The Fogarty dynasty started in 1939, when Margaret won the New Zealand women's singles title.
Nine years later her brother Bill won the national men's singles and pairs titles.
Bill encouraged his nine children to play the sport. Yvonne won the women's singles titles in 1969 and 1974 and the doubles in 1974.
John, a Dunedin musician, reached his best form later in life and has won three New Zealand veterans titles.
Five members of the family played in the 14th world veterans championships at Auckland last month: Dunedin-based Yvonne (62) and John (58), Barbara and Catherine, from Christchurch, and Kevin, from Auckland.
Joan, who is based in Auckland, came to watch and their mother Audrey (85) travelled from Dunedin to be the manager of the Fogarty Fliers.
The best performed was Catherine, who reached the last eight of the aged 50 to 59 women's singles. Her sister Barbara Perry played in the same age group.
Yvonne, a student adviser at the Otago Polytechnic, reached the last 32 in the over-60 age group, John was in the top half of the field in the over-50 group and Kevin competed in the age 60 to 69 grade.
Audrey, their mother and the biggest supporter of the family table tennis when they were young, started playing table tennis herself for the first time this year.
''It was special for my family,'' Yvonne said.
''We all dressed in a green T-shirt that had the name Fogarty Fliers printed on the back.
''We tried to talk Mum into competing but it would have been her first tournament ever and she thought she might be a bit overawed.
''But she was there to watch every match played by the five of us.
''It was the first time the family had been together at a table tennis tournament since we were kids when Dad used to drive us there for our family holiday.''
The world veterans championships was first held in 1980, for players over the age of 40. There were 1760 competitors from 57 countries at Auckland and 61 tables were placed in the Waitakere Trust Arena.
''There was a very friendly atmosphere and an international flavour to the tournament,'' Yvonne said.
''There will be an over-90 section at the next world championships in Spain and Mum intends to compete.''
Yvonne was at the height of her powers in the sport in the 1970s and was invited to Beijing in 1975 to have two months of intensive coaching.
Her Chinese coach at that time was Shuyun Wang, whom she met again in Auckland.
''It was part of ping pong diplomacy 40 years ago,'' Yvonne said.
''It was nice to meet up with Shuyun again.''
John enjoyed the experience.
''I loved the friendship from people you hadn't met before,'' he said.
''They seemed like old friends. It was like a big party but was very serious once you got to the table.''
John and his brother Kevin were in a band that played at the end of tournament function.
The other Otago competitor at the world championships was Bryan Foster (74), who played in three open world championships in 1961 (Beijing), 1967 (Stockholm) and 1973 (Sarajevo).
He resumed his table tennis career last year, after a gap of 38 years, in order to play in his first world veterans championships.
''This was a friendly affair compared to the world open championships,'' Foster said.
''[It] was a chance to meet up again with people you knew years ago. It was marvellous.''
Foster reached the last 16 of the men's singles aged 75 to 79.
A special feature for him was to play in the doubles again with Alan Tomlinson (Auckland), who was his partner at the world championships in 1961 and 1967.
They won the New Zealand doubles title together four times from 1968 to 1971.
