Ahoy

My thoughts wandered a few months ahead. The clock has  not yet been put back; by then it will have gone forward again. And we’ll know which football team has won our National Soccer League: PSV, Ajax – or will it be Twente again?

 It’s Sunday the fifteenth of May. The traffic on the roads to Rotterdam is slowly creeping forward. Traffic jams – because all the table tennis freaks are looking for the Ahoy exit. For that’s where the finals of the 2011 World Table Tennis .Championships are to be  played. We have a wonderful week behind us and the apotheosis is about to commence.

 Ton van Happen, the Championships Director,  looks around contentedly over his spectacles. The mission is nearly accomplished and it has been a success. Not least due to the help of an army of volunteers. They, too, clad in attire specially made for this occasion, can take their place in the stands and watch. The main guests at the festival will probably come from far-away China. Or can Timo Boll perhaps spring a surprise, or si Waldner in great form? That would give the stands a fine yellow tint. Or will a Dutch player suddenly emerge who….? What does it matter?

 From Ahoy the whole world can enjoy top table tennis. Assuming, that is, that the NOS – the Netherlands Broadcasting Authority – will be present from the first ball to the last. The afternoon of May 15 I shall not be sitting at home on the sofa with a bag of crisps. I shall be watching happily from my seat in the stands. I, too, shall have had a wonderful week as a volunteer. For sure.

Henk Brouwer