Exhibition Table Tennis Returns to NZ, after a Long Wait!!

In 1975 New Zealanders were treated to a feast of exhibition table tennis that surpassed anything seen here before. Previously a pair of Swedish exhibitionists had drawn accolades and teams from Japan and China had included better players but the 45 minute presentation by the French pair of Jaques Secretin and Vincent Purkart in 1975 took the art of exhibition play to a new level. It featured humour, trick equipment, a sly, wise-cracking umpire and acrobatic antics that would not have been out of place in a circus ring.

A Young China team visited in 1980 and gave awe-inspiring doubles exhibitions, but apart from that New Zealanders were starved of specialist exhibition table tennis for fourteen years.

Then came Guo.

Chinese-born and World Champion in 1981 and 1983, Guo Yuehua travelled the world in later years with entrepreneur and former Czechoslovakian star Daniel Suchanek. In June this year the pair arrived in New Zealand and toured the country, visiting nine Associations where they gave exhibitions and promoted table tennis. Guo also played against top NZ player Peter Jackson in the South Island segment of the tour and entered the North Island Championships.

The visit had been eighteen months in the planning. Guo was the first former world champion to visit since the famous Japanese tour by Tanaka and Ogimura in 1957 and probably the best player ever seen in this country.

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Top Half Finish for NZ Men at Commonwealth Champs, Ahead of Australia

Our men’s team of Peter Jackson, Malcolm Darroch and Alan Shewan supported by developing player Darren Sears scored wins over Australia, Jamaica, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man and Cypress. They lost only to India and Nigeria and finished 7th out of 18 teams.

The women (Maxine Goldie and Vanessa Balfour, plus reserve Jane Shewan) also had wins over Jamaica and Northern Ireland as well as Kenya and Jersey. They finished 9th out of 15.

Wins were hard to come by in the individual events but Peter Jackson and Maxine Goldie (pictured) did well to reach the third round in the mixed doubles.

Peter Hirst and Geoff Rau were the non-playing team captains and coaches. The tournament was played in Cardiff, Wales.

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World Championships

The team that represented New Zealand at the Commonwealth Championships moved on to Dortmund, West Germany to compete in the 40th World Championships. The men finished 42nd after beating Guatamala, Nepal, Ireland, Saudi Arabia and Jamaica; and losing to Canada, Scotland and Iraq. The women’s wins were over El Salvador, Ireland, Malta and Turkey. They lost to Colombia, Norway and Spain and finished 43rd.

Peter Hirst commented on the “true German precision” of the tournament organization and complimented the NZ team on their demeanour and cohesion. “The whole team was well balanced socially as well as professionally which led to a harmonious team spirit,” he reported.

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Christchurch Hosts World Table Tennis Event

A unique event on the sporting calendar is the World Games for the Deaf. This four-yearly tournament regularly attracts more than 1,000 competitors across twelve sporting codes. It was held in Christchurch in January this year and Canterbury TT Association was invited to provide facilities and management personnel for the table tennis segment.

A unique atmosphere prevailed in the crowded stadium with competitors conversing in sign language against a background of very low ambient sound. Scoring flip-charts were an essential item of equipment for umpires.

Trevor Flint led the organising team with Thelma May (pictured) the Liaison Officer responsible for communication with the Games overall management.

The New Zealand players who took part were Aileen Banks, Polly Fechney, Gwen Rapley, Steven Jourdain, Lyndon Malcolm, John Lavell and Kaz Witko.

Players from Japan, China, USSR and West Germany dominated the team and individual events.

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Australian Junior Championships: We Weren’t There

After being invited to send teams to the Australian Junior Championships every year since 1978, NZTTA received no invitation to attend this year’s event. It was a major disappointment for our top juniors in the under 15 and under 17 age-groups as most only get one chance for selection before moving out of the qualifying age-range, especially in years such as this when no Oceania Championships are scheduled. (The Oceania’s are played every two years).

The non-invitation appeared to be a manifestation of more wide-ranging issues between the Australian association’s Executive Director and NZTTA. The relationship was of sufficient concern for ATTA to propose a high level meeting between the two national bodies, which took place in New Zealand in October.

It appeared from the meeting that Australia favoured Closed Championships for some of its existing events and was considering widening others to embrace the entire Oceania region and perhaps also South-East Asia. They also wished to develop a national schools competition (along the lines of NZ’s Commercial Union Championship), possibly absorbing their Junior Championships under 15 events into it. They noted the potential for each country to support the other in their respective schools tournaments.

The meeting appeared to end cordially. The Australian delegates indicated they would be recommending to the ATTA Annual Meeting that New Zealand be again invited to the Australian Junior Championships in 1990.

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NZ Competes at Two Major Asian Championships

Li Chunli, Michelle White, Peter Jackson, Hagen Bower, Murray Finch and David Jackson faced formidable opposition when they played in the Hong Kong and Japan Open Championships in successive weeks. Their team and individual opponents were largely from the two host countries or from China or Sweden. The field in both men’s and women’s events included some of the world’s best players.

Nonetheless, New Zealanders managed a total of four individual wins and one team win in the two tournaments combined.

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North Island Championships - First Use of Computers at National Event

A new era was entered at the Auckland-hosted North Island Championships when a computer programme designed by David Jackson was used to process results and issue score-cards for up-coming matches. The software also networked enquiry terminals from which players and the public could access up to date draws with progress results entered.

Draws for national tournaments have been generated electronically since 1983 but this was the first occasion on which computers were used at the actual event to manage a major championship.

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International Tournament of Noumea

After introducing this event in 1985, the National Table Tennis Association of New Caledonia again invited New Zealand to participate in what is now to become a regular bi-ennial tournament.

New Zealand was represented in the mixed gender team events by Michael Davis, Karl Entwistle (pictured) and Diana White while Stuart Munday was placed in a composite team. Four men’s singles, one women’s singles, two men’s doubles and one mixed doubles made up the seven match contest. New Zealand finished third behind France and Australia.

Unbeaten in a five-pair women’s doubles round-robin, Diana White and her New Caledonian partner F Babin won the gold medal. Michael Davis and Karl Entwistle were bronze medalists in the men’s doubles.

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Graded Events Added to National Tournaments

In 1988 B Grade men’s and women’s singles events were introduced at the New Zealand Championships as a trial and this year B and C Grade were added to the open singles segment of all three national championships (North Island, South Island and NZ).

The qualification criteria for entering the graded events was based on the entrant’s position on the rating list.

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NZ Player finishes ahead of World Champion at World Cup

As Oceania Champion, Barry Griffiths represented the Oceania Region in the Men’s World Cup played in Nairobi, Kenya. The field, limited to 16 players, included most of the world’s top ten. Barry finished 14th, one place ahead of reigning World Champion, Jan-Ove Waldner.

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National Director of Coaching Appointed to New Post

After three and a half years as NZTTA’s full-time National Director of Coaching, Peter Hirst was offered, and accepted, the position of Executive Director with the Coaching Association of New Zealand. He retained the title of Director of Coaching for table tennis but his services from then on were to be delivered on a contractual and/or voluntary basis. The contractual commitments involved coach and teacher education and directing national junior coaching schools. He continued to serve on the Management Committee and as convenor of the National Selection Panel.

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Gold Medal Tally Rises at Australian Veterans

After bringing home just one gold medal last year, the New Zealand contingent at the Australian Veterans Championships arrived back laden with a total of four: John Lelliott – 1 (over 60 men’s doubles); Valley Kwok – 1 (over 70 men’s doubles); Ray Rowland – 2 (over 70 men’s doubles, over 70 mixed doubles). John and Valley also won a silver medal each and Bob Lassen a bronze in the highly competitive over 40 men’s competition.

John Lelliott had earlier won gold in the over 60’s at a separate Masters Championship, an event for singles only played just before the main championships at the same venue in Adelaide.

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Asian Juniors

For the first time since 1986, when newly appointed Director of Coaching Peter Hirst was grasping every international exposure opportunity for our junior players, we were again invited to send a team to the prestigious Asian Junior Championships.

The selected players were Hagen Bower, Aaron Winborn, Andrew Hubbard, Darren Sears, Barbara Dickey, Luana Graham and Louise McFarlane. Peter Hirst and David Jackson were team managers.

The boys team did extremely well, beating Nepal, Iran, Singapore, Saudi Arabia and Thailand to finish 9th out of 20 teams. Their only losses were to top shelf teams Japan and Korea. The girls were outclassed, finishing last of 15 teams and managing only one match win, over a Sri Lankan player. Louise and Luana both had girls singles wins in the individual events where wins were a rare commodity. The only others to win were Darren Sears in the boys singles, and Aaron Winborn and Luana Graham in the mixed doubles.

The Championships were held in India in late December.

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New Travelling Uniform for Juniors Introduced

A new era began with the NZ junior team’s trip to the Asian Championships (refer above), when a smart new travelling uniform was introduced. Through a business contact of longtime Auckland administrator John Bower, a New Zealand Table Tennis V-necked black jersey was manufactured with white trim, white lettering and a silver fern embroidered on the front. The uniform was completed with a white shirt and grey trousers. All New Zealand junior teams for many years were outfitted in this uniform for travel and airport assembly. It raised the public image of our sport considerably.

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National Office Expands

In response to a steadily increasing workload at the National Office, the Executive Officer’s paid hours were increased from 25 per week to full-time and the position re-designated as Executive Director.

In addition, a clerical assistant was employed to work up to 18 hours a week

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Name Change for North Shore Association

The North Shore Association was officially renamed North Harbour Table Tennis Association.

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