set up aroundthe perimeter of the table, and large side nets extending along both sides.
One year later famous game makers John Jaques of London released their GOSSIMAgame. This game borrowed the drum style battledores from the Shuttlecock game,and used a 50mm webbed wrapped cork ball, with an amazing 30cm high net!
Neither of these action games were successful, due to the ineffective ball:the rubber ball had too wild a bounce, while the cork ball had too poor a bounce.So the concept was shelved until 1900, when the celluloid ball was introduced tothe game. Jaques revived the older Gossima game but changed the name to "Gossimaor Ping Pong". The name Ping Pong was derived from the sound of the ball bouncingoff the drum battledores, each of which had a slightly different sound. The higherpitched sound suggested Ping, the lower pitch, Pong. This can still be demonstratedtoday using the antique battledores!The game quickly caught on with the public, marketed under many different names:
Ping Pong or GossimaPing PongTable TennisWhiff WaffParlour TennisIndoor TennisPom-PomPim-PamNettoRoyal GameTennis de Salonand others.
Gradually the two most popular names prevailed: Ping Pong, and Table Tennis. However,these competing names caused some problems, as two associations were formed, and withdifferent rules for the game some confusion resulted. Ping Pong was trademarked in 1900by Hamley Brothers in England, and soon afterwards Hamley became "jointly concerned"with Jaques. They rigorusly enforced the Ping Pong trademark, requiring use of theirPing Pong equipment in tournaments and clubs. Parker Brothers, who acquired the Americanrights to the name Ping Pong, similarly enforced the trademark. Eventually it became clearthat for the sport to move forward, the commercial ties had to be severed.

TENNIS

Anyone who is considering tennis training will be happy to know that there are plenty of ways to learn how to play the game. Every way from the tennis court to the internet, the video store and even the classroom will prove to be beneficial for those wanting to learn how to play the great game of tennis. Prices will vary depending on the type of training method that is chosen, but can often be quite affordable. This is especially true of those who opt for learning at home through the use of videos or internet lessons. A professional tennis trainer, however, will likely be the most expensive way to learn but will provide a hands-on experience that none of the aforementioned options can.
If you choose to hire a tennis instructor, you will probably want to hire someone who has a lot of experience in either teaching or playing tennis. Or, if possible, find someone who has done both. During this training, you will begin to learn the various swings and in which situation each can be used. In the beginning, tennis may seem intimidating because of the physical activity that is involved, along with the need to have a very fast reaction to every situation. But, after a few lessons, you will be more familiar with the game and how to play it. Patience is the key to learning anything new and tennis is no different.
Even prior to hiring an instructor, some new tennis players may decide to learn some basics of the game before beginning the actual lessons. This can be accomplished by either purchasing books, videos or doing some research online. Either of these methods should provide an introduction to the game, the proper way to grip and swing the tennis racket, etc. With this information, any new tennis player will enter their learning phase with added confidence and will impress their instructor by how much they already know. Not to mention, anything that you can learn beforehand may end up saving you some money on the actual lessons.
With that being said, it’s important to know that there is nothing wrong with taking tennis lessons if you are a true beginner. Even if you have never held a tennis racket or held a tennis ball before, there is nothing to fear. Tennis instructors are there to help you to learn from scratch if that’s what you need. During your lessons, it will always be a good idea to have access to a tennis court and possibly even practice a little in between lessons.
Many tennis instructors work one-on-one with their students, while others prefer to educate to a group of individuals. Those who prefer to learn as much as possible, but without doing so with hands-on training may opt for online lessons. The only drawback is that this method does not provide actual practice, which can be sought separately by the learner. Friends and family can often provide valuable insight in helping one to learning how to play tennis without professional instruction.

Cricket

S.F.BARNES -CRICKET (STAFFORDSHIRE AND ENGLAND)
Sydney Francis Barnes was born on April 19, 1873 at Smethwick, Staffordshire. He was the second son of five children, three boys and two girls. Richard Barnes, his father, left Shropshire as a baby and spent the rest of his life in Staffordshire, though he worked for a Birmingham firm for 63 years.
Barnes was first introduced to cricket at the age of 15 when he played for a local side which had its ground at the rear of the Galton Hotel, Smethwick. Soon he became a member of the town club which at that time ran three teams. It was at this time that he learned that a ball could be made to turn after pitching. Smethwick’s first eleven were members of the Birminghan League and their professional Billy Bird, of Warwickshire, coached the players one evening a week. Bird asked Barnes to practise at his net and he taught Barnes to spin the ball from the off as he himself bowled medium-paced off-breaks. According to Barnes all the coaching he ever received did not amount to more than about three hours all told.
Barnes first came into the limelight as a bowler when Smethwick were playing Handsworth Wood and lost the toss. He was keeping wicket and their opponents had made only eight runs when he was told by the skipper, Dick Thomas, to take off the pads and bowl. In those days he was bowling fast-medium off-breaks-he knew nothing of the leg-break- and was so successful that when the last man came in he had taken six wickets for seven runs. The last man had a go and hit three fours off him before Barnes had his revenge. He finished with seven wickets for 19 runs. His performance for Smethwick eventually brought him to the notice of the Warwickshire County Club and he was asked to play the last match of the 1893 season against Gloucestershire at Bristol. (In those days it was enough to play for a club near Birmingham to qualify for Warwickshire). He played matches for Warwickshire in the 1894, 1895 and 1896 season.
A professional career beckoned and he signed for his first club, Rishton, in the Lancashire League, at a salary of £3 10sh. a week, his duties including those of groundsman. The contract further added ‘that 7sh. 6d be paid Barnes for batting when his scores reached 50 and also 10sh. 6d per match for bowling when he captured six wickets per march and not unless’. Although £3 10sh. was quite a decent sum in those days, when beer was three halfpence a pint and cigarettes five a penny it does not compare favourably with present day rates.
In his first season he took 71 wickets at a cost of slightly under 10 runs a wicket, as well as averaging nearly 20 with the bat. The following summer he did even better with 85 wickets, followed by 87, and in 1898 he was only three short of his 100 wickets at an average cost of 8.46 runs. In his five seasons with Rishton he learned to bowl the leg-break which he was to develop so devastatingly and took 411 wickets for an average of 9.10. During his last season with this club he played for Lancashire second eleven.
Barnes played a total of only 27 Test matches, 20 of them against the arch enemy, Australia, and he took 189 wickets for an average of 16.43 runs each- 106 wickets against Australia for 21.58 runs each and 83 against South Africa for only 9.85 each. He was six feet one inch in height, lean but muscular, with long arms and long fingers with two or three long, springing strides in his run-up, he delivered the ball when it was at the highest point above his head. His armoury included the leg-break, the off-break, in-swingers, out-swingers, top-spinners although his chief asset was the leg-break. In all first-class matches he took 719 wickets for an average of 17.09 runs each. To be added to these are his 1,437 wickets for Staffordshire at a mere 8.10 runs each, a feat without parellel in Minor Counties cricket and his 4,069 wickets in league and club cricket. In all classes of cricket, Barnes took 6,225 wickets at an average of only 8.31 runs each.
In 1903 Barnes parted ways with Lancashire. He wanted Lancashire to find him a winter job, so that he would have something to look forward to when he finished playing cricket. But, as Wisden commented some time afterwards ‘this the Lancashire Committee could not, or would not, find him’. Years later in an interview Barnes drew attention to all those who ‘after fleeting years as famous cricketers, feted and fussed, dropped out, returned to the mine or factory or at best, took a fourth-rate beerhouse, trading as best they could upon their faded glories’.
Between his first two tours to Australia, Lord Hawke tried to induce Barnes to go to South Africa, but Barnes then had a good position with good prospects, with a firm of Staffordshire iron-masters and when he declined the invitation Lord Hawkes commented: ‘We can’t understand you-you only play when you like’.
He was always business-like, on and off the field, whether there was humour in it or not, as in a match between Porthill and Burslem in the North Staffordshire League when Albert Hollowood, father of a future editor of Punch, came in first wicket down to face Barnes. Hollowood was very strong on the off and his captain advised Barnes to put another man out at backward point. ‘No, replied Barnes in a voice loud enough for Hollowood to hear, ‘leave the field; he can’t cut-especially me’.
Grand Old Man
During the later years of his life Barnes received many honours of varying kinds. In 1951 he was made an honorary member of the M.C.C and in 1953 became a life menber of the Staffordshire Society in London. In 1954 Staffordshire County Committee commissioned his portrait and Mr. Harry Rutherford, the Lancashire artist did the studies for the the painting in the large room of the Swan Hotel in Stafford. The painting hangs in the Long Room at Lords alongside W.G. Grace.
In April 1963, the Staffordshire County Committee honoured his 90th birthday by sending him a hamper of food and wine. Since 1939 when he was 66 he worked for Staffordshire County Council at Shire Hall and excercised his great gift of copperplate writing which he learned at school from a master who, if his pupils did not hold the pens correctly, rapped their knuckles.
Barnes, despite his age and fitness, did not come of a long-lived family. When he finished with Stone in 1940 when he was 67, he was in perfect physical condition and possibly could have played for years. When he was 48 they asked him to go to Australia. He did it by just keeping fit, regular habits and a determination to succeed. He used to do a lot of gardening at one time and during the winter months played football and hockey and went skating and rowing. He never had to diet. He smoked a pipe since a youngster, but only occasional cigarettes, and enjoyed a drink and a cigar.

http://www.knowtheradars.blogspot.com

WHAT ARE SPORTS?????????

A SPORT is a physical activity that is governed by a set of rules or customs and often engaged in competitively.