Table tennis pair turn back the clock with big victory
TABLE tennis legends Tommy Caffrey and Oliver Adamson rolled back the years with a vintage performance to win the Over 70s Six Nations Veterans title in Guernsey.
And the win came some 15 years after their last success at this level - in Scotland - when they were playing Over 50s!
What’s more, Oliver had all but retired from the sport and only started back on the table last season.
But Tommy, one of Ireland’s most capped players in any sport, saw the chance to team up with his old pal again.
‘We reached the semi-final without much difficulty, but we came up against Scotland in the semi and they gave us plenty of trouble before we won it, 3-1,’ Tommy explains.
Incredibly, that left them in the final against the overwhelming favourites, England, who had Peter Radford and
Roy Norton on duty.
‘England, Sweden and Germany have a great depth to pick from, unlike the rest of us, and during our warm up, Oliver asked me how do we keep them quiet. ‘I haven’t a clue,’ I told him,’ Tommy remarked.
They were quickly 2-0 down in sets and England were almost home.
Then the Irish spirit kicked in. ‘ We won the next set and then beat them 11-9 to draw level. We went 5-1 down in the final set, but came back to lead 10-8 and then I told Oliver to deliver a back hand spin serve. For someone who hadn’t played much in 15 years, he did it superbly and we won!,’ delighted Gormanston native Tommy added.