Jacko's Sporting Almanac

Original version

BBC Radio Wales Extra

Sport

Peter Jackson with more remarkable sporting conversations

BBC Radio Wales FM

Jacko's Sporting Almanac: Series 14: Nancy and Roy Evans

Nancy and Roy Evans

Series 14

BBC Radio Wales - Jacko's Sporting Almanac, Series 14, Nancy and Roy Evans

Peter Jackson on the Welsh couple at the heart of Richard Nixon’s ping-pong diplomacy.

Peter Jackson tells the remarkable story of Nancy and Roy Evans, the doyens of Welsh table tennis, and how Roy helped foster Richard Nixon’s historic ping-pong diplomacy with China

China was emerging from Mao’s Cultural Revolution. Across the pacific, Richard Nixon was desperate to get China to talk. Step forward the doyen of Welsh table tennis, H Roy Evans. He and his wife Nancy were at the forefront of the sport in Europe and the World. So when Chinese premier Zhou Enlai invited him for talks behind the bamboo curtain, he knew something was up. Now Peter Jackson tells the story of how that meeting was the first stepping stone to Nixon’s extraordinary visit to China in 1972,and how the Chinese table tennis team – featuring the greatest players in the world – ended up in Cardiff to play at the Welsh Open Championships. And how the Welshman helped table tennis become an Olympic sport.

Jacko's Sporting Almanac: Series 14

BBC Radio Wales

Comprehensive News and Sport, the latest information and the best entertainment for Wales.

Accessibility links

Programme Index

Jacko's Sporting Almanac

Series 14

Nancy and Roy Evans

Genres

Brand

Series

BBC Radio Wales Extra

About BBC Radio Wales