Fifty years ago this summer, Barnsley FC were preparing for a new season just as they are now, but with a difference: they had an international table tennis player in their training sessions.
Alan Hydes, from New Lodge, was at the start of a remarkable career which saw him win four Commonwealth gold medals, lead a team to China to ease tensions during the Cold War and coach Egyptians in Cairo the day after his wedding at Holy Rood Church in Barnsley.
During the late 1960s, he would prepare for competitions by training every day with the Reds at Oakwell, and is still close friends with one of the stars of that era, Pat Howard.Alan said: "The football club allowed me to train with them for several years and Norman Rimmington was great help as physio. I really enjoyed being there and it helped me a lot."
Former St Michael's School student Alan is now 69 but began playing table tennis aged 12 with Barnsley Boys Club. He progressed through the regional and national competitions over the next two years and, in 1963, was given the 'Most Promising Junior In England' award by former world champion Johnny Leach.
He was the youngest player ever to represent England Juniors when he made his debut aged 15 in a match against West Germany. He said: "I started in the lowest division of the Barnsley Leagues. I think the Barnsley League has only ever had one division nine and I played in it. People used to laugh and say that I went from the very bottom to playing for England in three years.
"My parents had four children and didn't have much money. When I was first starting, I was going to tournaments knowing that, if I didn't win and get the prize money, I wouldn't be going to the next one. Fortunately I won enough of them to get to the professional level. I bought a bat in Barnsley for ten shillings and it took me around the world."
Alan made his senior England debut in 1967 then went on to play for his country more than 100 times, including in four European Championships and three World Championships. He won both the English men's doubles and mixed doubles three times each and was ranked number one in the singles. His best international success came in the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, which were run separately to the multi-sport Commonwealth Games until 2002. He won three gold medals in the inaugural event in Singapore in 1971 and another in Cardiff two years later.
"My highlight was probably coming sixth at the World Championship with the England team in Munich in 1969. That was a very good achievement for England."
Alan also trained with the national teams of China and Japan in the early 1970s after winning a 'Winston Churchill Scholarship'. In 1971, he led an England team on a what became known as 'ping pong diplomacy' tour of China, which also featured American players and garnered world wide media attention as it was at the height of the Cold War. He said: "I was suddenly playing in front of 20,000 people and I had come from playing in boys' clubs and village halls. We didn't realise how much of a big story it was until we got home and saw it had been on the news and Panorama. It opened everything up because, soon after, the American President Richard Nixon went to China as well.
"I used to walk up and down the Great Wall of China and I couldn't really believe I was there. My dad was a miner and my mum was a cleaner and I never thought anything like that would happen to me. It's a minority sport but you do get to see the world if you're any good at it."
Alan's globe-trotting continued when he moved into coaching in his late 20s. After a brief spell in charge of the New Zealand national team, he was appointed as an official coach by the International Table Tennis Federation and conducted seminars in more than 60 countries. He married his wife June in 1977, but they did not have much time to celebrate.
He said: "I had been asked by the Egyptian Table Tennis Association to do a training course in Cairo. I said 'I'm getting married' and they said 'bring your wife' so I did."On the Saturday we got married at Holy Rood Church then the next day we went to Cairo. My wife jokes than she had her honeymoon with 20 other people."
Alan also worked as marketing manager for Dunlop/Slazenger Table Tennis then moved to Worthing in West Sussex – where he still lives – and founded Lion Sports UK, a sporting goods business of which he is still a director.
