Major Tournaments Revived – First Since 1940

With the war in Europe over, and Japan on the brink of defeat in the Pacific, the way was clear for table tennis to, firstly, return to the status it had been enjoying in 1939, and then continue the rapid growth which had been so unfortunately interrupted. The obvious reason for the suspension of national tournaments since 1940 was the absence of so many of our top male players and administrators on overseas service, particularly after the introduction of conscription in 1942.

Some Associations had managed to continue running their local championships throughout the war.

A post-war plan submitted in 1944 proposed that the New Zealand Championships be revived in 1945. The players were ready for it. 1941-1944 had been a long winter.

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Intense Competition for New Zealand Titles

The first to get back into national tournament mode after the wartime interruption was the seeding committee. Arthur Meachen, Ben Pegler and Norm Ballinger had to sift through pre-war records, wartime tournament results in New Zealand and anecdotal reports from military tournaments overseas before declaring their choice for seeded players. Several former top players didn’t compete. Some strong male competitors arrived back in New Zealand from war service only days before the championships commenced. It was a difficult job.

When the seedings were finally published there was very little disagreement over the first two in the men’s list. Russell Algie (1940 champion) was playing as well as ever and Eric Boniface had, if anything, improved since he faced Algie in the 1940 final. Next came George Corbett (3), Frank Paton (4), Max Gosling (5), Owen Jaine (6), Bill Fogarty (7), Laurie Howe (8), John Crossley (9), Bill Raven (10). With a smaller entry in the women’s singles, only four were seeded: Joyce Strange, May Wareham, Dawn Croxton and Margaret Haynes, in that order.

The inevitable guesswork in the seedings soon showed up when play started. The giant-killer among the women was unseeded Marie Tracey. She reached the singles final without dropping a game, disposing of Haynes and Wareham in the quarter and semi-finals. The final against university blue Joyce Strange could not have been closer: Tracey won 21-16, 16-21, 23-21 to take the title against all odds.

In the much larger men’s field upsets were rife. Laurie Howe was the first casualty, losing to Evan Hughes in the second round. Hughes, the 1938 North Island champion thought by some to have been unfairly denied a seeding, proceeded to the quarter-finals where he met Algie and his luck, predictably, ran out. Gosling was beaten by Steve Henderson, who lost to Harold Chapman, who in turn lost to Paton in the quarter-finals. Owen Jaine had the misfortune of meeting the grossly under-estimated Jack Borough, Canterbury’s star junior who beat him three straight.

Borough was the “find” of the championships. He won the Under 18 boys singles without batting an eyelid and, after his easy win over 6th seeded Jaine, took eventual runner-up George Corbett to five games in the quarter-final.

The last major upset was the quarter-final defeat of title hopeful Eric Boniface by Bill Fogarty. This left Algie, Paton, Fogarty and Corbett to contest the semi-finals. Corbett had to fight from 0-2 down to beat Fogarty in five, while Algie cruised past Paton and Corbett to retain the title he had won in 1940.

Paton and Jaine won the men’s doubles, Haynes and Strange the women’s, and George Smith and Dawn Croxton triumphed in the mixed doubles.

The extremely talented Audrey Hughes began a remarkable three year reign as Under 18 champion and two year reign as Under 16 champion (a new age group introduced this year). Jack Borough, as mentioned, was untroubled to win the Under 18 boys event and the inaugural Under 16 boys champion was Tom Williams, son of the dynamic Wellington administrator Tommy Williams.

The tournament was played in early September in Wellington along with the inter-Association teams championship.

Teams Entry Disappointing

While the individual events attracted a good entry considering the circumstances, it was something of a disappointment that only six teams in total (men and women) contested the inter-Association teams championship. Auckland won the men’s event and Wellington the women’s. The Kean Challenge Shield was awarded to Auckland.

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Russell Algie: Champion

Russell Algie’s dominance in the NZ men’s singles left nobody in any doubt that he was this country’s best player. His graceful, almost impenetrable defence, lethal backhand flick and solid all-round game enabled him to overcome all opposition with ease. The question now was, how long could it last? Could he go down in history as our greatest player ever? Some would claim that he has.

His early career is summarised in part of a 1939 article. Since then he has won the Otago Championship every year apart from 1944 when he was on overseas military service beating some of America’s best in Pacific Island tournaments. He has also built up an impressive doubles record with his brother Afton, including the New Zealand doubles title in 1939 and 1940. He has now won the singles three times: 1939, 1940 and 1945.

Looking ahead, he was destined to win on three more occasions, making a total of six. It was a record at the time but in later years (up to 2008) two other men would do better. Barry Griffiths won eight times between 1982 and 1992, with strong overseas players taking the NZ title twice in that period. Bob Jackson would win seven times over a nine year period, beginning before the Algie era ended. But Algie’s achievement stands out when the timing is considered. His six titles began in 1939 and ended in 1951 - a period during which the championships were suspended for four years, denying him four more opportunities to win while at the top of his game. And he did not play in the 1946 and 1950 championships, thus missing two further opportunities.

History will determine Russell Algie’s eventual status alongside Griffiths, Jackson and others still to come. In 1945 he was the best locally produced player the country had ever seen.

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Marathon Tournament for Runner-up

After Algie, the stand-out player at the NZ Championships was George Corbett (pictured). He was required to play more table tennis than any other player, most of it under pressure. He was lucky to reach the men’s singles final – but extremely unlucky to ultimately come away from the tournament empty-handed.

Before meeting Algie in the final he had come from two games down in the semi-final against an in-form Bill Fogarty (who had disposed of second seed Eric Boniface). Fogarty lost momentum in the third game and Corbett was able to rescue the match under pressure in five (21-18 in the fifth). Prior to that he had to deal with a fiery Jack Borough - the unseeded teenager who had a shock win over 6th seed Owen Jaine and faced 3rd seeded Corbett in the quarter-finals with nothing to lose. This too was a torrid five-game match, won by Corbett 16-21, 21-15, 22-20, 16-21, 21-15. As if that wasn’t enough, in the round of 16 he had needed five games to get past a robust Bill Raven – 18-21, 22-20, 16-21, 21-15, 21-16.

All this was just the singles. With partner Laurie Howe he battled for five games in the doubles final before losing to Owen Jaine and Frank Paton, and before that he and May Wareham had lost 14-21, 2 1-18, 19-21 to George Smith and Dawn Croxton in the mixed doubles final.

After playing 13 matches and 46 games, Corbett was a beaten finalist in all three events he contested. And he would be runner-up in the men’s singles and doubles again in 1946.

He was destined never to win a New Zealand title.

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Attempt to Limit Field at NZ Championships Fails

The annual meeting engaged in a lengthy debate on a remit from the executive committee limiting the singles field at the NZ Championships to 32 players. This would maintain a high standard of play and make the event a showcase of the country’s top table tennis talent - attracting publicity and good crowds. Thus ran the argument presented in the remit’s favour.

But it had clearly not been thought through. There would be difficulties, not to mention controversy, selecting the top 32; income from entry fees would drop, and, with the number of teams participating in the inter-Association event poised to increase, the players involved in that alone would exceed 32 – denying a number of them the opportunity to play in the individual events because of the limitation. The remit was never put to the vote – it was withdrawn after discussion had revealed overwhelming opposition to it.

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South Island Champs Re-start; Norths Wait Another Year

Southland hosted a moderately successful South Island Championships, although the entry was almost exclusively from the lower South Island. Otago’s Russell Algie and Rica Thomas won the singles events. The North Island Championships were not held as there had been no applications to host it. It re-started in 1946 in Manawatu.

For most of the 1945 playing season the war in the Pacific was still in progress. It ended on 2 September.

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Table Tennis Featured at University Tournament – Two Blues Awarded

The first NZ Universities Winter Sports Tournament was held this year and table tennis was included in the programme. Jeff Robson (Otago University) and Joyce Strange (Victoria) were the proud recipients of the first University Blues awarded to table tennis players.

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Table Tennis Re-awakens in Canterbury – Wellington Pays a Visit

To celebrate its reactivation after wartime recess, a triangular tournament was organised by Canterbury with a guest team from Wellington competing against Canterbury A and Canterbury B. In itself, this was no great cause for excitement or drama. Wellington fielded its top team and was untroubled to win, although John Philpott’s defeat of NZ representative Eric Boniface caused a buzz. The real significance was that it reflected a rapid resurgence of the sport in Canterbury, an area badly hit by wartime absences. But this year 40 teams competed in their interclub competition, including several army teams. The Canterbury Open Championships were revived.

Things were re-awakening quickly elsewhere. There were ten open championships played: Auckland, Canterbury, Hutt Valley, Otago, South Canterbury, South Taranaki, Southland, Wanganui, Wellington and West Coast. All except West Coast also conducted interclub competitions. South Canterbury and Wanganui, along with Canterbury, were only just emerging from wartime recess.

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South Taranaki Welcomed

Centred in the town of Hawera and with strong support from neighbouring Stratford, South Taranaki affiliated to NZTTA as a new Association this year. It began robustly, with 20 interclub teams and an open championship. Its neighbour to the north, centred in New Plymouth, retained the name of Taranaki initially but changed to North Taranaki in 1950.

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Balls Keep Arriving – Rubber Now Short

Shortage of balls had been a serious issue during the war but initial relief came in late 1944 and the situation continued to improve this year. The problem now shifted from balls to bats. Not one sheet of bat rubber had been manufactured in England since 1940. Bats last longer than balls but by now the shortage in New Zealand of this vital commodity was starting to bite. It would be another year before availability of rubber-covered bats improved.

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Ballinger Thanked

The 1945 Annual General Meeting was the first opportunity for delegates from recently re-activated Associations to acknowledge the work done during the war by a core group of administrators to keep the sport functioning.

Secretary Norm Ballinger was always to the forefront in this effort and he in particular was accorded a generous vote of thanks.

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