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Going for a Record by Will Shortz
[USATT Magazine, July/August 2009]
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Bialowas, Blake wow crowd in table tennis
[The Rivertowns Enterprise, April 4, 2008]
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Old Sound Brings Out Warm Notes by Peter Applebome
[The N Y Times, May 3, 2007]
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Rivertowns Table Tennis Club by Judith Doolin Spikes
[The Rivertowns Enterprise, Sept. 8, 2006]
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Table Tennis by Catherine Censor
[Westchester Magazine, April 2006; part of the feature "15 Exciting (Really!) Ways to Get Buff"]
What's an eight-letter term for "table top net loss"? Ask Will Shortz, the
popular editor of the New York Times crossword puzzle and member of the
Rivertowns Table Tennis Club. (Answer: ping pong.) Four nights a week, avid table
tennis players, including the great puzzle master, gather for fast-paced paddle
action and perhaps some etymology as well.
"People can just show up," says Shortz. "It's free, it's for all skill
levels, and it's a wide-ranging group of people. We have teens as well as men and
women in their seventies." The group meets four nights a week, in Tarrytown and
Ardsley. Although there's no formal instruction, Shortz says, "people are
helpful about giving tips to others."
The group has grown from its humble origins. Seven years ago, two players in
Hastings started the club and held games at the Hastings Community Center.
After the community center was razed, they moved to their current locations and
attracted many new members. "On an average night of play we have 12 to 25
players," Shortz attests. And the group hopes to expand its activities. "We're
hoping to set up a summer youth program in Tarrytown and we're sponsoring an
expert from Poland to come here to teach."
Burn rate: Perhaps it's the intense hand-eye coordination or the rapid-fire
repartee that accounts for table tennis's respectable rate of 236 calories an
hour for a 130-lb. pinger; 281 for a 155-lb. ponger.
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