44th World Championships, G-Mex  Centre, Manchester, England. 24th April-5 May 1997.

With the World Championships coming up I thought it would be nice to look back to when England last hosted this event in 1997.

With any major event, and they don’t come any bigger than a World Championships, the organisation that goes on behind the event, months and years of planning make not only what happens on the table a spectacle but all the activities that enhance the play a significant part of the overall success.

The results show that Sweden’s Jan-Ove Waldner won the Men’s Singles. China’s domination meant they won all other individual and team events with Deng Yaping taking the Women’s Singles title.

England’s Men (Bradley Billington, Alan Cooke, Alex Perry, Carl Prean, Matthew Syed) finished 14th and the Ladies  (Nicola Deaton, Andrea Holt, Lisa Lomas, Helen Lower, Linda Radford) 19th.

Many of the major posts were held by people still about and active in table tennis today. Stuart Sherlock was Referee and the Deputy Referees from England were Phil Gower, John Jermyn and Mick Strode. It needed four Umpires Managers to manage the 56 English Umpires and 104 Visiting Umpires and Di Jermyn, Joyce Love, Connie Moran and Doreen Stannard did a superb job. Alan Ransome (ETTA Chairman) along with Arthur Sandford (Chief Executive Manchester City Council) Co-Chaired the Executive Board and Mike Watts was the Tournament Director.

Some statistics: 117 countries, 200 teams and 1,500 competitors , 44 match tables and 35 practice tables, 10,000+ matches over 600 hours,  20 Department Directors.

So, onto the photographs, for which I thank Jose Ransome. Some stunning images which show what a magnificent show the whole event was.

If anyone has other photos of this event I would love to hear from you.

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