Jackson Retains His NZ Title - Just

A standing ovation followed the NZ Championships men’s singles final when Bob Jackson narrowly edged out Murray Dunn (pictured), after clawing back from deficits of 15-18 and 17-19 in the final game. The generous applause from the Wellington crowd was not just for the winner, but also for the runner-up and for the match itself – a superb spectacle. The first game may have been a little tentative but then the fireworks exploded. It wasn’t just hard hitting – there was also wide-ranging and entertaining use of tactical play. Jackson was aware of the strength of Dunn’s backhand but, rather than play to the other wing, he fed high topspin into the backhand corner, preventing Dunn from getting over the ball and imparting power. But Dunn’s game was firing in all departments including an acrobatic defence when the need arose. The match see-sawed wildly. At one game all Jackson raced to an 8-1 lead in the third only to find Dunn right on his heels at 13-12. Jackson went on to win that game but lost the fourth. In the deciding game Jackson led 10-5 at the change of ends but Dunn inexorably closed the gap and leveled at 15-15. When he went on to win the next three points the national title was within his grasp but, perhaps being over-cautious, he let Jackson regain the initiative and the reigning champion survived to win 21-19.

The match was a triumph for both players. With the win Jackson eclipsed Russell Algie’s record of six NZ men’s singles titles, winning the last six of his seven titles consecutively. For Dunn it was a superb comeback. His 1954 season had been excellent but he had missed the NZ Championships in 1955, taken a whole season off in 1956 and in 1957 made a late change to a sponge bat which resulted in a mixed season and an early exit from the 1957 championships. Dunn and Jackson had met in the 1954 final but this year’s spectacle bore absolutely no resemblance to the dull, tentative encounter four years ago.

Unseeded Player Takes Women’s Title

Earlier in the decade Thelma Keast reached the quarter-finals three years in a row, having burst onto the national scene with a series of upset wins as a 17 year old. Last year she didn’t compete and lost her national ranking which had peaked at #7. Entering this year’s championships in her married name, Thelma Hale, she was unseeded and attracted little attention. That is, until she beat seventh seed Mary Broadbent, a Wanganui defensive player commanding increasing respect and destined for an exceedingly long, if not spectacular career. At that point thoughts arose that perhaps Thelma Hale should have been seeded, given her past record. The word “perhaps” vanished when, in the quarter-finals, she beat North Island champion and top seed Joan Brown. Brown, runner-up to Margaret Hoar last year, won the first game but Hale won each of the next three by a two-point margin.

Seeded after Brown were Pat Purdon, June Magorian and Fay Inglis. Margaret Hoar and Barbara Packwood were absent (both competing in Australia – refer later article) and Joyce Williamson had remained in London after the 1957 World Championships.

Inglis was surprisingly beaten in another quarter-final by the experienced Thelma May of Canterbury, who advanced to the semi-final to face Hale. May had beaten the promising junior, Neti Davis (also seeded) in the previous round. Hale, a tall blonde player with a ferocious forehand, was now hitting harder than ever and beat May in four games. In the other semi-final, contested rather more conventionally between the second and third seeds, June Magorian prevailed over Pat Purdon, also in four games.

Magorian then stepped up for her seventh final. Her first was in 1949 (as June Leathley) and she had contested every one since then except 1951, 1953 and 1956, but won only once - in 1955. She was the obvious favourite this year against an unseeded player but yet again, and for the sixth time, had to settle for second place. Both players hit furiously but Hale was moving faster and getting more topspin on the ball. She won 21-14, 18-12, 21-16, 9-21, 21-11. It was an endurance test for both players and a scintillating spectacle for the audience. “After the dreary pitter-patter of last year’s final, this was like a hurricane,” wrote Alf Harding in Wellington’s Evening Post.

Open Doubles Title to 14 Year Old

Northlanders Garry Frew and Neti Davis won the mixed doubles. Last year, aged 22 and 13, they had reached the final against all odds and to the glowing appreciation of the audience. This year the strength of their unique combination was recognised and they were seeded second. They were helped when Otago’s Bryan Foster and Val Braumann, still unseeded despite toppling the second seeds last year, eliminated title-holders and top seeds Bob Jackson and Kay Jaine (nee Lye). Foster and Braumann had another fine win in the semi-finals over Owen Jaine (pictured) and Pat Purdon while Frew and Davis did even better against Murray Dunn and Joan Brown. The unseeded Otago giant-killers could go no further and the Northlanders dominated the final. Their win made 14 year old Davis one of the youngest players to win a NZ open title. They would win again in 1959 and 1960, and twice more in later years.

Bob Jackson and Alan Tomlinson won the men’s doubles for the fourth year in succession. June Magorian and Pat Purdon won the women’s doubles.

Men Sort Themselves Out

There were some absorbing moments in the closing rounds of the men’s singles. Gary Roselli, a dependable but not highly rated player from Wellington, had beaten 8th seed Gary Smith (Auckland) and gone on to also beat Ron Foster and reach the quarter-finals. He was unceremoniously dealt with there by Bob Jackson but Roselli’s performance over the season earned him a national ranking.

Murray Dunn was accorded only #7 seeding and that put him against Alan Tomlinson in the quarter-finals. Unfazed, he beat the second seed in four games. Another quarter-final saw Bryan Foster beat the more favoured Garry Frew while Owen Jaine had an easy win over Bill Scott. Both semi-finals were won three straight -Jackson over Foster and Dunn over Jaine.

The spectacular Jackson / Dunn final was a fitting climax to an exciting tournament.

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Team Contests Cast Doubts Over Seedings

When fifth seeded Bryan Foster beat the top two seeds, Bob Jackson and Alan Tomlinson, in the North Island / South Island contest preceding the NZ Championships, furrows appeared in the brows of the seeding committee. And they got deeper when top seed Joan Brown lost to June Magorian and Pat Purdon in the women’s section of the same contest.

The unexpected results helped Magorian and Purdon, with strong support from Fay Inglis and June Shadbolt, secure the first South Island win over the North since contests began in 1946. They won 9-3 after leading 6-0. The only North Island player to win a singles was 14 year old Neti Davis. The North won the men’s section, also 9-3. Their team of Jackson, Tomlinson, Frew and Dunn was unbeatable on paper but Bryan Foster’s two excellent wins and an even more surprising doubles win by Bill Scott and John Armstrong over multiple champions Jackson and Tomlinson salvaged a large measure of pride for the South. Bob Jackson’s loss to Bryan Foster was his first singles loss since 1954. He would lose again in the inter-Association teams event.

Murray Dunn Shines in Team Contests

Murray Dunn was untroubled by either John Armstrong or Ron Foster in the North / South contest. He played in the lower half which meant Bryan Foster and Bill Scott were spared singles clashes with him. Dunn’s chance to fully demonstrate his devastating form came in the inter-Association team contests. In the Wellington / Otago semi-final he beat Bryan Foster to help Wellington eliminate the team some thought could threaten Auckland for the title. Then in the Wellington / Auckland final he beat both Alan Tomlinson and Bob Jackson, with his 21-17, 21-14 win over Jackson taking Wellington to a 6-4 lead. Auckland fought back to level at 6-6 and win the contest (and the Kean Shield) by a narrow two game margin (15-13).

Dunn’s results were a clear sign that he had fully adjusted his game to his sponge bat and was now matching, if not exceeding, the sparkling form he showed in 1954.

Canterbury won the Teagle Shield with a clear 8-4 win over Otago in the final. Canterbury’s Fay Inglis had a good win over June Magorian.

The Bay of Plenty men’s team attracted attention by fielding the 1935 singles champion Frank Paton, now aged over 50, alongside the youngest player to compete in the Kean Shield, 12 year old Peter Salmon. Later, in the individual events, Paton won the veteran men’s singles for the third year in succession while Salmon went on to win the under 16 boys doubles, partnered by Colin Ross, another young member of the Bay of Plenty men’s team.

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Margaret Hoar Moves to Australia

The New Zealand career of Margaret Hoar came to an end when she moved to Sydney early in the year. The doggedly determined defensive player began attracting attention in 1947 and won her first NZ singles title in 1948 as a 17 year old. In 1957 she won the title for the seventh time, creating a new record. In the ten year time span she failed to reach the final only twice (1954 and 1955) and was runner-up in 1951. In 1957 she was champion of both New Zealand and Australia. Her record of seven NZ singles championships, shared from this year with Bob Jackson, would stand for 13 years.

She never represented New Zealand further afield than Australia and only once in a full international series, played at home against the English Rowe twins in 1953. This was a bitter disappointment given her status as one of our top women players for ten years.

Packwood Joins Hoar at Australian Open; Hoar Wins Mixed

Barbara Packwood travelled to Australia to compete with Margaret Hoar in the Australian Open Championships. The pair were runners-up in the women’s doubles. Hoar was eliminated in the singles semi-final by a young star on the rise, 14 year old Leone Murphy. Murphy had been Australian under 18 champion when aged only 13 and would go on to win the Australian Open singles in 1965.

Barbara Packwood reached the singles quarter-finals where she lost to 1956 champion Dorli Shipp.

Partnered by John Klesman of New South Wales, Margaret Hoar triumphed in the mixed doubles – her third Australian title in two years.

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Sponge Debate Showdown

There were clear signs this year that the sponge debate, a hot issue world-wide since 1952, was going to be resolved one way or another at the 1959 general meeting of the International Table Tennis Federation. The special committee to investigate the matter appointed by the 1957 meeting included in its research a questionnaire mailed to the National Associations of all affiliated countries. They were asked to express a preference for a law change requiring either (1) racket coverings of pimpled rubber only; (2) a choice between pimpled rubber and sponge of unlimited thickness, with or without a layer of pimpled rubber; (3) pimpled rubber, with or without sponge, limited in total thickness.

It was a difficult question to get any consensus over as those favouring the continued use of sponge were split between supporters of sponge of limited thickness and of unlimited thickness. And those favouring limited thickness were also split, with preferred thickness limits ranging from 4 mm to 8 mm.

New Zealand officials did their best to establish the preferred option in this country but were hampered by lack of interest. Only twelve of the 25 district Associations replied to the questionnaire. The twelve showed a narrow preference for allowing sponge to continue but with a limit of 5 mm in thickness. There was no support at all (among the twelve) for continued use of sponge of unlimited thickness thus reversing, for the second time, earlier thinking on the issue.

Europe Prefers Pimples

England and most major European nations supported the standardisation of rackets with plain pimpled rubber, outlawing sponge altogether. Japan led a smaller band wanting sponge of unlimited thickness to remain legal, while New Zealand, in expressing its preference for the sponge and pimple combination of limited thickness, was joined by Australia, Belgium, Spain, Sweden and Russia.

It’s now history that the ITTF special committee, after considering all submissions and its own research, overruled the pimple supporters and recommended the sponge / pimple combination for consideration by the 1959 General Meeting. The meeting would adopt the recommendation, imposing a thickness limit of 4 mm. Many distributors and retailers were caught off guard and left with large supplies of sponge bats of a thickness soon to become illegal but nobody could say they weren’t warned. Their existence had been under threat for several years and by mid-1958 their demise had become a virtual certainty.

The die was now cast and 1958 would be the last season for New Zealand, and the rest of the world, to play with thick sponge bats. It had been a seven year roller-coaster ride for the entire sport.

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Flurry of Upsets at South Island Championships

Otago’s Kevin Dolan was the first to upset the South Island seeding committee’s applecart when he beat 5th seeded John Catto in the second round. Not to be outdone Robin Radford (ex-Canterbury now Waikato) disposed of Kevin Dolan in the following round. Robin, instigator of this Chronicle, remembered getting “stuck in” when he heard his more favoured opponent, leading 2-0, say to a friend that he “wouldn’t be long”. Robin won the next three games.

At the business end of the men’s singles top seed Bryan Foster lost to his brother Ron and John Armstrong beat second seed Bill Scott (pictured). Armstrong had a well-deserved win over Ron Foster in the final.

The women’s singles event ran rather more to the seeding committee’s predictions, at least until second seeded June Magorian beat top seed Pat Purdon in the final. The semi-finalists had been Fay Inglis and June Shadbolt, seeded three and four. Magorian and Purdon won the doubles. In the men’s doubles Ray Mercer and John Catto had an exciting upset win over top seeds Bryan and Ron Foster.

Hawera Hosts North Islands

South Taranaki Association, based in Hawera, made a successful bid for the North Island Championships. It was a courageous undertaking as the event is normally associated with larger centres. It was also a landmark year for the tournament with Bob Jackson winning his ninth, and last, successive North Island singles title before retirement.

As the Jackson era ended, a new one (albeit brief) began for Joan Brown. She won the women’s singles, and retained it in 1959. Her success this year earned her #1 seeding for the NZ Championships. As a mark of her longevity, she won the North Island title again a decade later in 1969 – a year in which she was also selected to represent New Zealand.

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Women’s Veteran Events Introduced

Four years after men’s veteran singles events were added to the NZ Championships programme, a similar event was introduced for women. While the qualifying age for men was left unchanged at 45, the women’s was set at 40. The inaugural winner was Mrs G Brill of Manawatu.

Veteran doubles events would be introduced in 1961, with the same age differentiation applying in the mixed doubles.

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Women’s Team for 1959 World Championships?

Margaret Hoar’s plea for New Zealand women players to be given more opportunities for international competition (refer 1957 article) did not fall on deaf ears. At the 1957 Player of the Year presentation ceremony NZTTA Secretary Ken Wilkinson discussed with her the possibility of an officially selected women’s team attending the 1959 World Championships in Germany. Wilkinson promised to take the matter further and the NZTTA Executive made a formal proposal to the 1958 AGM for such a trip. After much discussion it was agreed to, but by the uncomfortably narrow margin of 31 votes to 22.

This resulted in two press statements being issued in quick succession. Firstly the announcement that the AGM had voted to, finally, send a selected women’s team to the world championships. Then, following the first meeting of the NZTTA Executive, came a further statement that the trip was by no means certain as it relied on Association support, unlikely to be unanimous considering the strong vote against the proposal at the AGM.

Nonetheless the committee unveiled an optimistic plan to send a party of three players and a manager on a two month trip taking in the World Championships in Dortmund, Germany. They would be joined in Europe by Joyce Williamson (if selected) who was already resident in London. The cost was initially estimated as £3,000. An art union (lottery) would be organised to raise the funds but NZTTA officials were unwilling to proceed unless each district Association agreed to guarantee a set amount from the art union regardless of the number of tickets they sold. They could retain any surplus, but would have to make up any deficit from their own funds.

Each Association was advised of their ticket allocation and the amount of their guarantee (ranging from £10 to £350), and asked if they were prepared to meet it. The replies were anything but unanimous. Only eight agreed to guarantee the full amount; two offered a guarantee of a lesser amount; five agreed to support the art union but wouldn’t guarantee any minimum payment and five totally opposed the trip, refusing to offer any support at all. The remaining Associations didn’t reply.

Those that undertook to pay the full guarantee were Auckland, Manawatu, Bay of Plenty, Northland, Bush, Thames Valley, Poverty Bay and West Coast. This guaranteed £710, well short of the absolute minimum cost of the tour, now revised down to £2,500. The option of reducing the cost still further by sending only two players was examined but that was deemed financially unviable.

At their June meeting the NZTTA Executive decided, by no means unanimously, that the response from district Associations was so mixed and uncertain that the tour should be abandoned. An announcement to this effect was published on 10 June, to the intense disappointment of NZ’s leading women players.

The matter would have ended there but for an extraordinary succession of events in early 1959 which resulted in a team of two London based New Zealand women actually competing as a team in the World Championships after all. A 1959 article explains.

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Umpire Qualification Scheme Takes Off – At Last

The umpire qualification scheme launched four years ago (refer 1954 article) was exceedingly slow in gaining momentum. 23 candidates from throughout the country submitted test papers in 1955, half of them from either Hutt Valley or Wellington and none from Auckland or Canterbury. 15 qualified as Provincial Umpires. The following year a mere three papers were submitted and none were successful. By 1957 the number of papers submitted had risen to seven but only one achieved a pass mark.

As the profile of the qualified umpires rose (they were regularly being allocated important matches at NZ Championships) greater interest was shown. Fourteen more umpires qualified this year and the numbers would continue to increase. In due course New Zealand would be contributing International Umpires to the world scene. A New Zealand Umpires Association was formed in 1972.

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