First New Zealand Team at World Championships

Following the trail blazed by Russell Algie in 1948, three more New Zealanders voyaged across the oceans to brave torrid international competition at the World Championships. The difference this time was that, with three players, New Zealand was able to enter as a team and compete in the Swaythling Cup competition for the first time.

It wasn’t our best team. John Crossley, at No 5, was the highest ranked - followed by Neville Brightwell (No 7) and the unranked John Stewart. But, against all predictions, they came extremely close to registering a win.

The championships, hosted in Budapest, Hungary, ran for 12 days. But for the intrepid trio, the adventure lasted nearly nine months - from 20 November, 1949 to 12 August, 1950.

It was indeed an adventure. The three could not afford the fare so, like Russell Algie before them, worked as crewmen throughout the 44 day voyage - across two oceans and through the tropics via the Panama Canal. There were at least two mishaps on the journey: John Stewart wrenched his arm working in rough weather and Neville Brightwell scalded his right foot on kitchen duty. The crew affectionately nicknamed the New Zealanders “The Three Must-Get-Theres” – an (almost unrecognisable) pun on “The Three Musketeers”.

The English Table Tennis Association pulled off something of a coup by diverting the ship into the Thames and off-loading the three “Finally-Got-Heres” (via a tugboat) at Tilbury, close to London, on 2 January. Without that intervention the ship would have made its first landfall on the west coast at Avonmouth, near Bristol. The trio was therefore spared a long journey across England. They also discovered (only by reading a newspaper!) that arrangements had been made for them to compete in a tournament in London that very evening. It was fortuitous, as the newspaper also gave the address of the venue. Without that they would have had nowhere to go. From there ETTA officials and NZTTA’s London representative Corti Woodcock ensured they were looked after while in England.

L/R: John Stewart, John Crossley,
Neville Brightwell

Media Frenzy

As Russell Algie had been in 1948, the New Zealanders were mobbed by the media on arrival at the tournament venue. The presence of photographers and reporters totally bewildered them, even after they discovered themselves to be part of a general media campaign to build interest in table tennis leading up to the World Championships. “During that first hectic week we were at the tournament every night, made two broadcasts from the BBC, met the NZ High Commissioner at NZ House for morning tea, were filmed, photographed and interviewed by newspaper men, and spent an afternoon at the Hungarian Embassy with the Consul to obtain our visas,” reported John Stewart breezily on their return. “And at the same time Corti and I were sorting our correspondence and making arrangements for the future.”

World Championships Loom

They were made guest members of the prestigious West Ealing club where all their regular practice took place. Partly on the initiative of Viktor Barna, whose acquaintance they were delighted to renew, they travelled in the company of Richard Bergmann and other English players by boat train to Holland where they played in the Dutch Open. Their only success was John Stewart and his Dutch partner winning one match in the men’s doubles. Two days after their return to England they boarded a plane for Budapest, were held up by bad weather and spent a night in Vienna (coincidentally the night of the Austrian Open finals which they attended) and finally arrived in the Hungarian capital the day before play commenced.

Cliff-Hanger Against Ireland

John Stewart’s diary for the first day of play (January 29), reads: “Corti and I up till 2.30 am getting newspaper reports ready for morning. Have heavy cold. Today was my first game since last Saturday in Holland. Have never seen Nev play so well since he beat Russ. The Danube looks fine with sun on snow and ice”.

Neville Brightwell (23) was indeed playing well and was responsible for six of New Zealand’s seven singles wins in the team events. John Crossley (24) won the other. The team was easily beaten by Poland (5-1), Austria (5-0), Sweden (5-0), Wales (5-1), Czechoslovakia (5-0), Brazil (5-0) and England (5-1). Against Ireland they lost 4-5 after John Crossley had come heart-breakingly close to winning the deciding match. He was beaten 21-14, 20-22, 23-25. Brightwell won his three singles in that contest including a 21-12, 21-18 win over the Irish No 1.

The team had to play eight matches in just three days, with sessions on the last day at 9 am, 2 pm and 4 pm. Every other team had four players and could rotate them. The three New Zealanders had to play every contest.

No New Zealander won any matches in the singles or doubles individual events. They realised, as Russell Algie had done, that success at international level required a mainly attacking game and far more speed than is customary in New Zealand.

Richard Bergmann won the men’s singles for the fourth time and Angelica Rozeanu (Romania) began an unprecedented six-year tenure of the women’s title. Czechoslovakia and Romania respectively won the men’s and women’s team events.

Success in Scotland

While the experience of a lifetime ended with the World Championships, the performance highlight of the trip was yet to come. Leaving John Stewart in London where he had secured a job, John Crossley and Neville Brightwell travelled further afield to compete in the West England Championships, the Bucks County Open and the Scottish Open. This time it was John Crossley’s turn to shine. He reached the semi-finals in West England and the third round in the Bucks event (won by Richard Bergmann). In Bucks he combined with Brightwell to reach the doubles quarter-finals after defeating a pair of English internationals. Then came the Scottish Open. Neville Brightwell reached the third round, a good enough result at this level but nothing compared to that of his fellow countryman. In the performance of his life, John Crossley won the men’s singles! The Scottish press lauded the New Zealander, highlighting his devastating backhand. His opponent in the final was the Scottish Closed Champion.

No record has been preserved of the New Zealanders’ performance at the English Open in March which they are reported to have played. After Crossley and Brightwell’s trip to Scotland in April the three prepared for the journey home. They left on 17 May, again working as crew on the Trojan Star. They reached New Zealand on 12 August.

The trip was a brave undertaking and drew the admiration of numerous table tennis followers at home and abroad.

---

International Table Tennis Politics – First Hand Account

The 21 year old “baby” of the team, John Stewart, was already showing the administrative talents which would later take him to the top executive position in New Zealand table tennis. For the 1950 trip to the World Championships he was appointed team captain and also New Zealand’s representative, along with Londoner Corti Woodcock, at several high-powered ITTF meetings. Before the team even reached the World Championships John was required to give a speech at a civic reception in Utrecht prior to the Dutch Open. Once in Budapest, while the rest of the team had the luxury of practice opportunities, John and Corti attended a lavish state reception where wishes were expressed for peace between Stalin’s East European empire and the countries of visiting western players. From there John was invited to the Sports Hall to attend a jury meeting to finalise interpretation of the rules governing the championships. “Most of the questions caused the meeting to split into two factions, red (east) and blue (west),” reported John. “Blue prevailed.”

On the morning after the teams final John attended the first of two ITTF congress meetings with the other held four days later. Most discussion centred around proposed rule changes –including the time limit, the service, playing equipment and clothing. The zoning of countries was also an issue. John was impressed with President Ivor Montagu’s chairmanship and his ability to maintain consensus between often opposing factions.

It was a high-level introduction to table tennis politics for the 21 year old New Zealander.

---

Close-up View of Communism

An unfamiliar culture greeted our three New Zealanders when they penetrated the Iron Curtain and entered Hungary for the World Championships. They considered the tournament to be poorly organised by western standards. There was overcrowding in the stadium and on the night of the finals a mile-long queue had to be denied admission. The people that did get in were partisan to an alarming degree. The men’s final was between Richard Bergmann of England and Hungarian Ferenc Soos. The chanting for the local star was deafening - every point he won lifted the roof while Bergmann’s points were met with an eerie silence. Bergmann won the match.

East European political solidarity penetrated the championships. An umpire was summoned to Party Headquarters and asked to explain himself after faulting a Czechoslovakian player’s serve. “Mistreating” a player from a friendly country was viewed with such severity that the umpire was dismissed from his day job in the public service.

The New Zealand players breathed a sigh of relief when the iron curtain parted for their return to England.

---

Algie Retires (For Now)

As the New Zealand Championships loomed and there was no sign of an entry from the men’s title-holder and five times champion, the obvious question was “Will Algie play?” This was answered when a news release came out with the headline: “Russell Algie Announces Retirement”.

“Algie has retired from the game whose history he has enriched by competition and whose players he has improved by example,” ran the ornately worded statement.

For the table tennis community the news was unexpected. Algie’s reasoning was simply that he had been in the game long enough and that nothing could eclipse his greatest moment – marching for New Zealand at the 1948 World Championships.

A turn of events in 1951 would cause him to change his mind and begin competing at top level again.

---

When the North Island Champion, 19 year old Bob Jackson,   was seeded only 5th for the NZ men’s singles not everyone could follow the seeding committee’s logic, especially as Jackson had the best interclub record in Auckland and the top seed was another Aucklander, Owen Jaine (pictured). Jackson had beaten Jaine three straight in the North Island final. Some commentators pointed this out while others felt the known quality of the top four seeds (Jaine, John Crossley, Laurie Wilson and Neville Brightwell) justified their positions, especially considering Jackson’s youth. Russell Algie (temporarily retired) and another former champion, Bill Fogarty, didn’t enter.

Predictably, Margaret Hoar and June Leathley (pictured) were seeded to meet in the women’s final. Audrey Hughes was third. Seeded fourth, probably a little prematurely, was 15 year old Joyce Williamson but 5th seeded Marie McLennan put an end to the youthful Williamson’s chances in the quarter-finals. The 15 year old’s high seeding could have been influenced by her shock win over a decidedly out of form Margaret Hoar in an earlier Wellington / Canterbury representative match.

After beating Miss Williamson, Marie McLennan was involved in one of the more memorable matches in NZ Championships history, but for the wrong reasons. The semi-final between Hoar and McLennan lasted one hour forty minutes – with the fifth game stopped at 3-2 after the 20 minute time limit was reached. The restless audience applauded ironically as each point was drearily decided. Hoar’s winning score was 21-15, 13-21, 21-10, 9-21, 3-2. The match did generate a degree of tension in the final “game”, but it also rekindled the debate over how to deal with chiseling play.

In contrast, the final between Hoar and June Leathley was an exciting tactical duel. Down 0-2 in games, Leathley fought back to 2-2 but lost the fifth 21-17. A Southern Cross reporter described it as the best women’s final to date. The same pair had contested the 1949 final, with the same result. It was Hoar’s third win in succession and she was still aged only 19.

121 entered the men’s singles, eclipsing the 1949 record by 30. Particular interest was shown in the performances of the three players just back from the World Championships and also of Bob Jackson and Albert Kwok – the young players singled out by Viktor Barna as the most promising in the country. Of the three World Championships “veterans” only John Stewart failed to impress, losing three straight to Jack Knowsley in the first round. Knowsley then lost Neville Brightwell.

It was Bob Jackson’s tournament. He reached the quarter-finals without dropping a game and his early matches included an easy win over a man soon to be numbered among New Zealand’s best, Canterbury’s Trevor Flint. He then beat World Championships star Neville Brightwell in a five game tactical battle that from all accounts was absorbing and highly entertaining. Brightwell was mixing his wide range of attacking shots with masterful drop-shots while Jackson retrieved everything and counter-hit with consistent accuracy. Observers had been noting how well Brightwell was playing following his trip to the Worlds, which puts Jackson’s performance into perspective. He won 19-21, 21-13, 19-21, 21-8, 21-15. From there on he was clearly the man to beat. His semi-final opponent was top seed Owen Jaine who put up little resistance, appearing tired after a four-game quarter-final battle with Frank Paton’s thirty years of experience preceded by a torrid five-game match against Albert Kwok in the round of 16. Jackson beat Jaine 19-21, 21-9, 21-10, 21-12.

Meanwhile John Crossley was moving menacing through the other half of the draw. Capable of beating anyone in New Zealand (and Scotland!!) when relaxed and at his best, he can look like a raw beginner if his nerves get the better of him as often happens in big matches. He dropped a game to Harry Lauder in his first match but settled down somewhat against Ron Sandilands and Dick Gray. His quarter-final with Kevin Dwyer (pictured) was expected to be his downfall – Dwyer had beaten him in the teams contests and was renowned for his big-match temperament. But it turned out to be an easy win for Crossley, 21-9, 21-13, 21-18. His nerves plagued him again when he faced third seed and fellow-Wellingtonian Laurie Wilson in the semi-final. It was a match of two halves. After two painfully error-ridden games Crossley came back from the brink and won 16-21, 17-21, 21-19, 21-19, 21-9.

The Jackson / Crossley final lived up to expectations. It didn’t quite equal the brilliance of the earlier Jackson / Brightwell match but made up for it in sheer pace and hard hitting. Crossley was at the top of his game from the beginning and nobody was courageous enough to predict a winner. He was, like Brightwell, a much improved player since the trip to Budapest but Jackson was also steadily getting better as the tournament progressed. Jackson was the narrow winner: 21-13, 11-21, 21-15, 15-21, 21-18.

Jackson’s game throughout the tournament was closely analysed and his temperament, his total range of shots, his anticipation, his speed and his footwork were all variously highlighted. Nobody had any doubt that he was now among the best in the country and, having just turned 19, would likely remain there for a while.

Canterbury Triumph

The 1950 NZ Championships were the biggest to date in terms of entry numbers and were a triumph for the Canterbury Association, hosting them for the first time. Also for the first time the championships included doubles events in the under 18 age category. The under 16s had to wait until 1957 before doubles were added. Future NZ champions Murray Dunn and Joyce Williamson were the winners of the under 16 singles.

---

First Barna Cup Presentation

The original plan for the Barna Cup competition, as proposed by Viktor Barna at the end of his 1949 visit, was radically changed by the Executive Committee prior to the New Zealand Championships. Barna’s idea of setting up a new mixed gender inter-Association competition (teams of three men and one woman) was not seen as viable, and trophies already existed for the separate men’s and women’s competitions. It was therefore decided to award the cup to the Association whose teams excelled in appearance, sportsmanship, etiquette and punctuality. Although there were initial problems in formulating the exact criteria and marking system, the introduction of the trophy brought about an immediate improvement in the overall standard of dress – an issue of concern in previous years.

The inaugural winner was Wellington Association.

---

Table Tennis Film Made by Auckland TTA

A major undertaking by the Auckland Association was the production of a 16mm table tennis film. It included a re-enactment of the way the game was played in the early days in New Zealand, showing women in flowing dresses playing with hollow vellum-covered bats. Also featured were modern stroke demonstrations by Russell Algie and Ken Cantlay (explained with slow-motion replays) and a short excerpt from the Barna / Bergmann exhibition filmed during their 1949 tour of New Zealand.

The eleven minute film was generously acclaimed and copies were made available to other Associations.

The film has been preserved in NZ Film Archives and the national body holds a copy on DVD format.

---

Hoar and Jackson Signal Intentions at North Islands

Foreshadowing their form at the NZ Championships, 19 year old Margaret Hoar and 18 year old Bob Jackson won their respective singles events at the North Island championships without dropping a game. The “find” of the tournament was 17 year old Andy Wong of Auckland. He beat 4th seed Kevin Dwyer and rallied well with Bob Jackson in the semi-finals. Jackson beat Owen Jaine in the final.

Wong won the under 18 boys singles and went on to win the same event at the NZ Championships.

Hosting a major tournament for the first time, the Rotorua Association impressed everybody with excellent organisation and facilities.

---

Negotiations for International Visits

Considering New Zealand’s geographical isolation one would expect any visits from overseas players to be the result of New Zealand taking the initiative, issuing an invitation and lobbying hard for the invited players to come. On the contrary, an unsolicited letter proposing a tour was received in September 1949, followed independently by another in February, 1950. The first was from two top American players and the second from Richard Bergmann who, fresh from regaining his world singles title, offered a visit accompanied by one of the aforementioned Americans. Both letters proposed a tour of New Zealand in mid-1950. Then came the news that the Americans (Richard Miles and Marty Reisman) were under USATT suspension in relation to contractual obligations and both offers were withdrawn.

Bergmann now looked to 1951 and offered to come on his own and tour with Russell Algie. On finding Algie unavailable he proposed 1949 world champion Johnny Leach instead. This plan also fell through as Bergmann himself was suspended by the ITTF for touring South Africa without ETTA approval. But Leach remained interested and invited Marty Reisman, his suspension now lifted, to accompany him to New Zealand. When a US army commitment excluded Reisman, Leach then approached top Frenchman Michel Haguenauer. A little weary and cynical by now, NZTTA officials nonetheless decided that a tour by Leach and Haguenauer looked a real possibility and entered into serious negotiations with India, Singapore and Australia with a view to include them in the tour and make it more financially viable. The first two would not commit and, without them, Australia wouldn’t either.

When it looked as though it was all coming to nothing, negotiations were reactivated by Leach and Haguenauer late in the year. India and Singapore now agreed to host the tourists and by March, 1951 New Zealand had arranged for them to visit either before or after the Australian leg of the tour. As a bonus, Leach would have regained his world title by then and would visit New Zealand in June, 1951 as world singles champion.

Fingers were firmly crossed in the hope that the tour would go ahead as planned.

---

Another New Zealand Team Approved for World Championships

Encouraged by the Crossley/Brightwell/Stewart participation at the 1950 World Championships, three more New Zealanders sought permission to represent New Zealand at the 1951 championships in Vienna, Austria. The three, Trevor Flint, Jack Borough and Jack Knowsley, were granted permission but it raised the wider question of when, if ever, New Zealand would be represented by an officially selected team. Asked if the time had now come for NZTTA to select a team rather than simply approve a group of players who offered to work (or pay) their own way, management committee member Hec Pyle stated that the national body was not yet ready to finance such a venture.

But it must have been a wake-up call. In 1951 plans to select an official team for the 1952 World Championships in India were unveiled.

---

New Zealand Table Tennis Association, Incorporated

Records as early as 1937 show that NZTTA had decided to apply to become incorporated but until now this was never formalised. A certificate dated 25 September, 1950 confirms that the New Zealand Table Tennis Association was duly accepted as an Incorporated Society under the Incorporated Societies Act 1908.

---