i saw it happen��� by david mead

what i am about to recount took place during the official round robin competition at the auburn table tennis club one wed. night. it actually did.

i have played the game for many years now and though there may be older men in table tennis, there are probably few who have spent as much time at it. and so in my considerable experience, suffice it to say that i have seen strange things, peculiar shots and so forth (not to mention peculiar players). one of these happened just a few weeks ago and i record it here for posterity.

it happened on table one, while i was playing on table two. it was at the end of a rather long rally on the adjacent table when it caught my attention. there were three of us who should have noticed. besides me (on the adjacent table) the two opponents were tim and ricky, all of us well known to the auburn club. but i got the impression that i was the only one who actually saw what happened�tim and ricky just stood there as if in a daze, saying absolutely nothing. i too was speechless at first, but i did see what i do hereby vouch for.

according to biblical requirements, two witnesses are necessary to establish a fact and so by that standard, we should qualify, being three all told.� but two being bedazzled as they were, the three of us may not meet that standard.

briefly, what happened was this: after a long volley, which caught my attention for that reason, i watched as ricky went back to return one of tim�s shots. ricky sent a high lob back just over the net where tim was waiting to �short hop� it hard and put it away. with a sharp swat, tim swung and missed. the ball bounced high again, giving tim time to step back for another swing, which thing he did and missed the second time.

now he had swung and missed twice but the point was not yet over. without regard for tim, somehow the ball then hit the edge of his paddle and careened toward the top of the net, rolled over onto ricky�s side, just connecting with the edge of the table on it�s way to the floor. ricky, his mind somewhere else by now had no chance to get there and made no attempt to. then silence. no one spoke.

i waited to see if anyone knew what had just taken place. still breathless, neither one said anything. ricky had no clue what happened and tim didn�t seem to know much more and so i just said, �that was tim�s point.� tim took it and play continued as if nothing out of the ordinary had happened.

a few days later i e-mailed tim just to see if he remembered. he assured me that he could make that shot at will. that was all he said.���