Three World Cup medals, three-time European champion, multiple English Open champion and world number 6 – Mary Wright is truly one of the all-time greats in English table tennis.
These and other triumphs are discussed in the latest big-name interview as we continue the countdown to the final of the ITTF World Team Table Tennis Championships in London.
Mary is joined for the interview by her husband Brian, himself an England international who has competed in several World and European Championships.
They talk about their experiences representing England, balancing their work and playing lives, supporting each other and later their family lives after Mary retired at the age of 26.
The three World Cup medals are the biggest highlights, as Mary talks about winning silver in the women’s doubles with Diane Rowe in 1963, her undefeated campaign in the bronze women’s team of 1965, and the bronze in mixed doubles with Denis Neale in 1969.
About the first one in 1963 in Prague, when Mary was just 19 years old, she said: “We did have a chance in the final, but I think if I had had a little more experience we could have won it. But to reach the final was more than I expected.”
Then it was back to her day job – Mary was a trainee radiologist at Lambeth Hospital – and she said her colleagues did not appreciate the scale of what she had achieved.
“I didn’t get any time off, I had to lose money, which we couldn’t afford, or take a vacation,” she said.
“And when I came back, funny enough, the people I worked with said ‘oh, did you have a nice holiday?’
“Well, I don’t think it was a holiday, but they didn’t understand sports and they didn’t understand what I had actually done. I just said ‘yeah, it was fine’. What more can you say?”
There’s gold to talk about too: two European Women’s Doubles titles in 1962 and 1964, and gold in the Women’s Team in the latter year.
Mary said of 1964: “I think that was one of the highlights of my career. It was a wonderful trip to Malmö, lots of people there. We had quite a lot of press from England there.”
“We retained our doubles title, which was fantastic, and the team, well I think I was undefeated on the team and we won.
“And it’s euphoria. Brian was there, everyone was celebrating, it was great.”
Those were also Brian’s first major championships, and he says he was part of the young England team, alongside Chester Barnes and Denis Neale, that defeated hosts Sweden.
“That was probably the best match I’ve ever been involved in,” he said. “I was 21 I think, or 22, Dennis was 19, Chester was 17 and we were going to beat them in Malmö in front of their own supporters.
“We loved putting our tracksuits back on with England on our backs. It was just great to be involved with them and with Johnny Leach, former world champion, as our captain.”
Mary’s multiple English Open golds, six National Women’s Singles titles and an induction into the Table Tennis England Centenary Hall of Fame are also all on the agenda.
About that Hall of Fame induction, Mary said, “I was absolutely stunned, to be honest. I was sitting there listening because all the people before me weren’t there or had passed away, and then suddenly I listened to what they were saying and I thought, ‘Wait a minute, that’s me!’ I had no idea at all – I was just stunned, the whole thing.
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