I can't believe it, I just had an offer from another forum member to attend the Olympic TT Bronze and Gold medal sessions, He's got two tickets and his wife is not so bothered (mine would not be either) I won't reveal his identity unless he wants me to, and there are some things to sort out before it can happen, but sometimes I just love the whole internet thing for making things like this possible, I keep making friends from all over the world.

My hardbat experiment is now what, 10 days old?  And I've already tried three rubbers: Yasaka A-1-2, Gambler Peacekeeper OX, and Valor Premium.  The three rubbers are surprisingly different in feel and in play.  In the picture below the Yasaka is the dark red one, peacekeeper the light red one and the Valor rubber is black.  The differences are apparent.  The Yasaka rubber has the widest pips while peacekeeper has smaller pips and they're more widely spaced.  Both the Yasaka and Gambler pips are textured on their tops while the Valor pips are smooth.  The Valor pips appear to be somewhere in between the other two in terms of pip width and spacing.

Feeling the rubbers with your fingers gives the distinct impression of hardness on the Yasaka and softness on the other two.  The Yasaka pips are stiffer and more difficult to bend.  Also the "backsheet" is thicker and stiffer than the other two.  Both the peacekeeper and Valor rubbers feel quite soft and the pips are noticeably easier to bend.

In play the Valor rubber is easily the spinniest and is noticeably more springy and a bit faster than the other two (by sponge standards they would all be slow of course).  The Yasaka feels rather dead and slick in comparison and the peacekeeper has a bit of a long pips character to it that personally I didn't find appealing.

To me the Valor rubber is the overall winner hands down.  Easily the best feeling and with more spin.  Of course they all have massive control and chop like a dream but because the Valor is spinnier you can pull off a wider variety of shots.  The clincher for me though is that it has the best smell of any TT rubber I've ever used.  I mean it smells exactly like... a piece of rubber!  It's a rubber with an actual rubber smell, like a car or bicycle tire.  After so many years of nose deadening and headache inducing sponge rubber chemical smells I find that kind of charming.

The RAF squad are enjoying a two day training session at Crusaders club. Led by RAF number 1 and Crusaders member Mark Donoghue, they employed my services as coach and mentor for the two days. Mark invited some crusaders members up to play these guys, and Tony, Alkisti and Ray attended, playing many games and making new friendships.

Alkisti, and John Malone found themselves in the heat of battle in the British league last weekend, though neither of them knew they would be 24 hours previously. My team were struggling to get a full squad out, there is a hefty fine at that level for non compliance of fixtures, so John and Alkisti came to the rescue and travelled with me to Preston. Alkisti played well, but unfortunately was outclassed at this level. John won two out of four, playing well, his wins were however against players from a team who were struggling to put a side out too, so sorry John, no ranking points I'm afraid. john then found out what it is like to play against a Chinese professional, and I have to say he acquitted himself well.

How TT balls are made?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=fK5PkRsRfLI