Let's be realistic: classic table tennis, like it was played in the "Golden Era", is now dead and buried, and even if the ITTF had immediately banned the first sponge bats in the 50's, and that all players would still use hard rubbers nowadays, table tennis would have evolved in terms of material and technique, and become different compared to the 40's. That's the case of most (all?) sports during the passed 60 years, and table tennis wouldn't have escaped to that rule. So now, the reflexion that we must have is not how to get back to the real classic table tennis, but how to develop hardbat (junk or not) in the "Sponge Era".

USA chose to create a short list of authorised rubbers, to avoid the spiniest ones, and be as close as possible to the classic rubbers, but according to Marty, even these rubbers are very different from the Leyland or Barna, and no new rubber has been added to this list for a long time, even if a lot of other references would deserve to be. And anyway, even with that kind of material, most players use adapted "sponge skills" to play hardbat, rather than a classic style, because it's the way they learn to play.

Germany chose to play hardbat with the current table tennis rules (except the one concerning the rubbers of course), and authorises all short pips rubbers without sponge, even the spiniest ones. Matches are generally played in 11 points sets, and with 40 mm balls. In 2006, there were 554 players in the German hardbat ranking, and in 2008 and 2009, there were a few tournaments with more than 100 entries (140 this year in Sandershausen).

In France, we have no real rules for the moment, but what I notice is that, generally, matches are played in 21 points sets, and even if all short pips without sponge are authorised for the moment, people generally use the less spiny rubbers, like Dr Evil, BTY Orthodox, Reisman, Andro Classic… With our association, "Hardbat France", we have the project to propose to the clubs, who want to organize hardbat events, 5 different "tournament classes", going from the "US rules events" to the "everything is authorised" (well, not the sponge or long pips rubbers of course, but hard rubber, cork, sandpaper and even no covering at all  ), and even "everyone plays with the same model of bat". We'll see what people prefer.
In August 2008, when we created our French hardbat ranking, we were 300 players ranked, compiling the results of several tournaments I kept from 2004. In the next one, we'll be more than 700, and we hope to reach 1000 in August 2010.

In Belgium, it's the same as in France for the moment, and there will be for the first time a hardbat serie in an international table tennis tournament, in Ostend on next August 14.

So, considering all of that, I don't think that one of our countries holds the absolute truth, but maybe it would be time to start a general reflexion about the future of hardbat, instead of creating our own rules, everyone on its side.

(I hope that my English is clear enough for everybody  ).