It seems more than fair to describe Dave Harvey as Gloucestershire’s ‘Mr Table Tennis’.

He’s not the only one who has done so much good for the sport over the years, of course, but the current chairman of Gloucestershire Table Tennis Association has certainly played his part in making sure that the game remains readily accessible to anyone who wants to play it in this part of the world.

Harvey, now 70, has played and coached to a very good level as well as being prominent on the admin side and even though he is now into his eighth decade his love for the sport has not diminished one jot.

“Up until a couple of years ago I was still playing in eight leagues,” he said, “I was out playing a lot of evenings.”

And although he has reduced his commitments in recent times, he hasn’t done so by too much, adding with a laugh: “I still play in six leagues – Cheltenham, Evesham, Hereford, Bristol, Gloucester and Leamington.”

The dad-of-two – both his sons are decent table tennis players – freely admits that his wife Karen is a “table tennis widow” although she understands the attraction of the sport because she played in the Cheltenham and Gloucester leagues and once played for Gloucestershire with her husband back in the day.

Dave Harvey has been playing the game for more than half a century and is one of the very top veterans’ players around today.

“I started playing when I was 14 when I was in a church youth club in Cheltenham,” he explained.

It was a sport he took to pretty much straight away although he says modestly that most of his success has come in veterans’ table tennis.

“I’ve got better as I’ve got older,” he said.

And while that may be true, Harvey, who lives in Leckhampton in Cheltenham, also enjoyed success in his younger days as well.

“I won the Cheltenham Closed singles tournament 28 times and I was county champion 13 times,” he said with justifiable pride.

And he performed on a lot bigger stages around the country as well before really making his mark in the veterans’ game.

“I reached the quarter-finals of the English Open singles,” he said, “I lost to Alan Cooke who was a very, very good player.

“I also played in the Premier League for Bath and we came third one year which was very good because we played the best players in this country and some of the best players in the world.”

Harvey was actually ranked 34 in this country at one stage and remembers beating a player of the calibre of John Hilton on three separate occasions.

“He was once ranked number four in the world and is an ex-national champion and an ex-European champion,” said Harvey. “Mind you, I lost to him quite a few times as well!”

In the second half of his career Harvey has been crowned over-40s, over-50s and over-60s national champion and is currently England’s number one over-60 – when he spoke to The Local Answer he was preparing to compete in the European Veterans’ Championships in Budapest and was looking forward to taking part in the World Veterans ‘Championships in Bordeaux in June next year.

He also reached the last 16 of the world over-40s championships in 1992 and reached the last eight of the same competition eight years later.

Those two competitions were played in Dublin and Manchester respectively – “I could play in them because they were relatively close in proximity,” explained Harvey – and his performance in the Irish capital was noticed by some people who know their table tennis.

“I got offered the chance to play veterans’ table tennis professionally in France but I had to turn it down because of family commitments,” said Harvey, who worked as a programme manager and still works one day a week.

Clearly Harvey was, and is, a very good table tennis player, so how would he describe himself as a player?

“I’m a counter-attacking blocker,” he said. “When opponents do their loops, I stay close to the table. That’s why I can still compete because I don’t have to cover enormous amounts of ground.”

Harvey, who prefers to play backhand to forehand but is happy on both sides has passed on many of his tricks of the trade to his sons Michael and Robert who are in their mid to late 20s and have both played at senior county level.

“Michael has been Cheltenham champion twice and my youngest boy won junior, intermediate and senior doubles in Cheltenham and Gloucestershire. He won the seniors both with me and Michael.”

Harvey has been a coach for more than 40 years and has coached one national champion as well as a number of England Schools’ internationals, including Michael, who was once a national schools’ finalist.

He’s also coached at county and Cheltenham League level.

It’s an impressive CV that Dave Harvey boasts but there’s much more because as well as being chairman of the GTTA – “Nobody wanted to do it so I volunteered,” he said – he has worked tirelessly on behalf of the Cheltenham Table Tennis League and has taken on pretty much every role over the years apart from chairman.

And while table tennis has been a huge part of his life, it’s not the only sport that Harvey played when he was growing up.

“I played water polo for Cheltenham Juniors for a couple of years,” he said. “It was in the days when they played at Alstone Baths. I wasn’t very good, they put me in goal because I was tall. We got to the national final in one of the years but I obviously let in too many goals because we lost.

“It was a very good team apart from me!”

Harvey’s brother Alan was a very good water polo player, playing for England’s under-21s and also Cheltenham’s senior side.

Dave Harvey was obviously a much better water polo player than he is letting on, but there’s absolutely no doubt that he is a very good table tennis player!