PLEASANTVILLE, NEW YORK — Will Shortz is a puzzle grasp by day and a table-tennis fanatic by night time. He has been the New York Occasions crossword editor and NPR’s puzzle grasp for over three many years.
Nonetheless, his actual ardour lies not within the squares however the paddles. He has been taking part in desk tennis since he was a toddler, again then in his mother and father’ basement, and at one level performed every single day for 4,141 days in a row, or 11 years and 4 months.
In 2011, with the encouragement of Shortz’s good friend Robert Roberts – friends by way of the membership in addition to companions in quite a few table-tennis street journeys throughout the nation -they opened Westchester Desk Tennis Heart in Pleasantville, New York, a suburb of New York Metropolis.
“I consider our membership as being kind of a mini-United Nations of sport, as our members had been born in 35 completely different international locations. Members’ ages vary from 8 or 9 as much as the 90s. Each women and men compete collectively. We now have one member in a wheelchair who’s fairly good. And one in every of our common event gamers is a five-time paralympian,” Shortz stated.
Amoolya Menon, 15, of Chappaqua, is one in every of America’s prime feminine gamers for her age. She began taking part in at a free clinic on the membership, likening it to her second dwelling. Menon hopes to make the 2028 American Olympic Ping Pong staff.
The membership additionally based an revolutionary program for Parkinson’s sufferers, which now has a whole bunch of chapters all over the world.
“Taking part in ping-pong has been proven to delay and scale back the consequences of Parkinson’s illness,” Shortz defined.
In 2019, the middle held the world’s first Ping Pong Parkinson’s Event. Since then the event has moved all around the globe.
On the elite facet, WTTC host the most important month-to-month table-tennis event in North America, drawing gamers from all over the world. Since opening in 2011, they’ve awarded greater than $800,000 in prizes — essentially the most by far of any membership.
The membership is open seven days every week until 10 p.m. and gamers of all ability ranges and ages are welcome.
