“All in all, a great week.” said compass expert coach Oliver Alke happily after a week in Eslöv, Sweden, from which he has just returned to his home base in Hamburg.

It was one of the many compass activities that take place week after week, month after month. “Olli” brought his 11-year-old newcomer Jeffrey Wei from Hamburg to Eslöv, about 40 kilometres north-east of Malmö in the southernmost part of Sweden. Eslöv is the best table tennis club in Sweden. Truls Möregårdh and his family moved to Eslöv when Truls was 12 years old, and it was here that he developed into a world-class player.

“We’ve had a really good week,” said Oliver. “The coaches, Mattias Andersson, Peter Andersson and Malte Möregårdh, and the players in the hall are all super nice. The training group was very good for Jeffrey and Joel (Isaksson, also a member of the compass team, also 11 years old and also training in Eslöv during the Germans’ visit). Jeffrey and Joel each played against 6-7 different players of good quality during the week.”

It was a lot of table tennis. Jeffrey and Joel practiced for about six hours a day. Serve practice in the early morning, then a session before noon and one afterwards. Joel also had school work to do and had private lessons from Per Hällström, a former headmaster and teacher who is closely involved with the organisation of the Eslöv club.

“The structure of the exercises at the table was a bit different, at least compared to what Jeffrey is used to. In Sweden, you let the players decide the drill themselves more often than in Germany.”

Jeffrey and Joel have also been training a lot with Spinsight, the revolutionary digital device that measures the spin, speed, placement and trajectory of the ball over the net in real time. The latest version of this device is stationed in Eslöv, and in Malte Möregårdh – Trul’s brother, who is also his coach – they have one of the very few people who are certified to use the Spinsight device.
Jeffrey and Joel also played a lot of multiball, and among the players they met in the hall was compass player Siri Benjegård, who has been living and training in Eslöv since August 2023.

During the weekend, Eslöv organised a Sweden Tour tournament with many players from abroad, mainly from Denmark. The weekend was played around the clock and the best result was achieved by Siri, who won the U14 and U16 without losing a single set; she finished fifth in the U18 and third in the U20. Jeffrey had two match points to win the boys’ U12 tournament, but lost in the fifth and deciding game to Linus Lindahl from Sweden by two points.

But what Jeffrex Wei will remember most from his week in Eslöv is when he was due to play his first match of the tournament. Who did turn up to be the referee of his match? Truls Möregårdh!

It took a while for Jeffrey to really realise what was happening. Truls Möregårdh is going to be the referee in my match? Yes, that’s how it was. In Eslöv, everyone takes responsibility and helps out with whatever is needed to organise a big tournament at the weekend. Even a vice world champion like Truls.