Late Return, A

Bill Rees has been living in the south of France for ten years working as an itinerant bookseller in Montpellier. The one thing he misses about England is table tennis. Then he sees an advert to join a club for “experienced players only” and veterans. He starts training immediately, he’s forty and not as fit as he used to be but Bill Rees is returning to the game à la carte. Covering one Sunday tournament in the depths of Languedoc when his team bids to make the National Finals, Bill Rees produces a deeply felt and deeply funny homage to the beautiful game of ping-pong. Rees shows the sport for what it is: painful, exhilarating, tactical, fast (especially when his club mate Alain is at the table), consuming. All of which is revealed from the perspective of a Brit playing in French amateur leagues. Conveyed is the pain of competition, the agony of losing and the joys of victory. The reader is also regaled with a Zen-like insight into the sport. For all those athletes who dream of glory being around the corner and never too late. Contains illustrations by the Monpellier based artist Beachy. -- Publisher: Parthian Books
Table tennis, ping-pong, whiff-whaff, call it what you will, is played world-wide. But what is it in essence? According to the author, it is all about making better use of time than your adversary. But you could hardly make better use of time than by reading this little gem. William Rees is an itinerant bookseller who has spent the past decade living and working in Montpellier. In Gallic exile, what he missed most of all was table tennis. Seeing an advert ‘for experienced players only’, he jumps at the chance with open arms, or rather with expectant bat. And thus, at the age of forty he returns to the game à la carte. Interspersed with a running commentary on a Sunday tournament in Languedoc that is a qualification round for the national finals, the author concentrates on the performance and mindset of team-mate Alain Fabre, an eminent exponent of ping-pong. This fascinating book is also a philosophical analysis of table tennis. It asks the key question whether it is merely a game or a sport? Like chess, we are told, it is a proper sport rather than just any other game. To sceptics the author explains: ‘You cannot simultaneously play table tennis and puff on a fag.’ An astute observation. We are led through the gamut of emotions experienced by an exile who is approaching middle age. He is not as fit as he should be and we are witness to a mixture of suffering and joy, disappointment and jubilation. Add to all that the frustrations of being a Brit abroad. Although only some 70 pages long, this is a mini classic. It is a paean of love to a sport that involves knocking a small plastic ball over a net from one end of a table to the other. It is also a hymn to perseverance. Throughout, there is more than a whiff (but not the whaff) of humour. To the uninitiated, playing ping-pong would seem to be a trite exercise. But Rees makes it seem like the most exciting activity imaginable. And adding to the book’s appeal are piquant line illustrations by the artist Beach. William Rees should be immediately inducted to the pantheon of articulate sports pundits. What Brian Johnson was to cricket, what Bill McLaren was to rugby union, what Jeff Stelling is to soccer, so is Bill Rees to table tennis. -- Lyn Ebenezer @ www.gwales.com