New Zealander Reaches Australian Open Doubles Final

Three times NZ singles champion Richard Lee flew the New Zealand flag with pride at the Australian Championships, played in Sydney immediately after our own national championships. He excelled in all three events. In the singles he reached the quarter-finals where he took Australian representative and Commonwealth doubles runner-up Paul Pinkewich to five games. He bettered that in the mixed doubles, teaming up with 1975 Australian champion Helen Morrow and reaching the semi-final where Robbie Javor and Kerry Thomson beat them in four games (22-20 in the fourth). Then came his crowning achievement, knocking out top seeds Stephen Knapp and Garry Munday in an early round of the men’s doubles and going on to occupy their place in the final. His partner was Jeff McCabe of Victoria and the pair were unseeded. In the semi-final they accounted for fourth seeds Andrew Savige and Laurie Skeate before losing the final to Commonwealth runners-up Paul Pinkewich and Bob Tuckett. It was a memorable tournament for Lee with the close five-game win over Knapp and Munday the obvious highlight.

Several other New Zealanders also travelled to Australia at their own expense to enter the championships. Competing in the open events were Graham Lassen, Bob Lassen, Robert Blair, Dianne Ord and Lynnette Cook. The Lassen brothers both reached the singles quarter-finals and the doubles quarter-finals playing together. Robert Blair reached the mixed doubles quarter-final with an Australian partner.

Diane Ord and Lynette Cooke (pictured) also entered in the junior events along with Malcolm Darroch.

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One After the Other, Tour Plans Tumble

Our 1976 international programme could well have included an overseas trip by a New Zealand team and at least one visit to New Zealand, possibly more, by touring overseas teams.

None of them happened.

We were again invited to participate in the Asian Championships. With vivid memories of the success enjoyed by our women’s team at the same event in 1974 (they finished fourth) it must have been a heavy-hearted decision by NZTTA to decline the invitation due to lack of finance. Adding to the disappointment was the later discovery that championship hosts (North Korea) could have offered financial assistance had they known of our situation. Correspondence sent from New Zealand to Korea had never been received, we were told.

An alternate plan was to invite a team from North Korea to visit New Zealand after the championships. An earlier unsuccessful attempt to interest a team from that country to travel here had been made in 1973 and the opportunity was seized to repeat the invitation. It was received with interest but when such issues as dates and the make-up of the party were raised, there were long delays in receiving answers to our correspondence. Time ran out and nothing had been finalized by the end of the season.

During our lengthy, and not very optimistic, wait for a reply from North Korea, we had invited Canada to make a short tour here in June. That was declined due to lack of funding from the Canadian Government.

Our year of “tour plans coming to nothing” continued when, through their Embassy in Wellington, South Korea suggested a visit here by a women’s team. After securing sponsorship and television coverage, we proposed early October for a ten day tour only to find the dates did not suit them and that any later in the year their top players would be in training for the 1977 World Championships.

So, despite multiple efforts and opportunities, there was neither an overseas trip by an officially selected NZ team nor a New Zealand tour by an overseas team in 1976. There had been one or the other, and often both, every year since 1966. It was a frustrating year for the NZTTA Tours Sub-Committee.

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James Morris: New National Champion

On paper it looked obvious that James Morris would one day be New Zealand men’s singles champion. In actual practice, a succession of unpredictable factors left his supporters wondering if it was ever to be. Last year would have been his year but for the intervention of French star and World No 14, Jacques Secretin. This year the alarm bells were set ringing when a 14 year old Australian (Warren Vickery) entered the men’s singles and beat Richard Lee, one of James’ main rivals and the 1973/74 champion. Was James going to be thwarted by a 14 year old this time? But Vickery was removed from calculations by Graham Lassen, a contemporary of Richard Lee from their junior days and a solid defensive player who had been sneaking up the ranking list since 1973. This replaced one threat with another. Lassen was in excellent form and he and James Morris met in the final. Morris won the first two games but dropped the next two. Lassen must then have sensed a psychological advantage going into the fifth but Morris built an early lead and steadily increased it. It was hard work – averaging about eight powerful loop drives into heavily chopped returns per point. But James Morris emerged the winner, and the champion – weary, relieved and triumphant.

It was no easy ride for the women’s champion either. Anne Stonestreet had already triumphed three times (1971-73), had lost to Yvonne Fogarty 22-20 in the fifth in 1974 and, like James Morris, was thwarted along with the rest of the women’s field by a French star in 1975. Her opponent in the final this year was Jan Morris, ranked ahead of her last year. Anne Stonestreet won in five games and fully deserved her fourth NZ singles title. Nonetheless, her 20 year old opponent left nobody in doubt that her day would come.

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Women’s Exhibition Singles Added to Television Tournament

A regular annual event since 1971, the televised invitation tournament this year included a long-overdue appearance by two of our best female players. No 1 ranked woman Anne Stonestreet played No 1 ranked junior girl Angela Brackenridge in an exhibition match at the end of the seven week series.

Until 1974, the series itself was a round-robin featuring four male players. Since 1975, when sponsorship shifted from NZ Broadcasting Corporation to Television One following a broadcasting restructure, it has been a knock-out event with eight invited male players participating. For the third year in a row Australian Stephen Knapp won the event, this year competing against New Zealanders Graham Lassen, Gary Murphy, Maurice Burrowes, Richard Lee, Wayne Adamson, James Morris and (Victoria University student) Kheng Yee Lai, recently arrived from Malaysia.

Knapp played James Morris in the final, winning three straight. The series was recorded for television in the Auckland stadium and played on 18 July.

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Nationwide Table Tennis Week Introduced

Large newspaper advertisements, press releases, local stories on table tennis activities, table tennis equipment in shop windows, public exhibition matches, open days, special tournaments, coaching seminars and demonstrations by players with disabilities – all examples of district association initiatives contributing to a nationwide NZTTA promotion: Table Tennis Week .

The week chosen was 6-12 April and a typical example of the publicity was a banner headline in the Te Puke Times leading a story which covered everything from the origins of the game in this country and player numbers both here and world-wide, through to a story and photograph showing local man Tom Collier playing with only one arm. He had been playing since a child but an accident in 1971 resulted in the amputation of his right arm. A lengthy rehabilitation and adjustment was required but Tom was reported as now playing comfortably left-handed.

In the same vein, a major story and photograph in Wellington’s Evening Post reported on an exhibition in front of local school students where four players with a range of disabilities gave a sparkling display of quality table tennis. They were Patrick Low (one leg stiffened by osteomyelitis but with lightning fast over-the-table reflexes); Barry Wynks (both right limbs shortened and deformed but with a vicious left-handed loop); Peter Horne (no hands but with a bat fitted between his arm stump and a metal plate) and Merle Harding, who had a lung removed as a young woman and took up the sport at the age of 47.

Shortly before Table Tennis Week the Northland Association attracted enormous local interest with a “swap” competition for school students. 40,000 coupon-size advertisements were collected after the original set was published occupying a full page in the local paper. It is an annual event in Northland: promoting table tennis and doubling as a fund-raiser.

It was planned to have another Table Tennis Week in 1977. The public image of the sport was given a huge boost by this year’s wide array of events but any dramatic increase in nationwide membership was not immediately apparent.

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Ruling Bars Top New Zealander From NZ Teams Championships

NZTTA rules are very clear on who may play for an Association in the team events at the New Zealand Championships. Representation is restricted to those who have resided in the Association’s area for at least one month prior to the championships or have played regularly in their interclub competition that season. With any hard and fast rule, however, one question invariably arises – is there room for discretion in unusual circumstances?

Richard Lee travelled to Australia at his own expense early in 1976 for the express purpose of improving his table tennis. He wished to return to New Zealand to play in the NZ Championships and, as a New Zealand citizen, was eligible and available for selection in the NZ team for the 1977 World Championships. He has represented New Zealand regularly since 1971. When he applied directly to NZTTA for permission to play in the team events he was told that the one month residential requirement must apply to him as it applied to everyone else. In other words, he must return to New Zealand a month before the championships to qualify. As this would have meant a total of nearly six weeks without income, Lee abandoned his quest to play in the team events and returned to New Zealand for the individual events only. He then returned to Australia to perform with distinction at their open championships (refer top article).

A New Zealand Herald article pointed out that Lee had advised NZTTA before travelling to Australia that he was going there specifically to develop his game. The paper deemed the ruling requiring him to return to New Zealand a month early in these specific circumstances to be “unduly harsh”.

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Auckland Raises Funds for Top Junior to Train in England

New Zealand’s top-ranked junior girl, Angela Brackenridge, was assisted in a trip to England for training purposes by an Auckland Association fund-raising campaign which netted $1,000. While there, Angela was under the care of former England international Connie Warren. She left New Zealand immediately after the NZ Championships (at which she was named in the NZ team for the Commonwealth and World Championships) and the coaching contributed greatly to her build-up for those events.

A family tragedy, the sudden death of her father while on a business trip in Spain, interrupted her training and required her to return to New Zealand.

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Publicity Man Hikes to Get His Reports Out

The North Island Championships were hosted by Wairarapa in the newly completed Clareville Stadium, just north of Carterton. In a stroke of good judgment the organizers appointed the wily, energetic and experienced South Canterbury player/journalist Frank O’Gorman as Publicity Officer. He was able to utilize his multiple contacts in all sectors of the media and obtain better coverage than many before him. O’Gorman’s reputation, writing over many years for the Timaru Herald (mostly under the pen-name Chop Smash) stood him in good stead.

But the logistics of the Clareville exercise were complicated by the absence of a single telephone in the newly-built stadium. Undeterred and devoted to duty, the conscientious publicity man trudged several kilometres to the nearest farmhouse to telephone his regular reports.

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1977 World Championships: Another Newcomer to Men’s Team

When the New Zealand team for the 1977 Commonwealth and World Championships was announced after the NZ Championships, Graham Lassen (pictured) became the third player in three years to join the trio who have cemented regular places for themselves since 1971: Richard Lee, Gary Murphy and James Morris. It was no surprise as Lassen had taken NZ Champion James Morris to five games in the nationals final, had won the North Island men’s doubles (with Alan Tomlinson) and was to finish 1976 with a ranking of No 3, ahead of Richard Lee.

The originally discarded Robert Blair came back into the team when Gary Murphy withdrew several weeks after the selections were announced.

The women’s team was Anne Stonestreet, Jan Morris and Angela Brackenridge. The latter two, it will be remembered, raised eyebrows at the 1975 Commonwealth Championships when aged 19 and 16. Their selection in the official team eased out former international Kathy Fraser, and Neti Traill was again passed over despite her doubles silver medal in 1975. Yvonne Fogarty withdrew from table tennis in 1976 and 1977 to start a family and wasn’t considered for selection.

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Votes Counted at AGM

The vote-counting scrutineers were unusually busy at this year’s NZTTA Annual General Meeting. Nominations for the Executive Committee exceeded the twelve required and for the first time in many years a ballot was necessary. New members elected included Ron Foster (a former NZ ranked player), Mike Heenan, John Lelliott and Trevor Parsons. Alan Robinson was also voted in but served only a short time before his sudden and untimely death.

Another new member, Mark Cullen, was appointed later in the year.

A more dramatic election occurred in rather mysterious circumstances when two candidates stood for the position of Honorary Secretary. A mere two years after Ken Wilkinson was being lauded for his 25 year’s service in that role (which incidentally was recognized in 1975 by a BEM Queen’s Honour), delegates at the 1976 AGM were required to choose between him and the relatively unknown Joyce Harris. The mystery lay in the fact that the nomination was not made by Mrs Harris’s Association (Kapiti) but by the NZTTA Executive itself. A vote of no confidence in Ken Wilkinson? Or a manifestation of an apparent split in the ranks of the national executive on a wider range of issues? Joyce Harris’s supporters promoted her on the strength of her secretarial skills and the Executive were persuaded to let it go to a wider vote at the AGM. Ken Wilkinson was re-elected by a fairly narrow margin. He continued to serve another nine years before retiring at a time of his own choosing.

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Associations Queue Up to Play Northland Juniors

Led by a group of senior Northland officials including such well-known names as Neti Traill, Garry Frew and James Morris, sixteen juniors aged 8 - 15 travelled extensively in the North Island and played matches against local teams at Palmerston North, Napier, Gisborne, Rotorua and Hamilton. Wanganui and Hutt Valley also requested a visit but they had to be declined as the tour was limited to one week. The group also participated in one open tournament. They travelled a total of 1,200 kilometres.

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1976 – a Marathon Year

Two table tennis record attempts, one successful and one not, took place in 1976. In April, Wellingtonians Derek Hall and Gary Stevenson attempted to break the world record for continuous play (100 hours, 30 minutes) as a fundraiser for their local surf club. After more than 80 hours, with five minute breaks each hour, they were advised by a doctor to call off the attempt. It was estimated they had played over 600,000 rallies.

In October two young Northland players, 19 year old Kevin Schick and 14 year old John Dufty, settled for just one rally. But no ordinary rally – the longest rally in the world they hoped. By rallying for three hours, two minutes and fifteen seconds Kevin and John were indeed able to claim a world record. And it was their second attempt in the same weekend. The previous day they missed the record by 8 minutes, foiled by a cruel net-cord after 2 hours 23 minutes.

A gimmick, no doubt. But great publicity for table tennis.

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