Carole Moore was one of our most highly decorated female players gaining honours at national and international level. After she stopped playing Carole went on to become a highly respected coach who has been involved with the development of some of the top players of today.
It was a meteoric rise to an international career which spanned 10 years. Carole first picked up a bat when she was 14 years old at her local youth club, Joe Walton’s. After a very short time she was spotted and joined the famed Ormesby Table Tennis Club.
Her natural talent was enhanced by her dedication and work ethic. Alan Ransome said of Carole at the time: “She is the most dedicated player we have . . . she just works and works.”
Training five hours a night as well as holding down a full time job when she left school, it only took Carole two years before she was England Junior Number One. At the start of the 1973/74 she wasn’t on the ranking list – by the end of the season she was at the top.
In December 1973 Carole’s ambition was to be part of the England ladies’ squad which included players of the calibre of Jill Hammersley (Parker) and Karenza Mathews and to take the national women’s title in six years’ time. She achieved both.
The 1973/74 season was the season Carole started to make her mark in 1* and 2* junior events beating several highly ranked players, the season was capped when she won the English Junior Open at Worthing.
At the Junior National Championships Carole won the Girls’ Doubles with Anita Stevenson, was runner-up in the Girls’ Singles and reached the quarter-finals in the Mixed Doubles with David Alderson. Impressive results for one who had been playing for such a short period of time.
Carole had quite a different game from many of her opponents playing an aggressive forehand loop which was difficult to play against.
The following season, 1974/75, now part of the England Junior Squad, Carole played in the European Youth Championships and helped the team to fourth place, winning seven of her 10 matches.
At the time Juniors were Under-17s so it required a step up to senior level and it was a smooth transition. Gaining her first senior international cap Carole played in her first World Championships in a team which finished fifth and took her first Commonwealth Championships title in the team event and had further success reaching the semi-finals in both the Women’s Singles and Doubles.
On the domestic front Carole was runner-up in the Women’s Singles at the National Championships and with Karenza Mathews won the Women’s Doubles.
The European Championships were the next big event in 1976 and they produced a silver medal in the Women’s Team event. This season saw Carole represent her country in play in her first European League.
Further medals at international level came in the English Open with a Women’s Doubles, partnered with Karen Rogers (Smith) with another silver medal, a team semi-finalist and quarter-finalist with Denis Neale in the Mixed Doubles.
The best was yet to come and 1977 was certainly the realisation of Carole’s dreams only four years earlier. Now an established member of the England team Carole again played in the English Open and was triumphant in the Women’s Singles taking the title by beating Jill Parker 15, -20, -15, 11, 18 in the final.
The World Championships were held on home soil at the NEC in Birmingham. A tough draw for Carole saw her play defending champion and eventual winner, Pak Yung Sun of Korea DPR. It was a close match which Carole only just lost 21-18 in the fifth. It meant she didn’t progress in the tournament but did win her the accolade of ‘Player of the Championships’. In the team event, England ladies finished seventh.
1977 saw the first of Carole’s three National Women’s Singles titles, she also added to her medal tally with silver in the Women’s Doubles playing alongside Melody Ludi. As a result of her achievement Carole was awarded the ETTA Victor Barna Award.
1977/78 saw a quieter season with the highlights a sixth place for the England ladies in the European Championships, a semi-final in the Women’s Singles at the English Open and a runners-up medal in the Women’s Doubles in the National Championships with Anita Stevenson.
The difficulty of women earning a living playing table tennis was shown when Carole signed for the West German Bundesliga in 1978 where she played for four years. The move was obviously beneficial. The Commonwealth Championships saw a gold medal with Linda Howard in the Women’s Doubles and silver in the Women’s Singles and team event where Carole won five from her six matches. The English Open saw two semi-finals, the first with Anita Stevenson in the Women’s Doubles and the second in the team event.
During these years and those following there were appearances at many foreign Open tournaments including the Canadian Open in 1980 which was the first ITTF recognised Open Championships in North America; Carole won the title. 1980 was also the year Carole won her second National Women’s Singles title, the Women’s Doubles added to her gold collection, again partnering Anita Stevenson.
It was another two years and the year in which Carole was married, 1982, which saw further major success which gained Carole her second ETTA Victor Barna Award. Some stellar results saw three gold medals at the Commonwealth Championships, Women’s Singles, Women’s Doubles with Joy Grundy and the Women’s Team event where Carole won seven of her eight singles matches.
A team bronze medal was earned at the European Championships and at home two more gold medals were added to Carole’s haul, at the National Championships, in the Women’s Singles and Women’s Doubles with Anita Stevenson being the other half of the winning partnership.
That all elusive missing national title, the Mixed Doubles was at last achieved in 1984 playing alongside Skylet Andrew. During her career Carole reached No 1 at Senior, Junior and Commonwealth levels; Europe No 20 and World 28.
After Carole stopped playing she was not lost to the world of table tennis. In 1993 she started coaching at the Ormesby Table Tennis Club and it wasn’t long before some of her earlier pupils started to make an impact – Paul Drinkhall and Danny Reed being two of the most notable.
Carole became an ETTA Level 4 Coach and was involved at many different levels from England Coach and Non Playing Captain to being a member of the ETTA Selection Committee for a number of years and also Cleveland County Coaching Secretary. Carole is constantly seen around tournaments with her latest protégées including Joe Clark.
Coaching has been Carole’s life for many years and she has been richly rewarded for all her tremendous work and the impressive results by the players she has coached along the way. In 1999 she was the ETTA Female Coach of the Year. This was followed in 2001 at the North East Sports Awards where she was named North East Coach of the Year; this covered every sport and so was a truly wonderful accolade, the award was presented by Steve Cram.
A further tribute came in 2010 when Carole received the North East Lifetime Achievement Award from the Evening Gazette. Added to all this, in 2014 Carole was made a Vice-President of Table Tennis England in recognition of her lifetime contribution to table tennis. A well deserved tribute.
… and perhaps my favourite picture.
