Obituary for Diane Rowe

Few women were as widely involved in the monochrome sporting world of the 1950s as Diane Rowe and her sister Rosalind. They became world doubles table tennis champions and toured as far as New Zealand, where fans admired their success and their short shorts and brightly colored jerseys.

In their mid-teens, the twins were selected for England. Over the next six years, before Rosalinds retired and Dianes decided to play in West Germany due to marriage, their contrasting right- and left-handed styles proved a winning combination, and their family knowledge of each other’s strengths and characters. We had an innate understanding of the other, Diane said, like a machine, in automatic harmony.

They won their first World Cup in 1951,