Home Nations Veterans Championships: England's Depth and a Lesson for Vietnam's Young Talents

Jersey, a small island of just over 100,000 people in the English Channel, is not a name that often appears on the world table tennis map. But during the Veterans Home Nations Championships held here, a men's O75 singles final left a lasting impression. Stuart Seaholme of England had just beaten Geoff Salter of Scotland in the singles final. Two days later, Salter returned with Johnny Clarke, an English player, and they defeated Seaholme in the doubles final. On the podium, all three smiled. The singles loss seemed light, because at the age of 75, every match is already a gift. I am not writing about today's match, but about the people they become afterwards. The Veterans Home Nations Championships are not part of the WTT points system, have no major prize money, and have no influence on national team selection. It is a grassroots event, rotated among the associations: England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, Jersey and Guernsey – six territories sharing a common sporting history with the United Kingdom. This year, Jersey hosted, a symbolic event: the smallest island in the group wanted to assert its place in the table tennis community. England arrived with two-player squads for each age group. They won 7 of 8 team gold medals, and 6 gold medals in doubles events. In singles, however, they only won 4 of 9. This creates an interesting picture: England are strong because of depth, but smaller nations such as Wales, Scotland, Jersey and Guernsey possess individual players capable of causing upsets. Jason Ramage was one of England's rare highlights in two categories. He won the O50 singles title after beating compatriot Stephen Horsfield, and also won the O40 men's team gold with Andy Wilkinson. Competing in two different age groups in one tournament is a privilege usually seen only in veterans events. This raises the question: why are Vietnamese junior tournaments so rigid in age classification, while veterans tournaments around the world allow such flexibility? Phil Bowen, a player in his 70s, won a double gold in the O70 singles and doubles. Stuart Seaholme won O75 singles gold, and Tulay Dundar won the O60 women's singles. These results show a rarely mentioned truth: table tennis is one of the few sports where people can still play at a high level into old age. At 70, Phil Bowen cannot move as fast as a 20-year-old, but he compensates with match-reading experience, subtle service returns and calmness in every rally. This reminds me of a sentence I often write in my notebook: Speed and silence both have their own language; I only record it. Looking at the results table, one can easily miss an important detail: of the 9 singles champions, 5 were not English. Laura Horswell of Wales beat Nicola Duke of England in the O40 women's singles final. Brian Jeanes of Wales beat Adrian Pilgrim of England in the O60 final. Melissa Cheung of Scotland won the O50 women's singles. Mariusz Cieminski of hosts Jersey claimed the O40 men's title. Catherine Inverarity of Guernsey won the O70 women's singles. This medal distribution is a sign of the tournament's health: it shows that smaller associations can still produce excellent players, provided they have a good enough training environment. For me, these veteran players are geological layers of England's table tennis history. Each generation of talent is a geological layer; dig in the wrong layer and you will pick up broken stones. If we dig into the O75 layer, we find traces of the 1970s, when English table tennis had hundreds of clubs in small towns. If we dig into the O50 layer, we see the growth of school table tennis in the 1990s. And if we dig into the O40 layer, we see players trained in the modern junior competition system, with two-wing loop and heavy spin techniques. The diversity of playing styles is part of why veterans tournaments are fascinating: each age group brings its own style. Another notable detail is the stability of doubles partnerships. Pairs like Ramage – Wilkinson (O40), Pilgrim – Griffin (O60), Styles – Hurrell (O60), Bowen – Tiplady (O70), and Seaholme – Balding (O75) have played together for a long time. The chemistry between two players cannot be built overnight. It requires understanding in every movement, every serve, and every decision under pressure. In Vietnamese grassroots tournaments, we often rotate pairs to experiment, but we forget that a stable partnership is an intangible asset that does not always appear. However, looking at England's dominance, we also need a counter-intuitive view. If England win too much, the tournament may lose its appeal. The victories of Wales, Scotland, Jersey and Guernsey have created balance and kept the competitive flame alive. Laura Horswell, Brian Jeanes, Melissa Cheung, Mariusz Cieminski and Catherine Inverarity are the unsung heroes of the tournament. They remind us that squad depth is important, but individual excellence is still what makes the difference. Another remarkable point is the cross-nation doubles. Stephen Horsfield (England) paired with Colin Green (Scotland) to win the O50 men's doubles. Johnny Clarke (England) joined Geoff Salter (Scotland) to win the O75 doubles. The gold medal was attributed to England because one of the players was English, but the cooperation shows that table tennis can cross every geographical border. In Southeast Asia, where countries often see each other as rivals, a similar model could raise the level of the whole region. Instead of keeping players strictly within national borders, create cross-border doubles events so that players can learn from one another. For Vietnamese table tennis, the lesson from this tournament lies in this: junior development systems are not only for producing champions, but also for creating people who love the sport for life. We often boast about young players' results at Southeast Asian tournaments, but we do not ask: do they still play at 30, 40, 50? If we look at our junior academies, we see enormous performance pressure. Children are judged by medals from the age of 10. But no one teaches them that table tennis is not just a race, but also a lifelong companion. Another difference between the two table tennis cultures is how veterans are organized. In England, no national coach is mentioned in the results report; the players mostly prepare themselves, travel themselves and pay their own costs. They are grassroots players in the truest sense, but they retain their competitiveness thanks to a strong local club system. In Vietnam, high-performance sport almost always needs a professional support team. That is good, but it also creates a gap: when a player is no longer in the system, they seem to be left behind. Veterans tournaments around the world show a different model – self-driven sport, where passion is the only motivation. Will the Vietnamese U13 generation of today still be around at such a tournament in 40 years? Or will they leave the small ball behind because of the bitter memories of youth? The Veterans Home Nations Championships are not just for the English; they are a reminder to all young table tennis nations, including Vietnam. Let us build a warm enough house so that people never have to leave the small ball. There are young sprouts that do not need the big stage lights, only a warm corner of earth to take root. And when we do that, the smallest corners can become places for those sprouts to grow.