The Edinburgh Reporter April 2024

By CHARLIE ELLIS

THE OLD EDINBURGH CLUB

has a mission to uncover and
capture “vanishing evidence of
Edinburgh’s history” and table
tennis is a clear example of a
portion of Edinburgh’s history in
danger of disappearing.
There is little awareness that
Edinburgh produced, in Helen
Elliot, a women’s doubles world
champion or that a keenly
contested league structure has
existed since 1935. The history of
table tennis also includes political
intrigue, the role of incomers to
the city and unusual episodes -
including a match featuring a
team of convicted murderers.
Despite many thousands of
people in Edinburgh having
played the sport over the last 100
years, it has gone on largely
unnoticed and but thanks to
support from the Old Edinburgh
Club and the Edinburgh and
Lothians Table Tennis League
(ELTTL), some of this vanishing
history is now being captured
At a competitive level and

despite a dip in participation due

the pandemic lockdowns, ELTTL

currently comprises 63 teams in

six divisions and several

Edinburgh & Lothians clubs also

take part in the Scottish National

League, where almost 150 players

compete.

Since getting involved in the

sport in 2009, I’ve become aware

of the sport’s rich history within

the city, however, I’ve also noticed

an absence of a proper historical

record and a general dearth of

documentation.

In many cases, the historical

information is largely lodged in

the heads of the senior figures in

the game. In an attempt to

document this, I’ve conducted

interviews with some of these

ex-players and officials, such as

ex-Scottish champions Eddie Still,

Johnny Campbell, and the late

Bert Kerr. But time is pressing –

last year one of Scotland’s greatest

ever players, Malcolm Sugden

(who spent much of his early life

in Edinburgh) died, his memories

largely unrecorded.

For the last few years, I’ve been

trying to collate as much material

as possible, from a variety of

sources. This helped me in writing

a history of Murrayfield Memorial

Club - established in 1922 as a

recreational and meeting place in

memory of locals who died in the

First World War - and table tennis

is the last surviving part of the club.

With the aid of a Jean Guild

Grant, my intention is to extend

this historical examination to table

tennis in the city more broadly

and to do further digging into the

records to see what further

documentation exists.

At present, much of the

Edinburgh table tennis archive

exists as piles of yellowing papers

and photographs in my

cupboards. A focus of this project

is to digitise the most important

parts of this archive and, in due

course, find a proper home for it

where it can be properly

catalogued and available for others

to use.

Read more of this story online

http://www.theedinburghreporter.

co.uk

99

Records charting growth of popular sport

archived for future generations

Gambit Scottish team

NEARLY HALF A CENTURY of treading

the boards by Forth Children’s Theatre

(FCT) will be marked by a 45th

Anniversary Gala performance running

through some of the most notable

musicals performed by the company.

Current FCT members and alumni are

gearing up to celebrate at The Church Hill

Theatre with the production running

from Thursday 4 April to Saturday 6 April.

In the repertoire are Thoroughly

Modern Millie, Anything Goes, Little Shop

of Horrors, 13 The Musical and Hairspray

which will vie alongside more modern

musicals including Mary Poppins, School

of Rock and a sneak-peak at FCT’s

up-coming Fringe production

Everybody’s Talking about Jamie.

This production is co-directed and

co-choreographed by FCT alumni Taylor

Doig and Jack Nixon, who between

them have 20 years of musical

production experience, while a rich pool

of volunteers are working in the

background to create the showbiz

magic seen in every production.

Mark McLauchlin joins Doig and

Nixon as Musical Director with Co-

Musical Direction from Jack Gardner.

The quartet of creatives take on some of

the biggest numbers in musical theatre

history and will be joined by a live band.

Show times are: 7.30pm Thur, Fri, Sat and

2.30pm Sat, tickets priced £15 full price and

£12 concessions.^

http://www.forthchildrenstheatre.org

Leading lights

Serving up

city’s rich

table tennis

history

SIX COURSES

ONE MEMBERSHIP

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ONLINE

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Courses to suit all abilities • Advanced booking privileges • Relaxed dress code

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