Tough task for table tennis pair

Press, 13 June 1984, Page 34

Tough task for table tennis pair

By

DAVID LEGGAT

The strength of the two open fields means that the defending champions, Maurice Burrowes and Jan Morris, will have a demanding task if they are to retain their South Island table tennis titles at the forty-fourth championships in Blenheim, starting on Friday. The entries clearly indicate that the championships should be the best in terms of quality for several years. Three of the seeds of the men’s open singles are ranked in the country’s top 10 men, while all four women’s seeds are of similar stature. Burrowes, who finally won his second South Island singles title after a gallant

fightback by Michael Hamel last year, has been placed fifth in the seedings, behind the North Shore pair of Malcolm Temperley and Malcolm Darroch, and the Aucklanders, Kevin Schick and Graeme Lassen.

Temperley, Darroch and Schick are ranked fourth, sixth and seventh in New Zealand, while Lassen’s solid left-hand defence earned him two national titles in 1979-80. Miss Morris has won four New Zealand singles crowns, but is sure to have a difficult time with the three players ranked immediately below her, Ann Gyongyos (Wellington), Kadia Rice (Bay of Plenty) and Kristen Phillips, of Hutt Valley, having national placings for 1983 of three, six and seven respectively. Miss Morris, with a current national ranking of second, will be determined to enhance an excellent record of success at the South Island championships. She has won the singles seven times, more than any other player. The week-end will present her with a stiff challenge.

The men’s field would have been even stronger had the country’s top-ranked player, Barry Griffiths, not

been forced to withdraw. Miss Gyongyos and Miss Phillips are the New Zealand women’s doubles champions, so provided they are paired together, there is unlikely to be an upset. Two Canterbury players, Lyndon White and Grant McCarroll, have been given second and third seedings for the boys under-21 event, and McCarroll has received an identical position for the under-18 singles behind the promising young Wellington player, Robert Kerr. Interestingly, Kerr has also been seeded eighth in the open singles. The open events will be completed on Saturday, with the junior competition to be concluded on Sunday.