Two Titles at Oceania Championships

Peter Jackson featured in both New Zealand titles captured at the Oceania Championships in Ballarat, Victoria in June. Barry Griffiths partnered him in the men’s doubles and Christine Lee in the mixed doubles. The New Zealanders were outclassed by Australia in the singles and the teams events and also in two friendly internationals played in nearby Australian locations.

The full NZ team was Barry Griffiths, Peter Jackson, Alan Pedley, Alan Shewan, Maxine Goldie, Ann Gyongyos (pictured) and Christine Lee. Peter Hirst managed and coached the team.

These championships were much looked-forward to in the latter stages of last year as they were originally scheduled to be played in New Zealand. A potential sponsor had expressed interest and plans were in place for Manawatu TTA to host the event in Palmerston North. As so often happens, there was a last minute change of mind by the sponsor and insufficient time was available to find a replacement.

Australia was able to step in and take over, holding the championships two months later than originally scheduled. The Oceania region expressed its gratitude to the replacement hosts for organising the event at such short notice. It was the third Oceania Championships: the first was in New Zealand in 1978 and the second in Australia in 1982. From this year on it took place every two years.

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Huge TT Exposure in Schools, But Where are the Results?

In his first full year as National Director of Coaching Peter Hirst devoted a considerable amount of time travelling the country presenting a 35 minute table tennis demonstration in schools, mainly at intermediate and senior primary level. A high-standard local player, a junior if possible, participated in the demonstrations and Peter’s requirements were an audience of no less than 100, and for the demonstration to take place during actual school time and not at lunchtime or during breaks. At least one local Association official accompanied Peter in each area.

The presentation was exceedingly professional (Peter had refined it over many years in England), highly entertaining, educational and featured spectacular table tennis. It received enthusiastic applause throughout the country.

One hundred and fifty-five schools were visited in twenty associations. Careful records and evaluations were kept and the number of children who saw the demonstrations exceeded 24,000.

It was assumed that the sheer weight of numbers would lead to increased club membership and interclub participation among the age group exposed to the sport through these demonstrations. But that didn’t happen. In response, NZTTA examined their options and a pilot scheme was planned for next year whereby a small number of selected associations would be targeted and follow-up activity planned. It was seen as a priority to return to the schools within a very short time to offer a basic coaching course, and to educate at least one teacher in elementary table tennis coaching skills.

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Report Urges Marketing Strategies to Meet Changing Needs

Falling membership over the period 1981 – 1985 prompted a close examination into the way the sport is presented to the public and discussion on any changes that may be needed.

The general finding was that club loyalty is rapidly becoming a thing of the past and participation in sport on a “user pays” basis is now a widely accepted reality. This development makes the delivery of sport to a wide variety of consumers much more flexible but will eventually force a change from a club-based culture to one centred on business and marketing.

In a Marketing Development Report prepared by Palmerston North sports equipment manufacturer and long-time table tennis supporter Simon Barnett, a key point made was that consumers of sporting services now appear to want everything to be done for them and are willing to pay for it. They want to play for increasingly short periods but want the playing conditions to be more congenial with peripheral services such as bar facilities. Simon Barnett also pointed to a lack of media exposure given to table tennis and recommended more communication between TT Associations and media outlets.

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Regional Coaching Proposals Outlined

The main aims of a regional coaching system were declared as (1) to provide a link between Association and National coaching; (2) to organise round-robin tournaments for top players in each region; (3) to run regional coach education courses and provide follow-up assistance to club coaches.

It was proposed to divide the country into six regions, each with an appointed squad coach and an appointed coach education facilitator. At least six squad training sessions were recommended per region per year, with emphasis initially on the under 18 age-group. It was also recommended that every Association be represented by at least one trainee in each region’s squad and that one coach education seminar be held per year in each Association.

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Rating System Introduced

A formula under which players were awarded rating points for reaching quarter-finals or beyond at specified tournaments and for beating players with higher rating points was introduced. The four rating lists published in the 1986 annual report (senior and junior males and females) contained an average of only seventeen names each but this was to swell to several hundred and expand to a wider range of age categories in future years.

The calculations were based on “expected” or “unexpected” wins or losses. A rated player would lose more points after a loss to an unrated player than to a rated player, and a win over a player with a much higher rating earns more points than a win over a player with a similar rating. An unrated player enters the list by beating a rated player. The points held by players on the 1986 list ranged from 273 to 6.

Although the published lists were often derided as inaccurate, general acceptance of a rating system of some kind endured for many years.

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Asian Championships Give New Zealanders International Exposure

New Zealand was invited to attend both the Asian Seniors (Shenzhen, China in October) and the Asian Juniors (Nagoya, Japan in April) and was generously provided with free accommodation at both. Peter Hirst accompanied the teams and was pleased with the way all the players took on board the technical lessons learnt from exposure to competition at this level. 29 countries make up the Asian TT Union and a large majority of their senior players are professionals. “This is one of the best training grounds in the business,” he said.

The NZ teams paraded proudly in their Butterfly-sponsored tracksuits. After the junior championships our players were invited to train at the Butterfly Dohjo Centre where Japanese players were made available to practice with them. Peter Hirst exchanged ideas with Butterfly coaches and everyone came away with the knowledge that hitting the ball hard and spinning it heavily is merely a starting point towards success at international level.

The players selected were (Seniors) Alan Pedley, Malcolm Darroch, Kevin Barry, Alan Shewan, Jane Bevan, Maxine Goldie, Eileen Hoete; (Juniors) Murray Traill, Gary Traill, David Pyper, Sharon Coad and, again, Eileen Hoete. Pat Low accompanied Peter Hirst as a non-playing captain with the senior team.

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Special General Meeting Changes NZTTA Management Structure

At a Special General Meeting on 28 August (during the NZ Championships), a new constitution was adopted to change the management structure from a 12 person Management Committee to a leaner five person committee governed by a policy-setting National Council. The Council would comprise six Regional Councillors, the NZTTA President and the five Management Committee members. The reasons for the change were two-fold: to allocate the management and policy-setting functions to separate bodies, and to build a regional “bridge” between District Associations and NZTTA. It also enabled regional interests to be represented at national level.

Regional Councillors were to be elected by their constituent District Associations.

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Medals Introduced at NZ Championships

At the Hutt Valley-hosted NZ Championships, tournament organiser John Lelliott introduced the practice of presenting gold and silver medals to all winners and runners-up (consolation events excluded). It was a popular move and the idea was quickly adopted by the hosts of future NZ Championships and also North and South Island Championships. The medals were always optional but most chose to present them. Bronze medals for losing semi-finalists in open events were added later.

Last year’s NZ Championship hosts, South Canterbury, changed the traditional timetable of separate and consecutive junior and senior team contests by playing them, and the subsequent junior and senior individual events, concurrently. This year’s hosts reverted to the previous separate timetabling which was expected as Hutt Valley had been among those opposing last year’s change.

The Governor-General, Sir Paul Reeves, attended the finals session and presented trophies and medals in the closing ceremony.

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Coaching Schools, Training Squad, Summer Camp

Coaching and training moved up a notch this year. One innovation was the introduction of a National Under 15 Coaching School, immediately following the traditional three-day Under 18 School but conducted at a different location. Another was a week-long “live-in” Summer Training Camp, with accommodation provided at a motor camp close to the stadium.

In addition, a senior squad of 12 top players was assembled over Anzac Day weekend for training, and three weekend regional coaching schools were conducted mid-season.

All these events were led by the National Director of Coaching, Peter Hirst.

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Under 15 Team Events Added to Australian Junior Championships

While there have always been Under 15 individual events at the Australian Championships, team events for this age-group were added to the programme for the first time this year. Previously only the Under 17’s played team events.

The change doubled the size of the NZ team selected to participate.

Very commendably, the Under 17 girls finished first in their team competition by beating every State team including the frequent stumbling block for NZ teams, Victoria. They squeezed home in that contest 5-4. The other three teams finished third, in all cases behind Victoria and New South Wales.

Great performances by New Zealanders secured two doubles titles in the individual events: Maxine Goldie and Sharon Coad won the Under 17 girls doubles and Brendon Pearson and Darren Sears the Under 15 boys doubles.

The full teams were: (Under 17 boys) Stuart Munday, David Pyper, Murray Traill, Dicky Babor; (Under 17 girls) Sharon Coad, Maxine Goldie, Vickie Woodman, Vanessa Balfour; (Under 15 boys) Hagen Bower, Robert Chung, Brendon Pearson, Darren Sears; (Under 15 girls) Janine Chandler, Susan Cuthbert, Paula McNicholl, Luana Graham. The officials were Neti Traill, David Jackson and Peter Hirst.

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New Executive Officer Appointed

Merv Allardyce was appointed to succeed Ken Wilkinson as NZTTA’s paid Executive Officer. He began work in February and, to reflect changing times, the hours were extended from 20 to 25 per week.

Merv brought to the job several decades of administrative experience at both District and National level. He was elected to NZTTA’s Management Committee in 1975 and at the time of this latest appointment had served for eleven years, specialising mainly in the coaching area.

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Invitation for Associations to Pool Resources

Associations were invited to contribute ideas for playing activities with a view to share innovative club-night, interclub and tournament formats with others. The response was lukewarm but it is hoped that a resource file will eventually be built up for Associations to access.

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Queensland Open

One female and one male player from New Zealand were sponsored by Qantas to attend the Queensland Open Championships and, as in 1985, they dominated their respective events. Christine Lee and Tony Radford won the open singles, the doubles with Australian partners and the mixed doubles together. Tony also won the Under 21 singles.

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Name Change for Franklin Association
The Franklin Association was officially renamed Counties Table Tennis Association.

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A Point Being Made!

The temperature was the point in this protest against a long standing rule which prohibits players from wearing tracksuits or slacks when playing in a match.

The New Zealand Championships, in Lower Hutt, saw Kerry Palmer (L) and Wayne Adamson display impeccable dress but regretfully it was the "wrong stuff" for their Men‘s Doubles semi-final, and they were forced to forfeit the match.

"It gets so cold playing in some stadiums" said Wayne. "Some players thought it was great but others thought we were idiots".

Whatever, a huge 30 x 16 cm photo (reproduced here in miniature) plus an article appeared in the NZ Herald at the time.

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