Big Sponsorship Deal Secured

Outmaneuvering several other applicants, NZTTA finalised a $40,000 sponsorship deal with Commercial Union Insurance. It was in support of a nationwide Secondary Schools Teams competition over three years and was by far the biggest sponsorship deal negotiated by the national body to date.

It generated publicity nationwide and quickly aroused the interest of schools. The inaugural competition got off to a spectacular start with Commercial Union public relations personnel helping to generate local media coverage. 265 school teams participated in district and regional play-offs involving a total of 860 players. Commercial Union banners were hoisted at many venues. A winning team from each of our six regions contested the national play-offs in Petone with the final session attended by executives of the sponsoring company. Their General Manager presented prizes, certificates and the Commercial Union Trophy to the winning team, Hutt Valley High School.


Hutt Valley High School Team

L/R: Michael Davis, Michelle White, Darren Sears, Mrs K Ranchod (manager), Brendon Pearson.

Each player and team manager received clothing items with the sponsor’s logo.

As a footnote and somewhat co-incidentally, the year turned out to be a watershed regarding sponsorship in a wider sense. The practice of offering naming rights to sponsors of national tournaments began to emerge and two of this year’s major events were officially titled “The Air New Zealand North Island Open Table Tennis Championships” and “The 1987 Placemakers New Zealand Table Tennis Championships”.

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Oceania Olympic Qualification Tournament: Two NZ Players Qualify

With Table Tennis being introduced into the Olympics for the first time at the 1988 Games in Seoul, South Korea, one of this year’s key events was the Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament, held in Coburg, Victoria in August. Places were available for two singles players and one doubles pair of each gender. The qualification process had been negotiated between the International Table Tennis Federation and the International Olympic Committee.

Three NZ men (Barry Griffiths, Peter Jackson and Malcolm Darroch (pictured)) were selected to compete for the men’s singles places, with Australia putting forward Gary Haberl, Paul Pinkewich and Glen Tepper. The six played three consecutive round-robins over three days – a testing schedule of fifteen matches for each player. Barry Griffiths had an excellent tournament and, to New Zealand’s delight, finished top qualifier. Australia’s Gary Haberl was a close second and they were therefore allocated the two singles spots. Players from different countries cannot play together in doubles so a separate three-match series was played for the doubles place. Barry Griffiths and Peter Jackson were nominated to play Haberl and Pinkewich. The New Zealand pair won two matches to one to claim the Olympic doubles spot. This increased our tally of qualifying players to two.

The women’s contest was a smaller one, with only two from each country selected. New Zealand’s hopes rested on Sarah Sandley and Ann Gyongyos while Australia nominated Kerri Tepper and Nadia Bisiach. The Australian pair were untroubled to win both singles places and therefore, both being from the same country, automatically qualified for the doubles spot.

The selection process is not complete until the two countries’ Olympic Selectors have confirmed the qualifying table tennis players in their national Olympic team. This occurred in due course and New Zealand was able to celebrate the distinction of having two players confirmed for the inaugural Olympic Games table tennis competition. It was a historic moment and a major triumph for the players concerned. Barry Griffiths performance in particular was outstanding, winning the singles against such strong opposition.

Table tennis supporters in New Zealand could now look forward to the 1988 Olympic Games with a new interest and with high hopes that our two players would perform with distinction.

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Junior Age-Groups Change

After 50 years of defining players under the age of 18 as juniors, NZTTA this year raised the threshold to under 19. With our juniors regularly participating in the Australian Junior Championships where the two main age-groups are under 15 and under 17, the change was deemed appropriate and was part of a reconfiguration of our entire junior age structure. Under 18, 16, 14 and 12 individual events at all North Island, South Island and NZ Championships were changed to under 19, 17, 15 and 13. Under 18 teams were changed to under 19 while the only other age-group with team events, under 15, could be left unchanged.

District associations were urged to adopt this change at their local championships.

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National Council Settles In

The new National Council, as set up by a 1986 Special General Meeting, became fully functional and met on four occasions. The six regional councillors, five management committee members and NZTTA President are charged with the task of setting policy for the Management Committee to implement. Associations were urged to keep in regular contact with their regional councillor to enable their views and needs to be heard at national level.

Responsible for the day to day running of the sport and therefore needing to meet more often, the Management Committee convened ten meetings throughout the year.

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World Championships

It was noted with optimism in 1985 that a restructure of the teams events at this year’s World Championships could favour New Zealand. Previously the men’s team could finish no higher than 38th, their seeding limiting them to that level. This year that limitation was removed but to improve their ranking they had to beat higher seeded teams. In the event the men played to their seeding and finished third in their group. Although the play-off from there could have ranked them as high as 33rd, it was rather familiar territory. Their final placing was, ironically, 38th.

In their group matches they lost to Norway and North Korea and beat Bermuda. In the final play-offs they beat Singapore and lost to Bulgaria and Iraq, the latter very narrowly.

The women also finished third in their group which meant, like the men, they had to play off for places 33 – 48. They finished 40th, with two easy wins over Malta and Jordan in the middle stage.

Peter Jackson was our most successful player in the individual events, winning through to the fourth round in the men’s singles. Several other team members had some good doubles wins.

The championships were held in New Delhi, India. The full New Zealand team was Malcolm Darroch, Barry Griffiths, Peter Jackson, Tony Radford, Sharon Coad (pictured), Maxine Goldie, Eileen Hoete – with Geoff Rau and Peter Hirst managing the teams.

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Olympic Solidarity Course Covers Wide Range

A comprehensive ten-day course was organised by Table Tennis Australia in Sydney and funded by the Oceania Olympic Solidarity Commission. The costs of at least one representative from each Oceania member country were met and extra could attend if they paid their own way. The course covered practically every topic the commission is set up to foster: administration, marketing, tournament control, umpiring and coaching. While the New Zealanders attending the course (Ron Menchi, Ron Garrett and David Cook) derived benefit from it, the schedule was rather overloaded and a little structurally disorganised.

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Chinese Star Makes Her Mark in New Zealand

Former top Chinese junior, Li Chunli, won the Women’s Singles title at the New Zealand Championships – competing in them for the first time since her arrival in this country late in 1986. She would break all records by winning the title nine times in succession. As a junior she had participated in the much publicized 1980 tour of this country by a Young China team. A member of the Chinese community in Palmerston North was pivotal in arranging for Chunli’s immigration to New Zealand and needless to say the Manawatu Association was on the tarmac to welcome her.

She is by far the best female player this country has seen, other than members of overseas touring teams. Her qualification to represent New Zealand in international events will have to wait until she is granted NZ Citizenship but in the meantime there will be much our home-grown players can learn from her.

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NZ Championships for Veterans Introduced

Veteran age-groups have been catered for at the New Zealand Championships since 1954 when over 45 events were added to the programme. Over 35 and over 55 age-groups were introduced later. But it took a group of keen veteran players to investigate the feasibility of conducting a separate Veterans Championship along the lines of the Australian equivalent where the age-groups followed the World Veterans format of Over 40, Over 50, Over 60 and Over 70.

The idea was supported by NZTTA and inaugurated in Auckland this year. Support for the event exceeded expectations and B and C grade championships were required in the Over 40 and Over 50 age-categories. Equally gratifying was a large contingent of Australian players, sufficient for friendly internationals to be played before the main championships in all age categories except Over 70. Australia won 18-12 overall but New Zealand triumphed in the glamour Over 40 event, 9-6.

The inaugural tournament was named NZ Masters Championships but the event was renamed NZ Veterans the following year. It was scheduled regularly over the Easter weekend and quickly became an institution in the years that followed, with team and individual events always included.

The main NZ Championships retained their veteran age-groups after the introduction of the Veterans Championships.

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Basing Seedings on Ratings Points Criticised

The ratings system, introduced in 1986, was expanded and raised in status by two changes implemented this year. One was generally accepted, the other highly controversial. Tournaments at which points could be won were expanded to include one district open championship in each region each year on a rotational basis. The rationale was that it would increase participation in smaller association’s open championships when they were given ratings status, and that top players or any player wishing to increase their ratings points knew which tournaments to target.

The other change, resulting from a National Council decision, required the seedings for all ratings tournaments (nominated district championships, North Island, South Island and NZ Championships) to be based on the current rating list. This measure was a source of extreme controversy as the ratings system was still settling down and was not yet generally accepted as accurate. Further, many players felt the seedings committee should always retain the discretion to override the list, based as it was on a mathematical formula. Supporters of the idea insisted that if only more players, especially top players, entered the full range of ratings tournaments available, the list, and the seedings, would be accurate as they are based on fact rather than opinions or predictions.

NZTTA management undertook to closely monitor ratings and seedings in general and fine-tune as required.

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Australian Championships

Barry Griffiths capped a truly remarkable season by winning the men’s singles title and 100% of his singles matches in the teams events at the Australian Championships in September. This spectacular achievement followed his New Zealand men’s singles title and his No 1 ranking at the Oceania Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

Barry also won the men’s doubles, partnered by Peter Jackson. Alan Pedley and Malcolm Darroch completed the men’s team and the selected women were Maxine Goldie, Ann Gyongyos, Kristen Phillips and Pam Shadbolt.

Immediately after the senior championships a four team contingent from New Zealand competed in the Australian Junior Championships at the same venue in Brisbane. Brendon Pearson and Darren Sears won the under 15 boys’ doubles for the second year in a row – an impressive performance against Australia’s best. Teaming up with Hagen Bower and Brendon Sparrow, they also won the under 15 boys teams contest. Barbara Dickey and Tracey Epps were also title winners (in the under 15 girls’ doubles) and their team finished second, helped by Luana Graham and Melanie Low. The under 17 girls (Vanessa Balfour, Maxine Goldie, Michelle White and Vickie Woodman) also finished second while the under 17 boys (Kevin Brosnahan, Robert Chung, Michael Davis and Andrew Hubbard) finished 6th.

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KiwiSport

KiwiSport is a generic term for a range of sports specially modified for children aged 9 – 12. It is a new initiative being developed by the recently formed Hillary Commission, the Department of Education and the national Associations of any sport that choose to become involved. The aim is to combine the fun of participation in a non-competitive environment with the educational element of skills development. Table Tennis has opted in to the programme.

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International Tournament of Noumea

A high standard international tournament was hosted by the National TT Association of New Caledonia in July, attended by an invited team from their colonial masters France and teams from Australia and New Zealand as well as the host country and neighbouring Tahiti.

France was not at full strength and New Zealand edged them out 3-2 in the teams events but our star players both succumbed to their No 1 (F Farout) in the individual events – Barry Griffiths in the semi-final, Peter Jackson in the final. Alan Shewan and Alan Pedley completed the NZ contingent, with Alan Shewan losing in the quarter-final to P Morollec of France 21-19 in the fifth game.

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Ministry and Council for Recreation and Sport Become Hillary Commission

The administrative and funding agencies through which the government has been providing support for national sporting bodies, previously the Ministry for Recreation and Sport and the Council for Recreation and Sport respectively, were combined into a single entity named the Hillary Commission for Sport, Fitness and Leisure. Each sport was allocated a Hillary Commission Liaison Officer who helped assess the sport’s needs and advised on funding application procedures.

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Slow Start to Regional Coaching

The regional coaching system as proposed in 1986 began to take shape this year but its progress was slowed by a shortage of coaches in some areas. Further, where strong association coaching programmes were already in place there was some resistance to the concept of regional coaching which required them to relinquish control over their promising juniors and deliver them into the hands of a new coach.

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Poverty Bay Disaffiliates

Poverty Bay Association chose not to affiliate to NZTTA this year due to lack of funds to pay the required fees. The sport continued to be played locally and the hope was expressed that the disaffiliation would be a temporary measure.

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Bat Rubbers Colours Defined

As the range of available rubbers steadily increased, with each type imparting different speed and spin, players were able to gain advantage by having different rubbers with the same colour on each side of the bat. The server would spin the bat in the hand before serving, leaving the opponent unaware which rubber-type was being used for the service. Players would also occasionally rotate the bat during a rally. A rule change was introduced some years ago requiring the rubber on each side to be a different colour but there was often argument over whether the colours were different enough to be distinguishable.

This year a rule change requiring one side to be black and the other bright red was introduced. Manufacturers were given prior notice so that, with all rubbers only available in the legal colours, the matter was finally resolved. Players have always been permitted to examine an opponent’s bat before a match and, if a bat is changed, again after the change.

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