After Dark Ping Pong

The World Championship of Ping Pong

admin — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 14:10:05 +0000

The World Championship of Ping Pong was held this past week (January 5-6) at the Alexandra Palace in London. The event had a $100,000 purse for top table tennis players to win in a made-for-TV event put together by Barry Hearn–the maven of snooker, darts, and just about every other sport you see on TV.

Unlike other top table tennis events, the World Championship of Ping Pong had all players using the same equipment–a sandpaper bat that features layers of carbon and is based off of the Table Tennis Nation blade (Table Tennis Nation was a part of the paddle’s development).

The paddle was designed to increase the length of rallies and eliminate the incredible spins that modern rackets are best known for. As Hearn said, “I’m not a fan of sponge bats and I’m not a fan of spin. The game thirty years ago was bigger when it was hard bat and people were watching extended athletic rallies that were more televisual. Today’s modern table tennis frankly doesn’t fit television. It’s too up close and personal, you don’t get enough rallies and I think we need to go back to something like this to see if we can create proper sporting atmosphere. I’m fairly critical of modern day table tennis. I don’t think it fits into today’s market but I think this might.”

Picture via World Championship of Ping Pong

The tournament aired on Sky TV and featured 64 players. The reaction to the show so far has been incredible with ratings 3-4 times higher than expected. The event also featured a “double point ball” (another aspect Table Tennis Nation brought to the table).

The paddle though, was the key to the whole tournament. Designed to make rallies longer and level the playing field among pros, it made for much better television viewing than tournaments where players can use more or less whatever they choose.

While the event was for pros, the paddle can help beginners as well. There are more and more events popping up using these Table Tennis Nation-style rackets (many in the US, but throughout the UK and Europe as well). The World Championship of Ping Pong hasn’t made their specific paddles available, but the Table Tennis Nation paddles they’re based on are available through their website for less than £28 delivered.

You can learn more about the World Championship of Ping Pong here.

Did you watch it? What did you think?
Let us know in the comments, on facebook, and on twitter.

Time To Say Goodbye

admin — Mon, 01 Oct 2012 14:34:19 +0000

It Goodbye

Frank Herbert said, “There is no real ending. It’s just the place where you stop the story.”

If curiosity has stricken your mind to why I have begun this blog with a quote about endings, it is because After Dark Ping Pong are announcing our closing down of the site and it’s content.

It has been a truly eye opening experience for ADPP to be a part of a fast growing sport, especially during the best summers of sport of our time, The London 2012 Olympics. However, our time for this particular project is over, but for Table Tennis it is only the beginning.

A new club is opening in London called BOUNCE and the recent World Championships have just been in Liverpool Echo Arena.

To Note: Our site and all it’s content will remain until December.

On behalf of ADPP, Thank you to all our followers and readers for your support and passion for the game that we love. It has been much appreciated and we hope you keep the same enthusiasm the sport needs to continue growing.

Thank you so much for taking us in to your sport and accepting us as one of the leading blogs out there for social and professional sport. We have met some awesome people along the way and been to some incredible events that we wont forget, thanks for having us.

“There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit.’ It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over — and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving up, rather than out.” (Ellen Goodman)

A final signing off from ADPP’s Founder and Head Editor,

Jojo Regan and Conor Haynes.

One of our favourites

Ever fancied a flutter on the Table Tennis?

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 15:20:00 +0000

It is just me or does the idea of betting on a Table Tennis match sound quite appealing?! The ADPP team play ALOT of Poker but I am not a seasoned gambler nor do I spend much time in casinos, but I do like a flutter on the football or rugby every so often, so why not the table tennis?!

With matches on every weekend in the Bundesliga and around Europe, there are plenty of players I would like to back. Table Tennis also has a habit of producing some good underdogs and match upsets. Imagine the odds you could have got on Ariel Hsing taking two sets of world number 2 Li Xiaoxia in the Olympics! Or on Dimitri Ovtcharov walking away from the games with two bronze medals and Timo Boll none!

Funnily enough, Team GB’s Kelly Sibley was sponsored by OLBG the online sports betting website, in the run up the the Olympics as she had little or no national funding, and they stepped in and kept her Olympic dream alive.

We touched on it before but the ADPP team really enjoy a game of Poker, almost as much as we enjoy a game of Table Tennis (That is saying a lot) It is almost impossible to get Marcus off Party Poker (If you want to check out why Marcus is so into it click here for their site) and because he is able to play online he has got into the sport a lot more and buys the magazines and reads online blogs on how to get better at it. If we were able to bet on the Table Tennis it may draw in more people into the sport as they will look to find out which player to back and thus do research and read up online about them. Thus they now know more about the sport!

It is a loose idea but I guess it is working under the assumption that any publicity is good publicity. What are your thoughts on the subject? This one we are really keen to get a response on so make sure to comment below or on our Facebook page!

A Summer Of Sport: It’s All Over!!!

admin — Wed, 12 Sep 2012 12:37:05 +0000

The Paralympics closing ceremony spikes viewings and pays a sensational tribute to what has been an outstanding games. It represents the end of a special summer in the capital and for the whole of the UK. This summer’s action has been star studded action from the day one. As we move into September, the winter blues are sure to kick in as the TV choices are limited to Deal or No Deal and Xfactor! Oh well, at least Table Tennis can be played all year round and anywhere room or garden you can jam a table into!

The Paralympic Closing Ceremony

Full of emotion and suspense the crowd in the Olympic stadium witnessed inspirational speeches and a musical performance from Coldplay, Rihanna and Jay-Z in the closing ceremony. Followed by impressive fireworks lighting up the London skyline.

All the athletes were cheered out on to the field with their individual flags waving proudly. The atmosphere was full of emotion from the 10 days that the Paralympian athletes put on for us in a spectacle that has exceeded all expectation this summer 2012.

The last 12 days have lifted the height of competitiveness in Paralympic and handicapped sports forever. Tom Coe said “The Paralympians have lifted the cloud of limitation.”

Statistically speaking the Paralympics closing ceremony averaged 5.9million viewers on Sunday evening with channel 4 having the bigger share of the audience than BBC1 or ITV1. The viewings even peaked for a 5-minute spell of 7.7 million viewers. Sunday evenings viewing was only beaten by Jonnie Peacocks 100m win (6.3million) and the opening ceremony that averaged 7.6 million viewers (with a 5 minute peak of 11.4million).

The flame was put out by Jonnie Peacock and Ellie Simmonds, which has burned throughout the Games. A tribute was given to the people who helped put this summer’s highlight together. 70’000 games makers and the armed forces that stepped in to provide security. Lord Coe gave the speech, which received a standing novation from the 80’000 crowd.

This followed a performance of ‘Run this Town’ by Jay-z, Rihanna and Coldplay with a montage of the best moments of the Games to Coldplay’s ‘The Scientist’.

The fireworks were spectacular and sparked off all along the Thames as well as the Olympic park and a projection read “Thank you London, thank you UK” on the houses of Parliament.

An attempt at a powerful metaphor from Lord Coe went down well with the crowd with roars of applause. He said, “Finally, there are some famous words you can find stamped on the bottom of a product. Words, that when you read them, you know mean high quality, mean skill, mean creativity, we have stamped those words on the Olympic and Paralympic Games of London 2012. London 2012. Made in Britain.”

Winter Plans?

What have you got planned or are looking forward to, to get you through the winter? Let us know in the comment section below!

Conor Haynes

Team GB Victory Parade!

admin — Mon, 10 Sep 2012 16:33:55 +0000

We wanted to do use big images to show our parade photos so click on this link HERE to check out the main post. We have posted this here so that it will come up on the RSS feeds! We have some great images and a video from the parade! Check it out!

Natalia Partyka establishing her name in the Table Tennis world

admin — Sun, 09 Sep 2012 19:52:43 +0000

Another Paralympian to add to the list of inspirational table tennis players is Poland’s Natalia Partyka who is currently into her fourth Paralympic Games and two Olympic games at the young age of 23.

Natalia has stood her place alongside the great Paralympian Oscar Pistorius with her third gold secured and constantly improving. The comparison between her and Oscar Pistorius can be made that they are the only two Olympians to ever compete in the Olympics. This is a fantastic achievement for the two Paralympians. An inspiration to all Paralympians.

Ranked 56th in the world Natalia still thinks it is “important that I am the best player in the Paralympics, but maybe I am more focused on the professional table tennis with the Olympics and playing with able-bodied players” she said.

Natalia’s main goal is to win an Olympic medal and it seems to be the drive for her to train harder because she stated “In Rio, I would like to play again in both, but still I have one dream and I am dreaming about an Olympic medal.”

Background

Partyka began playing table tennis at the age of seven. She won her first international table tennis medal in 1999 at the disabled World Championships. At the age of 11, she competed at the 2000 Summer Paralympics in Sydney, becoming the world’s youngest ever Paralympian. Natalia made her mark winning gold at Athens and doing the same again in the Beijing Olympics four years later. Natalia was born without her right forearm and table tennis became her passion.

ADPP Interviews Ping England!

admin — Sat, 08 Sep 2012 19:02:43 +0000

After Dark Ping Pong’s Conor interviews Andy from Ping England, the organisation behind all those free table tennis tables that we have been using lately! Comment below if you have played on one of the public tables?

We bumped into Andy at one of the Pongathon events at Richmix in Shawditch, London. Click the image at the top to begin the video.

Click the Image and it will take you to the Ping! England website so you can find your closest table!!

Ping is a street table tennis festival/project that has been running for 3 years now, however there has been a big push in the run up to the Olympic games this summer.

The tables have been all over the UK in cities like London, Liverpool, Bristol, Northampton, Birmingham, Manchester and Brighton. There is almost no city safe from Ping’s incredible scheme! They have even popped up in Airports and train stations!

There were 300-400 tables in total and almost every single one of them will be staying there FOREVER! Most the temporary locations were meant to end in June or July but have been extended to August and September because of how successful there have been.

The tables are staying because they have been donated to Community centres, charities, organisations and local bars. They will be in charge of the upkeep and will be where you can pick up the bats and balls to play.

Extreme Beer Pong: Skill or Luck?!

admin — Fri, 07 Sep 2012 13:21:33 +0000

This is something we have all tried. The skill shot across the room into some sort of cup or bin.

Now there is always the debate, did you mean it and was it luck or skill?! Check out some of our favourite videos we have found and we will let you be the judge! Click any of the images to begin the video.

Let us know what you think in the comments box at the bottom! Which one was the best?!

David Wetherill’s “Superman diving forehand winner!”

admin — Wed, 05 Sep 2012 09:07:42 +0000

I am sure you have all seen the shot already, but if this is not worth blogging about than I don’t know what is!! In this Class 6 Group A WETHERILL David (Great Britain) versus KUSIAK Thomas (Germany), the Brit is down 2 sets to 1 and is 4-3 down in this crucial set. Click the image at the top to begin playing the video.

The German puts Dave on his back foot with a body shot that the Brit just manages to return with some fast reactions, then the German sends a cross court backhand shot deep into the corner of Dave’s side of the table and in the blink of an eye the shot of the tournament happens, I wont even try to describe it, just watch for yourself!

The video has been watched around the world almost 3 million times and is as viral as it gets at the moment. Watch out Justin Bieber, you “baby” video is under threat as the most watched thing on Youtube!! Follow David on Twitter at @Wetherill89. He has seen his twitter followers rocket up into the thousands and is at over 3,500!

You can also watch the full match on the video below, the amazing moment happens at 37minutes, so there is a lot of top class table tennis to watch before that point! And make sure you let us know what you think of the video in the comments section below!!

Dimitrij Ovtcharov Goes Old School at LA Open

admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2012 08:30:37 +0000

Check out the video above, it features Dimitrij Ovtcharov at the LA Open after his afternoon practice with Jeff Huang. He was asked to play a game using a wood blade (no rubber) shaped an an oversized meat cleaver and, although it took some time to get used to the new blade, he didn’t do to bad!

Apparently he was really having fun and the crowd was loving it. It is clear that he is becoming a fan favourite after he has really shot into the frontline of the professional game since his incredible performances at the Olympic Games in London.

He has been out in LA for the LA Open, see the video below for action in his game Vs Eugene Wang in the Semi Finals.

IF you are not already, make sure you follow his Facebook and Twitter, he is always updating them with funny images and videos! Credit for the video goes to “gfrontosa” from his Youtube page which you can check out Click here he has lots of great videos up. Thanks to Table Tennis Daily for sharing the Video originally.

Have you every tried using a bat like this? And let us know what you think about Dimitrij’s tekkers with it in the comment box below!

Jojo