John Hilton

John Hilton is a retired table tennis player best known for winning the singles event at the Table Tennis European Championships in 1980 despite being a relatively unknown amateur player. His use of a revolutionary combination bat with different rubbers on either side, coupled with his aggressive allround play, always turning the bat in his hand, led to one of sport's greatest upsets. At the time of his victory John trained at the Manchester YMCA, where he was only ranked at number 4, despite being ranked at number 1 in Europe and number 5 in the world. His odds of winning the tournament were rated at 1,000–1.