On November 11th 2005 the Hull – YPI Table Tennis Centre is officially renamed the Rea Balmford Table Tennis Centre. The contributions that Rea has made to table tennis, not only in Hull, but also in Yorkshire and nationally through the ESTTA Organisation, are immeasurable. His story is a long one, so long that many of the early records of his career are lost in the memories of time. We have tried to recount what we can and hope that by the time you have finished our story you will agree with us that the honour we are bestowing on him today is richly deserved.

The first instances we have of Rea passing on his table tennis knowledge come shortly after the Second World War. He returned to University at Sheffield to finish his interrupted education and on completion returned to Hull and took up a position at Ainthorpe School as a Geography teacher. He soon moved on to Thoresby and when that school closed he joined the staff of the newly formed Amy Johnson High School in the early seventies. Throughout his school career he was well known in the sporting circles and was actively concerned in running schools football, rugby league and cricket. His love affair in cricket remains to this day and he is often seen here at the YPI watching the matches. It was table tennis that became his passion and in 1974 he coached the Girls under 19 team to the ESTTA Team Championship Finals. Many of Rea’s former pupils are still playing table tennis to this day, and remember the teacher who used a rubberless bat as his cane and who threw the board rubber if the offender was too far away to be clipped! It was during his school days that he used to transport many of the pupils to tournaments (probably ones he organised) in his green Morris Minor. His nickname was Jet Balmford; I understand it was to do with his car registration plates JET 1. I am also reliably informed that no matter where the matches were in Yorkshire he always went through Pontefract, a pretty enough town but a long way to go when you’re playing at York!!

During his time at Thoresby in 1968 Rea was involved with the creation, and was a founder member, of the English School Table Tennis Association. His initial office there was as the Regional Competition Secretary, and he became Vice Chairman in 1969, a job he was to hold on two separate occasions during a 27 year span of involvement. During one of his non vice chairman spells, whilst he was the Humberside representative, a certain young lady called Janet Griffin was appointed as the new General Secretary. By the time the new season had started the new general Secretary had become Janet Balmford. Not sure if it was a case of ‘If you can’t beat them, join them’! Once the National Body was formed it was then up to individual cities and towns to form their own leagues. No prize on guessing which City was the first to be operational – yes, Hull with Rea at the helm. On his retirement from ESTTA in 1995 he was honoured as a Vice President. His work with ESTTA had impressed the hierarchy at the English Table Tennis Association and he was elected a Vice President in 1990, a position he still holds.

Many people would have been satisfied with that level of involvement, but not Rea. He was also a member of the Yorkshire TTA Management Committee and for many years he organised all the tournaments in Yorkshire. I can remember spending many long evenings at Wawne with Rea and Brenda preparing draws for the next tournament, sustained by the endless cups of coffee and sandwiches courtesy of Janet. The Press Officer was another string to his bow and he regularly sent in reports to the local and county papers as well as the ETTA magazine. In 1990 he was awarded the L. E. Forrest Memorial Award for outstanding service to the game of table tennis. At around the same time he was made a Vice President of the county TTA and has subsequently been “promoted” to Life Member, just about the highest honour a county can give to a member. Rea is one of only three Hull officials to be given this honour.

So that’s School, National and County scenes dealt with, but what about the local scene. Rea first joined the local committee in 1953 as its’ Yorkshire League Match Secretary. A fairly easy and straightforward job these days with everything organised by the County, but in those days when Hull was entering around 20 teams (Men, Ladies, Juniors and Vets) every match had to be individually arranged with the opposing teams – a truly horrendous job but one which Rea did for 40 years. Just to keep his eye in he was also the Local Press Officer from 1955 until 2001. Add to this his 50 or so years of involvement in the YPI Table Tennis Club and you can start to appreciate just how much this Association, and table tennis in general, owes to Rea.

Rea – on behalf of every player who has been involved in table tennis in this city for the last 50 years a massive thank you. We are proud to be able to recognise your achievements in this way and hope that it will act as an inspiration to other budding administrators within the game.