Death of NZ’s Table Tennis Statesman

In terms of international status, one man towered over all other New Zealand players, coaches and administrators for more than four decades. He was known the world over and in 1991 was made a Personal Honorary Member of the International Table Tennis Federation.

Ken Wilkinson (BEM) began his table tennis career modestly as a low grade interclub player but by the age of 20 had demonstrated his potential as an administrator. He was Wellington Table Tennis’s first post-war secretary and in 1949 was elected secretary of NZTTA. He held the post until 1985, while it steadily elevated from Honorary Secretary, to paid Secretary, to salaried Executive Officer.

He served through an era during which the public image of table tennis was heightened by a succession of visits from top overseas players. Extensive tours of New Zealand with exhibitions presented in as many as 28 locations were widely publicized and drew large crowds. Ken was the main logistical organiser of these tours and usually accompanied the touring party. A visit in 1957 by the world’s top two players, both Japanese, lasted 40 days.

His later achievements include a 153 page history of NZ Table Tennis (published in 1984 to mark NZTTA’s 50th year), appointment as Vice-President (Oceania) of ITTF, and as the founding President of Oceania TTF. In his various capacities Ken made 45 overseas trips on table tennis business and became by far the best known New Zealander on the international table tennis stage.

Ken Wilkinson passed away on 26 May after a brief illness, at the age of 80. He had been recognized by the Queen in 1975 and awarded the British Empire Medal (BEM) for his services to Table Tennis.

---

Best World Performance Ever by a NZ Player

In front of an audience of 2000 at the Jinhan Stadium in Shanghai, China, New Zealander Li Chunli produced a stunning performance to finish 3rd in the Women’s World Cup. This elite event, held in September, is restricted to only 16 players and Chunli participated as the one representative the Oceania region is entitled to. Chunli has competed at two Olympics, a World Championships and a previous World Cup but described this as “ …the best moment in my table tennis career.”

In group play Chunli beat World No 11 Ryu Ji Hye (Korea) 21-17, 19-21, 21-17; and World No 17 Tong Feiming (Taiwan) 22-20, 21-19. In the quarter-final she faced World No 15 Chai Po Wa (Hong Kong) and won 21-18, 22-20, 21-13. She lost in the semi-final to World No 3, Wang Nan (China) 21-13, 13-21, 13-21, 13-21 but in the 3rd/4th play-off beat World No 8 Geng Lijuan (Canada) 21-7, 21-19.

This cluster of spectacular results lifted Chunli’s own world ranking from 49 to 28, the highest ever for a New Zealander, and needless to say earned her TTNZ’s Player of the Year award.

Chunli is a Chinese-born New Zealand citizen, now living in Japan and employed as a player/coach by a Kimono Company, Kenshoe. She practises six days a week.

---

Commonwealth and World Championships

The NZ Men’s team did well at these events and came extraordinarily close to doing even better. At the Commonwealths they finished 5th (their best ever placing) but had come literally within one single point of finishing 3rd and standing on the podium. In their deciding match against Australia they held match point 20-18 in the final game.

Peter Jackson and Shane Laugesen performed brilliantly in the Men’s Doubles and did get on the podium - to receive a Bronze Medal. They reached the semi-finals after decisive wins over pairs from South Africa, Scotland and Singapore, and then lost to the classy English combination of Alan Cooke and Bradley Billington.

Shane received the “Fair Player Award”.

At the World Championships a win over Egypt would have put the team in a play-off for positions 21-28 (out of 103 - a world level previously unheard-of for a NZ men’s team). They were well-placed in this contest and one win from top player Peter Jackson would have secured the victory. But in a rare lapse Peter lost both his matches leaving NZ in a play-off for positions 41-48. They finished 42nd.

The Women’s team struggled at both events. Li Chunli was unavailable and coach Peter Hirst labeled the trip as a valuable learning experience for the team. They were far from disgraced and every player had at least one win at the Commonwealths. The team finished 11th out of 12. At the Worlds they finished 55th out of 78.

The full team was Andrew Hubbard, Peter Jackson, Shane Laugesen, Aaron Winborn, Tracey Epps, Sarah Finch, Debbie Garrett, Tracey Phillips, (Coaches) Peter Hirst, Murray Finch. The Commonwealths were played in Glasgow, Scotland in April and the Worlds in Manchester, England in April/May.

---

New Executive Director for TTNZ

In January Michael Brown took up the position of Executive Director, left vacant after the retirement of Merv Allardyce at the end of 1996.

Within two months he had embarked on a series of visits to District Associations, introducing himself and listening to any ideas, criticisms and wish-lists that were forthcoming. After the trip he had a much better feel for the state of Table Tennis in New Zealand.

Michael came to the job with a Masters degree in Recreation and Leisure Studies, and previous experience in change management, sponsorship, marketing and publicity.

---

Olympic Solidarity Coaching Course Held

The Olympic Solidarity fund is managed by the International Olympic Committee and individual sports affiliated to it through their National Olympic Committees are entitled to apply for grants to fund coaching and administration courses.

The fund paid travel costs for top Swedish coach Tomas Stenberg and top NZ players Li Chunli (based in Japan) and Peter Jackson (based in France) to attend the week-long course.

It was held in Nelson in July and attended by other top senior and junior players and several NZ coaches. One day was set aside for a workshop on High Performance strategy, conducted by Victoria University Professor, Dai Gilbertson.

---

Peter Jackson Represents Oceania at Men’s World Cup

Somewhat in the shadow of Li Chunli’s monumental performance a month earlier (refer above), Peter Jackson, as reigning Oceania Champion, joined fifteen international stars from other continents to compete for the Men’s World Cup in France in October. He drew a group containing 1995 World Champion Kong Linghui (China); World No 8 Jorg Rosskopf (Germany) and World No 13 Johnny Huang (Canada). Peter’s ranking is 123rd – highly respectable for an Oceania player but a little too low to be a threat in this company.

---

NZ Competes at Asian Junior Championships

Three young New Zealanders could hold their heads high after competing at the Asian Junior Championships in India in September. Only a boys team made the trip, accompanied by coach James Morris. They finished 11th (out of 21 teams), beating Syria, Yemen, Turkmenistan and Saudi Arabia. They lost to Bangladesh, India, Taiwan and, (narrowly) to Sri Lanka. All three team members had at least one win in the individual events.

The team was Peter Craven, Vincent Ho and Jason Ng.

---

Technical Committee Formed

The 1996 administration restructure required the Board to primarily focus a governance, leaving day to day management in the hands of the Executive Director who in turn was empowered to form advisory support committees. The most essential was a Technical Committee, whose responsibility was to approve tournament draws, collate ranking lists and advise the Executive Director and Board on any technical matters which may arise. Former Management Committee Chairman Ron Menchi and former National Councillor David Jackson were appointed to this committee with power to co-opt others as needed.

---

Under 20 Development Trip to South Australia

A group of invited players under the age of 20 spent two weeks in Adelaide in January, dividing their time between intensive coaching and training under the supervision of four of Australia’s top coaches, and participating in the Adelaide Championships. The NZ party joined a large group of Australians and the full contingent was divided into two groups for training. Two of the NZ trainees, Mark Stewart and Stephen Meadows, were lucky enough to be included in the Australian Youth Training Camp run by the Australian National Coach Jerzy Grycan.

Ron Garrett and Stacey Hooper travelled with the group as managers and also assisted at the training sessions. The other NZ trainees were Frank Sin, Graeme Windley, Amber Johnson, Tina Lee and Tanya Daly.

---

North Island Championships Held in New North Harbour Stadium

The North Island Championships in July was North Harbour’s opportunity to showcase their new stadium, completed after several years of planning and many hours of voluntary labour. The Championships were co-hosted by North Harbour and Waitemata TTA.

---