World Championships – Good Publicity, Top Half Finish for the Men

Thanks to an offer of free media guidance from Olympic and Commonwealth Games media consultant Glenda Hughes, Table Tennis NZ was able to assemble a World Championships publicity package of unprecedented proportions. Details of the event with profiles and photographs of all New Zealand players were sent to all major newspapers with a promise of regular results transmitted directly from the ITTF media service. Sky TV broadcast substantial coverage of the Championships.

Media interest was heightened by the fact that the event was staged in China, with huge audiences and lavish opening and closing ceremonies. It was an intense atmosphere for New Zealand players to compete in but the men in particular responded well, recording good wins over Sri Lanka and Bulgaria and finishing 38th out of 77 teams. The women finished 65th out of 71.

In the individual events Shane Laugesen and Hilary Finch qualified for the main Mixed Doubles draw and Peter Jackson partnered Shane to qualify in the Men’s Doubles. Peter was our most successful singles player, reaching the main draw with a win over Canadian Francis Trudel after having won 11 matches out of 13 in the teams events. His overall performance raised his world ranking from 171 to 119.

The team for these Championships (and also for the Commonwealth Championships held in Singapore - refer below) was Peter Jackson, Shane Laugesen, Andrew Hubbard, Daniel Hempstead, Hilary Finch, Sarah Finch and Sabine Koestel. The officials were Peter Hirst and James Morris.

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Northland Hosts NZ Championships with Pride, Innovation and Unprecedented Publicity

This was a remarkable tournament in a wide range of respects. Tournament Manager James Morris had planned ahead by placing a remit before the 1994 AGM calling for the abolition of singles round-robins, seen by some as a lack-lustre segment of the Championships (refer next item). He then set about making the tournament a bonanza for media, spectators and competitors alike - beginning by inviting, and successfully attracting, a large number of overseas entries. Players from Japan joined our more regular participants from New Caledonia and Fiji, resulting in 37 entries from offshore. Next came an avalanche of prizes, ranging from television sets for the singles winners through cash prizes for the “Shootouts” (a rapid-fire, hard-hitting series of duels conducted outside the main playing sessions), to prizes for all other events including 2nd and 3rd division. There were “Player of the Day” and “Fair Play” awards presented daily.

James had spent many months securing sponsorship support and, as part of the whole package, a large number of tables were sponsored for the championships by local businesses and then donated to local schools after the event.

Garry Frew managed media liaison and secured a full page spread in the local press on more than one occasion. The souvenir programme for the Championships was of telephone book proportions (124 pages).
Some guidance and assistance was sought from officials with experience running national tournaments but for the most part the build-up work and the conduct of the event itself was in the hands of Northland volunteers. It was a spectacular triumph for all involved.

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NZ Championships: Singles Groups Abolished, Division Events Introduced

Second and Third Division events were conducted for the first time at the Northland-hosted NZ Championships (refer above) and became the standard format for the tournament from this point on. The introduction of division events eliminated qualifying group play where all players, including the top seeds, played a round-robin series of singles matches in groups with group winners progressing to a main draw. The system was favoured by some as it guaranteed all competitors a minimum number of matches but the downside was a large number of one-sided contests. The main case made by Northland for the change was the need to maintain spectator interest throughout and eliminate dead spots.

The new system comprised a straight knock-out draw and two consolation knock-out division events. First round losers contested the third division and second round losers the second division. While this still resulted in some one-sided first round matches, later rounds and all division events were more evenly matched.

The same change was applied to North and South Island Championships.

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Planning Workshops

At the urging of the Hillary Commission, two planning workshops were held to formulate a vision statement and review the sport’s long-term strategy for growth. Participants included outside experts, experienced table tennis administrators and specialists from throughout the country and selected players. The first workshop was held in July when specific areas requiring development were identified, and a follow-up held in November when papers were presented and an action plan devised for implementation in 1995. The topics examined included finance, communication, marketing, human resources and governance. A key recommendation was to dismantle the present administrative structure comprising a Management Committee and National Council and replace it with an appointed Board responsible primarily for governance.

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Ratings Computerised

Former Management Committee member Adrian Sutton liaised with ITTF and their software provider to obtain the right to adapt their computerized ratings system for use in New Zealand. After a trial year running the programme alongside the existing manual rating system in 1994, the “Epson” system was officially adopted and rating lists were circulated to Associations on a regular basis. Data entry from tournament results was carried out in the national office.

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Peter Jackson Does Well At Commonwealth Championships

The highlights of these Championships, played in Singapore just before the World Championships in April, were good wins by the women’s team over Sri Lanka and Scotland, and an excellent performance by Peter Jackson in both the teams and individual events. Peter’s singles record in the teams was 6 wins out of 8, and in the men’s singles he beat quality players from Hong Kong and Ireland before losing to English star Carl Prean, 21-19, 21-19, 21-13. He emerged from the Championships with a Commonwealth ranking of 12.

The men’s team finished 8th out of 13 and the women 9th out of 12. The team personnel is listed under “World Championships”

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Bronze Medal at Australian Junior Championships

After beating the No 3 seeds, New Zealanders Stephen Hirst and Laura-Lee Smith (seeded 8th) went on to win the Bronze Medal in the Under 17 Mixed Doubles at the Australian Junior Championships. The event was held in Croyden, Victoria in July with NZ teams eligible to compete against Australian states and team members invited to compete in individual singles and doubles events against Australia’s best juniors. The age categories were Under 17 and Under 15.

The Under 15 girls achieved the best team result and finished 3rd, but didn’t stand on the podium as NZ teams were not eligible for medals in team events. The boys finished 5th and both Under 17 teams finished 4th. Stephen and Laura-Lee had the best singles records in Under 17 team events, with Paul Innes and Angela Yang topping the Under 15 percentages.

In addition to Stephen and Laura-Lee’s Bronze Medal, the individual events included some notable results such as Paul Innes and Angela Yang extending the top seeds to three games in the Under 15 Mixed Doubles, Chris Boaden and Vincent Ho reaching the Under 15 Boys’ Doubles quarter-finals and Tamsyn Burgess and Angela Yang doing the same in the Under 17 Girls’ Doubles. Melissa Beazer and Jason Ng both took seeded players to three games in the singles.

The teams were (Under 17 boys) Stephen Hirst, Jamie Lennox, Antony Matai’a, Greg Smith; (Under 17 girls) Melissa Beazer, Tracey Harris, Tracey McLauchlan, Laura-Lee Smith; (Under 15 boys) Chris Boaden, Vincent Ho, Paul Innes; Jason Ng; (Under 15 girls) Tamsyn Burgess, Samara Collins, Stacey Hanson, Angela Yang. The officials were Barry Butler, Murray Finch, Stacey Hooper and John Stapleton.

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Big Year for New Zealand Players, Coaches and Officials in Overseas Roles

Probably the largest contingent ever of New Zealand players was based overseas and playing either professionally or semi-professionally. Listed alphabetically, they were David Allardyce (Germany), Hagen Bower (Belgium), Paul Bowman (Germany), Wayne Gear (Belgium), Andrew Hubbard (Germany), Peter Jackson (Belgium), Shane Laugesen (Belgium), Li Chunli (Japan), Andrew Ranson (Belgium), Shane Wilson (Germany).

Geoff Rau held prestigious positions on international federations: President of Oceania TTF and Vice-President (Oceania) of ITTF. David Jackson was elevated from a corresponding member of the ITTF Ranking Committee to a full member, Peter Jackson was Oceania’s representative on the ITTF Athletes Commission and Richard Lee held a three month national coaching position in Fiji and conducted an Olympic Solidarity Coaching course there.

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Swansong for National Lottery

A lengthy era came to an end when NZ Table Tennis joined forces with NZ Croquet to organise what turned out to be its final national lottery. The traditional prize was a car and Table Tennis would have been unlikely to sell enough tickets on its own to meet the costs.

An enormous amount of money has been raised by district associations and clubs through this venture over the years and the national players travel fund has also benefitted substantially. Robert Gross was contracted to organize the lottery from its inception and his Association (Counties Manukau) was among the most energetic sellers of tickets. Hutt Valley also sold large volumes.

The lottery was discontinued after this year as support for this form of fundraising was clearly dwindling.

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New Qualification Level for Umpires Created

What had been a single tier qualification system for registering umpires in New Zealand was changed with the introduction of a second level, National Umpire. The previous qualification of Provincial Umpire was at the same time renamed Regional Umpire. A selected number of existing Provincial Umpires were accredited with National status while the rest remained Regional Umpires. New qualification procedures with practical testing and written examinations were set up for both levels. The change brought New Zealand in line with Australia and eased the transition to the next level, International Umpire.

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Test Series in Fiji

Former top New Zealand player Richard Lee, now a highly respected coach, was contracted to coach the Fijian national team for three months with their build-up to the South Pacific Games his main priority. To assist in this, Richard requested a week-long visit from a New Zealand team to play two friendly test matches against Fiji and compete in an open tournament.

The selected team was Hagen Bower, Simon Fenwick, Daniel Astle, Mark Stewart, Raewyn Young, Lisa Astle, Vicki Garrett and Laura-Lee Smith. New Zealand was untroubled in winning the tests but the Fijian players did win several individual matches.

The visit took place in July.

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