Ping Pong Players Look for Victory In Season Debut

Harvard's debut in an inter-collegiate table tennis league this winter should be "unexpectedly good," player-coach Anders Carlsson '75 said yesterday.

The new Harvard Table Tennis Club includes an Ohio State champion and two highly rated players from New England and Malaysia, Carlsson said. "We've got a lot of interested people and several with competitive experience," he said.

Harvard will host MIT on December 9 and will play opponents from Cornell, Princeton, Pennsylvania, Columbia, Yale and Brown in February and March.

Thirty-seven ping-pong enthusiasts met yesterday at the Freshman Union to watch each other play and to learn new techniques.

"Because of the size of the turnout, we can't hold any formal practices," Carlsson said. "Eventually members will be ranked according to ability." The top six players will play in league matches.

Carlsson, from California, teaches the beginning table tennis class offered by the Department of Athletics. His work with the club has been on his own time, without financial support from the department, he said.

"I really didn't expect much support from the department," he said. "But they bought three new tables this summer." As for transportation and other club expenses this season, he said, "that's left up to us."

Yale organized a team last year, Carlsson said. The Elis practice three times a week under the guidance of a fulltime coach.