Andy Trott
It gives me great pleasure to focus on a player who is not just considered as one of our top players but is also a great sporting all-rounder and someone who takes a real pride in his achievements. Andy Trott is well known for his ‘late nights’ before table tennis tournaments, his jokes and pranks, stories, taking money from golf challenges and the social side of the VETTS circuit. He is quite a character when you get to know him well but there is also a very serious and caring side to his personality. You can usually find Andy late in a bar with Nick Heaps or Dave Bowles or even at Lords.
Andy started his table-tennis career at the age of 9 at Bedford Modern School where he also played squash, tennis, badminton and cricket. He played U12 county standard for cricket and tennis but narrowed it down to focus on table-tennis and cricket. He went on win the schools U13, U16 and U19 titles – TWICE. He played with Gavin Black for England school boys and the other star was Neil Stanley who played for England U19’S at cricket. All 3 players later played cricket for Bedfordshire. Andy was in good company with lots of competition and challenge in those early days which gave him motivation.
His achievement on the VETTS circuit has been quite remarkable. He has reached every final of the master’s at least once but only won the Western 40’s (twice) and the Eastern 50’s (once). Before any of these 3 titles, he was building a reputation as the ‘nearly man’- getting to finals but not finishing the job. I recall that he was very unlucky in some of those finals that I saw him play in. I do, however, remember the massive relief, applause and handshakes when he finally broke his duck to win his first singles title at Thornbury.
His real specialism, however, is Men’s doubles for which he has amassed a remarkable total. He has won 3 National 40’s titles, with quality left handers – Chris Bartram, Lorestos and O’Driscoll and won 14 other 40’s with Lorestos (9), Dave Robson (2), Eddie Smith, Dave Buck and Simon Pugh. He has also won the English Closed twice with partner Chris Bartram. In 50’s doubles he has 9 titles with Chris Bartram, 3 with Stephen Horsfield, 2 with Steve Horton and 1 with Ivan Lewis.
Andy has also won 5 National Mixed titles with the dearly departed Sue Collier plus 34 other mixed titles with Sue (31) Rita K (2) and Jan Johns. Since writing this piece I know that Andy has added another mixed and men’s doubles to his incredible tally! Andy enjoys playing doubles more than singles and I am not sure if there is a better record of achievement in VETTS masters.
Andy has represented England VETTS making 10 appearances in the 6 Nations with 9 team titles, 8 doubles titles and 2 singles victories displaying an incredible level of consistency over a long period of time. Andy has proudly represented his county Northamptonshire many times and at their county tournament has won 69 titles with 19 of them being for Men’s Singles Champion. I would imagine that his aim and motivation would be to push that close to 100!
When asked about his “Best Win/Achiement” he highlights beating John Kitchener a few times (once to win the Barclays Bank Title in 1988), Lorestos a couple of times and probably most of the Vetts at some point. On a cricket perspective – he was a member of the team that won the 1999 Minor Counties knock out cup final at Lords and receiving the Man of the Match award in the 2004 final. During this time, he played 8 first class games in the Nat West Trophy. His most difficult opponent is Neil Charles with his difficult to read serves and third ball attack, although Andy did beat him last time.
Andy speaks very highly of one of the big influences in table tennis – Dave Welsman who he describes as a great coach, good friend and nice guy. He doesn’t see a lot of Dave now, since he relocated but Dave taught him to be more positive and attack more. Andy would probably describe himself as a very consistent blocker who is able to generate huge amounts of spin when given the opportunity.
The lowest point for Andy is unquestionably and understandably the death of his father who supported him in all sports throughout his life. This is something that Andy finds very difficult to come to terms with and the recent death of very close friends has not helped.
Andy is still quite philosophical about life. He is married with 2 lovely daughters and will support both on their journey and his match preparation will remain the same. This usually involves a round of Golf on the Friday (trying to take money off Steve Horsfield), drinking on a Friday and Saturday nights after a nice meal with the likes of Dave Bowles and Nick Heaps. He enjoys playing some tennis in the summer and some inter-county cricket. As he approaches 60, he will probably start planning for more titles and further down the line he would love to get a doubles medal in a Europeans or Worlds. He feels lucky to have had good partners both on the table and in the bar and has made some great friendships through our sport. Andy has added more titles since this write up with a doubles win at Crawley with Stephen Horsfield to push his total of Vetts titles to 75 and creeping nearer to the magic 100!
