Loss On Sponsored Table Tennis Tour

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31632, 19 March 1968, Page 16

Loss On Sponsored Table Tennis Tour

The Rothmans sponsored national tour last year by the English International table tennis players, D. Neale and S. R. Gibbs, showed a loss of >9M to the host associations.

This is shown in the New Zealand Table Tennis Associa* tion’s thirty-fourth annua] report, to December 31, 1967, which will be presented to the annual meeting of the association in Wellington on Friday. As in the case of previous tours by overseas players, the costs were underwritten by the provincial centres by payment of guarantees allocated in proportion to population and size of centre. This meant that the host associations were saddled with the cost of staging the contests, says the report. Five associations lost more than >lOO the highest being

Rotorua which lost $202. Hutt Valley lost 5167. Only five of the 15 associations that submitted returns— Auckland did not—showed a profit. The Northland association made $l2l and Wanganui $4O. The others to make profits were Otago ($6), South Canterbury ($5) and Hamilton ($4). "While we are satisfied that it is necessary to have these tours every now and then to keep the sport alive, and to provide incentive and encouragement for our representative Slayers, it is obvious that the ew Zealand association requires a tour reserve fund," says the association's secretary (Mr K. C. Wilkinson) in the report. Deficiency $242 The Income and expenditure account of the association showed a loss of $242. This exceeds the previous year’s figure by $123. Income had receded largely as a result of a fall in membership. Although Canterbury was the leading New Zealand association with 103 clubs and 260 teams, followed by Wellington, there was a drop in numbers placing from 2134 in 1966, to

The Auckland association’s players fell to 560, after being 1000 in 1964.