Local Sports Focus: Leeds table tennis club still going strong '“ 80 years on

However, for masters table tennis player Ivan Lewis, being chair is one of the easiest and enjoyable tasks that he has ever taken on.

At least that is when it comes to his club Leeds Judean Table Tennis Club.

For over 80 years now, the club has been ever-present in Leeds’ table tennis scene, firmly established as “one of, if not the, biggest table tennis club in the city”.

And despite being at the club for nearly 50 years, it still remains almost identical to the one that he joined as a mere seven year old owing to his father’s love of the sport.

“The club’s got a very strong history,” says Ivan.

“Apart from the venue, nothing’s really changed. People have always come together to enjoy the social side of the club as well as playing table tennis.

“It’s very much a passion for people with some of them playing once a week and some playing five or six times a week.

“My father got me involved when I was about seven years old.

“My dad used to play for Grimsby so I played and still do play for Leeds, as well as for Yorkshire at one point.

“I’ve probably been chairman for the last five years as well.

“It’s quite an honour to be the chairman of the club that I grew up with and it’s a club that I know inside out, so in that respect I’d say it does feel great to have that.”

It is this side of the club that has always made it the large, diverse club it is today, with Leeds Judean Table Tennis Club being ever present throughout the local table tennis divisions.

“There are seven divisions in Leeds,” says Ivan, “and at the moment we’ve got teams in every division.

“There are probably only two other clubs in the city that have got teams in all of the divisions.”

Despite this however, the club and the sport in general were a much larger force during Ivan’s playing days of the 1970s, with their popularity back then far exceeding the standards that exist in the modern era.

“We’ve always had a lot of teams,” says Ivan.

“But we used to have even more and there also used to be more divisions in Leeds as well.

“We used to have 18 divisions in the city so it’s gone down quite significantly since then.

“The sport’s just got less popular in general because, I think, there are more options for people and for kids in terms of hobbies.

“One other thing was that manufacturing companies used to have teams in the league and a lot of them have disappeared.

“There used to be a lot of teams like that, I’d say even the Yorkshire Evening Post would have had teams in the Leeds league at one point!”

The times have definitely brought along a lot of changes for the club, but it certainly isn’t something that Ivan or anyone involved will lose sleep over.

Any issue they face is more than manageable for the dedicated club committee.

“We’ve held steady over the last few years but we’re definitely still going strong,” added Ivan.

“We’ve got a good committee, we all do our bit and we all share the responsibility. So we’ve got a great team of about four active committee members who do everything that needs to be done.”

Certainly no backroom drama at this club, who despite seeing better days are always on the right track.

FACT FILE

Club: Leeds Judean Table Tennis Club.

Based: Moor Allerton Sports & Social Club.

Founded: 1938.

Season Highlights: Various teams winning promotion.

Number of members: 80.

Training nights: Wednesday, Friday and Sunday.