Ian Harrison (table Tennis)
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Ian Harrison is a male former international
table tennis Table tennis (also known as ping-pong) is a racket sport derived from tennis but distinguished by its playing surface being atop a stationary table, rather than the Tennis court, court on which players stand. Either individually or in teams of ...
player from
England England is a Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...
.


Table tennis career

He began playing table tennis at the age of 12 after asking for a table tennis set for Christmas, and soon after joined Cheltenham Spa T.T.C. Only a few years later, aged 15 he won the English Open Junior Boys Singles. That same season he was picked to play for England for the first time, in a friendly match against France. The following year, 1957, he was picked for the higher level Swaythling Cup team to play at the World Championship in Stockholm. He competed at the
World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tennis competitions sanctioned by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF). The World Championships have been held since 1926, biennially since 1957. Five individual events, which include men ...
, in the Swaythling Cup at six consecutive tournaments from 1957 to 1967. In 1960 he won the
English Open The English Open was a professional golf tournament held in England. First played in 1988, it was an annual event on the European Tour until 2002. After several aborted attempts at reviving the tournament, it returned to the tour schedule in 20 ...
, the first English born men's winner for 36 years. That year Harrison also won the English Closed title, becoming the first player to win both the "Open" and "Closed" singles titles. Throughout his career Harrison had some notable international victories, including against Ichiro Ogimura from Japan in the World Championships of 1961 and three times World Champion, China’s Chuang Tse-Tung (Zhuang Zedong). In 1959 a major change in table tennis came in the form of new bat technology: from pimpled rubber to sandwich rubber. This new material  enabled more, sometimes excessive, spin to be used and completely changed the game, greatly favoring more attacking styles. Harrison who had excelled as a  defensive player tried hard to adapt but never fully succeeded in making the change. In addition, an increasingly busy personal life (he now had a young son) meant he wasn't able to put in the required practice and so Ian Harrison decided, whilst still at the top, to retire from table tennis saying "'Why did you retire? is a much nicer question than 'Why don't you retire?'" Despite the issue of the game change, Harrison remained in the English team for another six years and won the English Closed Singles one more time in 1967. He won the English Closed Men's Doubles five times in 1960, 1965, 1966, 1967 and 1968. He also won at mixed doubles, once in the English Open (1960) and once in the English Closed (1964). Before he retired it was well recognized that Harrison had dominated English table tennis for years. Harrison was, and still is, the only player ever to have won all three of the English Open Men's singles, Junior Boys and the English Closed Men's singles. Throughout his entire career from 1957 to 1967 he played each year for England in every major championship: The World Table Tennis Championships and the Europeans. In total he played 178 times for England, won eight
English National Table Tennis Championships The English National Table Tennis Championships are run by the English Table Tennis Association. The first championships were held in 1960. Desmond Douglas has won the most singles titles with 11, whilst the leading woman is Jill Parker-Hammers ...
, won over 100 Open titles around the world, and was England number one for 7 years.


See also

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List of England players at the World Team Table Tennis Championships List of England players at the World Team Table Tennis Championships The tables below are the English representatives for the men's and women's teams during the World Table Tennis Championships The World Table Tennis Championships are table tenn ...
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English National Table Tennis Championships The English National Table Tennis Championships are run by the English Table Tennis Association. The first championships were held in 1960. Desmond Douglas has won the most singles titles with 11, whilst the leading woman is Jill Parker-Hammers ...
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English Open (table tennis) The English Open was a table tennis tournament in England, last staged by the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) in Sheffield in 2011. History The tournament was first held as the English Open in 1927 by the English Table Tennis Assoc ...
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Table Tennis England Table Tennis England, formerly the English Table Tennis Association, is the national governing body for table tennis in England, responsible for representing, coordinating, administering, marketing and developing the sport. Most of its annual inc ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Harrison, Ian English male table tennis players 1939 births Living people