John Hilton

This article is dedicated to the English table tennis player John Hilton ; for the 17th century composer of the same name see John Hilton (composer) , for the football player of the same name see John Hilton (football player) .

John Hilton (born June 25, 1947 ) is a former English table tennis player who became European champion in 1980 .

development

Hilton played table tennis for the first time when he was 17. In 1971 he emigrated to Australia, where he first worked as a fitness trainer and later trained a Western Australian table tennis selection. He used the anti-topspin rubbers invented by Toni Hold for the first time in high-performance sports. In 1972 he returned to England.

In 1975 he appeared for the first time in the English rankings, namely in 19th place. A year later, he was appointed to the English national team. In 1977 he reached the Commonwealth Championships in St. Peter Port in singles up to the semifinals. In the same year he played at the World Cup , but retired just like at the 1979 World Cup . In 1978 he was second in his first European championship with the English team.

In 1979 he climbed to 3rd place in the English rankings. With the Sealink Milton Keynes club, he won the English championship in 1979/80.

style

Hilton was an all-round player. He played with a very grippy, slow backside rubber and his own rubber construction (the porous, inelastic sponge underlay of the Toni Hold anti-topspin rubber was replaced by the highly elastic sponge of a "normal" backside offensive rubber). He mastered almost all offensive and defensive techniques on forehand and backhand and used them e.g. T. by turning the racket tactically and unexpectedly. Because of the rubbers that were almost indistinguishable, his changes of cut and counterballs were particularly feared, as were sudden changes in tempo. But also in the offensive topspin game he was hardly inferior to top European players and was also characterized by extremely good mobility.

European Championship 1980

At the 1980 European Championships in Bern, he was the surprise winner. In the quarterfinals he knocked out the reigning European champion Gábor Gergely with a 3: 2 as unsettled . In the semifinals, he also defeated the 1976 European champion Jacques Secrétin 3-1 and made it into the final. Here he met the Nobody Josef Dvořáček (CSSR), who had surprisingly defeated his compatriot Milan Orlowski . Hilton didn't give the technically less experienced Dvoracek the slightest chance and won with a quick 3-0.

This modern defensive game , which had been practiced by the Chinese for a long time and was adopted by Hilton , aroused envious people and critics. It was not without good reason that you spoke of the worst endgame to date, some even spoke of "table tennis cheating". Despite Dvoracek's technical weakness, John Hilton and his style of play were blamed for the lack of attractiveness of the moves and many minor mistakes that were inexplicable for the layman. The term "material game" was created, which assumes that only the material and not the technical and tactical skills of the player is responsible for success. Purely factually, this is a (mostly defensive) game in which the racket has different types of surface on the forehand and backhand (high-grip / sticky backside surface combined with variably non-slip, long pimples or non-grip anti-surface). Due to the often practiced turning technique and the uniform color of the rubbers, aggravated by anti-surfaces that did not differ from normal cut rubbers in terms of sound or shine, even purely defensive players could be successful.

This material game (not only practiced by Hilton) was a thorn in the side of many. They primarily blamed the material game for the lack of television and audience acceptance. To prevent this so-called "material game", the world association ITTF issued a rule that forbade two rubbers of the same color on one racket (see also the table tennis racket's surface ). However, this rule change did not, as hoped, lead to higher audience and membership numbers in Germany, on the contrary, they fell by up to 30% in the following years.

Time after that

In 1980, Hilton was signed by the German Bundesliga club ATSV Saarbrücken , with whom he won the European trade fair cup in 1982 . However, he no longer had any resounding international success. At the World Cup in 1981 he was eliminated early, only with the English team he reached 6th place, in the same year he was last at the Europe TOP-12 tournament . At the 1983 World Cup he was only successful in fourth place in the team. From 1982/83 he played at Club Grove in the First Division, the second highest division in England. He later moved to the Dutch club TTC Valkencourt where he stayed until 1985.

In 1998 he entered the Seniors World Cup and reached the semifinals.

Private

Hilton trained as a carpenter, but works as a candy seller in supermarkets. After returning from Australia in 1972, he sold insurance policies for Britannic in the field. After winning the European Championship in 1980, he became a professional table tennis player.

Hilton is married to his wife Christine and has one son (* 1981).

Results from the ITTF database

Association	event	year	place	country	singles	Double	Mixed	team
CLOSELY	Commonwealth Championship	1977	St Peter Port	GGY	Semifinals
CLOSELY	European Championship	1980	Bern	SUI	gold
CLOSELY	European Championship	1978	Duisburg	FRG				2
CLOSELY	EURO TOP12	1981	Miskolc	HUN	12
CLOSELY	World Championship	1983	Tokyo	JPN	last 64	Agony	last 32	4th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1981	Novi Sad	YUG	last 64	Agony	last 64	6th
CLOSELY	World Championship	1979	Pyongyang	PRK	last 64	last 64	last 16	10
CLOSELY	World Championship	1977	Birmingham	CLOSELY	no participants	last 32	no participants
CLOSELY	World cup	1980	Hong Kong	HKG	5

swell

• Erich Philippi: Hilton: “There is still enough applause for me” , DTS magazine , 1980/21 pp. 12-14

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DTS magazine , 1982/24 issue Süd-West p. 36
2. ↑ DTS magazine , 1985/11 p. 42
3. ↑ DTS magazine , 1981/8 p. 46
4. ↑ ITTF statistics ( memento of the original from September 30, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (accessed on September 8, 2011)