Are you one of the “old school”, maybe brought up playing with a hard bat, or pimples out/no sponge? Do you serve by sweeping the ball straight off your hand? Or do you throw the ball backwards onto your bat from a cupped hand?

Or are you someone who sticks to the letter of the law, throwing the ball up high and straight, without any spin, and giving both your opponent and the umpire a clear view of the bat and ball at all times?

In practice, I guess most of us fall between these two extremes, but there are players out there (yes, in our League, and even in our club) whose game seems to depend on gaining an unfair advantage from serves which don’t comply with the Service Law as adopted by the ITTF and the ETTA.

The question is - does it matter? Does it matter in a local league such as ours, or is it only relevant in the Olympics? Is it more important that younger players serve legally because they will be forced to do so when playing for their county or country? If young players have to conform, why shouldn’t everyone?

And where does the responsibility for enforcement lie - with the coaches, or the team captains, or the umpires, or the League management committee? Should the League be making greater efforts to encourage legal serving? Would it be a sign of such intent if the Service Law was reinstated in next year’s League handbook? Should the League tell clubs to enforce the rules rigorously both internally and when umpiring matches? Or should it simply “turn a blind eye”?

You can let us know your views on this always thorny topic in two ways: firstly VOTE in our new Poll on the left of the page, and secondly by submitting a Comment in reply to this post. Please, do let us know your views.

At the bottom left of the screen, I’ve included a new facility - an online poll to gather your views on what you’d like to see different. Please select one or more of the possible answers, click on “Vote” and see the results.