FRANK Hamer is one of the most remarkable table tennis players East Lancashire has ever had - and it is all down to a freak accident with a hand grenade.
Still playing at the age of 80-years-old, Frank has won virtually every title going in a career that spans back to the late 1940s.
It is an incredible record for the Blackburn-born player especially when you consider he could have quite easily been lost to painting or basket weaving.
For it was after an Army accident involving the hand grenade, doctors suggested Frank's road to recovery would be aided by taking up one of these leisurely past times.
But when he replied in the negative to both, table tennis was thrown in as an after thought and Frank's eyes lit up.
"I had played a bit at the YMCA before I went in to the Army so when they suggested table tennis I jumped at the chance," said Frank whose association with the Blackburn club lasted 35 years. "And besides, I don't really have much time for painting or basket weaving."
The accident occurred while on routine hand grenade practice while serving with the Royal Electical Mechanical Engineers.
"It was straight forward stuff really," recalled Frank. "Pull the pin out, count to three and throw the grenade. But one of the lads bottled it and dropped his live grenade. We all made a run for it and the next thing I remember was a right thwack on the big of my head."
Frank was sent to Chester Hospital to recover but once he returned to barracks he was reintroduced to table tennis and would play every day - Forrest Gump style - in the canteen.
It not only impressed his army colleagues but also the officers as well.
"I remember the sergeant coming to get me. I was marched to the officers mess and I thought I was in real trouble. But they said they had seen me play and were impressed and invited me to join them in a game of table tennis."
Frank said he learnt more in those sessions then he had ever done.
"I was always an attacking player and I thought I was doing pretty well when suddenly a shot fizzed right past my ear," recalled Frank. "It happened time and time again, with each one I played. It was then that I found out that one was an England player while the others were county players."
Frank served in the Army for three years from 1945-48 and was based in both England and Germany. And it was during one posting to Hamburg he won one of his best titles.
"There was a club we used to go to and I had been there a few times," added Frank, a former pupil at Bangor Street School. "Someone mentioned there was a table upstairs which was staging a ladder competition. That is when you join the bottom of the league and work your way up.
"There was about 60 names on the ladder but eventually I climbed the table and won the event. I was presented with a medal saying I was the Hamburg Open champion."
On his return to Blackburn, he headed straight back to the YMCA - a club he had first walked in to as a child with his brothers Brian, Terry and Clarence.
But he was too old to play with the youngsters on one table while the other was reserved for the YMCA first team players.
"They weren't for letting me on the table but I just sat there and waited and waited. In the end, they had no choice to let me have a go and I promptly beat them one by one."
Frank was immediately drafting in to the first team and it was during his time at YMCA he helped the team to countless league victories while he became Blackburn champion - a title he won no fewer than seven times. He has also won the Darwen and Ribblesdale champion three times each and also won the Skegness Open title while on holiday.
Frank also played at town team level in Darwen, Blackburn and the Ribble Valley.
One of his biggest regrets is not playing at county level.
"Was I good enough to play for the county, well I used to beat county standard players all the time. It would have been good to have represented Lancashire but the trials were too far away so it made it virtually impossible for me to get there."
But it is the only blot on a hugely impressive copy book.
For where ever Frank has played, he has won titles, competitions and cups - he has more than 200 trophies in his collection - the latest being the Super Vets title he won with partner John Thornber in the Hyndburn Table Tennis League.
Frank has played for countless teams including YMCA, Allspeeds and also the Alex Field Table Tennis Club which was based in an old church hall and he helped form.
But away from playing he has given up countless hours of his time coaching others and has seen many of his young players go on to bigger and better things.
He has also coached at Brockhall Hospital and Blackburn Deaf School. And recently, he donated a table to Mellor Village Hall where he has held exhibitions for the youngsters.
It is such commitment that has seen him win the Blackburn Sports Council's services to sport award while he was also short-listed for an OBE.
That commitment has never floundered and even today he is either playing or coaching more nights of the week.
"I would love to see more children take up table tennis," added Frank who has no intention of hanging up his bat just yet. "It is a wonderful sport to be involved in.
"It is great for hand-eye coordination, improves your concentration levels and is a wonderful way of keeping fit."
And Frank Hamer is living proof of that.
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