The South Devon and Torbay Table Tennis League received some sad news last week.

One of the League’s former players and Committee members, Laurie Flower, passed away on the 17thNovember at the age of 63.

Laurie’s funeral service will be held this Thursday (3rd December) at the Torquay Crematorium at 1.30pm.

My own memory of Laurie was of someone who was always cheerful and who enjoyed a laugh and a joke. Laurie would be the first to admit he was not the most talented of table tennis players but despite this he tried to win at all times. As Dave Alexander, a former playing colleague,told me the other day; Laurie, when he was having a hard time or losing would stop and shout “fight, fight, fight” to help “gee” himself up!

Dennis Gibbs also recalls how keen Laurie was on table tennis when he first started playing seriously, so much so that he installed a table in his garage and even bought a table tennis robot to help his practice!

Finally, in addition to being a regular and committed player in the South Devon and Torbay Table Tennis League for many years, Laurie served as a valuable member of our Executive Committee. I remember Laurie providing excellent and hard working support when preparing the venues for our 2 yearly tournaments and latterly he took on the Committee role of Development Officerserving as the link for new players who contacted our league.

We will miss him.

Geoff Read

Chairman