Just how good is Larry Scott at table tennis?

The guy’s so smooth that he can make someone completely inept at the sport look and feel like an old pro.

Trust me. I know.

Scott and fellow members of the Sierra Table Tennis Club get together every Monday to share the sport they love at the the Seventh Day Adventist building in Nevada City.

Stop by any Monday night to see how your skills match up against some quality competitors who are serious about table tennis.

Just don’t call it “ping pong.”

Unless, apparently, you’re Chuck Jaffee.

“I love coming here. It’s great,” said Jaffee, who writes movie reviews for Prospector, The Union’s weekly entertainment magazine. “But it’s ping pong, not table tennis. It’s ping pong, just because I’m a pedestrian kind of guy.”

Jaffee was only joking, but compared to the likes of Larry Scott and the rest of the regulars serving up some spin each week, count me among the pedestrian type of players.

No skills? No problem.

Scott showed me a few of the basics before we began paddling the ball back and forth in a volley lasting much longer than I ever would have expected. Of course, that’s because I was any match for the master. He was just able to get to every ball I sent in his direction — and even those that went nowhere near his direction, or where I wanted them go.

He continued to show a few tips here and there, while we chatted about the sport he so enjoys. But he wasn’t always this good, he protests. After years of losing to his brothers, he decided to take some lessons and just fell in the love with the game. And now he’s been playing for years, both recreationally and competitively.

That’s why he can make the rest of us look so good — or bad, if he so decides.

Just when he had built my confidence up, he decided to bring me back down to Earth. But he was nice enough to not crush my spirits himself. Instead, he matched me up for a friendly with his 8-year-old daughter, Dora.

And judging from the outcome, she must be the best 8-year-old table tennis player in the world.

Anyone interested in seeing how they’d stack up in competition or would like to see some top players compete, head down to the Regional Park gym in Auburn next weekend.

The Sierra Table Tennis Club and the Auburn TTC will host the inaugural Gold Country Open tournament Oct. 11-12.

The first day of the tournament will be a USA Table Tennis (USATT) sanctioned tournament, drawing top players from the NorCal and Reno areas, with free admission for spectators.

Day two will be a recreational tournament for the general public, seniors, local club players, and high school teams. Colfax, Placer, Bear River and Del Oro high schools plan to send teams. More info is available at the Web site SierraTTC.tabletennisonly.com.

Larry says he like table tennis for the aerobic exercise involved — and believe me, these guys get a good sweat going — along with the chess match of competition and the camaraderie that comes with guys he’s playing.

“And, it’s cheap,” he said. “And I’m cheap!”

Those looking for some serious bang for their buck these days will have a hard time beating a few hours at the club. First-timers play for free and then just $3 to play each Monday thereafter.

And, according to that pedestrian ping-pong player Chuck Jaffee, it wouldn’t be possible without Larry and club president Steve Byerly.

“Those two are incredibly dedicated to the week-after-week, year-after-year sturdiness of this little club,” Jaffee wrote in an e-mail.

“They help it all seem so smooth and matter of fact, and their attitudes (like almost all the top flight players that frequent the place) are very inclusive of every kind of player (even the ones who still think he’s showing up to play ping pong, not table tennis).”

Brian Hamilton is sports editor at The Union. His column appears Saturdays. Contact him via e-mail at bhamilton@theunion.com or by phone at 477-4240.