NZ Championship Titles Change Hands - Again

For the second year in a row, the New Zealand Championships took place with the men’s and women’s reigning singles champions not entering to defend their titles. Over-long travelling distances had been given as the reason in all cases. But despite the relative remoteness of Timaru from two of the country’s powerhouse centres, Auckland and Wellington, and the absence of some top players, an excellent entry was attracted by the energetic and well-organised South Canterbury Association. Fifty-five players contested the men’s singles and thirty-seven the women’s.

It was an era in which rising stars abounded, especially among the women, and this made predictions difficult. Nonetheless the seedings were a puzzle. Ellen McNeill was top, based almost exclusively on her Wellington title. She had not played in either the North or South Island Championships. North Island champion Betty Eames was unseeded, as was the South Island champion - rapidly improving junior (and future NZ Champion) June Leathley. Needless to say, upsets abounded. Otago’s Miss E Walkinshaw set the ball rolling by eliminating 2nd seeded Southland star Val Townsend, who was runner-up in the junior girls’ singles and had been 1946 South Island Champion. Betty Eames defied the seedings with an easy win over 4th seed Allison Peppler in the second round. She reached the quarter-finals where she lost to Dorothy Leathley. Older sister of June, Dorothy had a great tournament and went all the way to the final. The Leathley sisters won the women’s doubles, unseeded in that event also.

Ellen McNeill (pictured) partially justified her top of the draw seeding by reaching the semi-finals where she lost to Audrey Hughes, who had just won her third consecutive under 18 singles title and was seeded 3rd in the open. Earlier Hughes had an easy win over another player who could have justifiably been seeded – Wellington’s Dawn Croxton.

This left Audrey Hughes (seeded 3rd) and Dorothy Leathley (unseeded) to fight out the final. Hughes had not dropped a game up to this point; Leathley only one – to Wellington’s Betty Powell in her first match. In an exciting and very even final Leathley did most of the attacking. But it was Hughes who came away with the win, 21-18, 18-21, 21-19. Leathley had saved two match points at the end with two courageous drives but her third clipped the net and sailed off the table.

It was a stunning win for the young Wellington player. Audrey Hughes was still only 17 years old. But it would be her only NZ singles title. She was soon to be eclipsed by another young player waiting in the wings. Her name was Margaret Hoar.

Two Great Wins for Local Man

Supported by an enthusiastic local crowd, South Canterbury No 1 Sydney (Brem) Bremford reached the men’s singles semi-finals. He beat 6th seed Bill Fogarty (16-21, 21-11, 21-16, 21-18) in the round of 16 and in the quarter-finals beat Jack Borough 21-19, 17-21, 21-11, 22-20. He bowed out to Frank Paton 21-19, 20-22, 21-17, 21-12 in the semi-finals. In his capacity as a Timaru sports photographer Bremford was a larger than life local figure known well beyond table tennis circles. His success was warmly and deservedly acclaimed.

It was a large field and an unprecedented sixteen players were seeded. Bremford was No 14 and the top four were Russell Algie (Otago), Eric Boniface (Wellington), John Crossley (Wellington) and George Corbett (Hutt Valley). The overall entry of 55 was dominated by South Island players – 35 in total. 17 of the remainder were from Wellington or Hutt Valley, a mere three from Auckland and nobody at all from any North Island provincial centre. But despite the imbalance, the North Island players were strong and expected to dominate the quarter and semi-finals alongside Russell Algie.

That’s not how it turned out. Unseeded Neville Brightwell beat twice runner-up George Corbett in the second round. Eric Boniface produced one of his poorest ever performances and lost to Jack Borough 21-19, 11-21, 12-21, 12-21 in the round of 16. In a spectacular nail-biter in the same round, Otago’s Laurie Howe beat John Crossley 5-21, 21-16, 15-21, 21-18, 26-24.

This meant that not one Wellington or Hutt Valley player progressed beyond the last eight and only two (Laurie Wilson and Max Gosling) even got that far. The three seeded in the top four all fell before the quarter-finals.

The lone flag-flyer for the North Island was Frank Paton of Auckland. He played to his No 8 seeding and was helped into the semi-finals by Brightwell’s earlier defeat of Corbett which cleared a quarter of the draw for him. Paton’s win over Sid Bremford took him to the final. Russell Algie had an easy win over Laurie Howe in the other semi-final and an equally easy win over Paton in the final. It was his fourth title in four attempts.

Algie was adulated following this performance. Howe and Paton were very good players but they had barely scored double figures against him. When interviewed after the event, he was asked who had presented him with the most difficulty. His answer was instantaneous: “Jack Wall!” (pictured)

Wall was seeded 9th and met Algie in the round of 16. Algie won 21-11, 12-21, 21-8, 22-20. It was a fascinating match with Wall showing extraordinary skill in moving Algie around. His win in the second game was due to relentless hard hitting and he frequently tied Algie in knots with his sharp angles and cleverly disguised drop-shots. The Hutt Valley player was the only one to take a game off Algie.

Although some North Island pride was restored when Max Gosling and Laurie Wilson won the men’s doubles and Eric Boniface and Betty Powell the mixed, there was another major triumph for the South. Otago became the first South Island team to win the Kean Shield in the inter-Association teams contest. Wellington retained the women’s title and became the first recipient of the newly presented Herbert G Teagle Memorial Shield (refer later article).

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North Island Still Wins – Just

Despite the string of upset results favouring South Island players at the NZ Championships (refer above), when the inter-island contest was played in Wellington two weeks later, the North Island somehow scraped home. Their team was Eric Boniface, John Crossley, Jack Wall and Owen Jaine (Jaine had not entered the NZ Championships). The South team was Russell Algie, Laurie Howe, Bill Fogarty and Trevor Flint. Jack Borough and Sid Bremford were initially selected but withdrew. Flint had played well at the NZ Championships, beating Brightwell before losing to Paton.

In the singles it was a game of two halves – the South (courtesy Algie and Howe) won all four top half singles against Boniface and Wall, although Wall once again took a game off Algie. In the lower half the North won all four singles – Crossley and Jaine beating Fogarty and Flint. The four cross-over doubles were split two each way, leaving the matches tied at 6-6. The games count-back was also tied, 15-15. This required a rare tally of points to break the deadlock. The North Island won by the wafer-thin margin of eight points: 539-531.

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Tragic Deaths Follow Women’s Trophy Presentation

The Hutt Valley administrator, Herbert G Teagle, was elected President of NZTTA in 1946. It was his second term as he had also served from 1942-44. Tragically, he passed away in 1947 while still President.

Earlier the same year Mr Teagle himself had presented a shield for the inter-Association women’s competition at the NZ Championships. After his death it was renamed the Herbert G Teagle Memorial Shield.

The trophy filled a conspicuous gap that had existed since 1940 when the Kean Challenge Shield was first presented. The latter was intended for NZ’s champion Association – easily determined when the same Association won both the men’s and women’s competition but less so when that didn’t happen. But since 1947 the Kean Shield has been reserved exclusively for the men’s champion team and the Teagle Shield for the women’s.

The tragedy of Herbert Teagle’s death was intensified by the coincidental passing in the same year of Fred Kean, the donor of the Kean Shield.

Both trophies have remained highly prestigious and are still being presented in 2008.

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Progressive Chairman Steps Down

After 12 years, Arthur Marshall relinquished his role as NZTTA Chairman. His tenure encompassed a period of intense growth and development, as well as the war years during which the task of maintaining the sport presented very different challenges.

This year Mr Marshall moved to Wanganui which necessitated his resignation from the Executive Committee. Generous tributes were paid and in 1948 he had the distinction of becoming NZ Table Tennis Association’s first Life Member.

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Margaret Hoar – New Star Shines at North Islands

Audrey Hughes (17), knowing she had been seeded third for the NZ Championships women’s singles, would have been brimming with confidence when she stepped up for the under 18 girls singles final at the North Island Championships in Masterton one week before the nationals. But to her dismay she was beaten – by a relatively unknown local 16 year old named Margaret Hoar. Even more humiliating, she lost to her again when they met in the women’s singles.

But it was a huge triumph for Margaret Hoar, especially as she went on to reach the women’s final where she lost to the more experienced Betty Eames. (pictured).

A week later Audrey Hughes would exceed expectations and overcome the entire field at the Timaru-hosted NZ Championships. Margaret Hoar had not entered, but her day was soon to come.

Unlike the NZ Championships, the North Islands contained a good spread of entries from provincial centres. Players from Rotorua, Taranaki, Wanganui, Hawke’s Bay, Manawatu as well as Auckland, Wellington and Hutt Valley joined a contingent of local Wairarapa players to compete in Masterton.

While the men’s favourite was Eric Boniface, fresh from excellent wins at both the Hutt Valley and Wellington Championships, he was easily beaten in the quarter-finals by Max Gosling, beginning a lapse of form which was to continue into the NZ Championships a week later. George Corbett (pictured)  beat Gosling in the final.

Canterbury hosted the South Island Championships where the women’s title was won for the second year in a row by a junior – June Leathley replacing 1946 champion Val Townsend. Leathley was poised to retain the crown in 1948 and 1949. The men’s champion was Jack Borough. Russell Algie didn’t compete.

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Attempts to Attract Overseas Visitors

With the memory of three visits to New Zealand by world-class overseas players in the 1930s still vivid in the minds of many, thoughts turned to re-introducing them as soon as possible now that the war was over. Ideas were floated at the 1946 AGM and they included inviting two English players and two Americans to tour New Zealand in 1947. Also by then negotiations had begun for a visit by an Australian team in return for New Zealand’s tour there in 1939.

Earlier plans to send the current New Zealand champions to compete in the English and American championships were abandoned in favour of attracting visiting players here.

By the end of 1946 a new and much more exciting prospect had emerged. The ITTF was planning a world tour in 1947, embracing Europe, America, South Africa, India, Australia and New Zealand, and featuring the legendary Viktor Barna, two of America’s best (Richard Miles and Lou Pagliaro), and the winner of the men’s singles at the 1947 World Championships (who turned out to be Bohumil Vana of Czechoslovakia). New Zealand showed no hesitation in agreeing to host such elite tourists but pending confirmation of the tour, arrangements for a 1947 visit by an Australian team continued should the world tour not eventuate.

Then in May came the news that the world tour had indeed been cancelled. The trip would have occupied more than six months – time the players could not spare and although most of the period was the northern hemisphere off-season, it still coincided with several major tournaments.

Within two weeks of that bombshell we were advised that the Australian visit was also cancelled as the planned schedule interfered with the state and national tournament programme.

So the news for 1947 was all bad on the international tour front. But it would be a mere two year wait before New Zealand table tennis entered a golden era in respect of visits from top overseas players.

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Three More Associations Affiliate

Thames Valley, East Waikato and Bush (the Tararua district between Wairarapa and Hawke’s Bay) affiliated this year, bringing the total membership of NZTTA to 21 District Associations. East Waikato, encompassing Cambridge, Matamata and surrounding areas, was affiliated one year before the Hamilton Association was re-activated (and re-named Waikato) after its wartime recess.

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