Clubs 1927 - 2009
| The following 9 pages list all
the Clubs which have registered and played in the L&DTTL since 1927, an
amazing 453 Clubs Many of which have basically been the same Club but have had to change their name a number of times for various reasons. Marconi for example started as A.T.m.Co. then Plessey, GPT, and finally Marconi. When Les Forrest started the L&DTTL in 1927-28, he was playing for North Liverpool YMCA till 1931, then there was a North Liverpool Club 1932, then a Bootle TTC until 1938, the war years may have intervened here, Bootle YMCA started in Stanley Road Bootle 1948, and is now playing from Park St Bootle, could we add this up to 55 years of playing. There are quite a few Clubs with a similar mixed history, Liverpool Jewish / Harold house, Liverpool Police / Merseyside Police, Linnets / Aigburth, 15th Crosby / Bath st. Liverpool YMCA would have been the longest playing club, having 60 years in up to the time the YMCA in Liverpool closed in 2004, but many of the same players are now playing from Christ the King. Cadwa, started in 1950 , have 59 unbroken seasons, but the longest continuous run goes to the 'Boys' from Linacre Men's Club, started in 1948, 61 continuous years, I hope they are looking at their youth policy. If any of our readers can join up any other clubs please let us know. All the teams listed have registered and played in the Liverpool and District Table Tennis League over the years, many of the club names will be recognised as having "also" played in the Liverpool Business Houses League which started in 1948, finally closing in 2007, so add to the 453 Clubs listed here, the many more that may have only played in the Business Houses, and you get some indication of the popularity of TT in the past List of the 453 Clubs and seasons played Thanks to Trevor Owens for his research, through the League Handbooks in the Archives R. W. 2009 |
The accompanying list gives an
indication how a sport goes through good and bad patches. From 1927 to the start of WW2, it was a constant rise in popularity, from 1 Division with 13 teams to 9 Divisions with 106 teams, bearing in mind that teams were mostly 5 and 4 player teams, TT in those days, being mainly a night time enjoyment, didn't really have too much competition, getting to the matches was probably the most difficult thing, not many cars about then. Organised Table Tennis stopped when WW2 started but an attempt was made to kick start the league in 1941, but probably due to so many air raids on Liverpool, it was abandoned the following year. But as the tide of the war turned, the L&DTTL was restarted, to begin the start of what turned out to be the most popular period in our history, from 2 Divs & 28 teams in 1943 to 16 Divs. and 160 teams in 1950-5. In those 5 years after the war, taking part in sport was probably looked at as a good way of socialising at reasonable cost, and table tennis had everything going for it, it could be set up at reasonable cost in a minimal sized room, we still had food rationing, but I'm sure something 'special' was found for the matches, (a cup of tea and a few biscuits). The 50's started the decline, the competition for the players attention increased with the availability of TV to the masses, first black & white soon to be followed by colour, and if that wasn't enough, cinema's took up the battle, bringing out 3D, Cinemascope, Todd-Ao, wide screens and Stereo sound, the girl friends probably started to put their claim in for the players time; we could say "but if only one night a week was required, why the decline", who knows, but it did decline, to the late 80's with 5 Divs. with 59 teams. From the early 90's till now, we have managed to stabilise at around 50-60 teams a season, but mainly due to 3 out of 5 Divs. now being 3 aside teams. There was also a decline in youngsters taking up TT in the last 20 years with the advent of the computer, then the computer games, giving rise to the name "square eyed couch potatoes". But hopefully times may be changing, the government is ploughing loads of money into getting youngster 'moving' again, and TT being a 'not so strenuous' sport to learn could be the answer, more and more schools are adding it to their curriculum and it seems to be taking off locally, but help from established players and Clubs is still required to keep the momentum going. Thanks to Trevor Owens for his research, not often we get straight forward statistics in time to prevent the doomsday prophesies coming true !!.
The L&DTTL - the rise & fall |