Next match after winning 3 last week was tonight. I only won 1/3 and whilst I am slightly disappointed with that I had a think about it and I'm happy with my progress this season.

In terms of averages, before Christmas I won 1 from 21, a poor 5%.

Since Christmas, I've won 5/12 for a more respectable 42%

Although this is no great shakes, I am happy with my current level of technical production and both tactical and mental aptitude.

Final note - hit my 2 best shots ever tonight although one in particular was gorgeous. Backhand loop from outside the LHS of the table, round the net and down the line. It wasn't just the placement and trajectory that pleased me, it was the weight transfer, coming into the ball, weight on the left leg and stroking it down the line. Gorgeous.

This is a short blog and I'll do a kinda extended thing possibly tomorrow as I'm totally knackered but I just thought I'd share with you all that tonight, for the first time, at just about half past 10... I won all my games for the first ever time in the top division in Scunthorpe, and partnered my old man to win the doubles too!

Now, to replicate my success is the next step!

I haven't played since my last cry for help. I have taken two weeks out owing to catching the much overblown Swine 'Flu and then having a bit of a rest to allow my chest to recover. Not much to report on that front.

Why the blog then? Well, I am on the eve of, for the very first time in my life, seeing some top international class table tennis LIVE. Going to Sheffield tomorrow to watch the first and second rounds of the Men's Singles from the English Open. Tremendously excited as I had worried it would be 2012 before I saw the top 20 players in the world convene in England to play serious competitive table tennis. Should be a blast!

I have had a problem for a long, looong, time with my game and I still don't seem to be able to iron it out. Well, when I say 'a problem' - what I mean is 'a succession of problems limiting my development henceforth my relatively low standard of competitive table tennis'. But anyway..

I'd practiced every day for 2 weeks pretty much before the first game of the season. I saw serving well, I was getting in with my first ball and, most importantly, making good game decisions - placement, spinning up when needing to spin up, going hard when the opportunity arises, receiving (especially flicking well) and all this against a player who is obviously much more competent than I am (in matchplay, at least).

Now, I'm told I have excellent strokes, I generate good spin and I have a lot of power when I 'go for' a forehand. When I'm playing games in practice all of these things come together and I actually commit to getting the shots in - I am able to beat anybody in the town. However, as soon as a league match comes around, it all vanishes. I think the problem is nerves - this is evidenced by the fact that when I'm playing practice games I serve, get my first forehand in, usually quite hard into the cross over, then the ball sits up and I actually manage to smash the loose ball. In a league game, I serve, I scramble my forehand in then if I get a loose ball I tend to totally miss the smash or top front edge it into the ceiling.

Wiggy - in your blog you said that you were working with a player who has similar kind of issues, I know you picked up on it when we were knocking, trying to encourage me to chase my shots by winding me up, but in matches I just can't access that particular mental state. I don't want to be the player who looks good but never achieves - I want to be able to achieve the success that is possible relative to me - a level of success I don't consider to be losing all 3 every week in Scunthorpe.

How do you people address the mental side of the game to force yourself to impose your own game? Or have you never suffered in that respect?

After my last game, 2 of the players I lost to openly admitted to having no idea how to return my serves so they just looked to chop them as heavy as they could - this is the kind of return I would be feeding off in a no-pressure situation.