Chester Barnes
| Chester Barnes | |
|---|---|
| Born |
George Barnes 27 January 1947 Forest Gate, Essex, England, UK |
| Nationality | British |
| Occupation | Racehorse Assistant Trainer |
George "Chester" Barnes (born 27 January 1947) is a former English table tennis champion, who was England No. 1 player for many years during the 1960s and 1970s.
When he retired from professional table tennis he took up a post with the Martin Pipe racing stables as an assistant to the racehorse trainer.
Barnes was born in a maternity home in Forest Gate, Greater London, on 27 January 1947. When he was about a year old his family moved to live on a farm near Basingstoke, Hampshire. Barnes' family also lived for a short period on a farm in Whitley Wood near Reading.
In his autobiography, More Than A Match, Barnes sets out the details of how he came to be known as 'Chester'. His father was listening to the radio at the time of his birth when he was asked by the matron of the maternity home what christian name he was going to be called by. The programme playing on the radio at the time was the Charlie Chester Show, and his father replied: "We'll call him Chester." The book then goes on to say that Barnes was never actually christened with the name Chester although he was called by this name by both family and friends and has never been known as George.
Chester Barnes was one of the most outstanding young table tennis players of his era, and had an extraordinary and very rapid rise to fame. At the age of 16 he won the Men's Singles title at the English National Closed Championships and, at the time of winning this first title in 1963, he was still classified as a junior.
It was during this period that he was involved in several clashes with officialdom. In a short time he became one of the best known sports personalities in England and demands for interviews, television appearances and exhibitions poured in. At the age of 16 he became the first English table tennis player in the history of the game to have a personal manager (Peter Madge) to handle his business interests, and the publicity that surrounded his success is well documented. His fame and success was such that he was approached by a leading publisher at the time (Stanley Paul & Co. Ltd., part of the Hutchinson Publishing Group) to write his autobiography. The footballer, George Best was a notable sportsman who had business and work interests outside of his sport and, despite his amateur status as a table tennis player, Barnes too was making money from modelling and having sports equipment branded with his name.
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