Biography
The aim and determination of a disabled athlete to represent his country at
Wheelchair Table Tennis, regardless of age.
At the age of 63 I lost my right leg, below the knee, as a result of long term Type 1 Diabetes that I had since 13yrs of age ( 52 years ).
Coming from a Table Tennis family background in Reading, Berkshire I was introduced into this fantastic sport at the tender age of 8, following in the footsteps of my sister Judy, herself a Jnr and Snr International and my elder brother Nick, himself an accomplished County level player. My father Deryck was the Club Coach at Reading YMCA and I was soon to embark on a Table Tennis career that was relatively successful but was to take a dramatic turn in 2019. The other member of the family, my younger brother Tim also became a very strong player following a disability at birth and became a disabled International culminating in representing Great Britain at the 1996 Atlanta Para Olympics.
I made my England Junior debut at the age of 12 when selected to take part in an International tournament in Holland. I soon became a full Junior International and represented England on many occasions and also represented the Senior team as young blood was promoted for experience. My highlight was being crowned European Cadet Champion in 1970 which was U/14 level back in the day but at the same event I also represented the U/17 team in the team event.
I had contracted Diabetes Type 1 the year prior to the Europeans win and struggled to cope well with the condition, being in and out of Hospital on many occasions. Not fully understanding about Diabetes was a real problem and in hindsight the advice that I was given was not conducive to an International athlete and in the next few years certainly affected my long term health but more importantly my International Table Tennis career that was to come to an end in the summer of 1973.
Whilst playing for England there were many great experiences with the likes of Des Douglas, Dennis Neale, Chester Barnes, Mary Wright and Jill Hammersley, memories and stories that I will never forget.
Knowing full well at the age of 17 that my International career was over I had the fantastic opportunity to travel around the USA with the world famous Harlem Globetrotters, performing half time Table Tennis exhibitions with my American opponent. Playing in such iconic American stadiums such as Madison Square Garden, LA Forum, Boston Garden and the Maryland Centre was a great experience and was always in front of full houses of 20,000 fans. We actually played Madison Square Garden in New York for 3 days running and 3 shows a day amassing a total of 180,000 fans, a truly great experience but one of the most demanding crowds because they were used to seeing and paying for the very best in worldwide entertainment. Even the Globetrotter stars of Meadowlark Lemon and Curly Neal were nervous as to the crowd’s response.
We also played Philadelphia Spectrum in front of 17,000 fans on Xmas Day morning at 11am !!
So with my International career behind me I concentrated on playing Senior County Table Tennis and National Tournaments along with representing a couple of Clubs in the British League. My County career was originally for Cheshire at both Junior and Senior level ( my parent’s home county of birth ) and in later years Berkshire my county of residence. I was actually Senior and Junior Champion of both Cheshire and Berkshire and later, before my retirement, County Senior Champion of Dorset and just lost out on being County Champion of Hampshire when I lost in the Final. Great memories.
I also had a successful career whilst back in Berkshire of Coaching and took 5 youngsters on board, resulting in 4 County players and a Junior International, something that I am still extremely proud of, passing on my wealth of experience to others.
Retirement then beckoned, in my mid thirties, and I was blessed to father three incredible daughters before I decided to play again once I had reached the ripe old age of 60.
I soon found that I had not lost my ability and in my very first o/60’s Tournament I beat the No 3 seed ( an Ex England International ) in my Group to cause one of the biggest shocks and surprises of the weekend. On the long drive back from Blackpool I had a lot of time to reflect on what I had done in a very short period, about 8 weeks only, and what I could do if I focused on returning to serious play. I employed a Coach and Fitness trainer and over the next 3 seasons I actually got selected for the England’s o/60’s Mens Team and won 2 Gold Medals in the 6 Nations Event in Guernsey. Although I did not win any National o/60 Mens Singles events I did beat England’s No 1 and 2 during that period and reached a number of Semi Finals in these events. I was however very successful at Doubles and won numerous Tournaments with various partners before being crowned National o/60’s Doubles Champions in May 2018, and 7 days later won an International o/60’s Doubles title in Spain. I had already decided that persistent injuries would curtail my brief 3 year comeback to Table Tennis and I finally retired.
10 months later, after a brief 6 months in the USA with my wife Pauline I had the dream to try and retain my o/60’s National Doubles title, I must have been mad, I had not touched a bat since I left Spain and I was hoping to become National Doubles Champion again in 6 week’s time. We landed by on English soil on April 3rd and I had started practicing the day after. This continued for the next 2 weeks, every day as the clock was proverbially ticking before the impending Nationals.
I had suffered an ulcer on one of my toes just before I left for the USA in October 2018 and it came and went a few times whilst over there and was controlled by antibiotics and I was not overly concerned until I returned from another night’s practice on April 18th when my toe just exploded with blood when I took my table tennis shoe off. It was clearly not right and after visiting the Doctor the following day I was admitted to Hospital. It was quite clear to myself and Pauline after consulting with the Doctors that I would probably lose my toe but what we did not expect was that 6 weeks later I was to leave Hospital with only one leg after having a BKA ( Below Knee Amputation ) of my right leg on May 29th 2019. A day I will never forget, that’s for sure.
My life had changed and also that of my family. The thought of having only one leg for the rest of my life and spending a considerable time in a wheelchair was not one that I had even contemplated. The leg was lost basically because of the 52 years of Type 1 Diabetes, poor circulation in my foot and arterial problems in my legs, yes both of them.
In a strange sort of way, facing diversity like this was just the spur that I needed to do something positive in my later life and in the hours after my amputation I set about sourcing a specialist wheelchair for Table Tennis and actually paid for my subscription to GB Para Table Tennis from my Hospital bed. I was discharged from Bournemouth Hospital on June 4th , some 6 weeks after I was admitted.
I was very fortunate that The Steve Bernard Foundation agreed to pay for my wheelchair, a refurbished one that had actually been used in the Rio 2016 Olympic Games and I collected it on 13th June and was playing that night at The Dorset Table Tennis Centre in Christchurch.
The journey had begun !!
I soon found out that the first GB Para Tournament of the season was being held in Nottingham in the 3rd week of September. That did not give me much time to recover from my operation, practice, get used to my wheelchair and be ready for Nottingham.
It was hard as I had never played in a wheelchair previously and practice facilities and partners were very restricted.
A lot of hours on the table with my Coach, Matt Ware, certainly paid off as I came away with 3 x Silver Medals and a 3rd place out of the 4 events that were played and included 2 x wins against a player ranked at No 50 in the World Rankings.
On the back of this I was invited to GB Para Headquarters in Sheffield to train with the Olympic Squad at EIS, Sheffield. This was great experience and was great to be back in an International training hall once again.
I also played in the 2nd GB Para Tournament in St Neots in November and came away with 2 x Silver Medals from both of the singles events, losing to GB No 2 Dan Bullen on both occasions.
I made my GB Para debut in December 2019 in Costa Rica where I also received my Classification and it was confirmed that I was officially a Class 5 Para athlete and able to play in a wheelchair anywhere in the World.