New Zealander Becomes Champion of Australia

Bob Jackson’s dream season in 1955 must have evoked memories of Russell Algie at his peak. There was as much daylight between Algie and the rest of the field in 1949 as there was last year between Jackson and his contemporaries. Both competed at the world championships (where Algie did rather better) but this year Bob Jackson (pictured) did something Russell Algie never attempted. He competed in the Australian Championships and won the open singles title. Joyce Williamson had nearly achieved it in 1952 but Jackson was the first. And he did it without conceding a single game.

The Australian media, after recovering from the shock, attributed Jackson’s performance to his range of difficult spin serves, his superior concentration, his ability to keep a rally going, and, most significantly, his sponge bat. Very few at the championships were playing with sponge and even those who had been exposed to it (eg, former Australian champion Phil Anderson who had toured Japan) found Jackson’s sponge unlike any other. He was now using bats he had made himself, often from readily available commercial material. The thick sponge on his forehand for these championships was cut from a bath mat, with holes punched for extra spin.

As current New Zealand champion he was given a respectable seeding (#3), behind Australian champion Geoff Jennings and Phil Anderson, who had won in 1951, 1953 and 1954. Despite their reputations, especially Anderson’s, New Zealand commentators had predicted that Jackson would probably win. But his winning margin surprised even them. He beat Anderson in the final 21-11, 21-13, 21-18, having dealt earlier with Harry Porter in the semi-final 21-9, 21-17, 21-15, and John Klesman in the quarter-finals 21-8, 21-14, 21-11. His earlier victims included 12 year old Cliff McDonald who pushed him harder than anyone before losing 18-21, 19-21, 19-21. McDonald would exact his revenge in 1965 by becoming the first Australian to win the NZ Championships.

Top seed Geoff Jennings had surprisingly fallen in his first match to a young unknown South Australian.

Doubles Champion Also

For the men’s doubles Jackson was paired with Vic Matison, an Australian he had never met or seen play, let alone played with. But they too were seeded third. They dropped just one game on the way to the final, where they beat Anderson and Porter 21-14, 21-23, 21-19, 21-16.

Jackson’s achievements at this tournament were lauded in the media as the best New Zealand performance ever. In terms of silverware won and taking the whole tournament into account it probably was. But it’s doubtful whether at any stage it eclipsed New Zealand’s best performance in a single match up to that point: Murray Dunn’s encounter with world #12 Vilim Harangozo at the 1954 World Championships.

Auckland Girls Also Participate

Two young Aucklanders, Kay Lye and Leola White, travelled to Brisbane with Bob Jackson and competed in the open and junior events. White met with little success but Kay Lye reached the women’s singles quarter-finals and the junior girls’ semi-final. In the open mixed doubles she played with Jackson and they beat the third seeds to reach the semi-finals.

It was a fine tournament for New Zealand. More than three decades would pass before another New Zealand player would win the Australian men’s singles: Barry Griffiths, in 1987. But it was a much shorter wait for New Zealand to win the Australian women’s championship – both singles and doubles. That was just around the corner.

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NZ Championships: Sponge Debate Heads South

The New Zealand Championships in Dunedin brought the debate over sponge bats to the South Island with a resounding thump. Many players throughout the country had been exposed to sponge at major tournaments in 1955 but, as the majority of top-level sponge players were based in Auckland, many spectators, journalists and lower level players in the South Island were seeing sponge for the first time at this year’s NZ Championships.

And they were bemused. “The finals were disappointing,” wrote the Dunedin Star Sports. “Inability to combat the sponge rubber was the main reason for the unexpected failure of the tournament to reach an exciting climax.” The article went on to assert “A complete change to sponge is urgently needed if the competitive angle of the sport is to survive.”

JG Thomson, writing in the NZ Sportsman, claimed that “… the sponge rubber expert now has a considerable advantage over the ordinary pimple bat user.”

These comments must have caused confusion when considered alongside the many previous calls in New Zealand and overseas for sponge to be banned. One thing was clear. Sponge bat players were winning. And, when facing each other they could produce spectacular table tennis. It was this tournament, and one match in particular, that convinced many South Islanders to switch to sponge.

While all the open titles were won by sponge bat players in exceedingly one-sided finals, only those who slept through the earlier rounds could possibly have suggested that the tournament was a disappointment because of sponge. There had been some great matches at both senior and junior level and also in the team contests.

New names were emerging. The men’s seeds included Colin Shewan (#5), a Wellington player who had been niggling some of NZ’s best for a number of years; Bill Scott (#7), a popular Otago man who locals felt was good but could, and should, be even better; and John Catto (#8) – a highly regarded young Southlander who had been NZ junior champion two years in a row and under 16 champion for two years before that. Shewan fell early but Scott and Catto played to their seedings. Bob Jackson, Garry Frew, Alan Tomlinson and Owen Jaine were seeded to contest the semi-finals while the evergreen Neville Brightwell was still seen as a threat at #6. Murray Dunn did not compete, having taken the entire season off to focus on university studies (and on his tennis, in which he also excelled). Another absentee was John Crossley.

Tomlinson earned his place in the top four with wins earlier in the season over Frew and Jaine. Despite some uncertain moments at the North Island Championships he was emerging as the country’s second best sponge exponent after Bob Jackson. The two were close associates and continued to play doubles together.

The top end of the women’s field contained a plethora of quality players and predicting the winner was a lottery. Last year’s finalists (June Magorian and Joyce Williamson) topped the seedings with Lois Rodgers and Barbara Packwood now playing well enough to keep Margaret Hoar out of the top four. Charlotte Maxwell (nee Savage), Thelma Keast and Pat Quinn rounded out the list.

Brightwell Beaten

The most dramatic result in the men’s singles was the defeat of Neville Brightwell by 17 year old John Roach in the round of 16. The Wellington player had been respected in junior circles since 1954 when he reached the under 18 boys final aged only 15. His match with Brightwell was a fierce counter-hitting duel with Roach gaining the initiative by getting over the ball more and forcing his experienced opponent to retreat and hit from further back. It was an excellent match won in four games. Roach then submitted meekly to Alan Tomlinson’s sponge bat in the quarter-finals.

Margaret Hoar’s low seeding was due as much to her lapses at the 1954 and 1955 championships (she failed to get past the quarter-finals both years) as to the rapid improvement of both Barbara Packwood and Lois Rodgers. Her chances this year appeared slim. But when she beat Rodgers in a hard-fought five game quarter-final it was realised that five-time champions should never be written off. Joyce Williamson and June Magorian were nonetheless still being picked to contest the final.

It was Williamson that Margaret Hoar had to deal with in the semi-finals. The 1951 and 1954 NZ champion easily won the first game but Hoar responded with narrow wins in the next two. A decisive 21-15 win to Hoar in the fourth sealed the match. It was headlined as an upset but perhaps they’d forgotten Hoar had beaten both Magorian and Williamson in the inter-island contest less than a week earlier. Magorian scrambled past Barbara Packwood in five in the other semi-final.

The top four men’s seeds all won their respective quarter-finals three straight. Garry Frew then had the luxury of a walk-over into the final when Owen Jaine was forced to withdraw following a leg muscle injury. This put all eyes on the Bob Jackson / Alan Tomlinson semi-final. Both had barely conceded double figures up to this point as they scorched through the field with their sponge bats.

It was the match of the tournament. Jackson won 21-16, 22-20, 23-21. Their super-fast counter-hitting left the audience gasping. There were long spells of pushing but these cat and mouse tactics were tension-building rather than tedious as everyone knew it would be only a matter of time before one or other launched into attack and the match would explode into more furious counter-hitting. Sponge meeting sponge across the table in the hands of two accomplished masters put more speed on the ball than had ever been seen in a match featuring New Zealand players. “The exciting rallies were said to have converted the South Island to sponge overnight,” remembered Alan Tomlinson decades later.

Sponge Triumphs In All Five Finals

It wasn’t just sponge that triumphed – it was also two individual players, both of whom clean swept all three possible titles. Margaret Hoar made short work of a confidence-bereft June Magorian (21-13, 21-5, 21-6) while Bob Jackson did a similar hatchet job on Garry Frew (21-13, 21-8, 21-14) although Frew’s stonewall defence generated some fine rallies. Hoar and Jackson won the mixed doubles three straight over Alan Tomlinson and Charlotte Maxwell. Paired with Barbara Packwood, Hoar had a straight games win over Joyce Williamson and Lois Rodgers, as did Jackson and Tomlinson over Bill Fogarty and Albert Kwok who had been helped into the final by the withdrawal of Owen Jaine.

All the title winners played with sponge bats, prompting the media comments quoted above.

Otago was hosting the championships for the fourth time since 1939. The facilities (accommodated in a spacious central city woolstore) were good, media coverage excellent, and, as an innovation, the programme included a full timetable of matches complete with table numbers.

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Foster Family Makes Its Mark

A table tennis name already well-known in Otago featured in national headlines for the first time and would recur regularly for the next twenty years. The patriarch of the family, Frank Foster, had been an Otago stalwart as a player and administrator since 1942. Playing pen-grip and armed with a sandpaper bat he was still competing in A grade in 1956. At this year’s NZ veteran singles he beat the esteemed South Canterbury representative Sid Bremford in the semi-finals before deferring to Frank Paton in the final. In his day job (he was a cabinet maker by trade) he manufactured quality table tennis tables which were sold in large numbers throughout New Zealand. His tables were used for the 1956 NZ Championships. Bearing the respected “Foster” insignia the table continued in production for several decades, with Frank’s second son Bryan taking over the manufacturing business in later years.

Three Sons All Achieve National Ranking, One Becomes a Champion

Ron Foster, the eldest of Frank’s three table tennis playing sons, had reached the NZ under 18 semi-final in 1955 and this year, selected to represent Otago at senior level, had caused an unusual degree of discomfort for Bob Jackson in their teams contest before losing 18-21, 17-21. He would attain a top ten NZ ranking in 1958 and regain it on four later occasions through to1969. He moved from Otago to Southland early in his career and from there to Wellington where he settled for a long period. His most memorable moment must surely have been the 1963 NZ men’s doubles final when, partnered by his brother Bryan, he faced Murray Dunn and Garry Frew in a hard-hitting match lauded at the time as the best men’s doubles final ever seen at the NZ Championships.

Returning to the 1956 NZ championships, the real headline grabber for the Foster family was 16 year old Bryan Foster. He had made his nationals debut in 1952 (as had Ron) when the championships were last held in Dunedin. Aged 12, he was the youngest player in the tournament. This year, unseeded in the under 18 singles, he defeated the top seed and fellow-Otago player Peter South, and second seeded Aucklander George Wilkinson, to sensationally win the title. Added to this was a first round win over John Roach (21-15, 21-16) who, as noted in the previous article, eliminated sixth seed Neville Brightwell from the men’s singles. Coincidentally, Foster and Roach met for a second time in the men’s singles to determine which of them played Brightwell. That match resulted in an exciting win to Roach by the narrowest of margins: 16-21, 11-21, 21-17, 21-15, 23-21.

In less than a year Bryan Foster would represent New Zealand. More will be written of him but suffice for now to say that he was destined to win the NZ singles title twice and be ranked #1for three years in succession.

Ray Foster, the third brother in the family, was a top Wellington player for several years and he too achieved a national ranking, giving the Foster family the distinction of having three members ranked in NZ’s top ten in the same year (1969): Bryan #2, Ron #7, Ray #8. No other family has ever achieved this.

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Men and Women Finally Combine for Inter-Island Contest

As a lead-up to the New Zealand Championships a men’s and women’s inter-island contest was held in Timaru. It was the first dual-gender North / South fixture ever held. South Canterbury accepted the financial responsibility for transporting the players to Dunedin after the event where the NZ Championships would commence two days later.

Local support was less than hoped for (and budgeted for) and a loss was incurred. The contest took place amid the frenzy of a rugby tour of New Zealand by the South African Springboks, as did the NZ Championships and indeed most major table tennis events in 1956. Rugby eclipsed all other sports for several months.

To some extent the event was a disappointment anyway. The men’s matches were one-sided (with two notable exceptions) and, even with NZ’s top two ranked players in their team, the South Island women lost 3-9. The men lost 1-11.

Neville Brightwell’s unexpected win over NZ No 2 Garry Frew gave the south a brief moment of hope. Frew won the middle game 21-8 but was decisively beaten in the first and third 21-12 and 21-13. Making a welcome return to the South Island team was Bill Fogarty, first selected in 1946. He celebrated his tenth anniversary by depriving the seemingly unbeatable Bob Jackson of a game and racing to a 10-5 lead in the third. Finding another gear Jackson was able to bridge the gap and coast to an easy win but it was a performance for the popular Otago man to cherish.

The South Island women picked up two of the four doubles and Joyce Williamson scored their only singles win, over Lois Rodgers.

Sponge bats were naturally a talking point and the general verdict seemed to be that, while they made play spectacular in bursts, rallies were shorter and, overall, there was less audience appeal.

From 1957 the inter-island fixture would become part of the NZ Championships programme. Inter-island junior and veteran team events would be added in due course.

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Tangle Over Sunday Sport

A confused and controversial situation arose when the NZTTA Secretary inadvertently approved a range of dates for the Canterbury Open Championships which turned out to include a Sunday. Canterbury proceeded to schedule the tournament programme on the approved dates but it was only later realised by the full NZTTA committee that Sunday play was included. Secretary Ken Wilkinson had overlooked this. Play had, by tradition, never been allowed on a Sunday and the committee was divided over whether, considering the circumstances, it should be approved on this occasion. A compromise was struck – allow play on the Sunday but require a suspension between 6 pm and 8.15 pm to enable competitors to attend church services.

Canterbury objected, claiming the timetable could not accommodate such a lengthy interruption and they wished to commence the finals at 7 pm as scheduled. They did, however, offer NZTTA a guarantee that any player requesting leave to attend church between 7 and 8.15 pm would not be penalised. This met with NZTTA approval and the matter was resolved.

The tradition of disallowing Sunday play at provincial open tournaments had never been challenged in the past but the Canterbury incident led to the matter being put to the 1957 AGM and clear rules laid down. As a result Sunday play continued to be prohibited at national tournaments and allowed only during restricted hours at provincial tournaments.

The rule would be in place for only two years. From 1959 unlimited Sunday play was permitted at all open tournaments.

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Inter-Association Trophies Update

Featured in a 1943 article was a list of trophies competed for among Associations, some of them presented to memorialise table tennis players lost on active war service. Continuing to be contested annually are the Croudis Shield, the Sweetman Shield (with Bush now included in the participating Associations), the Perry Shield (with Buller now included), and the Sutton Shield. Competition for the Gordon Cup (Auckland / Wellington) lapsed after 1950 (to be briefly reinstated in 1960 / 1961), and there is no record of either the Jarvis Rose Bowl or the Barrow Shield after the early 1950s. Introduced in 1955 and now played for regularly is the Calder Cup, a trophy for junior inter-Association competition among North Taranaki, South Taranaki, Wanganui and Manawatu.

The late 1950s and early 1960s saw an upsurge in round-robin quadrangular tournaments among neighbouring Associations.

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