Australia No. 2 on top

Press, 30 August 1977, Page 29

Australia No. 2 on top

Timaru) The top seed, Paul Pin-i kewich (Australia), proved nis point when he won the men s singles final at the, Rw Zealand table tennis* tnampionships. Dropped from the national' team beaten 4-1 by New! Zeaiand earlier in the year,' PinKewich answered ' the Australian selectors by winning the title in comfortable: He defeated the titleholder, James Morris (Northland), in straight sets and: rarely looked in trouble. Pinkewich’s outstanding: defensive play countered the! hard-hitting of Morris and; he got some almost impos-I sib.e shots back over the! net. Ranked second in Austra-: lia, he was critical of his' dismissal from the national: team, but over the weeklong New Zealand championships he has showed himself superior to the best in New Zealand. In seven matches be lost only two sets, one of them to the third seed. Richard Lee (Auckland), in the semi-final. Lee, like Morris, could not handle the consistent play of Pinkewich. Morris, in spite of losing a set to Robert Blair (Franklin), had had little trouble winning his way through to the final. The most exciting play on the final night came in the women’s singles where the second seed, Jan Morris (Canterbury), beat the top seed. Angela Brackenridge (Auckland) in a five-set final. Morris won the first 26-24, lost tne next two 23-21, 21J 4 and then came back with some outstanding plav to win the last two sets 21-17, 21-16.

In the men’s doubles final Morris and Lee retained their title with a four-set win over Pinkewich and his Australian team-mate. Warren Vickery. The women’s doubles final was won easily by Misses Morris and Brackenridge against Barbara Taylor (Canterbury) and Kathy Fraser (Franklin).