Brilliant Table Tennis Junior

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31161, 10 September 1966, Page 11

Brilliant Table Tennis Junior

’ALTHOUGH the standard in the men’s and women's open events at the New Zealand table tennis championships in Christchurch last week attained a height never reached before, the limelight was stolen by a girl who had her fifteenth birthday during the week.

Miss Y. M. Fogarty (Otago) won the under-18 and under-16 girls’ singles titles, and shared the under--18 and under-16 doubles and under-16 mixed doubles titles. She withdrew from the under-18 mixed doubles.

The daughter of W. J. Fogarty, who was men’s

singles champion in 1948, Miss Fogarty has been playing table tennis for six years—since the age of nine when her father began to coach her.

During the summer she practices two nights a week. During the winter she plays in the Dunedin inter-club competition every Tuesday evening and plays a tournament every second Thursday evening. She also practices for an hour three nights a week.

Her sister. Miss M. J. Fogarty, who is a year

older, is also very promising and plays opposite her on their own table at home. She also plays her father. Miss Fogarty first began playing competitive table tennis in 1964, which was also the first year she entered a New Zealand championship tournament. In 1965 she won the under--16 girls’ singles and shared the doubles title with her sister. Table tennis is not her only sports interest. She is a very keen, and very good, basketball player and would almost certainly have been selected for the Otago junior team this year had she been available. She is in the fourth form at school. The chief characteristic of her play is her ability to keep the ball on the table and to play the right shot at the right time. She exhibits a maturity astonishing in one so young. She has a sound defence, with quick reflexes. As she will still be only 15 at the nationals next year, she will have the chance to do the double twice, something done only three times before.