TT returns to DB Egmore!

On Friday, January 29, 2010, DB Egmore announced the launch of a new Table Tennis Academy in association with Subramaniam Raman, a four-time National Champion. The facility will operate out of the Auditorium which is housed in the Primary school and will offer a complete coaching solution for students from all over the city keen to play TT at the highest level. I was there at the launch and my mind went back to a time when Table Tennis ruled the roost in DB Egmore. A time when only Crocker and Cricket could rival the craze of this game. I think the fad started in the early 80s. It had a lot to do with the huge encouragement the School Management gave any sport or extra curricular activity at that point in time. To fuel this fad the school set up an awesome TT Room that boasted of  six Tournament-class tables. It was located just next to the canteen at the main school and guys would kill for a table during lunch breaks. Most of the tables were reserved for the serious players and coaching after school hours and so it was almost impossible to get your hands on a table at that time. There were a couple of other tables that were around for a brief while near in the ground floor corridors and they certainly helped the demand-supply situation. And when the game exploded, most of us resorted to using the large benches near the Cricket nets as Stand-in TT tables. Text Books became TT Nets and the International Norms on TT Table dimensions were thrown out of the window! Anything and any surface became a TT Table. A lot of us would forget to bring the odd text book but we never forgot our TT racquets. During this period the School produced some top quality TT players who won National acclaim. The school also hosted a national TT Tournament (I think it was the Junior Nationals). Unfortunately the interest in the game gradually began to slide in the late 90s and it was disappointing to see all the TT Tables disappear from the TT room and make way for Dining tables. In the 2000s it became a Dining room for the students. Ironical considering we used Tables at the School ground meant for Dining to play TT. That's why this new academy is a brilliant new beginning. Hopefully it will rekindle the interest in a game that DB Egmore excelled in and a game that made a lot of our lunch breaks more fun and eventful! 

(Image courtesy: DB Egmore Official Site)