Johnny Leach obituary  English table tennis champion with a huge
influence on his sport Johnny Leach. Johnny Leach held sway
during the 1950s and 60s when table tennis was one of Britain's
most popular sports. Photograph: S&G and Barratts/Empics  For
many years Johnny Leach, who has died aged 91, was synonymous
with English table tennis. Both in his prime as a player, in the
immediate postwar years, and subsequently as an ambassador,
promoter, administrator, businessman and talent-spotter, his
impact on the sport was immense. Leach held sway in an age when
table tennis could claim to be the most popular participation
sport in the UK. It was played everywhere: youth clubs and youth
hostels, working men's clubs, works canteens, church halls and
of course homes. If you could not afford the folding table from
Woolworths, you simply bought the net and stretched it across
the kitchen table.  Throughout the 1950s and 60s, the sport had
a heady time of it. Chester Barnes, the controversial genius of
the sport, and on