NZ Attends Commonwealth and World Champs – Africans Stay Away

As the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships approached there were disturbing statements being issued by the Chairman of the organising committee in Guernsey, Channel Islands - the venue for the tournament. Mr Horace Mallett stated publicly that several African nations had threatened to boycott the event if New Zealand participated and his committee might have to choose between the African nations and New Zealand. “We’d lose less money by not having the New Zealanders than we would by not having the Africans,” he said. “We’re sorry, but we have to view this financially.”

It was an uncomfortable replay of the 1976 Olympic Games debacle where 20 African nations boycotted the event in protest over New Zealand’s rugby tour of South Africa earlier that same year. South Africa had since 1949 maintained a policy of apartheid (racial segregation) in all spheres of society, including sport, and was becoming increasingly isolated internationally as a result. While the NZ government joined the rest of the world in condemning the policy, it was also firmly committed to non-interference in decisions by sporting bodies to tour wherever they wished.

New Zealand quickly sought reassurance that the threat emanating from Guernsey was not sanctioned by either the Commonwealth TTA or the ITTF and that New Zealand was free to attend the Championships while other countries were free to boycott.

The Championships went ahead with New Zealand participating and five African countries and one from Asia withdrawing. Kenya, Nigeria, Ghana, Egypt and Tunisia also withdrew from the World Championships held immediately after in Birmingham.

The boycotts attracted wide publicity but many in New Zealand were questioning why this country appeared to be singled out when other countries were also engaging with South Africa in sporting and other endeavours without penalty.

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NZ Holds Its Own at Eventful World Championships

There was plenty to keep table tennis fans entertained (and guessing) as the 50th anniversary World Championships unfolded in Birmingham, England.

The umpiring upset the Chinese players and the spectators. High serves with the ball struck while hidden from the umpire were ruled illegal in the finals after they had been allowed in earlier rounds. Bat laws were rigidly enforced with several bats worn round the edges deemed to have illegally uneven surfaces. New Zealand players were among the victims of those rulings.

Another surprise was the use of long pimples facing out on one side of the bat by the Chinese. This spin and speed absorbing surface was new to many countries and caused players to mishit against it, especially as both sides of the bat were the same colour and the bat could be rotated in the hand, even during rallies.

The results of the individual finals left spectators and commentators puzzled. China had swept all before them in the teams events but “stumbled” at the closing stages of the individuals. This had also happened in the 1975 Championships and then, as now, a gesture of international friendship was suspected rather than a sudden lapse in form.

But it was a World Championship and a feast of spectacular table tennis was there to be savoured. China had a 3-0 win over South Korea in the women’s team final. On the way to China’s 5-0 win over Japan in the men’s final Liang Ke-liang played the shot of the tournament against Mitsuru Khono. He chased a ball, dived for it and while in mid-air hit a winner before crashing into the barrier. Liang easily beat Khono, Japan’s No 1, was unbeaten in the teams and was clearly the best player at the Championships. But he “lost” to Khono in the men’s singles semi-final and Khono then beat Liang’s compatriot Kuo Yao-hua in final.

Khono had reached the final at his first World Championships in 1967. Now aged 30, this was his sixth worlds and his first singles title. North Korea’s Pak Yung Sun (also known as Yun Sun Kim) beat Chang Li (China) for the women’s title after having also beaten her in the 1975 final when only 18 years old.

It was an all-China men’s doubles final and China won a share of the women’s doubles with North Korea. France won the mixed doubles with Japan runners-up. Whether China genuinely “threw” some of these matches can be debated. Both Chinese losing singles finalists appeared put off by umpiring calls faulting their serves, sometimes on critical points. The umpires for both singles finals were booed by the spectators as they left the playing area.

New Zealand Tries Hard

The New Zealand women (Anne Stonestreet, Angela Brackenridge and Jan Morris) turned in a perfectly symmetrical performance in their section two group play: a 3-2 win and loss, a 3-1 win and loss and a 3-0 win and loss. They beat Singapore, Switzerland and Brazil, and lost to Luxembourg, Malaysia and Austria. In the second stage they lost 1-3 to India (the 4th placed team in the other section two group) and played off against Canada for 25th place overall. They lost that contest 0-3 and finished 26th out of 44 teams, one place ahead of Australia. They were 27th out of 36 teams in 1975.

The men, playing in the lower-ranked section three, made a fine start by beating all teams in their group. They beat Bangladesh and Mexico 5-0, and Chile, Spain and Jamaica 5-1. This group win gave them the chance to play off with the other winners to maybe top section three and qualify for section two. Despite beating Ireland and Finland, a 3-5 loss to Norway cost them that chance. Their final placing was 37th, out of 56. In 1975 they were 34th, but in a smaller field: 48 teams.

The men’s team was James Morris, Richard Lee, Graham Lassen and Robert Blair. Blair was very much the back-up player, replacing the originally selected Gary Murphy who withdrew last year. He also had the misfortune of having to play with a lingering foot injury.

The highlight of the individual events was Graham Lassen’s win over Australian star Bob Tuckett. He was down 6-15 in the fifth game and staged an amazing comeback to win 26-24. He was the only NZ player to advance beyond round one in the singles main draw. Richard Lee also reached the main draw – all others lost in the three-round singles qualification tournament.

The team was managed by Athol Attwood (pictured) with Trevor Flint appointed team coach. Thelma May also accompanied the team and played in the individual events.

The championships were held in the Birmingham Exhibition Centre from 26 March to 5 April. 20 competition tables were in use and 20 practice tables available. The venue accommodated 7,000 spectators.

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East and West Still Don’t Meet

“The Chinese table tennis players can do things that none of the rest of us could do to save our lives,” observed NZ Herald journalist Michael Davie who attended the World Championships in Birmingham. He invited a group of English coaches to explain the Chinese dominance. They contrasted Chinese discipline and application with the casualness of the English players. “If a Chinese player thinks he has a weakness he’ll take a bag of balls to a practice table and get someone to feed him a shot perhaps 100 times. I saw one of them doing it this afternoon. Where were our lot? In the bar.”

“Talk to the Chinese,” said the coach to Davie, “they don’t give you table tennis. They give you politics. They say it’s all in the little red book.”

“To raise our play to their standards we would need to change our whole social and political system,” said a spectator. “Western degeneration or Chinese communism. It makes you wonder!”

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NZ Players Topple England and Australia’s Best at Commonwealths

The same eight NZ players and the same management team at the World Championships attended the Commonwealth Championships in Guernsey from 16 to 23 March. The men finished 5th and the women 6th. In the process there were two spectacular singles wins: James Morris over England No 1 John Hilton and Angela Brackenridge over Australian No 1 Vicki Woodward. Graham Lassen also won a high pressure match at 4-4 against Wales, after NZ had led 4-1.

Lassen reached the last 16 in the men’s singles and James Morris had the crowd behind him as he hammered it out with Hong Kong’s Vong Iu Veng in the men’s consolation singles final. It was a great match but the New Zealand battler lost 15-21, 21-16, 15-21.

At Guernsey

L/R: James Morris, Graham Lassen, Robert Blair, Richard Lee

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NZ’s Build-up Spans Five Countries

The NZ team for the Commonwealth and World Championships was announced at the 1976 NZ Championships last September. The selected players immediately embarked on their own personal training regimes until two weeks before the team’s 22 February departure when those in New Zealand assembled for intensive training in Auckland under team coach Trevor Flint.

James Morris did his build-up work in Japan, Richard Lee was still in Australia having spent most of 1976 over there, and Angela Brackenridge was already in England (staying with England No 1 Jill Hammersley) thanks to a grant from the Auckland Association (refer 1976).

The team came together fully for the Middlesex Open in England where James and Richard reached the men’s doubles final. Jan Morris reached the singles semi-finals and James Morris and Anne Stonestreet both reached the singles quarter-finals.

Following the Middlesex Open came a 15 day match-play tour of Czechoslovakia - the highlight of New Zealand’s pre-event build-up. There was no international but our players took on some strong club teams and faced players ranked as high as No 7 in Czechoslovakia. Richard Lee performed particularly well, winning 10 out of 16 singles. The New Zealanders were also privileged to train at the famous Sparta club in Prague with leading Czech players, two of whom (Pavel Ovcarik and a young Jindrich Pansky) had been selected in the national team.

Our players were not exposed to their very top players, the four who toured New Zealand in 1974 among them, as they were closeted away at a training camp preparing for the World Championships.

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International Tour: Australia Replaces Hungary

After multiple unsuccessful attempts to organise a tour of New Zealand by an overseas team in 1976, NZTTA officials hoped their luck would change this year. Things looked exceedingly promising when arrangements were made at the World Championships for a team from Hungary to visit in June and that it would include 1975 world champion Istvan Jonyer, his world champion doubles partner Gabor Gergely and Tibor Klampar, world no. 7. That trio would make an even stronger line-up than the 1974 Czechoslovakian visitors. A week-long itinerary was prepared to include five centres and two test matches.

Then came the bad news (again!!). Within three weeks of the much publicised announcement of the visit a cable had arrived from Hungary advising that the tour had been cancelled due to “technical problems”. “A letter follows,” added the cable. When the letter arrived (a month later) part of the explanation was that the itinerary was unsatisfactory. A tour of Australia was also scheduled and the Hungarians claimed they had agreed to 15 matches in total and not 15 in Australia and 5 in New Zealand. Furthermore, they reported that two of their players were injured and certified unfit to play.

The Australians were incensed as they had booked the Sydney Opera House, at considerable cost, for one of the internationals.

It was revealed at the next Worlds two years later that the real reason for the cancellation was a directive by the Hungarian government in protest over New Zealand’s 1976 rugby tour of South Africa.

Australia Plugs the Gap

It was a huge let-down for both New Zealand and Australia. The two countries agreed to a consolation tour of NZ by a two-man Australian team, roughly following the dates and venues originally planned for the Hungarians.

Current Australian champion Steve Knapp was unavailable. Bob Tuckett and Andrew Savige were selected and arrived on 8 June. Hungary was quickly forgotten and another NZ v Australia test match eagerly anticipated as the pair worked their way through the country winning all the provincial contests 5-0. The signs were a little ominous for New Zealand. Memories of their 5-0 loss to Australia at the Melbourne Commonwealth Championships in 1975 were still vivid. And James Morris, selected to captain NZ, lost to both Australian players in the Australia/Northland contest and New Zealand had not fared well against the two Australians in a televised tournament in Australia a month earlier (refer next article).

Bob Tuckett was generally considered the better player and was certainly more consistent. Prior to the test match his only loss was to Graham Lassen, playing in a special invitation team to face the tourists in Hamilton. Lassen was not selected for the NZ team.

Left-handed Savige could produce a heavy loop with a huge backswing, was sharp on the backhand and some of his kill shots were irretrievable. Tuckett also had a powerful backhand, could play the block shot with dazzling accuracy, and had a steady all-round game. Both were fast movers.

Come the day, New Zealand had what it took to beat them. Playing below his best, James Morris lost the first match against Tuckett but from there on it was all New Zealand. Richard Lee beat both Australians, the highlight being a determined comeback from 14-18 down against Tuckett in their second game to win 22-20. The New Zealanders had an easy win in the doubles and James Morris returned to his sparkling best to beat Andrew Savige in four games. Final score: 4-1 to New Zealand.

The test was played in Auckland on 20 June and televised live.

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$10,000 Television Tournament Held in Australia

Probably the most star-studded line-up ever assembled in Australasia specifically for a television tournament came together in Sydney in May. The event was sponsored to the tune of A$10,000 by WD & HO Wills and broadcast throughout Australia by the ABC.

The top two seeds were Denis Neale of England and Toshiaki Furukawa of Japan. Both had dazzled audiences in separate tours of New Zealand in 1967 and 1973 and, although now past their best, were still extremely good players. The rest of the field consisted of three New Zealanders (Richard Lee, James Morris and Graham Lassen) and eleven selected Australians including several promising juniors.

Bob Tuckett and Andrew Savige beat Richard Lee and James Morris respectively while Graham Lassen beat Australia’s Garry Munday in a tight three-game match. Lassen then faced Australian Champion Steve Knapp and lost 18-21, 20-22.

Neale beat the acrobatic defences of Furukawa in a breathtaking final.

Television One Challenge Series

The Sydney tournament was not shown on New Zealand television but a month later the annual Television One sponsored Challenge Series was played while the two touring Australian players were in this country (refer earlier article). They were joined by six New Zealanders. Graham Lassen beat Bob Tuckett in the first round (in a match that went to expedite!!) and then lost to Richard Lee in the semi-final. James Morris lost the other semi-final to Andrew Savige. Richard Lee then carried the day for New Zealand by beating Savige 16-21, 21-11, 21-15 in the final.

The other New Zealand players invited to participate were Robert Blair (who lost to Lee), Kerry Palmer (who lost to Morris) and Maurice Burrowes (who lost to Savige).

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Snubbed Australian Proves a Point at NZ Championships

Australian Paul Pinkewich, the bespectacled defensive player who had partnered Bob Tuckett through to the 1975 Commonwealth doubles final, was not happy with the selection of Andrew Savige ahead of him for this year’s tour of New Zealand (refer earlier article). Pinkewich (26) had been representing Australia since 1967 and saw his omission as a deliberate snub. Seizing an opportunity to prove the Australian selectors “wrong” he entered the New Zealand Championships, accompanying a group of elite Australian juniors who were competing here for the second year in a row.

He proved his point by winning the men’s singles, beating both NZ players the Australian team had lost to in the test: Richard Lee and James Morris. Despite vowing at the time never to play for Australia again Pinkewich was selected for the 1978 Oceania Championships and eventually became his country’s most capped player. He contributed to Australia’s world ranking of 12th in 1979 – their highest ever.

The race for the women’s singles was opened up by the absence of four-times champion Anne Stonestreet (refer later article). The favourites were Stonestreet’s two New Zealand team-mates Angela Brackenridge and Jan Morris with 18 year old Brackenridge seeded no 1. Prior to the individual events the two met in the North/South contest and again in the Auckland/Canterbury match and Brackenridge won both encounters. But in an exciting women’s singles final, Morris turned the tables and won 26-24, 21-23, 14-21, 21-17, 21-16. It was the first of what would become a total of five NZ singles titles between 1977 and 1984 for the 20 year old Canterbury left-hander.

The Timaru-hosted championships were the first held south of Christchurch since 1956 and the first ever to exceed 1,000 in total entries. Two new age-categories were added: under 14 and over 55. The women’s over 40 age-limit was changed to over 45 to match the men. More changes to future championships were decided at the AGM (refer later article).

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Anne Stonestreet Ends International Career, Dissatisfied

After the World Championships Anne Stonestreet made the surprise announcement that she was withdrawing from international play. She was the reigning NZ Champion at the time and aged only 23. There were clear signs that she had been dissatisfied with the standard of management of NZ teams at international events but she specifically named Auckland’s Dick Rassie as an exception. She did not rule out playing for New Zealand at any locally-hosted international fixture and in fact was back in New Zealand colours (as Anne Noble) for the inaugural Oceania Championships held in Auckland in 1978.

She continued to compete in New Zealand and won the NZ and North Island women’s doubles with Christine Lee in 1980. She went on to become an energetic administrator and coach for the Auckland Association.

Co-incidentally, Gary Murphy also chose this year to announce the end of his international career which had begun in 1971.

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Bevy of Celebrities Play in Auckland Ping-Pongathon

When the Prime Minister, Auckland’s Mayor and the Minister of Sport all participate in the opening ceremony of a fundraising event, a good measure of publicity is assured. But when the Auckland Association planned a “Ping-Pongathon” for 19 February nobody expected a string of media inquires stretching back several weeks before the event. Nor did they expect incessant inquiries from radio stations for progress reports on the day and a succession of visits by television crews and press photographers.

The most famous souvenir of the day is a photograph of Prime Minister Robert Muldoon waiting to receive a high-tossed service. Published on the front page of the NZ Herald, it was a close-up showing Mr Muldoon tentatively gripping his bat and looking skywards. The picture did the rounds in table tennis circles as a caption competition.

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Multi-Sport Coaching Seminar

Two New Zealand coaches (Trevor Flint and Brien Dwyer) participated, along with 60 coaches from other sporting codes, in a seminar covering a wide range of generic coaching skills. It included human relations, programme development and sports medicine. NZ Council for Recreation and Sport conducted the seminar and it was the first of its kind.

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Sponsor Backs School Teams National Final

New Zealand’s internal airline, NAC, began sponsoring a national final between the North and South Island champion secondary school teams. Out of the 44 teams initially entered, Whangarei High School won the North Island title and Kaikorai Valley High School (Dunedin) the South. Whangarei comfortably won the national final which was played in Dunedin.

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Tragic Death of Popular Visitor to NZ

Many New Zealanders were saddened by the news that Hans Alser, who toured New Zealand in 1970 with his World Champion doubles partner Kjell Johansson, had died tragically in an air accident at the age of 35. The Swedish pair had been warmly received by audiences throughout the country and were remembered in particular for their well-practised and highly entertaining exhibition matches.

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AGM Continues to Tinker With NZ Championships

The Annual General Meeting decided to introduce yet another age-category (Under 12) to the New Zealand Championships from 1978. The new event was also added to the North and South Island Championships and had been operating in several open championships at district level for several years.

With the number of junior events relentlessly increasing, it was also decided to invite Associations to apply to host the NZ Junior Championships as a separate tournament. While the Junior and Senior Championships were officially separated from 1978, both events continued to be hosted by the same Association and the juniors and seniors run consecutively at the same venue.

A further change to be introduced in 1978 was the elimination of doubles from team events, reducing them to contests of 9 singles only.

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New Star Emerges, aged 13

He retired from table tennis at the age of seven, declaring it to be “boring”. Then at age 11 he came out of retirement to fill a gap in a team entered in an interschool tournament by his intermediate school. He did well and took up the sport again, more seriously this time.

In 1977 at the age of 13 he won the Under 14, Under 16 and Under 18 boys singles at the Auckland Junior Championships. He was also the first winner of the New Zealand Under 14 boys singles, a new age-category introduced this year at the national championships.

His name was Barry Griffiths. He went on to win the New Zealand men’s singles title eight times and to represent New Zealand at the Olympic Games and World Championships.

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Table Tennis Becomes Olympic Sport

While Table Tennis had to wait until 1988 before the sport was actually played competitively at the Olympic Games, the process took a leap forward this year when the International Table Tennis Federation received advice that they are now recognised by the International Olympic Committee. This confirmed Table Tennis as an Olympic Sport.

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NZ Table Tennis Administration Turns Professional

After more than three decades of “kitchen table” administration, a national office for table tennis was opened with the Honorary Secretary elevated to the position of paid Secretary and later Executive Officer.

NZTTA’s first office was located at 95 Courtenay Place, Wellington.

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