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Table Tennis

How Will Shortz Turned Pleasantville into a Table Tennis Mecca

June 1, 2022 by Andrew Vitelli

PHOTO BY DONNA MUELLER

On February 19 Will Shortz, a Pleasantville resident and The New York Times puzzle editor, saw his Wordle streak come to an end. 

Shortz knew the word began with S and ended with “ILL” – but instead of choosing a word that contained multiple potential second letters he guessed through the possibilities: skill, spill. He was out of guesses before trying the correct answer, “Swill.”

“I was surprised how much it hurt me to lose,” Shortz, explains a few days later. “So I am not going to let myself lose again.”

Shortz, a puzzler with few peers in the world, takes such vows seriously. In 2012, Shortz had just opened the Westchester Table Tennis Center in Pleasantville and set out to play ping pong all 366 days of the year. But on October 3, Shortz was at the World Puzzle Championship in Kraljevica, Croatia and got lost on the way to a tennis club he had lined up to play after the tournament.

“The club wasn’t where I thought it was going to be, and I arrived just as they were closing,” Shortz recalls. “I don’t speak Croatian, so what could I say to them as they are leaving?”

Shortz has not let it happen since. Despite his busy schedule, a global pandemic and frequent travel, he has spent a chunk of his day on the table for more than 3,500 days in a row, as of press time. His streak is probably a record, although no one officially keeps track.

“Will does not travel unless he has an itinerary of where he’s going to go, the club he is going to play,” says Robert Roberts, Shortz’s close friend and travel companion, the manager of the tennis club, and a three-time Caribbean table tennis champion. 

This tendency towards obsession has served Shortz well as a puzzler. Shortz started making crossword puzzles when he was around eight years old and by the time he sold his first at age 14, to his national Sunday school magazine Venture, he knew he wanted to make puzzling a career. By 16, he was a regular contributor to Dell puzzle magazines. At the University of Indiana, he received a specialized degree in enigmatology, or the study of puzzles; he is believed to be the only person in the world with such a degree. 

In 1993, Shortz joined The New York Times as puzzle editor. The puzzle team has grown to include six members, but at the time it was a department of one. He’s helmed the department going on three decades, in addition to his role as puzzle master on NPR’s Weekend Edition. He founded both the American Crossword Puzzle Tournament and the World Puzzle Championship, and each year travels across the world for the latter.

While not on the level of others who have passed through his club, Shortz is also a very good ping pong player. He is rated 1600, or upper intermediate, putting him in the top half of tournament players while not at a championship level (your correspondent, a mediocre ponger, narrowly avoided a goose egg when the two last faced off nearly a decade ago). 

Though the sport seems to hold little in common with puzzling, Shortz sees parallels between his two passions.

“From the participants standpoint, when you do it you get completely wrapped up in the activity, focused on solving the puzzle and winning the game and you forget everything else in the world,” Shortz says. “And when you’re done, you’re ready to go back to the world. It is a great feeling. It refreshes you.”

And it is in the table tennis world that Shortz has turned Pleasantville into a national destination, drawing the best players from across the globe to one of the largest table tennis centers in the United States. 

“I’m really proud of it,” says of the Westchester Table Tennis Center, which Shortz opened in May 2011. “I love it when people come into the club, look around and go, wow. Because when you think of a table tennis facility you think of something cramped with a low ceiling and dim lighting. And when you come into our place, it is professional.”

PHOTO BY DONNA MUELLER

Coming to Pleasantville

Shortz grew up on an Arabian horse farm in central Indiana and stayed in his home state to attend university. But after college, his budding puzzling career drew him to the New York metropolitan area.

“If you want to be in puzzles, New York is the area to be,” Shortz says.

Shortz moved to Stamford, Connecticut in 1977, then four years later to Forest Hills, Queens. In 1993, he found a three-story Tudor in Pleasantville and fell in love both with the town and the property.

“I was in Forest Hills for 12 years. And it always felt like a stage for something else. It didn’t feel permanent,” he says. “I remember I bought this house, and the first morning I walked down those steps saying, this feels like home.”

In 1999, folklorist Steve Zeitlin and author Stefan Kanfer founded the Rivertowns Table Tennis Club, which eventually rotated between Hastings-on-Hudson, Ardsley and Tarrytown. Shortz joined in 2001. 

In 2004, a new puzzle craze hit the US, this one focused on single-digit numbers. 

“When I first heard about Sudoku, I thought, ‘There has never been a popular number puzzle so I am dubious about this,’” he recalls. “Then when I tried one and I understood the addictiveness of it, I became an enthusiast.”

In 2005, Shortz published his first Sudoku book. It sold more than a million copies. He’s since published dozens more; by 2006 he had sold more than five million copies, according to an NBC News article, and that summer he said that he was making more money from Sudoku than he was for The New York Times. 

He has now published hundreds of Sudoku books, and it was his Sudoku bonanza that provided the money for Shortz and Roberts to open the Westchester Table Tennis Center in 2009. 

The Club

The table tennis center comprises 30 tables spread throughout multiple rooms and abundant space between each table. In contrast to the stereotypical claustrophobia-inducing basement ping pong club, the Pleasantville center’s high ceilings make the facility seem even larger than its 21,000 square feet. 

The club was the largest in the US when it opened, Shortz says; though it was expanded during the Covid-19 shutdown and is now bigger nearly by half, larger clubs have opened elsewhere. 

“Initially, it was hard,” recalls Roberts. “Trying to build a club of this magnitude is not easy, especially seeing that we had a lot of competition in the city.”

The club had the advantage of starting with much of the existing membership of Rivertowns Tennis Club. It has grown from there, and now has roughly 200 members. 

It has become a destination for some of the world’s top talent, particularly for the club’s tournaments, which Roberts describes as the best in North America. 

“The United States does not rank well internationally in table tennis,” Shortz explains. “The top men’s players, if they want to get good, they have to go abroad.”

Now, the best players from abroad are coming to Westchester. On the day Inside Press visited the club, Nigerian Olympian Olajide Omotayo, ranked 92nd in the world in the International Table Tennis Federation (ITTF) male world rankings, was teaching a class on spin serves. Croatian Andrej Gacina, ranked 20th in the world at the time, won the club’s Westchester Open tournament in 2016, while 46th-ranked Bojan Tokic of Slovenia won it in 2014 and 2017. 

“We are doing our part for increasing the popularity of table tennis in the United States and the level of skill of players,” Shortz says. 

Something for Everyone

Most of the players who pass through the club are, of course, not nationally ranked and harbor no Olympic ambitions. 

“There are kids who say, ‘This takes the stress away from school. Coming here, I get to relax,’” Roberts says. “There are a lot of adults who, I don’t know what’s going on in their life, but they say, this here basically saved them.”

The club also holds frequent special events. On Wednesdays, the club holds a program for people with Parkinson’s disease. Shortz founded PingPongParkinson in 2017, which aims to halt the progression of the disease by using ping pong as a form of physical therapy.

“When the ball comes over the net, they start their stroke and the shaking stops,” Shortz says.

The club also occasionally holds novelty contests, with players using a miniature paddle or a giant ball. 

Shortz has yet to turn the center into profitable business, instead using his New York Times salary and book sales to fund the venture. “It’s a big expense, actually. It doesn’t make money,” he says. “I’m hoping eventually it breaks even.”

This is just one of Shortz’s pong-related goals. He has already played at a ping pong club in all 50 states, and now hopes to play in more countries than anyone else in history (he’s hit 40 so far).

But Shortz has challenges outside of the ping pong table. For the Times, he and his team still must sort through some 200 crossword submissions each week and narrow it down to one puzzle each day. 

“We look for something fresh, interesting, never done before. Maybe it has a playfulness or a sense of humor about it. Then we look at construction,” he says. “If the theme is good, then we look to see if the fill is interesting, lively, colorful, juicy, with as little stupid obscurity or crosswordese as possible.”

He or his team then rewrite many of the puzzle’s clues–usually around half–before publication. Reference books are piled in each room in his home to help with this task.

And in January, the Times announced that it has paid low seven figures to buy Wordle. As a puzzle the game will fall under his purview, though Shortz says he has no plans to make any changes.

“I’m a big fan. I play it every day,” he says. “My hope is not to mess up the game.”

Filed Under: Cover Stories Tagged With: Crossword Puzzles, Leisure, Pleasantville, recreation, Table Tennis, Table Tennis Tournaments, The New York Times, Westchester Table Tennis Center, Will Shortz

A Look Back at Fabulous Fall Events PLUS, Next Year’s Dates!

November 12, 2021 by The Inside Press

On Community Day 2021: The Rotary Club’s Sandy Bueti making his contribution to a popular community weave presented by New Castle United for Youth   Inside Press Photo

COMMUNITY DAY

“The Rotary Club of Chappaqua, in collaboration with the Town of New Castle, hosted a successful 2021 New Castle CommunityDay. Success was due to generous sponsors, participating exhibitors, and the New Castle community. Funds raised will benefit local and global charities. We are thrilled we have a great opportunity to help those in need. On Saturday, September 17, 2022, from 9:30 a.m. to 2 p.m., Community Day will once again blend community, personal enjoyment and giving service to others.” Marlene Canapi, president, Rotary Club of Chappaqua

FEED ME FRESH: AN EDIBLE EVENING

FEED ME FRESH PHOTOS by: (c)Hidenao Abe, StudioAbe

 

“Mount Kisco Child Care Center’s 17th Annual Feed Me Fresh: An Edible Evening was spectacular on September 25 thanks to all the amazing sponsors and volunteers. Over $220,000 was raised for MKCCC’s Scholarship Program toward high quality, affordable care, and early education to a diverse group of children in a safe, healthy environment through innovative and developmentally appropriate programming. Next year’s date: September 17, 2022!” Helen Bock, Director of Development, mkccc.org

CHAPPAQUA CHILDREN’S BOOK FESTIVAL

Photo courtesy of the Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival

“The eighth Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival on October 2 was a celebration of coming back together as a community of readers. Our 70 plus authors signed thousands of books and loved talking to area families. We will return on October 15, 2022, at our full capacity of 120 plus authors. We are so grateful to the Town of New Castle, our sponsors, volunteers, partners and friends.”  Dawn Greenberg, founder, ccbfestival.org

First Congregational Church COMMUNITY YARD SALE & BOUTIQUE

(L-R): Kathy Thorsberg, Olga Seham, Bill Spade, Jon Russell, Carl Thorsberg, Chrissy Chapin, Jason Chapin, Rev. Martha Jacobs and Bill Swenson. Inside Press Photo

A Community Yard Sale and Boutique on September 25 brought together nearly a dozen boutique vendors and over 30 yard-sellers to the First Congregational Church of Chappaqua. Due to its success, a spring-time sale is anticipated too. “It was a beautiful day, and everyone had a great time … people got to see people they hadn’t seen in a long time.” Rev. Dr. Martha Jacobs, fcc-chappaqua.org/

THE ARMONK OUTDOOR ART SHOW

Photos Courtesy of the Armonk Outdoor Art Festival

“The Armonk Outdoor Art Show on September 25 & 26 was a huge success featuring 160 amazing exhibitors. The show had record high attendance, wonderful support from sponsors and volunteers, strong sales for our amazing artists and lots of positive energy. We’re grateful to all who contributed to a truly wonderful show. Hope to see you next year, October 1 & 2, 2022, for our 60th Anniversary!” Anne Curran, director, armonkoutdoorartshow.org

OKTOBERFEST

Pleasantville Oktoberfest on October 2nd was sponsored by the Pleasantville Chamber of Commerce and the Village to support our local businesses. The event was an incredible success as it brought together families and friends who have not been together since the Covid-19 pandemic started. We thank the Pleasantville Police Department, Department of Public Works, the Village Department, and the Chamber for a joint effort to provide a spectacular event to our great residents.  We plan on hosting this event again next year in the first weekend of October 2022.” -W. Paul Alvarez, Pleasantville Village Trustee. pleasantville.com

Outdoor ping pong matches during Oktoberfest! Courtesy of the Westchester Table Tennis Center  Inside Press Photo
A wheel of fortune at a booth for the Jacob Burns Film Center during Pleasantville’s first Oktoberfest  Inside Press photo

ARMONK CIDER & DONUT FESTIVAL AND 2021 RUN FOR LOVE

Sponsors, volunteers, The Byram Hills Preschool Association, The Love family, and the Town of North Castle all came together to create this year’s Armonk Cider & Donut Festival, the BHPA Fall Carnival and the 2021 Run for LOVE.  “What makes the festival unique is the breadth of activities from the Run for Love road races, a kids’ carnival, and our distinctive donut making right in the Park. This year the Food trucks were a big hit. Save the date for next year: September 18th 2022!“  Neal Schwartz, Chamber President armonkchamberofcommerce.com

A happy participant at the Armonk Cider & Donut Festival.  Resident photo courtesy to the Inside Press
Byram preteens and teens–all contestants in the 2021 Run for Love   Resident photo courtesy to the Inside Press

 
AND MORE…

Batgirl at an all day family fun festival preceding the New Castle Halloween Ragamuffin Parade    Inside Press photo
A craft activity during the New Castle Historical Society’s 1860s themed Family Fun Day   Inside Press photo

Filed Under: Happenings Tagged With: Armonk Cider and Donut Festival, Armonk Outdoor Art Show, Chappaqua Children’s Book Festival, community day, Community Yard Sale, Feed Me Fresh, first congregational church, halloween, Halloween fun, Jacob Burns Film Center, Oktoberfest, ragamuffin parade, Rotary Cluy of Chappaqua, Table Tennis, Wheel of Fortune

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