At 93 years old, Dot De Low is a keen gardener, indoor and outdoor bowler and a table tennis champion!
Dot’s garden
According to Dot, her biggest problem is killing plants with kindness. Her favourite plant is the double impatiens (Impatiens sp.). She showed Don a huge pin oak tree (Quercus palustris) that she planted as a tiny seedling around 50 years ago. Also in the backyard is a table tennis table, but it hasn’t been used for some time. These days, Dot prefers to play at Kogarah RSL.
Table tennis
Dot was once a keen tennis player, until about 35 years ago when a friend introduced her to table tennis. That was it – she was hooked! She competes at both national and international events and has 13 gold medals, 18 silver and 17 bronze. In 1989 Dot and her friend, Thelma Beaumont, became Over 60’s doubles champions in New Zealand. In 1992 Dot travelled to Dublin, where she won the World Championship Ladies Over 80 Singles. Dot also competed in the World Veterans’ Table Tennis Championships, Yokohama, Japan, in May 2004.
Dot says that it is all in the reflexes, and she is lucky because she still has good reflexes. She calls her competitors in their 60s and 70s “kids”. She recommends table tennis to everyone, because it is good socially and it’s great exercise. Dot does not smoke, drink or gamble, preferring to donate her money to the Cancer Council (NSW) in memory of her daughter.
Don and Dot’s date
Don challenged Dot to a game of table tennis at Kogarah RSL. He began to realise he’d made a mistake when told by a club member that there were no weaknesses in her game, and that he might try serving when she wasn’t looking! Dot won the match 11-3, and told Don he wasn’t so bad for an old man!
Further information
Our segment was filmed at:
Kogarah RSL
Railway Parade
Kogarah 1485
Cancer Council of NSW
Phone: 1300 780 113