Ping Pong Diplomacy Makes World Headlines

It takes a table tennis event of gigantic proportions to upstage the World Championships. But an event of such proportions did occur on the final day of the 1971 Championships in Nagoya, Japan. China announced that it was inviting table tennis delegations from the United States, Canada, England, Australia and Colombia to tour mainland China. And our New Zealand players would have been invited too had they known to remain a few more hours in Hong Kong and been there to receive the invitation.

What made the news world-shattering was that it was the first official contact between China and western countries since the communist revolution of 1949. China had been even more hermetically sealed from the rest of the world since their so-called Cultural Revolution was launched in May, 1966 and their players had not attended the 1967 or 1969 World Championships.

By 1970 ambassadorial dialogue between the United States and China indicated that relations were thawing and in March 1971 ITTF President Roy Evans was requested by the Chinese Charge d’Affaires in London to visit Peking (Beijing) on his way to the World Championships in Japan where China would again be competing. He had discussions with sporting officials and met with Chinese Premiere Chou En-lai who himself proposed the possibility of inviting teams to visit China after the Championships. The Chinese had clearly chosen the sport of Table Tennis as their diplomatic tool for re-engaging with the rest of the world.

400 media personnel were present for the announcement. New Zealand team manager/journalist Alf Harding jostled in the media scrum that formed round the United States team. And he claimed to be first in the world to report that England would be going too.

Events moved with remarkable speed. The invitation was announced on 6 April, the players and officials entered China on 10 April, the full delegation dined with Chou En-lai on 14 April, and everyone left on 17 April. During the period of the visit US President Richard Nixon announced plans to lift the trade embargo with China that had been in place throughout the Cultural Revolution.

It’s now history that these events were a prelude to a state visit to China by Richard Nixon the following year, and to a succession of tours by a Chinese Table Tennis delegation to other western countries, including New Zealand.

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Big Lead-up to the big event: Nagoya World Championships

A week-long tour of Australia and the first ever Commonwealth Championships in Singapore provided the New Zealand team with a solid build-up to the World Championships in Nagoya, Japan – our first Worlds since Stockholm in 1967. Neti Traill, Yvonne Fogarty, Kathy Fraser, Alan Tomlinson, Richard Lee, Gary Murphy and James Morris flew the NZ flag at all these events, with Alf Harding as Manager and NZTTA Secretary Ken Wilkinson accompanying the team as an ITTF official.

Four tests were played against Australia, all designated as “unofficial”. NZ won three after losing the first. The women’s team was our pride and joy at the Commonwealth Championships. They beat Australia 3-0, won tight games against Canada and Malaysia and lost only to England to finish second for a Silver Medal. All three women reached the quarter-finals of the individual events.  The men’s team finished 7th out of 11.

It was a different ball game at the Worlds (26 March – 2 April). The men’s 38th place was a little disappointing, especially after coming 25th in Stockholm in 1967. The women did come 25th but with an ounce of luck could have moved to a higher bracket and finished as high as 15th. (They were 16th in 1967).

It was an exciting tournament with an exciting new player emerging. 18 year old Stellan Bengtsson (Sweden) was a lightning-fast left-hander who won his way to the final, beating 1967 champion Nobuhiko Hasegawa in an amazing quarter-final and in the final dealt a blow to reigning champion, Shigeo Ito. Ito was carrying an injury but nothing can be taken away from World Champion Bengtsson’s overall performance. He was the first European to win the men’s singles since 1953.

China’s star player, Chuang Tse-tung (World Champion 1961 -1965) withdrew from the men’s singles rather than play an opponent from South Vietnam (at war with the communist North). China won the men’s teams, the women’s singles and two other major titles. Japan won the women’s teams.

The New Zealand players were observed by management with considerable interest on this tour. It was wondered if any of the young players would surge ahead of the two experienced campaigners, Neti Traill and Alan Tomlinson. Overall, it didn’t happen. Traill and Tomlinson looked the most accomplished and the most settled in this elite company. Nonetheless, Richard Lee and James Morris rose to lofty heights at times. Morris was inconsistent but showed a remarkable temperament. Yvonne Fogarty was fiery on the table and a bundle of energy off it. Kathy Fraser’s (pictured) game improved as the tour progressed, particularly on defence. Gary Murphy gave his all but didn’t quite rise to the heights he’d attained to win the 1970 NZ Championships.

Most important, the New Zealand players were able to learn by observing. Tomlinson and Traill were well-seasoned in this art but it was 16 year old Richard Lee who impressed with his remarkable maturity in analysing the skills of the world’s top players.

Team manager Alf Harding commented on the narrowing gap between Asia and Europe, noting a marked improvement in players from Hungary, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia. He thought the Europeans were more entertaining to watch while the Asians played a much tighter, more tactical game with shorter rallies.

Countries like Iran, Ghana, Nigeria and India were also catching up, he thought.

New Zealand has a long way to go.

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Hong Kong Stars Tour

A tour of New Zealand by two of the Commonwealth’s best male players took place in August. Hong Kong had finished second to England at the Commonwealth Championships in Singapore and two members of their medal-winning team made a 14 day visit to this country. Eleven Associations hosted the visitors, with three (Wanganui, Manawatu and Franklin) staging Hong Kong v New Zealand internationals.

It was the first chance since Australia visited two years ago to showcase our best players in an international event on home turf. It was also another chance for our selectors to scratch their heads and try to decide exactly where the NZ men’s team was heading. Alan Tomlinson and James Morris played the singles in the first test, Tomlinson and Terry O’Carroll in the second and Bryan Foster and O’Carroll in the third. Doubles pairings for the three tests were, respectively, Richard Lee/Tomlinson; Lee/O’Carroll; Tomlinson/Gary Murphy.

Each of the Hong Kong players was beaten once: Tomlinson beat Ma Lung-san at Wanganui and O’Carroll beat Tang Hung-bor at Palmerston North. Hong Kong won all three doubles. All the Wanganui matches were won in three straight games, including the NZ win. Six matches in the other two tests went to four or five games so New Zealand was not totally out-played. But the lean, agile Asian stars dealt our players a lesson in spin serving and hard hitting.

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Under 18’s Dominate NZ Championships

A few weeks before his 17th birthday Richard Lee fulfilled his early promise and won the men’s singles at the New Zealand Championships in Wanganui. Meanwhile in the women’s event another exciting young player was bursting onto the scene. Unranked in 1970, Anne Stonestreet swept through a field of experienced players including former NZ representatives to win the women’s singles at the age of 17 and finish the year ranked No 2 behind Yvonne Fogarty. Richard Lee and yet another 17 year old, new international Kathy Fraser, won the mixed doubles to round out a most unusual set of results – three of the five open events were won by players under the age of 18.

And Lee’s achievement overall was even more commendable: he won every title he was eligible for except the men’s doubles, and could take consolation from the fact that he was, with 14 year old Bain Attwood, the North Island Champion in that event.

Bryan Foster and Alan Tomlinson showed their class under pressure to come back from losing the first two games in the men’s doubles final 12-21, 6-21 to take the match against the very confident (and, again, young) pairing of James Morris and Terry O’Carroll. Veteran Joan Brown with the younger and equally steady Gillian Kemp won the women’s doubles.

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South Island Beats “New Zealand”

In a none-too-subtle nose-thumbing at our national selectors, the South Island men’s team was unfazed by the fact that the North Island team they faced in the annual North/South match consisted of the four players who had just returned from the World Championships representing New Zealand. Bryan Foster, Ling Nan Ming, Loke Sim Wong and 15 year old Maurice Burrowes did what must have seemed impossible – they didn’t just beat the North Island, they absolutely hammered them: 10-2. Gary Murphy (pictured) and James Morris salvaged the two matches for the North while Alan Tomlinson and Richard Lee were winless and the South won all four doubles.

The South Island women (Yvonne Fogarty, Ruth Sunderland, Barbara Taylor and Thelma May) also won, beating the North (Neti Traill, Kathy Fraser, Dawn Wade and Jeanette Boswell) 9-3. It was only the second win for the South Island women since their contests started in 1955, and the South Island men’s first ever win since their competition began, nine years earlier in 1946.

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Selectors Got It Right - James Morris Triumphs at NI Championships

In making their popular but a slightly surprising decision last September to select James Morris for the 1971 World Championships ahead of Bryan Foster and Terry O’Carroll, the NZ selectors knew they were basing the selection on instinct and potential rather than on hard results. After the North Island Championships in Palmerston North, they knew they had got it right.

Morris won the men’s singles, having to beat the reigning NZ Champion (Gary Murphy) and the two previous champions (Alan Tomlinson and Bryan Foster) to take the title. Although deprived of the NZ title later in the year (won deservedly by Richard Lee), Morris had secured his place among New Zealand’s best and finished the year ranked No 1.

20 year old Yvonne Fogarty won the women’s singles after bravely overcoming strong challenges from fellow-international Kathy Fraser and former international Dawn Wade.

Richard Lee (16) and Bain Attwood (14) won the men’s doubles – the youngest pair ever to win this title.

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China Accepts Invitation to Tour NZ

Following the dramatic events on 6 April that launched the so-called “Ping-Pong Diplomacy” (refer above article), New Zealand issued an invitation for a table tennis team from China to visit this country. Negotiations were conducted by former NZ table tennis official and businessman Ray La Varis who had connections in China and was a frequent visitor there. In fact, he had first issued an invitation for a visit as early as 1967. He reported on several occasions that the Chinese TT Association continued to “show interest”. The possibility came closer to reality when it was discovered China would be touring Australia in June, 1972. This raised the negotiations to a more intense level – there was an obvious opportunity for them to come to New Zealand after Australia.

Then finally on 16 December Ray La Varis advised NZTTA that he had received a letter from the Chinese TTA accepting our invitation and stating that “a table tennis team from the People’s Republic of China would visit New Zealand in the near future.”

More than six months were to pass before the finals details were in place.

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National Broadcaster Sponsors Televised Tournament

Following the popular response to the telecast last year of the exhibition match in Auckland by World Doubles champions, Hans Alser and Kjell Johansson, our state broadcaster, NZBC, sponsored a four-player round robin tournament set up and recorded specifically for television. It was played in October after the main competitive season and featured three of our exciting up-and-coming young players: Richard Lee (17, NZ Champion); James Morris (19, North Island Champion) and Maurice Burrowes (15, member of giant-killing South Island team). The fourth player was the reigning Taiwanese Champion, Yang Tsun-shyong, who was very conveniently coaching in Tahiti and willingly accepted the invitation to compete, with diplomatic assistance from the Taiwanese ambassador.

Some hard-hitting table tennis was televised and NZBC expressed a wish to make the tournament an annual event.

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Famous Families (Fogarty and Foster) Foremost at South Island Championships

The two best-known names in South Island table tennis featured in all five open titles at the Southland-hosted South Island Championships. Bryan Foster won the men’s singles (for the 11th time, making it 30 titles overall); Yvonne Fogarty won the women’s singles (for the 5th year in a row, still aged only 20); Bryan won the men’s doubles with a young Martin Duffy; Yvonne won the women’s doubles with Ruth Sunderland; and Bryan completed the treble by winning the mixed doubles, also with Ruth Sunderland.

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Junior Players Train in Korea

NZTTA were invited to send four players to Korea to train with the Korean team as they prepared for the Asian Championships. Accommodation was provided but the players had to pay their own travel costs. Only two of the nominated players were able to meet these conditions (Geoff Rau and Pauline Hemera), largely through the fund-raising efforts of their local Association – Franklin.

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Finest Hour for Jubilee Organiser

The official record of the Northern Districts Round Robin tournament held in Devonport (North Shore) includes the result: Auckland 22 North Shore 0. Not an unexpected result considering the strength of the Auckland team, and yet this contest hit the headlines. It attracted the following comment in the Auckland weekend sports paper: “New Zealand champion Gary Murphy had a narrow escape against Brent Davies before winning 19-21, 21-18, 22-20”

Along with James Morris, Brent Davies was destined for renown as one of the main organizers of New Zealand Table Tennis’s 75th Jubilee celebrations 38 years later in 2009. This Chronicle was launched at that event.

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Youngster Dominates Maori Championships

In a remarkable performance against older players, a 15 year old Aucklander (Ross Davison) won the men’s singles and doubles at the NZ Maori Championships in Tauranga after having also won the under 18 boys’ singles and doubles and the under 16 boys’ singles.

He was destined to continue winning at the NZ Maori Championships in future years, win an under 16 doubles title at the main NZ Championships in 1972, and in due course attain a national junior ranking.

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