This week Richard Scruton, LOCOG's Table Tennis Manager, invited several of the other Sport Managers to experience table tennis first hand at Canary Wharf as part of the Ping! London project, funded by Sport England and delivered in partnership with the English Table Tennis Association.
One hundred table tennis tables have been installed at London's landmarks – giving thousands of Londoners, whether experienced players or complete beginners, an opportunity to play.
The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has been known as an enthusiastic supporter of table tennis since his famous speech in Beijing 2008 when he declared 'ping-pong is coming home'.
It is fairly safe to say that the game originated as a sport in Britain during the 1800s, where it was played among the upper-class as an after-dinner entertainment activity. A row of books was placed along the centre of a table as a net, and the ball was made of champagne corks, hit from one end of the table to the other using paddles made of cigar box lids.
The modern game of ping-pong was invented by John Jaques, who commercialised the game by providing nets, balls, bats and formal rules. In the 1920s the sport was revived in Europe as table tennis.
Table tennis is apparently the most popular racket sport in the world, with over 300 million active members worldwide. The game is governed by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF), founded in 1926. Since 1988, table tennis has been an Olympic sport featuring four event categories.
From 1988 until 2004, these were: men's singles, women's singles, men's doubles and women's doubles. Since 2008, the doubles have been replaced by the team events, with three players per team competing in singles games.
There is no doubt about who the leading nation is in table tennis. In Beijing 2008, Chinese athletes scooped all of the individual medals and won Gold in the team events!
This week we were invited to step up to the table at the Jubilee Mall in Canary Wharf. Sally Hoang and Majada Yasmin, from Morpeth School in Bethnal Green, Tower Hamlets, were also present. Sally and Majada helped promote the Morpeth School team to the top division of the Junior British League and played in the World Schools' Championships in the Czech Republic earlier this year. They aim to rise to the top of the national junior rankings and are also part of a willing team of helpers making Ping! London a great success.
While my colleagues play I take the opportunity to watch Richard warm up with Sally. They take turns to serve, the slow serve rapidly progressing to a rhythm, forehand to forehand, backhand to backhand, lobs followed by smashes leading to further defensive lobs. The ball reaches such speeds (apparently up to 70 mph!) that the trajectory becomes hard to follow, the ball just an orange blur hitting the table with a hypnotic tick-tock, tick-tock...
I accept a challenge to play against Jo Sutherland, LOCOG's Basketball Manager. I decide to use the 'penhold' grip whilst Jo uses the 'shakehand' grip. I lob a few friendly returns at Jo only to have them smashed back at me. Okay, it's game on!
The winner of a game is the first to score 11 points or more while being ahead by two points or more. The 11 point game is an ITTF change which occurred in 2001. Previously, the first player to gain 21 points won the game. All games played at national level and at international tournaments are now played to 11 points in either the best of five or best of seven games format.
At the end of the Ping! London project, the temporary tables will be donated to schools, youth centres and local community centres to promote continued participation. Hopefully events like this and the profile that the sport will achieve at London 2012 will re-establish table tennis in the public's imagination as a fun and sociable sport to play. For the moment though, hand me the bat, it's my turn.
