Serve before receiver ready - receiver caught ball in hand

No. Just no. With an extra topping of "how rude!" on the side.

Nah that sucks and stuff like that goes on quite often in leagues - does my head in. I try to put my hand up until I'm ready if someone is quick at serving, or put my bat on the table until I'm ready.

NDH said:

Was this local league in the UK?

The place where all the exciting drama happens over rules! haha.

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haha exactly.

I don't get it - why would you want to potentially win a game in that way?

Because we have some absolute tools in the UK leagues! haha.

This is actually one of the more straightforward examples - It should definitely be a let, if you saw they were about to serve, you could have called out "hang on a sec" or something - If you didn't see they were about to serve, and ended up catching it, hopefully everyone should see that and call a let.

Clearly that didn't happen, but that's them being stupid, not you.

Now, there are some juicy rule issues that I come across.

Serving - Always a good one, as people don't like to "call" an illegal serve, yet so many people do it.

The last one is the most controversial in my opinion......

When playing a point, if someone breaks the ball (top edge for example), with a shot...... regardless of where the ball is heading (could be backwards or miles away from the table)...... The point should be replayed.

I bet you'll not find a local league that uses this rule (the 3 I play in don't, because most people don't know it exists).

But it happened to me in British League - Couldn't believe it!

I'm extra annoying with people that don't even check if the receiver is ready and consider that they do it on purpose. Which is why if I notice that I will actively look outside for a couple second just to annoy them now and them claim not being ready.

Why? I hear you ask? Simple.

First competition I played after starting table tennis again I stumbled upon a slightly invalid player (underdeveloped left arm and hand on a right-handed player) that in retrospect was actually using that to win points. Basically what he did was, as soon as I would throw him the ball for him to get into serve position (while I was still a good 2 meters away from the table) he would catch the ball with his left sort-of elbow, them use the momentum to throw it and serve. And I said absolutely nothing during the whole game because you know, invalid player, first competition and all. And I can honestly say he got about 3 points each game on that alone... which is really a lot if you think about it.

Then I happen to umpire for him and another player and looked more closely... and I started to notice a pattern with every level of player he was playing against... he got 3 points for free at each game.

I adjusted during the match and started to only throw him the ball when I was mostly ready, but still he was getting an unfair advantage, while he was actually perfectly capable of waiting (as evidenced when people actually had him serve a second time). I started to pay attention to that more and more and I'm actually seeing it with a lot of players, invalid and valid alike, up to a point where I consider that consciously cheating.

So my rule now is... you wait till I'm ready, and if you have a tendency to *not* do that then I'm sure as hell enforcing it, breaking your rythme as much as I can in the process.

It's obviously a let. The referee is being ridiculous. I actually just call let when the ball is travelling towards me and hit it back. No one has a problem I have encountered. But many people serve as soon as they have the ball at their end of the table. I had someone serve at me when I was 3m behind the table and to the side once. I just laughed and said "ace". Obviously it was a let. This has also resulted in me not returning the ball to servers until I am ready to receive. This annoys some of the older blokes bit it's their own fault their hurried serving before I am ready has resulted in me doing this. Also hold your hand up until you are ready if they are someone who does this fast serving regularly then there can be no doubt.

With these ridiculous fast servers (thankfully you get less of them the higher up the ranks you go), I just fo the following.....

Pick up the ball.
Walk back to the table.
Wipe my hand by the net (pro style).
Walk back to my end of the table.
Check the score board if there is one.
Stretch out the legs.
Squat.
Get in to the ready position.

Finally.... give them their ball back!

By the rules, only the referee can call let and "stop the game". If we go according to the rules, what you should've done is to raise your hand and kept playing untill the referee calls let.

BigMick said:

There is no way to "keep playing" after missing the serve. Indeed, even attempting to "keep playing" i.e. by attempting to swipe at the ball, explicitly prevents the receiver from being able to claim they weren't ready.

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Sure, but according to the rules only the referee can stop the game. Hence, why should raise your hand and keep playing till the referee sees your hand and calls let.

My point is that you, as a player, can't catch the ball and say that you weren't ready

BigMick said:

How about if I was bent over, three metres from the table, doing up my shoe laces - then out of the corner of my eye I see the service ball coming at me - I reach out a hand and catch the ball without even standing up - do I lose the point?

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At that point the referee should notice that you are not ready and call let.

BigMick said:

Your argument appears to be totally inconsistent.

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How come? It's simple, referee has to make sure both players are ready. If the referee doesn't see that one of the players are ready, the player has to raise the hand wait for let.

After the referee calls let, you have to tell the referee why you raised your hand. If your reasoning is good enough, like you weren't ready, the ball will be played over. If the reasoning is not good enough, the referee can give point to the other player.

Mick, I'm not sure what you are trying to achieve here?

Looking on it retrospectively, if someone were to stick exactly by the rules, you broke them, you lost the point, the referee followed the rule book to the letter.

If I was the referee, I'd argue that you played the ball (because if you weren't ready, how can you catch the ball), and therefore you lost the point.

Now, being realistic, 99% of people will call a let, and it would be accepted - You obviously had someone who didn't want to make friends.

If you are asking what you should do in future.....

Whenever I'm playing, I don't give the ball back until I'm ready. It doesn't matter if they are a fast or slow server, if you have the ball, take your time, get in position, and give them their ball back to serve.

Personally, I think this is good practice, and will stop anything like this happening to you again.

I teach my kids not to smack the ball back at the opposition from 3 metres away, because I find it rude and there's more chances they'll miss, and the other person will then have to go and collect the ball.

If this ever happens to you again with the same umpire, I would just completely leave the ball and say you weren't ready - That is what the rules state you should do, and then it's a let.

NDH said:

Whenever I'm playing, I don't give the ball back until I'm ready. It doesn't matter if they are a fast or slow server, if you have the ball, take your time, get in position, and give them their ball back to serve.

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While I do agree with you, it doesn't entirely solve the issue because roughly half the time they will have the ball on their side already (although you could argue that in those cases you have more time to be ready)

But yes, very good practice overall. It only has upsides.