Evening star., 1937-03-28
Bv Bill Dismer, J.

Il and growth OF sport. Yea,
talk even to Washington's padding
experts and you'll receive COM
parable account of table tennis re-
markable advancement in the District
within the space Of two years.
1t doesn't seem possible that table
tennis was unorganized in this coun-
try before 1888 and that, four years
later, America won both the mems
and Women's world championships of
that sport in competition with coun-
tries in which 1t has been played since
the days OF the war.
Similarly, local enthusiasts, who did
not establish an association for table
tennis here until 1885, still are pinch
ing themselves to realize they are not
dreaming that they are to see the
worlds two best players and a mem
ber of the United States champion
ship team here next Tuesday night.
Yet that is the delectable prospect
for Washington's incalculable multi
tude OF table tennis players and fans,
who will flock to Heurich's gymnasium
on that evening to see World Cham
pion Standa Kolar of Czechoslovakia
and former World Champion Laszlo
Bellak Of Hungary, representing
Europe, and Robert (BudJ Blattner
Of st. Louis and Sander Glance of
| New York, representing America, play
a United States-European match
along lines strikingly similar to the
| famed, and better-knoWn, Davis Cup
! tennis matches.
We say an "incalculable' number
Of local enthusiasts, for, if the closest
| student of the game here were asked
today to estimate the number Of Capt.
tai residents playing the popular in
door game, his reply would range all
the way from 10000 to 10000. Those
are the figures of Morris Bassford,
past president of the D. C. T. T. A.
and leading figure of the move to
popularize the local game even more
than its present status. Not that the
playing Of the game itself in count
! less recreation rooms and cellars
needs popularizing but the efforts
| toward organization of local clubs and
leagues, and, infrequently-such as
next Tuesday night-the chance to
witness, and thus gain invaluable
! pointers, the best players of the game
in action.
| Only the standard price of s2750
| per table is holding down the number
of local players, thinks Bassford, who
knows that any secondhand tables
which might be offered at the usual
| cost Of SIP or SIS are in demand and
snapped up quicker than you can drive
| the celluloid sphere across the net.
This appearance here Of the Inter-
national Table Tennis Troupe, as they
are called, corresponds identlcally
to professional tennis Vines-Perry
matches, with one exception. The
| players are not pros. merely content
| to make their way about the country
| and earn expenses for the sake OF
educating somewhat unlnformed
public on the finer points of the game.
THE United States Table Tennis
Association recently adopted two
moves designed to make the game
faster than ever, and it will be the
illustration of these new rules which
not only will reveal the latest angle
| in table tennis to local observers, but
also correct a wrong impression which
many might have regarding the ideal
| PLAYER. Both had a definite effect
| in the preparation of the United
States team, which used them to ad-
vantage to win both the Swaything
and Corbillon Cups-emblematlc OF
the mems and womens champion
ships, respectively. of the world.
First, the association lowered the
net from 6a4 inches to inches IN
order to aid the offensive player and,
secondly, adopted "server-must-hlt
rule. designed to eliminate tlresome
push" matches "Chiseling," as the
table tennis boys call the practice,
consists merely Of returning an op-
ponent's drive. with no effort to put
any power behind the stroke and no
! attempt for a placement. A CHS
eler," otherwise known as chopper, y
sometimes used the now-OutlaWed
stroke to prolong a match as long as
three or four hours. and it Is pre-
posterous. but true, that some rallies
| have continued for the unbelievable
period Of an hour and half before
a point was won.
However, the International Table
Tennis Association looked land still
does) upon such experiments with a
dour eye and clung to the 634-inch
net for the world championships. So
it was not without 1nisgiving that the
Americans began play in Baden, near
Vienna, Austria. III January, and the
majority of European spectators pre-
dicted dire results for the United
States during the international
matches. The handicap of playing
with high net after using one three
quarters of an inch lower was obvious,
they said, and openly called the
Americans "simpletons" and crazy"
But, already accustomed to tour
nament competition with high net
(they had played with it in the
national intercity championships in
Chicago in january, the noble ex-
pertinent" again scored in favor Of the
experimenters. And Americas hitters
won with as vicious an attack as ever
was seen in a world event of that
nature. Czechoslovakia gave them