Richard DeWitt - HD YouTube Video

Carbon TT wrote: What a total waste of footage recording that slob.  He is complete cheater by using an illegal racket and I have even heard him at Baltimore last year saying he hoped no one would check his racket so he didn't have to put new rubber on.

My 2 cents: we would degenerate into squabble-filled little world of backstabbing and intrigue if we had to sic players on each other trying to find out if anyone's rubbers have been "too old" or "lost too much traction from original state"... also how would expect the umpire to determine that. I agree that Rich's rubbers are not regular Mark V, they are old and glassy, but I do not see any reasons he should not be allowed to play with them. Why is it his problem that companies which make Anti rubbers make so few of them they do not have good sponges or speed required by an offensive player? I understand that formally - under wise guidance of ITTF and Mr. Sharara himself - it is a capital offense to play with "junky" rubbers, but if we allow ourselves to go down that road even in our local and state-level tournaments then we will truly deserve further deterioration of TT in the USA.

Old regular rubber is absolutely more deceptive than anti, the rules state the the surface of the topsheet must be consistent. Anti is produced and approved in a very consistent state. If a player shows you a racket with Mark V on it, you should have the right to expect it to play like Mark V. Otherwise why should the ITTF bother approving topsheets at all? I don't believe its for the manufactures benefit at all.

As for the slob comment, I challenge any of you to try being within 3 feet of him for more than 2 mins and not feeling like you either want to barf, pass out, or run to take a shower. He doesn't seem to have any concept of personal hygiene whatsoever.

esnift wrote: foz wrote: These two guys look like they hate the game! Iv'e seen better body language on a cow in an abertoir!! Abertoir: an annual horror / horror film festival held in the Aberystwyth Arts Centre in Ceredigion, Wales during the months of October and November. It was started in 2006 and is now in its third year. It is the only horror-themed film festival in Wales, and commenced 2008's festival with an original reel of Halloween to celebrate the film's 30th anniversary.

ZingyDNA wrote: Carbon TT wrote: As for the slob comment, I challenge any of you to try being within 3 feet of him for more than 2 mins and not feeling like you either want to barf, pass out, or run to take a shower. He doesn't seem to have any concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Well that's more illegal than his rubber. Perhaps ITTF should make a rule about personal VOC emission?

That would be awesome haha, it seems that a lot of cultures that have a heavy presence in table tennis seem to not understand what deodorant is

ZingyDNA wrote: Carbon TT wrote: As for the slob comment, I challenge any of you to try being within 3 feet of him for more than 2 mins and not feeling like you either want to barf, pass out, or run to take a shower. He doesn't seem to have any concept of personal hygiene whatsoever. Well that's more illegal than his rubber. Perhaps ITTF should make a rule about personal VOC emission?

That is simply not true (at least on some occasions). I myself have set down right next to Rich quite a few times while talking to him about stuff - I didn't detect anything out of the ordinary. Some sweat odor is to be expected and I bet after a couple of matches I do not smell like a rose as I sweat rather profusely... this is a pretty physical sport, my friends. I do try and change my shirt however every 2-3 hours or so...

Anyone griping about infrequent showering should have lived in Germany in the 80s and early 90s. It cost an AWFUL lot of money for hot water (and a fortune to warm up the apt even a few degrees), so using hot water required the average person to make a dificult choice to sacrifice something else, like a portion or two of beer or bread. that is a mightily hard choice to make. That caused a lot of people to make a natural balance of once or twice a week for that chore.