A ‘ping-pong palace’ in Penobscot

For three decades, carpenter Andy Peake has hosted weekly matches in his barn

A doubles match at the "Ping-pong Palace."  From left, Andy Traub and Andy Peake take on Billy Rioux and Andy Birdsall. Photo by John Epstein.

June 2, 2026

By John Epstein

Andy Peake, carpenter and builder, came to North Penobscot from Massachusetts in 1984, cut a driveway through the woods, cleared the land, built a house and barn, and had a family. He also started a Monday night tradition of having friends come over to play ping-pong.

“We’re in our 30th year [and] people just come over,” Peake said. “They just show up. Even when I’m not here, ping-pong happens.”

There’s a well-maintained Prince regulation size table tennis table in the middle of the barn floor with plenty of running space for the vigorous doubles matches that happen there weekly. Sometimes as many as ten players have come to play–when that happens, overflow players will move up to the second floor to use another table.  

Peake calls the barn “the ping-pong palace.”

On Monday, Billy Rioux, drywall contractor and owner of the Farmhouse Inn in Blue Hill, showed up promptly at 7 p.m., raring to play until 9:30 p.m. “I’ve been coming here for 24 years,” Rioux said. He is a dedicated player who holds his paddle in an upside-down grip that facilitates a nifty top spin. 

“I remember one night we came here to play in a snow storm with the power out, and we set-up head lamps and candles to play,” he added.

Monday night doubles action in Andy Peake's barn, starring Birdsall and Rioux to the left, and Peake and Traub on the right. Video by John Epstein.

Andy Traub, a construction contractor from East Blue Hill, and Andy Birdsall, who has been running the Horse Power Farm for decades, came to play on Monday. Birdsall was fresh from winning a ping-pong tournament in Blue Hill.

“He made the young guys sit down,” Traub said.  

“What other sport can make the young guys afraid of old-timers?” Rioux asked. 

On cue, Penobscot’s Leith Clews, a thirty-something who works at Mainescape Garden Center in Blue Hill, stepped into the barn to play. Clews, relatively new to the game, was greeted warmly by the veteran players. Soon round-robin doubles started.

There were whoops and hollers—and some cussing—as players lunged for the orange celluloid ping-pong ball.  There were authoritative slams and frustrating misses, particularly for those who sought to return serves from Peake, master of the art of the spin.  

In between games, players took time to step outside to catch their breath and savor their time with each other. They chatted briefly about Marty Supreme, last year’s hit movie about an American table tennis champion, which has led to a national surge in the game’s popularity, but most players in Peake’s barn said they hadn’t felt a need to see the film.  

Instead, they paused to remember and appreciate players who were no longer with them. Peake mentioned the late Johnny Gardner, a former New York City longshoreman who retired to Maine. He created fanciful renditions of old schooners recovered from the sea bottom near Wiscasset and played lots of table tennis in Peake’s barn. An old photograph of Gardner surrounded by fellow players, including Birdsall and Rioux, hangs on the wall of the barn. In it, he’s holding a chocolate birthday cake.

In this undated photo, the late Johnny Gardner holds a birthday cake lovingly inscribed by his ping-pong pals. Photo courtesy of Andy Peake.

Peake’s daughter, Emily, wrote a short paean to her father’s Monday nights when she was a teen. It also hangs from a barn support beam and reads, in part: 

“The old barn was dimly lit.

A few of the hanging lights flickered inconsistently.

The cracks in the gray concrete floor were filled with years of dirt.

Some stray bottles were scattered on the floor.

However, amongst this stood a sort of Mecca, a ping-pong table, 

In which middle-aged men made the pilgrimage every Monday night.  .  .  .”

As Peake pointed out, many of those same players are now approaching older age, but their energy and desire for the fellowship of ping-pong remains unabated, and they welcome new, younger players to join anytime.