Mike Edwards is a distinguished Brisbane Table Tennis veteran player and has been playing fixtures since the early 1970s at our club. He has made a huge contribution to BTTA, became a life member in 2019 and is also well known among Queensland players. Facing his challenges in life, Mike is a true warrior and a survivor. Here is his story…
At fifteen years of age Mike together with a school mate started playing table tennis on the kitchen table, with books being used as a net! His table tennis passion got ignited! His first bat had cork on one side and sandpaper on the other. The cork proved useful for chopping the ball and the sandpaper was a bit faster and provided some spin.
Later on Mike used normal rubbers. Yasaka Mark V and Butterfly Sriver were a perfect fit for him until eventually he changed to long pimples on his forehand. His style is unique, being a chopper and defender and also using a long pimple smash down the line on his forehand which gets him many points! On his backhand he will use a flick at times.
Mike is purely self taught in table tennis. When he once presented himself to a coaching session, he was told his style is so unique that it would be uneconomical to change it and would need lots and lots of lessons. So why not just enjoy and celebrate your style! And so he did!
Mike’s table tennis achievement was working himself up from Division B3 at the old Albion Centre to eventually Division 1 on a Tuesday night at our current location in Windsor! He also came runner up in the O50 Doubles in 2013 at the Queensland Veteran Championships. Mike has represented Queensland at the National Veteran Championships in teams most years since 2012.
At our club Mike made many contributions - from volunteering on the BTTA Council as a member in the 1980s and then again from 2008, as Treasurer in 2010 and ever since 2011 as Secretary. He is also working as an evening controller. Furthermore, Mike was a Queensland State Veteran Selector from 2018 to 2023.
In 2001 Mike survived a major heart attack and doctors told him it was a miracle that he survived! But this was not all! Many of us present on that night in 2019 will not forget when Mike had another heart attack at our hall while playing table tennis. In disbelief and trepidation we watched while Mike was lying motionless and almost lifeless on the floor while others with some knowledge attempted CPR, called or cleared the path for the ambulance or helped by any means or prayer they could. The new defibrillator was used for the first time that night! When finally the ambulance arrived, Mike’s life hung very much in balance and only 45 minutes later he was stabilised enough with injections, electric shocks and CPR so that he could be transported to the hospital. Several days later he woke up, stayed another three weeks in hospital and was back playing table tennis three months later! What a legend!
Mike was born in Brisbane in 1949, married in 1972 and has been married for 52 years! He has two daughters but one of them died quite suddenly when she had just turned 21 from Meningococcal disease. That was a very tragic time for the whole family.
These days Mike cares for his wife who has ill health and enjoys watching his two grandson’s football matches. He is very proud of his oldest grandson’s achievement of being the school captain of Stratton High School. His other hobbies are reading and computer games, not to forget table tennis of course!
While Mike wanted originally to become a school teacher, financial circumstances were not in his favour, as it was too expensive to send him to Teachers’ College. So Mike entered the Commonwealth Public Service in 1967 and later worked for the State Government from 1991 until his retirement in 2011.
Once at the Queensland Veteran Championships Mike tore his Achilles tendon. But despite injuries, health issues and personal tragedies, he survived as a real warrior. Mike likes to play table tennis so much that he would like to continue to play as long as he can. We enjoy Mike’s humour and sense of camaraderie. He will be missed by players this year at the Australian Veteran Championships. Hopefully he will be back to play at the National Veteran Championships next year.
