TABLE TENNIS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 23859, 13 July 1939, Page 5

TABLE TENNIS

By Backhand FIXTURES August 4 and s.—Otago championships. at Dunedin. August 16 and 17.—South Island championships. at Invercargill. August 18 and 19. —New Zealand championships, at Dunedin. HIGHEST SCORES Men’s A Grade.—R. Algie, 8 games. Women’s A Grade.—Miss M. Bennett. 8 games: Miss M. Fogarty, 8 games; Miss D. Fogarty, 8 games; Miss E. Locke, 8 games; Miss L. Hayward. 7 games: Mrs Monk. 7 games; OTAGO CHAMPIONSHIPS Now that the dates of the Otago championships have been definitely decided upon, there should be little need to remind players that their entries for the various events must be forwarded to the secretary at the earliest opportunity. This will give those members of the committee concerned a chance to arrange the handicaps in conjunction with the draw It is to be hoped that doubles partners have been chosen, so that an understanding of each other’s play and style may’ be acquired with beneficial results to both parties In the doubles sections we shall have to look to our laurels when encountering the strong opposition from Southland, whose players have proved to be our equals in this phase of the game during the oast few seasons.

The singles title in the men s division should be retained here while we have players of the class of R. A Algie. N. Brown. F. Foster S. Archer. L. Brown, and many others who have been more than a match for the Southlanders up to the present. As for the women’s events, Otago entrants must expect serious competition from Southland when their contingent arrives, for- players of undoubted ability such as Mrs Croad, Miss Feams, and Mrs Robson will upset the calculations of several of our local nlavers.

NEW ZEALAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

. Advice has been received that strong contingents from both Auckland and Wellington will be arriving here for the New Zealand championships. Such noteworthy exponents of the game as Boniface. Gosling. Boyes Hughes, and Cantlay are almost certain to make the trip. The table tennis public can. therefore, look forward to seeing some fine exhibitions in the games in which these players take part, They hatfe proved themselves against the incomparable Barna and his fellow countryman, Lazio Beliak, during the tbur made by the two world-famous Hungarians last year. It will be interesting also to compare the styles and the standard reached by these men with those of our own.

A keen student of the game, who has seen the play of both Islands, recently stated that the standard attained by quite a number of Dunedin players during the last 12 months was extraordinary. - We have it on good authority that R. A. Algie’s displays compare more than favourably with those of the North Island champions, and he should provide one of the greatest stumbling blocks to their success .There arq, however, many other players here who have many fine shots combined with all-round ability which should enable them to hold their own with most of the northern players.; The essential thing then is to indulge in persistent and concentrated practice with players of varying styles. If this Is done a fair measure of success will be attained.

COMMENTS ON MATCHES Men’s Section A Grade

St, Clair emerged victorious in the match with Dunedin after some closely fought games. Many of the rallies brought gasps of surprise and delight from the large number of spectators, who agreed that some of the games were the best seen here for some time. For St. Clair, -R. A. Algie was again on his form, and it is interesting to note that this player has hot suffered a defeat since the beginning of the second round'. The . other St. Clair men played well. A. R. Algie and L. Rainsay showing something, like their true form, while M. Myl.es, a newcomer to match play, showed that .with coaching he would develop into a good player. His efforts against L. Brown and D. Smyth were particularly praiseworthy. All members of the Dunedin side save good performances, but seemed to lack the finish of St. Clair. This was noticeable In the games played by L. Brown, and it appeared that a few more hard matches would soon: bring this player to the top of his form; B Grade Kensington B II were defeated by a margin of four games in their match with Zenith 11, the-actual scores being 14—18. Some of these games were closely contested, there being little between the two teams on the night’s play. For Kensington. Paine did well to take six games, and was ably supported by Callon and Steedman. M. Buckland was Zenith’s best man. winning seven games. ' WOMEN’S SECTION A Grade The game between Kensington and Bennett’s was won by the latter in decisive manner the final score being 24—10. Miss M Bennett was the outstanding player of the night, and won all her games. V. Donaldson and W. Bennett also gave good support, taking six games each Mrs Craig was the ' only Kensington player to give much opposition, though Miss Callon played well occasionally.

Mornington overwhelmed Red Triangle to the tune of, 24—10. Mrs Monk keeping up her excellent average by again winning seven games. Mesdames Johnston, Foxcroft, and Miss Dodd kept the score mounting by winning six. five, and four games respectively Miss N. Davis was the only Red Triangle player to get going, and her effort in defeating Mrs Monk was one of the highlights of the evening In the match between St. Patrick’s 1 and Dunedin. Misses M. and D Fogarty played at the top of their form and were mainly responsible for the St. Patrick’s victory each winning eight games. There were some fine oerformances in this match, but undoubtedly the best game was that between P. Corcoran and E. Brown the latter player coming out on top with the score at 27—25. St. Patrick’s finally won by 24 games to 10. D.S.A. easily *accounted for St. Patrick’s 11. Misses E, Locke and R. Hayward leading the way to victory by taking eight and seven games respectively. These two players are certainly keeping up a good average

and should be well to the fore in the Otago and New Zealand championships. Miss Watson and Mrs More gave good support, and in winning 10 games between them brought the final score to 25—9. Miss P. Fogarty played admirable table tennis to win four games, favouring the forehand drive, which she uses with great effect. This player shows promise of developing into one of Otago’s best lady players in the not-so-far-distant future. She and Miss P. Young deserve the highest praise for their defeat of Misses Locke and Hayward in the doubles by 26—24 B Grade Chambers’ players deserve credit for their fine perfojmance in defeating Normal I by the large score of 26 —6. Misses E. Latta and Z Morris were in winning vein, and dropped only one game each to Mrs Lungley who was the only Normal player to trouble the members of the Chambers team Misses Cormack and Keen also won six games each for Chambers, this giving them a splendid team average and proving that these players together constitute one of the strongest teams in B grade D.S.A. lost to Elco, who proved definitely superior on the run of the play, but Misses Curtis and Lloyd, for D.S.A. made the Elco players go all out to win their games. For Elco Misses M. Duffy, E. Hapi. and B. Aitken gave good displays to win six games each, while Miss Lloyd was D.SA.’s best player, and won five games. Friends were much too good for Mooney’s and won by 26—6, M. Bishop took eight games for Friends, with Miss Riach close behind with seven. Miss D. Bolton played the best of Mooney’s team, and won four games, while several other games in which she Elayed ended closely and could easily ave gone the other way.

A closely contested match was enjoyed in the game between Trinity and Mornington. won by the latter by 17— 15. For Mornington Miss Parker with eight games, and Miss D. Graywith six. were the best. Miss M. Smith played well to take six games for Trinity.

NORTH OF ENGLAND CHAMPIONSHIPS

, A letter from an enthusiastic table tennis player in England to a friend > in Dunedin provides interesting reading on the North of England championships. As is to be expected in a big event like that a large number of European players were entered Viktor Barna. who ■ visited us last year was defeated in . the semi-final by A Liebster, who gave an amazing display, and finished the meeting by defeating R. Bergmann, the world champion in the final. The report is as follows: ,“ it was obvious in the first two games that they were being treated to Bergmann in world championship vein, for with his newly acquired forehand attack and brilliant defence he had no. difficulty in out-manoeuvring Liebster’s desperate attempts at. positional play combined with judicious use of the half-volley. Then in the third game. Liebster seemed to wake up, and Bergmann found his smashes returned from amazing distances. Nothing like this had been seen from Liebster for years. Having exhausted Bergmann’s patience, he now proceeded to attack to spch purpose that even Bergmarin’s “aegis” was not sufficient to stem the flow of forcing drives. Liebster won the third and fourth, and riding on the crest of his wave, went to 19—16 with Bergmann trying a little pushing. But pushing •was not enough, for Liebster took it calmly, and. With Bergmann despairing. left it to the world champion to push two off the table to give Liebster his first North of England title.” GAME IN SOUTH OTAGO Table tennis is booming in South Otago. There is a strong association, with headquarters at Balclutha, and its activities are extending to neighbouring districts. An interesting competition is being conducted in three grades. Railway, the pioneer club, holds first place in the A Grade, having a good teani headed by W. Fogarty, who is setting a high standard, for local players.. The other members of the team—McMillan. Bullen. and Anderson—are steadily improving; This club plays three teams of keen Players. Stirling Club heads both the B and C Grades, women members being prominent.

Kaitangata. another country club, is strong in membership and ability. Next to Railway, the United Club has the strongest players, and there is good material in Kia Ora Fire Brigade and Bov Scouts. Lovell’s Flat, the youngest and possibly the strongest club numerically is developing fast, and is second equal in C Grade. The visit of the team from Otago on Saturday night provided an interesting display. Such visits and competition will do more than anything el°e to encourage local players and raise the standard of nlnv in the district.