Auckland tops in table-tennis national finals

Press, 1 September 1980, Page 3

Auckland tops in table-tennis national finals

PA Wellington The Auckland men’s and women’s teams cruised to landslide victories in the final rounds yesterday of the national table-tennis teams’ championships. The men’s team, led by the three-time New Zealand champion, Richard Lee, took a comfortable 6-1 lead over Canterbury to seat the title in the final round of their event. Lee and Graham Lassen won their first two singles, against Stuart Armstrong and Michael Hamel respectively. Lee avenged his loss to Armstrong in the inter-island match on Friday in commanding style," winning 21-14, 21-14. Armstrong failed to get started in the match, apparently having difficulty with Lee’s wide range of spin serves. Canterbury’s first win came from Maurice Bur-

rowes, whose sharp-angled locks proved the undoing of Auckland’s Barry Griffiths.

In the women’s match, the two former Australian players, Christine Lee and Mary Cannon, continued their unbeaten stint by beating a less experienced Hutt Valley team, 6-0.

The Auckland team lost only a few matches throughout the entire teams contest, beating Canterbury — probably its closest rival — 6-1, in earlier rounds. In the men’s B-grade final round, Manawatu, led by Malcolm Darroch, took the title after beating Hutt Valley, 6-2, in the final round. A former national w o m e n ’ s champion, Yvonne Eyre, proved an asset to the Otago women’s team, which took the women’s B-grade title after beating Franklin, 6-0, in the final round.