Chester Barnes

George "Chester" Barnes (27 January 1947 – 18 March 2021) was an English table tennis champion, who was England No. 1 player for many years during the 1960s and 1970s.

When he retired from professional table tennis he took up a post with the Martin Pipe racing stables as an assistant to the racehorse trainer.

Early life

Barnes was born in a maternity home in Forest Gate, Greater London, on 27 January 1947. When he was about a year old his family moved to live on a farm near Basingstoke, Hampshire. Barnes' family also lived for a short period on a farm in Whitley Wood near Reading.

In his autobiography, More Than A Match, Barnes sets out the details of how he came to be known as 'Chester'. His father was listening to the radio at the time of his birth when he was asked by the matron of the maternity home what Christian name he was going to be called by. The programme playing on the radio at the time was the Charlie Chester Show, and his father replied: "We'll call him Chester." The book then goes on to say that Barnes was never actually christened with the name Chester although he was called by this name by both family and friends and has never been known as George.

Early career At the age of 10 he joined Len Hoffman's Youth Club, close to Godwin Road School, which he attended. Whilst at the school he was selected for the swimming, athletics and cricket teams, and at first had no interest in table tennis. In his autobiography, he states that he first picked up a table tennis bat when visiting a snooker hall with an uncle. He was stopped from playing snooker because the manager at the club felt he was too short and he couldn't see over the table. His uncle, rather than disappoint him, said they could play a game of table tennis instead. It was on this occasion that he picked up a table tennis bat for the first time and realised that there was a lot of skill required to play it well. At the start of the season of 1963/64 in September, Barnes was ranked at No. 3 in the English senior rankings and at No. 1 in the junior rankings. The top two positions in the English rankings were occupied by Harrison and Bryan Merrett, both of Gloucestershire. Harrison had been the England No. 1 for the previous four seasons. Barnes successfully defended the English Closed title that he had won the previous year in 1963 and, in early January 1964, when the ETTA published the new English rankings, his reward was to be promoted to the No. 1 spot for the first time in his career. At this time Barnes was still three weeks short of his 17th birthday.

Harrison and Barnes became good friends and fierce competitors. They teamed up on many occasions for exhibition matches, the most notable of which was on the BBC live Saturday afternoon flagship sports programme, Grandstand, when they were due to play an international match against the East Germany national team. Because the German team were delayed in reaching the venue the two top England players put on an exhibition match instead. This match was watched by millions of viewers and did a great deal to lift the profile of English table tennis at the time.

Later career In the course of his table tennis career, Barnes won many tournaments at junior and senior levels of the game around the UK, and also at national and international level. He was a top-ranked player in the world rankings at a time when the men's game was dominated by the Japanese, Chinese, and top European countries, notably Sweden, Yugoslavia and Germany. He was also an exceptional doubles player and played with many of the top men and women players of his day, winning numerous men's and mixed doubles titles. He played on numerous occasions for his county of Essex at the top level of the game, helping them to win the national English county table tennis league on several occasions. He represented England as an international on many occasions and played regularly in the Swaythling Cup, the table tennis equivalent of the Davis Cup. Barnes won the English Closed five times, and turned professional in 1975.

The footballer, George Best, was a notable sportsman who had business and work interests outside his sport and, despite his amateur status as a table tennis player, Barnes too was making money from modelling and having sports equipment branded with his name. During his amateur career he both attracted and courted controversy. He used a unique square racket, which also catered for his preference for a bat that was heavier than a normal bat. He was one of the earliest British players to adopt the topspin attack style used by the best European and Asian players, along with the smooth reverse rubber used on the new rackets. Because of an old rule forbidding the use of reflective surfaces, this occasionally resulted in disqualification if the rubber became shiny in use.

Barnes was regarded as an anti-establishment figure in the world of table tennis, in keeping with the trends of the time, and was frequently in trouble with the English Table Tennis Association, whom he saw as too conservative and even a clique that did not look after the best interests of the players. In his autobiography

Death He died on 18 March 2021 from a heart attack. Barnes is survived by his wife Jane, son Lester and daughter Joanne.

Works

More Than a Match (Stanley Paul & Co. Ltd., 1969) Modern Table Tennis Tactics (1973) Table Tennis (1975) Advanced Table Tennis Tactics (1975)