TABLE TENNIS

Dominion, Volume 31, Issue 2, 28 September 1937, Page 11

TABLE TENNIS

Visiting Hungarians At Lower Hutt A BRIGHT DISPLAY The Lower Hutt Horticulture Society’s hall was crowded last night when the visiting Hungarian table tennis players played matches with local representatives and an exhibition singles between themselves. The crowd displayed the same degree of enthusiasm at the wonderful rallies, with their fine exposition of driving, skilful changes of pace, and remarkable recoveries, as was shown when the two men performed in the Wellington Town Hall recently. The match between Zabados and Kelen, won by the former by three games to one, was played at an even faster pace than , when they met in Wellington. For this Zabados was largely responsible, for, wonderful as was his defence, he. elected to attack more. Often he stood in close to the table, and in the fast rallies, the ball being almost half-volleyed, it was Kelen who was forced back. Zabados, too, showed a greater variety of strokes and a more skilful chance of pace. These two factors, combined with his wizardry in defence, were the main factors in his victory. , . , Kelen, while he showed more varied play than at Wellington, yet relied in the main on his terrific forehand drive, made with a full swing, and a very fast backhand flick, but particularly the first-men-tioned stroke. Time after time he hit the ball hard while Szabados, yards back from the table, returned it. The return was an invitation for Kelen to drive all the harder, and so it was not surprising that he should make the mistakes. On these defensive shots Szabados seldom erred. It would have been better tactics on Helen's part had he suddenly slowed the pace after two or three drives with Szabados so far back. Both players showed great accuracy in their placements, but Szabados showed the cleverer concealment of direction. It is safe to say that never before has such a standard of table tennis been seen in the Hutt 4 alley, and the experience ought to be of great benefit to the local plyers. „ Naturally, none of the Hutt players, well as they played, could, extend the Hungarians. With no necessity to extend themselves, they fell into errors of .carelessness, which were certainly not in evidence when they met in competition between themselves. Hughes very properly played a forcing game, and in consequence made many mistakes in between some winning forehand drives and an occasional drop-shot when Kelen was well back from the table. Hughes, too, showed good defence when driven back from the table, though on the whole Kfclen’s speed was far too much for him. For most of the match Kelen dominated the play from right in close to the table. Szabados made the pace against Pyne even faster than Kelen had against Hughes. -His forehand drive "was untouchable. Pyne played bis forehand drive well, but Szabados did not give him much chance to use it. Corbett, the New Zealand boy champion. defended well against Kelen and brought off a few brilliant forehand drives, but Kelen outplayed him in all departments. L. Roberts, in his match with Szabados, gave the best exhibition of the. Hutt representatives, many of the rallies ing well-deserved applause. But he was opposed by a player who was equal to any emergency. Roberts did very little defence, depending on a hard and consistent attack to Szabados’s backhand corner. Roberts sometimes won points with perfect drop-shots, following fast drives which Szabados had to play from well behind the table. In the even’s doubles Kelen and Szabados played all over Hughes and Roberts, and in the mixed doubles the women players, Miss Strang and Miss Tustin, specially the latter, were much too slow in handling the fast, shots. Miss Strang made one or two brilliant forehand drives that beat Szabados all the way, to the huge delight of the crowd. R. Henderson and S. Henderson gave a bright display, the defence of S. Henderson causing R. Henderson to fall into numerous errors when he drove hard on the forehand. S. Henderson nlso had a solid forehand drive, and was more accurate.

Following are the results: — I. Kelen beat E. Hughes, 21-14, 21-16. M. Szabados beat L. Pyne, 21-7, 21-19. I. Kelen beat G. Corbett, 21-8, 21-16. M. Szabados beat L. Roberts, 21-12, 2115. M. Szabados beat I. Kelen, 24-22, 2110, 11-21, 21-14. Szabados and Kelen beat Hughes and Roberts, 21-9, 21-8. Kelen and Miss Strang beat Szabados and Miss Tustin, 21-13, 13-21, 21-15. S. Henderson beat R. Henderson, 31-20.