A glimmer of hope for TT fans

Tony Becca, Contributor

For those who remember the glory days of Jamaica's table tennis, the days when small boys walked around with their racquets in their back pockets looking for somewhere to play and someone to challenge, those days could be back.

Those were the days of champions like Fuarnado Roberts, Leo Davis, Glen Mitchell, Maurice Foster, Dave Foster, and later on in the days of Orville Haslam. For those who are longing for the return of those days and that quality of players, although it seems some distance away, those days could be back.

On Sunday last, I visited the Alfred Sangster Auditorium at the University of Technology to witness the final day of the National Championships and as one who had enjoyed the glory days, as one who had been around for the good days in the 1970s and the early 1980s, and also as one who had suffered through the drought of the past 25 years or so, I expected nothing but another look at the talent of young Yvonne Foster. I was, however, pleasantly surprised.

There was no Roberts and there was no Dave Foster, there was also no Joy Foster and there was no Monica DeSouza among the women, and there was certainly no Haslam, the man who, in my opinion, and despite Roberts' sublime touch and artistry, was the greatest player ever to wear the national colours.

There were, however, a few players who, with good coaching and proper guidance, with exposure and dedication, could bring back the glory days, or at least lay the foundation for the return to those days.

In the men's singles final, it was, as it had been for the previous three years, defending champion Peter Moo Young versus former champion Joseph Dibbs, and at their age, at 48 and at 39, it was not saying too much for the skill of the young players.

Better players

Although I saw them playing only doubles this time around, the youngsters all looked better players than in previous years, however, and definitely so 18-year-old Kareem Flowers, 18-year-old Simon Tomlinson - the grandson of former national netballer Vilma McDonald, 18-year-old Michael Cai, 15-year-old Nicolas Mahfood, and also 21-year-old Kane Watson and 20-year-old Emani McPherson.

At their age, including the age of Flowers, Tomlinson, and Cai, players like Roberts, Glen Mitchell and Dave Foster, Cornel France, Richard Stephenson and Michael Tenn, Roberto Byles, Colin McNeish, David Marchalleck, Ernest Virgo, Stephen Hylton and Garfield Jones, were champions. And, if one can attempt to go from generation to generation and make comparisons, the players of yesterday were probably also more skilled.

In the women's singles final, it was an 18-year-old five-time champion, Yvonne Foster, versus 15-year-old Ashli Alexander. Although Foster is way ahead of Alexander, their play, including that of the younger player, also suggests that something is happening in the women's game.

With the older Janelle Morris, the only other female of note around, however, the Jamaica Table Tennis Association (JTTA) needs to find a few more young girls.

Nothing develops players like competition, and although it was Joy Foster alone in her early days before the coming of DeSouza, even though one like Sharon Spence and then Tina Walter were alone, Jamaica's junior girls have always had strong competition and some absorbing contests.

Just as it was once Stephenson and Tenn, McNeish, Byles and Marchalleck, Hylton, and Jones, in the junior boys, it was once Sandra Riettie, Ingrid Mangatal and Nadine Senn Yuenn, Julie Armstrong, Lisa Grant, Sharon Becca and Sophia Virgo keeping each other on their toes in the junior girls.

It is not yet bright and rosy, but it is promising. There is a glimmer of hope that something is happening in Jamaica's table tennis and that it may not be long before we start to cheer again.

From all reports, coaches Winston Cowans and Riettie, two former national players, one a Caribbean men's doubles champion, the other a many-time national champion, one with the juniors and the other with the cadets, are doing a good job, and hopefully the sun will start to shine on Jamaica's table tennis shortly.

Moo Young and new men's champion Dibbs have served the game well. Their love for the game and their dedication to the game have been examples to every one in the game for years now, and with their love for the game, long may they continue playing the game.

Hope of the nation

If they are good enough to beat the youngsters, and if they are good enough to keep on winning, so be it.

Tomlinson won the trials to select the team for the coming Commonwealth Games in Delhi, however, and although he failed to make it to the quarter-finals of the 'Nationals' and did not follow through, in a bid to return to the glory days, the hope of the nation is that next year, or between now and then, the youngsters, and particularly so the boys, the likes of Tomlinson, Flowers and Cai, will really start to deliver.

That is also the hope for Yvonne Foster, Alexander and Morris.

According to the JTTA, a women's team will not be going to the Commonwealth Games for two reasons: because there is not enough money, and because only Yvonne Foster is considered good enough, at this stage, to compete at that level.

To send Yvonne Foster so far and for so long to play in the individual events alone was, apparently, out of the question for the JTTA and the Jamaica Olympic Association, and that is reasonable thinking.

It seems a pity, however, that Yvonne Foster, who has been so successful in the region, will not be there. If any Jamaican table tennis player deserves to be in Delhi, however, she is the one.

Yvonne Foster, like the rest of Jamaica, must be praying, not only that she improves, not only that a few more girls come along, but also and more so, that young Alexander develops quickly.