Stanmore Bay table tennis player Shirley Ritchie received a standing ovation when her bronze medal was presented at the recent World Masters Games.
She was moved to tears by the support, which came because she won the medal under the most difficult of circumstances. Just before the game, her husband Bob, who was at the Gillies Avenue centre in Auckland to see her play, had a heart attack.
Bob has a history of heart problems and Shirley says that walking the short distance to the centre had been too much.
“I went to tell him I was in medal contention and he said ‘we’d better call an ambulance because I’ve got angina’,” Shirley says. “Then he fell flat on his face.”
The ambulance staff took him to hospital, but Shirley says Bob wanted her to ‘go for it’ and get her medal.
“I had a nurse beside me as I played because they were frightened that I might collapse from the shock of seeing Bob fall over like that,” she says.
However, the 72-year-old played on, despite feeling “as if I was in a fog”.
Shirley entered the World Masters Games after winning a gold in the NZ Masters in 1987.
She has been playing for 42 years and is a member of a small friendly club, Whangaparaoa Table Tennis Club.
“I love the game and didn’t want to let down the club and coach,” Shirley says. “I could have got silver, but I ran out of grunt.”
As well as bronze in the singles, Shirley won silver in the doubles but says the bronze means more because she worked so hard for it.
Bob has since recovered, although he may need another stent put in. “He gave me a fright,” Shirley says. “But I was at the World Masters Games to do a job.”
Whangaparaoa Table Tennis plays weekly at the Red Beach Presbyterian Church and welcomes new members. Info: email kfds@xtra.co.nz
