NZ Women Come Fourth in Asia; Team Manager “Overjoyed”

With New Zealand geographically located outside Asia, our participation at the Asian Union Championships was by special invitation and considered an honour. Four NZ men and three women were selected to face the giants of World Table Tennis in Yokohama, Japan, in early April.

What nobody anticipated was a final placing of fourth by our women’s team with only a narrow 2-3 loss to Malaysia (a team they had beaten at the 1971 Commonwealth Championships) preventing an even higher finish. It was an amazing team effort and rewarded with a handsome rose bowl shaped trophy. Among the team’s victims were India, Singapore and Thailand but it was wins over 3rd seeds North Vietnam and 7th seeds Iran that raised eyebrows and, in New Zealand at least, made headlines. Against North Vietnam Anne Stonestreet and Neti Traill won a singles each and the doubles together to secure the win, and Yvonne Fogarty teamed with Anne to deal a 3-0 defeat to Iran. The team’s only losses, apart form Malaysia, were to Japan and China. “I’m really overjoyed at the results,” triumphant team manager Dick Rassie was quoted as saying in the Christchurch Press. A proud trio of NZ women returned home sporting their trophy and their 4th place medals.

The men’s team of Richard Lee, Ling Nan Ming, James Morris and Gary Murphy finished 17th out of 28 teams. They performed consistently and probably in line with expectations. James Morris was put under extreme pressure when he stepped up for the final match with the score locked at 4-4 in two of NZ’s contests - against Sri Lanka and Lebanon. He won both. The team also beat Iraq, Nepal, Cyprus, United Arab Emirates and Afghanistan. Losses to Iran and Singapore took them out of the top sixteen. Malaysian-born Ling Nan Ming was watched with interest, representing NZ for the first time and the first non-New Zealander ever selected. He had been nipping at the heels of the established NZ representatives since shooting to No 2 on the men’s ranking list in 1972. He was ranked 5th in 1973 and 4th this year.

Alan Tomlinson joined the selected players for the individual events and did well to reach the last 32 in the men’s singles. Anne Stonestreet reached the last 16 in the women’s singles (losing there to the eventual winner) and Neti Traill and Yvonne Fogarty reached the women’s doubles quarter-finals.

Trevor Flint travelled with the players at his own expense as team coach.

400 players from 30 countries participated. One person from each country was selected to receive a “Friendship Cup” (for general friendship and sportsmanship) and the New Zealander chosen was Richard Lee. It was a fine achievement for Richard, who had been appointed team captain at the age of 19 and the youngest team member.

L/R: Neti Traill, Yvonne Fogarty, Anne Stonestreet,
Dick Rassie (manager) wearing their medals

It was only the second Asian Union championship and the first to be attended by New Zealand. The Asian Federation had previously conducted regular Championships and that body continued to function with non-communist countries such as South Korea, South Vietnam and Taiwan retaining their loyalty to it. But with 28 member countries, up from 16 when inaugurated in 1972, the Asian Union now included the vast majority of Asian Table Tennis nations.

---

More World Class Players Visit NZ – Czechoslovakia This Time

A Czechoslovakian team of three men, one woman and a manager toured New Zealand for two weeks in June. By and large the New Zealanders were no match for the tourists but it was yet another welcome opportunity to expose our top national and provincial players to international competition.

And not just any international competition – these players were among the world’s elite. Alicia Grofova was No 3 in the world and women’s singles runner-up at the 1973 World Championships. Milan Orlowski was World No 6 and current European Champion; Jaroslav Kunz had been a quarter-finalist at the last two World Championships (as had Orlowski) and Josef Dvoracek was a mixed doubles semi-finalist at the last World Championships. In a lengthy and perceptive article published after the tour, Alan Tomlinson reminded Sports Digest readers that only three countries (China, Japan and Hungary) had won more titles at World Championships than Czechoslovakia. They were six times men’s Swaythling Cup winners and three-time winners of the Corbillon Cup for women’s teams. With their top four players selected for this tour, the team was probably the best to visit NZ since Japanese stars Tanaka and Ogimura in 1957 – better even than the 1972 team from China which did not include their best players.

Eleven contests were played including two test matches, in Christhurch and Auckland. Spectacular exhibition matches between Orlowski and Kunz entertained the crowds at all venues.

James Morris (pictured), Richard Lee and Anne Stonestreet represented NZ in the tests. Richard Lee played particularly well in the second test, matching Kunz and Orlowski point-for-point in the early stages of their respective singles before succumbing to strong finishes by both players. Lee then combined with James Morris to take the first game off Kunz and Dvoracek in the doubles before losing 18-21, 21-7, 21-15. It was the only game dropped by the visitors in the two test matches although Richard Lee and Anne Stonestreet had only narrowly lost to Dvoracek and Grofova 20-22, 19-21. Neither Anne nor any of the provincial singles players were able to match the cool, hard-hitting game of Alicia Grofova, whose rare combination of attacking play and anti-spin rubber on the backhand rendered her almost unplayable. Orlowski was the stand-out male player with his devastating forehand. Gary Murphy made a brave showing against him in the Hutt Valley contest, building early leads in both games only to go down fighting, 18-21, 17-21.

With fresh memories of the successful Taumarunui-hosted Japanese contest last year, the town was once again invited to host the international visitors. Alan Tomlinson, Kerry Palmer and Kathy Fraser faced the Czech players with Alan bringing the local crowd to its feet when he hammered away at the defensive Josef Dvoracek – only just losing 21-18, 21-23, 19-21.

It was the Otago/Czechoslovakia contest that generated the most excitement. Bryan Foster, with 14 years of international experience, was unfazed by the elite opposition, running Dvoracek close in both games and rallying well with World No 21 Jaroslav Kunz. The doubles brought even more excitement. First Foster and invited player Anne Stonestreet held match point in the final game before losing to Orlowski and Grofova 21-14, 9-21, 25-27. Then came the biggest surprise of the night when Orlowski and Dvoracek lost the only match dropped by the Czech team on the entire tour. They were beaten in doubles by Bryan Foster and the totally unknown (at international level) local Otago player, John Angus. The score was 15-21, 21-17, 21-18. The tourists missed several vital shots at the end with the local pair just too steady. The overall contest result was a fitting tribute to Bryan Foster who was nearing the end of an illustrious international career.

The tour was sponsored by Winstones NZ Ltd. As with all previous international tours, this one attracted enormous media coverage.

---

1934 Final Re-enacted at NZ Championships

To mark the 40th anniversary of the first New Zealand Championships in 1934, the players who competed in the final at those championships were brought together again for a re-match at this year’s NZ Championships in Wanganui. The two players, Errol Cheal and Frank Paton, had remained actively involved with table tennis throughout the intervening years and entered into the spirit of the occasion with relish. For the record (if it matters), the winner of the 1934 match (Errol Cheal) again prevailed in 1974, winning 21-19, 19-21, 21-15, meaning the original runner-up missed a long-awaited opportunity to exact his revenge. Neither would have been too worried about the result – both had already made their indelible mark as inaugural finalists with Errol winning the first championship and Frank following him by winning in 1935.

The nostalgic element of the event was heightened by having the Referee at the 1934 Championships, Tommy Williams, announce the match and introduce the players and the umpire (NZTTA President Dick Rassie).

For all its historical interest and novelty value, the re-match was no more than a sideshow compared with the main business of the Championships. Among the highlights was the extremely narrow defeat of high-flier Anne Stonestreet by a determined Yvonne Fogarty in the women’s final, and the completion of a historic treble by Richard Lee in the men’s singles. Richard became only the third player after Bob Jackson and Bryan Foster to win the North Island, South Island and NZ singles titles in the same year. No woman has achieved this. Richard also won the North Island and NZ men’s doubles (both with James Morris), and the NZ mixed doubles with Kathy Fraser. He was deservedly named Player of the Year.

---

NZ Tours China

As a gesture of thanks in return for New Zealand’s hospitality in 1972, the All China Sports Association invited a team of New Zealand players to visit China for two weeks in March. The visit immediately preceded NZ’s participation at the Asian Union Championships and featured the same NZ players and officials (refer above article).

As in the Asian Championships, the women recorded the best performances. They beat a youth team in Shanghai and won at least one match in all their contests in China, even against a Chinese national team in Peking. In that contest Anne Stonestreet beat Sun Min 10-21, 21-15, 21-18. The women also decisively beat a Hong Kong national team twice: 3-1 and 3-0.

The men also took a match off China when James Morris beat Li Tso-Min 15-21, 21-19, 21-13. James had also been the only NZ player to win a singles against the 1972 touring Chinese team in New Zealand. The men’s team scored one contest win, against a youth side in Kwangchow (Canton), 5-3.

The team received VIP treatment and the contests drew huge audiences. The NZ Herald featured an impressive photograph on the front page (Section 2) of its 22 April issue, showing the New Zealand and China teams parading in front of an audience of 18,000 in Capital Stadium, Peking, before the start of the international match.

Although the tour was primarily motivated by China’s wish to forge friendships with the outside world and the 1972 theme of “friendship first, competition second” continued to recur throughout this tour, team manager Dick Rassie felt that, in the big international in Peking, the New Zealanders merited every point they won. “The home players and officials were anxious to test fully the capabilities of the visitors and, therefore, the singles wins of Anne Stonestreet and James Morris were highly creditable,” he said.

---

Ken Wilkinson’s Twenty-five Years as NZTTA Secretary Celebrated

Messages of congratulations to mark Ken Wilkinson’s 25th year as NZTTA Secretary included one from the President of the International Table Tennis Federation, Mr Roy Evans. It was read out along with several others at the 40th AGM of the national association after which Mr Wilkinson was accorded a standing ovation by the delegates.

Fifteen tours of New Zealand by overseas players took place during Ken Wilkinson’s 25 years of service, starting with World Champions Viktor Barna and Richard Bergmann in his first year, 1949, and ending 25 years later with a team of world class players from Czechoslovakia. In between came the memorable 40 match tour in 1957 by World Champions Toshiaki Tanaka and Ichiro Ogimura of Japan. These tours, and the other twelve, were extremely complex logistically and the task of co-ordinating them fell largely on the shoulders of Ken Wilkinson.

The hallmark of Ken’s work was his meticulous attention to detail and his preference to keep a low profile. He continued to serve New Zealand Table Tennis for another eleven years before his eventual retirement.

---

Australian Champion Kept Busy in New Zealand

Stephen Knapp, the latest star to rise across the Tasman, was invited to New Zealand to compete in the annual NZ Broadcasting Corporation televised tournament played in Petone in August. He beat all three NZ men selected to participate, demonstrating that a gap currently exists between the Oceania rivals and reminding NZ of the importance of international competition for our top players. Knapp is the current Australian Champion, has received coaching in Sweden, China and Japan and reached the last 32 in the 1973 World Championship men’s singles. New Zealand, it will be remembered, did not select a men’s team for the 1973 Worlds.

Nonetheless, the television tournament produced some good table tennis. Gary Murphy took the second game off Knapp and led 16-14 in the third before succumbing 15-21, 22-20, 18-21. Richard Lee also had his chances with Knapp before losing 18-21, 18-21. Only James Morris failed to fire at this tournament. Lee beat Murphy to take second place behind Knapp.

The left-handed Australian was just a little too fast for our players. He possessed a devastating loop with a whip-like action and could play a deceptive side-spin shot from below table level to disguise the direction of the spin. He could also produce a bewildering array of difficult serves.

He went on to again beat Morris and Murphy in an invitation tournament to celebrate the 25th Jubilee of Hutt Valley’s Waterloo Club, played the same evening. During the following week he met up with a party of players from Japan who were on a sightseeing trip in the Bay of Plenty prior to participating in Auckland TTA’s 50th Jubilee Open (refer next article). In Tauranga he played in an invitation Bay of Plenty team against the Japanese and he then travelled north to Auckland where he was involved in two more events and three more days of play.

It was a busy week for the Australian Champion.

---

Auckland Association Celebrates 50th Jubilee

Ten years before the New Zealand Table Tennis Association even existed the Auckland Table Tennis Association was formed. It arose from a meeting of seven men on 18 August, 1924 and that date can be taken as the beginning of organised table tennis in this country. Prior to that two enthusiastic groups had been playing casually in Auckland – one in a business office and the other in a garage. The game as we now know it was a mere three years old. The idea to set up an Association came from Mr DS Wylie. A committee was established to form rules and the first Annual Meeting was attended by 26 people. The first Auckland Championships were held in September, 1924 - ten years before the first NZ Championships and three years before the first World Championships. The first Auckland Champions were Alex Turner and Mary Marrinner.

It would be ten years before any other provincial Association was formed in New Zealand. Otago, Manawatu, Wanganui and Wellington were all established in 1934, along with NZTTA.

Auckland’s 50th Jubilee was celebrated on 16-19 August. The Jubilee Open Tournament was held over the first two days with guest participants Stephen Knapp (Australian Champion), three players from Japan and twelve from Fiji. The third day featured a contest between Japan and an invitation team of Alan Tomlinson, Richard Lee and Stephen Knapp. On the final evening an Auckland team of Alan Tomlinson, Graham Lassen and Mike Saunders faced the three Japanese players.

There was some fine table tennis at the Jubilee Open. The Japanese group, all from Mie Prefecture, consisted of a manager, an interpreter and three very useful players. The star New Zealand player was James Morris, who bounced back from being sadly out of touch at the television tournament a week earlier to beat two of the Japanese players in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and then take the first game off the Japanese group’s top player Tomoni Maeji in the final, before losing in four.

In the semi-final Maeji had successfully dealt with Australian star Stephen Knapp.

The Jubilee event celebrated an important milestone in Auckland and New Zealand table tennis history.

---

Historic Change to Fee Structure

A historic decision made at this year’s Annual Meeting would have slipped through almost unnoticed by the majority of table tennis players. But it was preceded by a vigorous debate and the final decision (a mere five vote majority out of about 100 eligible votes) left some Associations (Canterbury and Wellington in particular) feeling bitter.

The proposal was to change the method of determining how much money each district Association contributed to NZTTA by way of affiliation fees. Historically, it had been based on the number of interclub teams. It was a simple formula and easily audited as each Association published their interclub details in their annual report. The proposed new method was to base the fees on the number of actual members, regardless of whether or not they played interclub. The main arguments in support of the proposal were that other sports based their charges on a capitation fee per member, non-interclub players were getting a “free ride”, and the national body needed more money to fund development programmes and overseas tours.

Some Associations strongly opposed the change, declaring that they had a large number of social players and their fees could increase by up to 100%. Threats to disaffiliate rumbled in the background. The narrow vote in favour required the change to be implemented although a special general meeting was called later in the year to make minor amendments. The new system continued to meet strong resistance, especially from Canterbury.

---

Surprise Selection for 1975 World Championships

A team to compete at the 1975 Commonwealth and World Championships was announced after the NZ Championships. The players named were Richard Lee, James Morris, Gary Murphy, Robert Blair, Anne Stonestreet, Yvonne Fogarty and Kathy Fraser. Robert Blair’s selection was of interest and obviously made with an eye to the future. He was the 1973 Under 18 Boys singles champion but unranked in 1974 and unseeded for the 1974 NZ men’s singles. Canterbury Association in particular expressed strong disapproval over the fact that one of their own star players, Ling Nan Ming (who had performed creditably in Asia earlier in the year and was ranked 4th in 1974), had been omitted in favour of Blair and went so far as to pass a vote of no-confidence in the selection panel and the NZTTA Executive for approving the selection.

In the event, a number of extra players travelled to Melbourne for the Commonwealth individual events but Ling was not among them.

---

Five Months Training in Japan for Promising Junior Girls

Negotiations for this valuable training opportunity began at the Asian Championships and concluded with the Japanese delegation manager at the Auckland 50th Jubilee Tournament. The players selected for the two positions offered were Jan Morris and Angela Brackenridge, our top two ranked junior girls. They departed for the trip in October.

---

NZ Representative Elected to Top Administrative Position

While there have been previous instances of top players moving into top administrative or coaching positions later in life (John Stewart and Trevor Flint, for example), when Gary Murphy was elected to the NZTTA Management Committee he became the first person to occupy an administrative role at national level while still being regularly selected as a New Zealand representative player.

---