Table Tennis
Speed
Spin
Technique
Tactics
Lifestyle
Physical
Performance
Mental
Precision
Courage
Endurance
Flexibility
Strength
Psychology
Team-work
Dynamic
Collaboration
Creativity
Commitment
Table Tennis
Speed
Spin
Technique
Tactics
Lifestyle
Physical
Performance
Mental
Precision
Courage
Endurance
Flexibility
Strength
Psychology
Team-work
Dynamic
Collaboration
Creativity
Commitment
Intro
Colin fell into table tennis at a young age. His Dad played at a good local level and got Colin’s big brother Steve playing as a kid. Colin is 5-6 years younger than Steve and also wanted to go to the Winton YMCA sessions run by coach John Luther near Bournemouth. But Colin couldn’t see over the table at age 5! So Colin had to stay behind, wondering what this magical activity was all about, that the older males enjoyed.
Colin kept asking to go, and finally Dad said, “When your nipples are higher than the table, you are tall enough and you can come with us”. At Colin’s ninth birthday, after several previous failed measurements, the requisite height had been accomplished and Colin went along in Dad’s Morris Minor. Colin loved the sessions and all the people, and had a flair for controlling and spinning the little ball (and the opponent!). Brother Steve was a fantastic captive practice partner in between group sessions.
A few photos from Colin’s early table tennis days.
Use the arrows to navigate and hover on a photo to read more!
The story continues . . .
Soon, with this help, Colin had gained his Halex Bronze Award for ball control and was playing for Grange D-team at Dad’s work in Bournemouth Senior League (Division Six – the bottom one). Practising with Dad there most evenings as well, by the age of 10 Colin had graduated to Division Two, then the Premier the next year, for Merton TTC in Boscombe. Again, a fantastic troupe of friends and mentors – Chris Fugatt, Trevor Parry and many, many more. Going around the country at weekends to junior tournaments in the back of Mum and Dad’s new (used) Hillman Husky (and fuelled by Mum’s vacuum flask and sandwiches), Colin was ranked England No. 2 for his age at age 10 and was selected for England Under 14’s a year early. Weekends often started at 3.30am (we couldn’t afford hotels), returning after midnight Sunday evening, before school the next day. Mike Greatorex (Hampshire County TTA), John Jaques (sponsorship) and many others helped the travel and logistics.
Colin won even more medals in mixed and men’s doubles than he did in singles. The photo below shows him with Helen Williams, long time mixed doubles partner (Essex Junior 1977).
Circa 1976, training at the new Ellenborough TTC. Building work ongoing. Team captain, Colin Jackson, in background with pipe.
Colin won the Cor du Buy England National Under 13s. Then with friend Graham Sandley, Colin came 6th at the European Youth Championships, and in the Team Event, Colin beat fellow left-hander, the Swede Anders Thunstrom, who won the Gold Singles medal. Bryan Merrett provided the clever and reassuring advice for Colin for this match.
Colin’s family then moved to London for Dad’s job, and chose to move near to Ellenborough TTC and friend and rival Graham, for practice. Thanks Mum and Dad! With strong practice partners Mark and Angela Mitchell, Helen Williams, Lesley Keast, Nigel Tyler and many more, Colin and Graham were the first players to play five consecutive European Youth Championships (EYCs), culminating in 1980 in Poznan, Poland with 5th place, losing 3-5 to Russia in the Bronze medal match. Colin and Graham won Bronze together in the Boys Doubles. Carl Prean was there in the younger age category and soon broke the record by playing in six consecutive EYCs.
By the end of a junior career Colin had played over 100 times for England and had won two Commonwealth Senior silver medals under the tutelage of Don Parker and influential colleagues Jimmy Walker (doubles medal together), the inspirational player and mentor Carole Knight, John Dabin, Alan Fletcher and the rest of the gang. There are so many people to be grateful to who played vital large or small roles in the pathway, from the stalwart tournament organisers to practice partners and their parents.
Please click a photo to view full screen and read more about it!
Diane Webb has recently been updating her Who’s Who book from old Table Tennis News magazines and added quite a bit of Colin’s history to his profile.
With grateful thanks to Diane Webb for curating Colin’s detailed playing history. Click to read more.
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Commonwealth Games 1979 Team Event Silver Medal, runners up to Hong Kong
Mens National League
Colin won the Mens National League title four times – with Ellenborough TTC (with Graham Sandley, Mark Mitchell, John Kitchener, Dave Tan, Leon Smith, Nigel Tyler), Bathwick Tyres (with Desmond Douglas, Matthew Syed and Kevin Satchell) and Progress TTC in West London, run by Buxton Williams and son Jason Sugrue. Great days.
Uni Days
Colin continued to play while at University College, London, studying Economics and Statistics. These were great and exciting subjects, and with a great social life, but Colin would run the 27 mins to Faringdon and St Brides Institute to play table tennis in the city of London every day. Continued improvement was inevitable with practice partners like Kenny Jackson, Skylet Andrew, David Barr, Nigel Thomas, David Wells, David Tan, Joe Kennedy and many others of the era. Colin was the 1982 European Universities Men’s Singles Champion.
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Colin was Mixed doubles Champion at the Israel Open with Anita Stevenson and spent the summers of 1984 and 1985 in Sweden learning as part of the Swedish group that was to become World Team Champions over China later.
This was a special time in a special country, and under Glenn Osth and the coaching team, the learning Colin gained here remains an instrumental part of his daily consulting work.
Colin then moved on in his mid-twenties to teaching (sports assistant and Economics A-level), more focused table tennis coaching, and to learning about small business, with ventures into the motor trade with great friend and TT colleague Mark Mitchell, sports equipment and building a regional sandwich franchise.
Jack Melnick umpiring a battle of two left handed players, Colin competing against a South Korean penholder
Coaching Table Tennis
Colin became fascinated by the process of performance development at an early age and inevitably this led to an interest in coaching the sport. He studied under some fantastic mentors like Peter Hirst, David Fairholm, Donald Parker, Glenn Osth and others, for which he is eternally grateful. He became a personal coach to Richard Hyacinth and later Gareth Herbert, both of whom went on to win the England Under 17 Boys National Singles title (which Colin had ‘only’ won Silver in, when younger!). Great times with fantastic lads. What a credit to the sport and humanity they both are.
Since then Colin has coached hundreds of players from national to beginner standard. These include his own sons Adam and Sam. Adam is a senior County level player and a super coach to national standard (including of Sam). Sam won the Table Tennis England national award for ‘Most Improved Junior Player’ in 2017/18, and repeated the feat in 2018/19. In 2020 he became England Mens Under 21 No. 1.
As well as Richard Hyacinth, Gareth Herbert, and Sam Wilson, other players Colin has worked with intensively to international level include Prithvi Menon, Stefi Popa, Megan Jones, Craig Allen.
Ten times international Para Table Tennis medallist. Mum says “Colin’s support has helped him grow from shy person to a great supporter of SportsAid and spokesperson alongside Olympians and Paralympians at the House of Commons, House of Lords and promoting athlete sponsorship.”
2022-24 Table Tennis Matchplay
Colin has restarted playing some competitive table tennis. During the 2022/23 season he played in Kettering & District local league and the local league closed championships. He played a few matches to help Smash Kettering’s Senior British League team. He competed in the VETTS Nationals in May 2023.
Northants County Closed tournament April 2023. Video shows Colin’s Mens singles final v Andras Bayer.
Video of Colin who beats legend Andy Trott in Kettering & District League Open Singles, March 2023. But Andy gets his revenge in both Mens and Vets singles!
Colin competing against Jarek the best topspin retriever in their SBL Division, 1 April 2023. 22.30 mins. By all means go to 18 mins 20 secs for the start of the fourth game when Colin finally gets his full act together and builds the winning game of the match, taking it 3-1.
Ping Pong - Sandpaper Bat Competition
Colin Commentating
Colin has undertaken several commentating duties including at the European Championships 1994, World Championships 1997, Manchester (as a pundit for Sky), Heritage Oil Finals at the BT Studios, Olympic Park, London 7th July 2014, National Championships for ITV 4 1st March 2016, also commentated for the World Ping Pong Championships at Alexandra Palace 2013-2020.
Colin was delighted to be asked to commentate again at the Mark Bates Ltd English Senior National Championships, which took place at the University of Nottingham over the weekend of 22nd to 24th March 2024. Above is a link to Table Tennis England’s “Nationals Rewind ’24” video taken from the Table Tennis England You Tube Channel and featuring Colin’s commentating. To watch full footage of matches please visit https://tte.tv/home. You’ll need to register, which is free for those with a Table Tennis England licence and provides access to lots of live table tennis coverage or access all of the finals on You Tube.
Please follow the above links for some more of Colin’s commentating highlights taken from Table Tennis England’s You Tube page featuring the 2023/24 Mark Bates Ltd Senior National Championships finals.
Table Tennis England
In 2013 Colin became a full Board member of Table Tennis England and in 2019 he became a Vice-President of Table Tennis England.
Smash Table Tennis - the brand
In 2015 Colin founded Smash Table Tennis and friend Tony West joined full-time to obtain premises, coach and manage the first Centre in Corby, Northamptonshire, supported by Table Tennis England, Sport England, BATTS Harlow Table Tennis and others. Centre. Henry Arthur also joined the Smash team which is now centred down the road in Kettering. Smash Table Tennis also provides equipment, services, coaching and training camps in many locations in England and beyond. Tony and Henry put around 10,000 hours of work into Smash so far, in support of the brand and its players. Thanks team!
A brief history of Smash Table Tennis
Colin left the Table Tennis England Main Board in 2015 to become founder, President and Managing Director of Smash Table Tennis based in Corby and Kettering. Nine years later, in April 2024 Colin wrote:
“We are delighted to announce that Smash Table Tennis now moves on to an exciting new phase. After being led by Colin for the first eight years, he now steps across to allow Alex Cochrane to take the reins. After a long period of preparation from Henry Arthur and Colin, and from Team Captains, coaches and volunteers, Alex, initially a novice 12 year-old player at Smash in 2016, is now a multiple County Champion, a qualified TTE Coach and he is ready – he has now taken full Director responsibilities. Henry and I will still support, but it gives Colin a freer role. We know you’ll all support Alex for the next phase of the Club.
Thank you Tony, Henry and all for everything so far. And to our ace landlords Youthworks for helping create a great facility for us. So far at Smash we have, between us:
- Hit 15 million balls over nets’ at the Club so far!
- Developed three new coaches
- Developed four new international age-group players (two girls, two boys)
- Established many teams across Kettering League, National Junior League, Senior British League, Veterans British League.
Right, now back to coaching the Juniors tonight, led by Alex, Henry, Colin and Liam Constable!
Business as usual!
I’ll just do what I’m told now 
#legacy
#future
Colin”
