Table tennis tour by Japan

Press, 1 June 1984, Page 30

Table tennis tour by Japan

A Japanese men’s table tennis team will play three international matches against New Zealand and will compete in the national championships during its tour of the country later this year. Japan, whose men are ranked fifth in the world, has been invited by the New Zealand association to provide an international flavour at the national championships in this, the association’s jubilee year. Although the Japanese team personnel has not yet been announced, the chairman of the N.Z.T.T.A.’s executive committee, Mr Ron Menchi, has made it clear that a top-line team is expected. “We have spelt out pretty clearly that we want the top players out here,” said Mr Menchi from Wellington yesterday. “And I think the Japanese realise the importance of the event from our point of view.”

Planning for the tour began at the world championships in Tokyo last year, when members of the N.Z.T.T.A. had discussions with the president of the Japanese association. The touring party will be comprise three players and one coach. However, Mr Menchi accepts that Japan’s top singles player will probably not be seen in New Zealand. The tour clashes with the prestigious World Cup event in Kuala Lumpur at the end of August. All the top table tennis nations will be represented by their best player. Oceania’s representative will be the Australian, Tommy Daniellson, who won the four-way play-off in Wellington on March 17, against Gary Haberl, from New South Wales, and the New Zealand representatives, Barry Griffiths and Peter Jackson. The Seoul open championships, which also attract a high class international

field, will be held around the same time. The Japanese team will arrive in Christchurch on August 24, after a short tour of Australia. It will travel to Palmerston North for the first international the next day. All the internationals will comprise three singles matches, played on a best-of-three basis. At the end of the national championships, which have not been won by a player from outside either Australia or New Zealand since the Frenchman, Jacques Secretin, in 1975, Japan will play the second international, in Wellington, on September 1. This contest will be televised. The last international will be in Auckland, on September 3. The New Zealand team for the series will be named on June 15, but seems certain to include Griffiths, the country’s top-ranked player, and Jackson, the 1983 “player of the year.”