Big Table Tennis Tournament

Press, Volume C, Issue 29536, 10 June 1961, Page 5

Big Table Tennis Tournament

'THE first major table tenA nis tournament of the season In Christchurch will be played on Saturday and Sunday at the Selwyn street Hall. Taking part will be two teams from Canterbury, and one each from Nelson, Marlborough, West Coast and South Canterbury. This should be an interesting tournament from several view-points. It will give the Canterbury selectors a chance to see most of the top players in action when the major matches against Wellington, Hutt Valley and Otago come along. It will also give the players from the smaller associations a chance to test themselves and measure their progress against some of the best in New Zealand. Marlborough usually fields quite a good team in interprovincial competition, with R. Sheridan, R. Kawharu and J. Taylor as its leading men. Taylor is a regular visitor to Canterbury tournaments. and a very keen competitor. The Marlborough women are not quite so strong, with the exception of the South Island junior champion Miss M. McKay. It is the other way around with Nelson, and in that association there are some very good women players. Among these are Miss A.

Eden, winner of the Buller title last season, Miss J. Sara and Miss J. WardHolmes. Miss Sara was very prominent two seasons ago as a junior, and Miss WardHolmes was a member of the Canterbury representative team in 1959 and 1960. N. Sadler and T. Ward are two men who have played with success for West Coast in recent seasons, but South Canterbury's team

may be the strongest of the visitors. The team has nftt yet been announced, but there are many good male

players in Timaru and the surrounding districts. P. Wood and T. Underdown. the fine junior players, have appeared with success in tire South Canterbury senior team also. The veterans S. Bremford and F. O'Gorman must not be overlooked. and Bremford in particular is still very hard to beat. The Canterbury players appear to have been divided into two teams of fairly even strength. Leading the A team will be V. N. Brightwell and T. R. D Flint, the veteran New Zealand players. These two have shown their best form so far this season, and will no doubt be keen to make a better impression in this tournament Among the players in the B team will be J. Armstrong, B. D. P. Williamson and N. B. Radford, Canterbury's top three on current form. Mesdames T. May. J. Shadbolt, J. Prisk and A. Williamson will play in the women’s teams and will be supported by Misses F. Inglis, Y. Hart, B. Taylor and J. Rich.

There have been plenty ot books written recently on South African, British and New Zealand Rugby, but THE RISE OF FRENCH RUGBY (A, H. and A. W. Reed, 218 pp.), by Georges Duthen, one of France’s most authoritative Rugby critics, and Alex Potter, a' leading British authority on the sport, is claimed to be the first book on French Rugby written originally in English for New Zealanders. “The Rise of French Rugby” competently surveys the whole of the French Rugby scene, tracing the origin and development of tire game, the “shining epoch" from 1920-1930; the rupture of 1931, when the representatives of the Home Unions, meeting in London, decided to sever relations with the French; the indignity ot French Rugby from then until 1952, when "a new and purifying wind blew upon France's club championship”; and the wonderful successes of France in the Five Nations' championshin in recent years. The book is full of famous names and photographs of such notable characters as Francois Moncla. wing forward and captain of the team to tour this country soon, Jean Dupuy, one of France’s greatest wings, and Alfred Roques (“The Rock”), a magnificent prop, who. unfortunately for New Zealand enthusiasts, withdrew from the team after being selected. “The Rise of French Rugby” answers among other things questions on the game s strength in France: the present supremacy of France in Europe: the standard of French refereeing, and whether French players