If the successful Norman writer Michel Bussi is also recognized for his geography skills, he also has another more original string to his bow: the passion for table tennis. So much so that he is even the godfather of the players of the SPO Rouen team (Seine-Maritime).
Currently at the head of the Pro A championship, the top French level, the club pennant team chaired by Dominique Fache therefore receives occasional encouragement during a few home games. “In the business, we knew that Michel Bussi was a table tennis player. I contacted him to find out if he would agree to bring a spotlight to our sport. And he immediately said yes, "says the president, whose objective has always been to put the" ping "in the spotlight.
"Physically, I was far from being an athlete"
"For me, it is a pleasure and an honor to meet these champions", assures the author of "A plane without a wing", still licensed in his home club in Pont-de-l'Arche in the Eure where it evolves at the departmental level. But beware, if today Michel Bussi seeks above all the friendly company of his teammates during the few games he manages to compete despite a busy schedule, the defensive-style competitor, still ranked 10, is never far away . “I discovered this sport around the age of 10. And I immediately hooked. Physically, I was far from being an athlete but in ping-pong I quickly progressed. "
Foaming the racket gymnasiums in hand during all his adolescence, he distances himself a little from the little white ball at around 20 years old, caught up by his geography studies. "But I always continued to play. I like the conviviality of this sport, its simplicity. In the countryside, all you need is a room and two tables to create a club. It mixes all generations and all social classes. We can find a doctor playing with a worker from Renault. It is also a discipline where a disabled person can face a valid in the championship. "
Match postponed due to coronavirus
Inexhaustible on this discipline "about which he speaks admirably" according to Dominique Fache, Michel Bussi likes the collective dimension of meetings. And the state of mind that reigns there: “At our level, for example, the teams arbitrate among themselves. From an early age, you learn to respect your opponent. »Opponents who sometimes recognize the writer behind the table tennis player. “Sometimes someone comes with a book to sign. But overall, people leave me alone. And then they've known me for so long ... "
If he admits that he never managed to find the romantic dimension of table tennis to integrate it into the intrigue of one of his books, he does not refrain from doing it one day. In the meantime, his dearest wish is of course to see the Rouennais win the Grail at the end of the season. Tonight, without the postponement of the match due to an epidemic of coronavirus, they should have faced Pontoise-Cergy (Val-d'Oise), their runner-up. A victory would have opened a royal road to the first Pro A title in the history of the club. A beautiful ending that Michel Bussi already dreams of writing.