History: Fun Facts About WTTC When Budapest Hosted the World Championships

Why did every match hosted in Hungary start with an 'edge'? Why did players stay up late for the World Championships? Discover more stories about World Table Tennis Championships in Hungary.

How many times has Hungary hosted a World Table Tennis Championships? Once? Twice? In fact, the 2019 World Table Tennis Championships is the fourth time Hungary hosts the WTTC. It's alright if you cannot recall one of the previous ones though, because the first two were held during the pre-war era, in 1929 and in 1931. While the third time this happened it was in 1950 when most of us were not yet born (Tonight...We are YOUNG!!!). So, I have done a little research and will take you back in time to revisit the 1950 World Table Tennis Championships hosted in Budapest, Hungary. For those history lovers who are curious about what had happened way before the 1950s, here's a link to the summary of table tennis results of the World Championships and Olympics.

Captured from the March issue of the magazine 'Table Tennis' 1950 and the 81th edition of The Table Tennis Collector

The 17th edition of the World Table Tennis Championships took place in Budapest, Hungary, from 28 January to 4 February 1950. At the Championships, the home team (Hungary) had a star-studded lineup, led by defending (women's singles) champion at the time Gizella (Gizi) Farkas, who had won the title in the previous 3 Championships, alongside the 1949 men's team world champion, Jozsef Koczian, Ferenc Sido, Ferenc  Soos and Laszlo Varkonyi. The headliners were joined by legendary Hungarian player Viktor Barna who competed for England after the war, defending (men's singles) champion Johnny Leach of England and the youngest men's singles world medalist of all-time Richard Bergmann, the Austrian who moved to England in 1939. Wow! World Championships never run out of star power!

Despite a super tough field, the Hungarians managed to give pride to their home country by winning medals in every event (including gold in men's doubles and mixed doubles). Yet, they narrowly missed the men's team and men's singles champion. Most notably, in the men's team final, the Hungarian men did not really lose the title but they walked over the team finals because Jozsef Koczian had a badly blistered foot and could not play the remaining set. In the end, it was Czechoslovakia who walked away with the Swaythling Cup with a 5-3 victory over the home's favourite.

Hungarian players played at the 1950 men's team finals
Captured from magazine 'Table Tennis' 1951 April issue

MS Finals: Burned The Midnight Oil For WTTC
Living in the digital era, we are spoiled by live streams available just a tap away, so staying up late for the World Championships is almost what everyone does when the competition is held in a place with time differences. But why did athletes have to pull an all-nighter during the 1950 World Championships, specifically in the men's singles finals? 

Owing to the playing style (hard bat defence) and competition format (21-point, BO5) at the time, matches lasted much longer than those being played nowadays. Reported in an interview of C. Corti Woodcock, who donated the St. Bride Vase (the men's singles crown), the men's singles finals, played between Richard Bergmann (ENG) and Ferenc Soos (HUN), commenced at 11:13 p.m. and ended at nearly 1 a.m. in the morning which is pretty unreasonable by today's standard. The cause for that he explained was the players rather play safe and wait for a mistake made by their opponent than going for the risky attacks. He cited an example that Ferenc Soos did not make his first score from an attacking stroke until the 48th minute after the match started. Optimistically, we should thank the time-limit rule (20 minutes per game) which had prevented the match from going even longer but many had criticized the rule at the time for failing to improve the entertaining level of the match. As many players would strategically take a lead of a point or two and play the rest of the game with a laissez-faire approach to win on a time-limit rule. I believe such a scenario might be kind of similar to what we have seen from T2 where athletes slowed down when they were leading. In the end, the Hungarian man lost the finals despite leading 2 games up and Richard Bergmann regained his title with a 3-2 victory coming under criticism for not being courageous and aggressive enough like a true World champion would have played in the finals.

World Singles Champion Richard Bergmann in 1937 (left) and in 1950 (right)
Captured from magazine 'TableTennis' 1950 March issue

Taking the bad with the good, the rule has contributed some funny moments. For example, in round 1 of the 1950 WTTC men's singles, Richard Bergmann found himself 11-4 down against Turnovsky, of Czechoslovakia, in the decisive fifth game, in order to ensure not losing the match on the time-limit rule, he had to do everything he knew to prevent going 'over-time' including going for the attacks and running after the ball whenever the ball went off the table (thankfully there are people taking care of the balls in 2019)! Anyways, the disputed time-limit rule was then, in 1965, replaced by the expedite system, which is pretty much similar to today's rule besides some minor adjustments to cope with the 11-point system. 

The Edge! The Edge? The Egy!

At the 1950 World Championships, no matter how well a player played the first point of the game, the umpire would yell out 'Edge'! You know edge balls are often devastating in competitions. Don't you believe it? Take a look at the montage of edge balls!

So how comes an 'Edge' was called when it was not an edge ball? Pens and paper ready as this is going to be a not quite professional lesson of Hungarian. (Please find a good teacher if you really want to learn the language, this is just for fun!)

Here comes the moment of truth. Edge is the pronunciation of 'egy' in Hungarian, meaning one! That's why the first point of the game would be called an 'egy'!

So as two, kettő in Hungarian, pronounced as kettle.

Six, hat, pronounced as hot.

Ten, tíz, pronounced as tease.

Now you know the basics. Are you ready for the intermediate level? What would the umpire announce when the score reached 6-2? You may have guessed it right! Hot kettle!

What about 10-6? Tea's hot!

Fortunately (or unfortunately to someone) the umpire at the 2019 WTTC will announce the scores in English, so I suspect we won't come across the 1950-joke in today's Budapest. I hope these will make your day and sorry to the Hungarians if you find these jokes offensive. They're really just for fun.

Bonus: Frying Pan Drive

Captured from magazine 'Table Tennis' 1954 February issue

In order to end the article with table tennis without an anticlimax, I decided to share this interesting picture I found in a magazine issued in 1954. It illustrates an English table tennis player Ken Craigie demonstrating his Frying Pan Drive in an exhibition. Does it remind you of something from this year's World Championships promotion?

Oh yes! Ma Long did the same trick in a promotion video for the 2019 WTTC. There you have it. While rules change, players come and go, Budapest's landmark Széchenyi Chain Bridge stands tall, so does the pleasure in table tennis. Perhaps that's why the exhibition trick like the Frying Pan Drive never goes old!!!

Author's Note:
People tend to get scared away easily just by seeing the word 'history', while it is actually more interesting than one would have imagined and I deeply feel that when I did the research for the 'History' series. I hope I have expressed my joy in discovering table tennis' past through this light-hearted approach of telling history! And if this has drawn your attention and won your heart, please kindly leave a comment to let me know. I would describe the process of doing research feels like going to the World Championships and getting the support from you guys from the comment session feels like winning the World Championships, if not better! As for now, I might spend my time watching the Championships and updates will be made when time is available, probably after the Championships.

Article from the 'History' series
History: Know About Hungary's Past Supremacy at WTTC