Predictable rankings

Press, 3 November 1984, Page 80

Predictable rankings

Maurice Burrowes and Jan Morris, the leading Avonside pair, have predictably been ranked the top Canterbury table tennis players for 1984. Burrowes transferred to Rotorua, towards the end of the season, but was still eligible to compete for Canterbury at the national championships. He won the Canterbury title earlier in the season. In 1983, he won both the provincial and South Island singles events.

Morris capped off a good year by winning the New Zealand women’s singles title for the fifth time. Only two players, Margaret Hoar (Auckland) and Neti Traill (Northland), have won the event more times than the short, hard-hitting lefthander.

Burrowes’ younger brother, Michael, has won second place in the men’s rankings, with the province’s two most promising young players, Grant McCarroll (Riccarton) and Karl Entwistle (Avonside), placed third and fourth. The

agile veteran, John Armstrong, continues to defy advancing years by taking fifth spot, ahead of another former Canterbury champion, the considerably younger left hander, John Richards.

The veteran, Thelma May, is the second-ranked woman, ahead of another experienced performer, Kath Thompson. A crop of young players, Jenny Gray, Jendy Harper, Karen Hines and Joanne Fisher, fill the bottom half of the rankings, compiled by the three provincial selectors, Messrs Barry Radford, Brian Wilson and Dennis Kalin.

The rankings are.Men: Maurice Burrowes 1, Michael Burrowes 2, Grant McCarroll 3, Karl Entwistle 4, John Armstrong 5, John Richards 6, Lyndon White 7, Graham Lamb 8, Les Stewart 9, Richard Dixon 10. Women: Jan Morris 1, Thelma May 2, Kath Thompson 3, Robyn Crook 4, Jackie Cotter 5, Jenny Gray 6, Jendy Harper 7, Joy Evans 8, Karen Hines 9, Joanne Fisher 10.