Table Tennis Amendment

Press, Volume XCVIII, Issue 28930, 25 June 1959, Page 11

Table Tennis Amendment

At the recent annual meeting of the New Zealand Table Tennis Association in Wellington, the Canterbury association proposed an amendment to the rules for the conduct of the Teagle and Kean Shields, for inter-associa-tion competition before the national championships. At present the teams in each event are divided into four sections, with four teams seeded and one of these placed in each section. The four section winners then take part in a knock-out contest to determine the winner of each trophy. The Canterbury association’s objection to this method is that it is possible for a team to reach the semi-finals without any serious matches, and to play the semi-final under the handicap, of not having had any hard play during the section rounds.

Canterbury had therefore proposed that the competition be played in two sections, with all the strongest teams in one section, and promotion and relegation between the sections. This is done in several sports in their inter-provincial competition, and seems to work quite well as long as the promotion and relegation rules are well understood.

Canterbury’s remit was only defeated because of lack of clarity in the wording of the amendment. The Canterbury delegates were told privately that several associations would have given their support had the meaning been made clearer, and it is probable that Canterbury will make a further attempt next year.