TABLE TENNIS NEWS

Published each month, October to May inclusive. Postal subscriptions £1.35 for eight issues.

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DYNAMIC DUO

The retention of all seven Common­we'alth titles in Melbourne was quite: a feat in itse'lf, but for our women to go on and Nft the'mse'lves five positions in the Corbillon Cup competition in Calcutta, is deserving of special praise.

They now rate fifth in the world and second only to Hungary of the European contenders, the two players mainly res­ponsible be1ing Jill Hammersley and Linda Howard.

It was these two players who, at the he'ight of an Australian summer, fought out a magnificent women's singiles final in Melbourne Town Hall, in front of an appreciative audience who, it is doubted, had ever seen such a standard of play from the' fair sex.

Harmoniously paired as a doub!es combination in India, they were without defe'at in eight Cot1billon Cup matches, the only pity being that because of prior arrangements, they were split in the women's doubles event for the G. Geist Prize.

Having regard to the subsequent failures of Jill, paired with Hungary's Beatrix Kishazi, and Linda with Ann­Christin Hellman, of Sweden, such part­nerships for future high leve,1 events must now be considere,d at an end.

ENGLISH TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION

Patron: Her Majesty the Queen.

President: M. Goldstein

Life Vice-President: Hon. Ivor Montagu

Chail'1nan: C. M. Wyles, O.B.E.

Deputy Chairman: G. R. Yates

Hon. Treasurer: T. Blunn

General Secretary: E. R. Taylor

Management Committee: I. R. Crickmer, M. Goldstein, A. E. Upton

and K. Watts.

Page 2

llrd WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ~-.---------------~-._----_..

Men's Si,ng,les ISTVAN JO(NYE:R

( Hungary)

Men's D10ulbles GABOIR GE.RGELY

and ISTVA,N JO'NYER (Hungary)

Women's Singles YU'NG SUN KIM

(Kore'a to.P.R.)

Womlen's iDouble,s MARIA A,L,EXAN,D'RU

and SHO'K,O TAKAHASHI (Rumani,a/Japan)

M'ixed Doubles STA,NISLAV GOMOZKO,V and TATJANA FERDMAN

(U.S.S.R.)

Swaythling Cup Corbinon Cup CHINA CH:IINA

Jubile,e Cup KARL NO'ELLER

(Luxembourg) L~-.-r -...r _

Rhapsody for Jonyer .In Calcutta

bV GEORGE R. YA TES

Hungary's Istvan Jonyer, coming back from a 0-2 deficit against Anton Stipancic, of Yugo­slavia, won the men's singles title in the 33rd W·orld Championships played in the newly­completed Netaji Stadium, Eden Gardens, Calcutta, over the period Feb. 6-16.

It was the first all-European final since 1953 when another Hungarian, the legendary Ferenc Sido, beat Ivan Andreadis, of Czechoslovakia, in Bucharest.

North Korea's doll-like Yung Sun Kim) ·making her first World Championships appearance, won the counterpart women's event with final victory over a most docile Chang Li, of China but, so easily could have gone out in the first round when she just got home 21-18 in the fifth game decider dgainst England's Jill Hammersley.

Jonyer took his second title in the ,men's doubles when, with his compatriot, Gabor Gergely, more sorrow was heaped on to the drooping shoulders of Stip'ancic and his Yugo­slav partner, Dragutin Suribek.

In the women's doubles event Rumania's Maria Alexandru exchanged her Japanese partner in Sarajevo, Miho Hamada, for Shoko Takahashi, to again come out on top against Chu Hsiang-yun and Lin Mei-chin, of China.

And, in a Russian-dominated mixed doubles event, Stanislav Gomozkov and Tatjana Ferd­man had a final straight games victory over Sarkis rSarkhojan and Elmira Antonian.

Although success,ful in both the Swaythling

and Corbillon Cup events, China - perhaps content to rest on their laurels-did not have a winner in the five individual tourneys. Champions Hsi En-ting and Hu Yu-lan were beaten, respectively, by Stipancic, in the lquarter-finals of the men's singles, and by Russia's Asta Gedraitite in the first round ot the wo,men's singles.

Hsi En-ting was the top seed in the men's event with Surbek at No.2, the Yugoslav of the mighty mus1cles surviving until the quarters when he, like Hsi En-ting, was elimin­ated at the hands of Mitsuru Kohno, of Japan,who was the beaten finalist in Stockholm (1967) when Nobuhiko Hasegawa won the title.

ANOTHIER FALLER Third seed, Kjell Johansson, of Sweden, the

beaten finalist in Sarajevo, was another faller in the quarters, his conqueror being yet another J ap, Norio Takashima. But Li Chen­shih, the fourth seed, who plays a fast attack­ing close-to-the-table game, fell in the secop.d round to Miran Savnik, .of Yugoslavia.

Jonyer was the other quarter-final winner, his victim being Sarkhojan, as had been Inge­'mar Vikstrom (Sweden), Jar()Slav lKunz (Czechoslovakia), Errol Caetano (Canada) and Jochen Leiss (Federal Germany) before him.

Both Jap contenders surrendered in the semis when J onyer, of the fair complexion, thumped off Kohno a.nd the left-handed Stipancic finally put paid to the aspirations ot Takashima, the Kinki University student who,

World m,en's singles ch~ml?ion, .Istvan jonyer, displ'!ys Yung Sun Kim, of Kore,a D.P.R., with the W. J. Pope the St. Bride Vase. To hIS rIght IS the defeated finalIst, Trophy which she won as a result of beating Chang Li Anton Stip'ancic, the Rosing semi-finalists being Takashima in the final of the women's singles.'and the bespectacled Kohno, of Japan.

I Photo by "The Statesman," Calcutta.

it may be recalled, figured in that epic ~uel in Sarajevo against Li Ching-kuang, of ChIna, in the Srwaythling Cup.

'Of the big na1mes to fall in the early rounds perhaps that of the European chamrpipn, Milan Orlowski was the most notable, lOSIng as he did in the third round, to Takashima -12, -14~ -7. But there was an excuse for Orlowski, just as there was for many other players, who contracted that most prevalent of Indian diseases, the "Calcutta Gut."

'Gomozkov, of the whiplash backhand, took a turrltble to England's Trevor Taylor, who, enigmatic as ever, with more downs than ups In the Swaythlin!? Cup event, also acc~Llnte.d for Witold 'Woznlca (Poland) and, beheve It or not, Heinz Schliiter, of Austria, who Trev may have had occasion to remember in Sara­jevo!

Taylor, who was by ~ar our ,most successfl:ll player in the men's SIngles, finally took hIS leave when despatched summarily by Stipan­cic. Nicky Jarvis, who had performed so wep in the team events, blotched hIS copy book and might well have put .himself out .of t~e running for a World rankIng when lOSIng, In the first round, to E'mpie Wuisan, of Indonesia.

Denis Neale, alfter beating Paul Pinkewich in Round 1, took an unexpected fall to Petel Stellwag, but neither Desinond Douglas nor Jimmy Walkei' covered themselves in glory either. De,s, after accounting for Zoran Kosano· vic, of Yugoslavia, ran foul of Hungary's ace defender, Janos Borszei, whilst Ji,m,my, after beating Rodjak, of Indonesia, then encountered Johansson with the not unexpected -9, -17, -9 result in favour of the Swede!

SNUFF'ED OUT Sweden's Stellan Bengtsson looked set on a

second holding of the title when brushing

aside, in straight games, the challenge of Herman Hopman (Netherlands), Bagrat Burnazian (USSR) and Li Ching-kwang. "Tomahawk" went down -20~ -11, -5. But then Bengtsson, after holding a 2-1 lead over Kohno, was snuffed out like a candle.

Jarpan'ls new top man, Katsuyuki Abe.. after wins over Ulf Thorsell (Sweden) and Tiao Wen-yuan (China) let slip a lead of 2-1 ovel Hsi En-ting, whilst Anatoliy Strokatov, winner of the Norwich Union International Champion­ships title, after beating Federal Germany's Peter Engel, lost to Takashi1ma.

Jacques Secre'tin endeared himself to the Indian spectators, all 12,000 of them, with his spectacular high-lobbed returns, which had the stadium in an uproar time and time again.

The Frenchman got into his rhythm against Dal Joon-Lee, of the U.S.A., and maintained it against Laszlo Foldy (Switzerland) and Borszei, but Takashima was having none of it when he brought matters to a s.wift end in the fourth game after exchanging compliments in the previous three.

Danny See1miller, the States champion, met up with a "Pickwickian" companion in Claus Pedersen, of Denmark, who, in Round 2, won 15, 20 and 9. Nigeria's Babatunde Olbisanya had good wins over James ,Morris (NZ) and Z. Fraczyk (Poland) before losing to Sark­hojan who also took care of Jean-Denis COllrstant~ of France.

Welshman Alan Griffiths, another "tummy" casualty, fell in the first round to Chan Ching Hing, of Hong Kong, at which stage Errol Caetano had a good win over "Charlie" Wuva­nich followed by success over India's J agan­nath.

GOL,DEN PATH After the fall of holder Hu Yu-lan in the

Photo by ajoy dey, Calcutta.

1st round of the women's singles, the path looked golden for Jill Hammersley, who was drawn in the same quarter. After taking, the first game, at 18, over Yung Sun Kim, of the Korean Democratic People's Republic, it appeared more so.

But squeaking like a cornered mouse as she emerged sucrcessfully from each tight encompass, the North Korean girl took the next two games only for Jill to fight ba'ck and squared the set at 2-all.

Tactically mature in ,breaking, Jill's concen­tration, even to the extent of taking bet1ween­points advice from her bench, the diminutive Korean won the day and with it, I felt, the cha',mpionship itself which ,could otherwise have been destined for the Englishwoman, who lost 18, -14, -13, 19~ -18. I In that same ill-fated round Linda Howard was beaten by Birgitta Olsson, of Sweden (13, 1·13, 21, -21, -16), and Karenza Mathews by 'China's Huang Hsi-ping (-11, -13, -15). Carole' Knight failed to emerge from the qualifying competition when beaten by Dubravka Fabri, of Yugoslavia, 13, 17 and 10.

Tatjana Ferdman emerged as the JIllost promising ne1w'con1er on the scene with spec­tacular wins over Ludmilla Smidova (Czecho), Sung Nak So (Korea Republic) and Yuki Ohzeki (Japan). The Russian girl continued her 'winning w'ays in the quarters by account­ing for such formidable opposition as Maria Alexandru~ who went under -12, -15, '-16.

SQUEAKED ANEW

But it was Yung Sun Kim who squeaked ,anew in coming out on top of a 5-game semi­final encounter, Erzebet Palatinus, of Yugo­slavia, was the other European to take the eye in reaching the qua·rters, especially in her win

Page 3

--------------

-----------------

Korea D.P.R's Yung Sun Kim on her way to winning the women's singles title at Calcutta.

over ,China's Cheng Yuai-ying, who had beaten Lee Ailesa, of Korea Republic.

Czechoslovakia's Alica Grofova beat the European champion, Judit Magos (Hungary) but then lost to Chu Hsiang-yun, of China, three of whose players dominated the bottom half of the draw, with Chang Li coming through for that inglorious defeat in the final.

Biggest shock of the men's doubles was the eclipse of the holders, Bengtsson and Johan­sson, by Soewindo and Sutedja, of Indonesia, :who triumphed -11, 15, 22 and 19 and yet were cast out on their ears by Secretin and 'Constant, of France, 19, 9 and 3! i Taylor, paired with Kohno, began with a "fine win over "Tomahawk" and Wang Wen­hua (18, -17, -10, 10, 15) but lost in the next round to the event winners, J onyer and Gergely.

Neale and Douglas also began on the rightkey by accounting for Karakasevic and Kosano­vic, of Yugoslavia, and fought well before .losing in th e next round to Orlowski and .Tiri ,Turai, the Czechs winning -15, 19, 17, -18, 19.

In the lower half J arvi,s and Walker let go a 2-1 lead over the Aussies Pinkewich and .Robert Tuckett, who won -13, 14, -18, 19, 17 and finally succumbed to AbejItoh, of Japan. There was no doubting the improvement made by Australia's squad in these championships. fair dinkum.

Having been unbeaten in the Corbillon Cup ..matches as a doubles pairing, it was a pity .that Jill and Linda had to be separated for the women's doubles event in which Jill con4

tinued her partnership, now surely at an end, with Beatrix Kishazi, of Hungary.

,FIiRST E',NCOUNTER The Anglo-Hungarian combination tasted

defeat in their very first encounter againstChang Li and Cheng Huai-ying, Wlho wnll 11, 10 and 19. Linda, paired with Ann-Christin Hellman, of Sweden, fared no better in losing -9, -19, 16, -20 to Grofova and Hana Riedlova, whilst the all-English partnership of Karenza and Carole 'were beaten 14, 17 and 10 by Fabrij Erzebet KOFpa, of Yugoslavia.

In a ,mixed doubles event dominated by the Russians, England's pairings had a thin time of it with Jarvis and Jill, together with Walker and Carole failing to emerge :from the qualify­ing conlpetition.

Jarvis and Jill lost to Engel and Jana Elberle, of Federal Germany (19, 18, -19, -17, -18) and the all-Ormes:by conllbination to Lee Chae Chul and Son Hye Soon, of Korea Republi,c. Neale and Karenza, in the first round proper, had

Page 4

Photo by "The Statesman," Calcutta.

an even more disnlal failure in losing to Tuckett and Helen Morrow (Australia) (20, -13, 12, -19, -16).

By this time, of course, the over lengthy spell a'way from home was really telling and there wasn't a smiling face missing as the team gathered in the departure lounge of Dum Dum Airport, Calcutta, all being nlore than ready to climb aboard the Air India flight to Born'bay and the subsequent Singa­pore Airlines Boeing 717 for Heathrow.

Memories of Calcutta will be retained for many years to come. The night the rains came 'with play held up for 90 minutes as the roof leaked ("It never rains in Calcutta in February")! The overpowering heat within the stadium itself and the dust which caused so much chest and throat infections; but to offset all the discomforts the wonderful hospi­tality shown by the Indians, who really took the cham,pionships to their hearts and made each and everyone of us welcome and no request impossible.

When one considers that the Netaji Stadiunl

was built in 9 months, five of which were in the monsoon season, the Table Tennis Federa­tion of India, led by their President, T. D. Ranga Ramanujan, can be justly proud, as can every single person in no matter what capacity who had a hand in bringing the championships to a successful conclusion. What a task England now face in preparation for the next!

Cover Picture Hungary's ·Istvan J onyer holds aloft the Iran

Cup to the accompanying wave of his com­p:atriot, Gabor Gergely, after their men's doubles victory over a dejected-looking (Dragutin Surbek and Anton Stipancic, of Yugoslavia, occupying the No.2 pedestal. In the semi-final the Hungarians beat Secretin and ,Constant, of France, the other losingIselmi-finalists being Itoh and Abe, of Jap1an. 'Shri T.D. Ranga Ranlanujan, President of the mabie Tennis Federation of India, presentedthe medals after Amir A. Amin had made the presentation of the donor country's trophy.

Individual Events • Resul~s

Men's Singles-Round 3: Hsi En-ting (Ch) bt K. Abe (Ja) -17, 14, -16, 11, 16. G. Gergely (Hn) bt P. Stellwag (Gr) 12, 13, 18. T. Taylor (En) bt S. Gomozkov (Su) 18, -14, -19, IS, 18. A. Stipancic (Vu) bt Lu Yuan-sheng (Ch) 18, 10, 13. N. Takashima (Ja) bt M. Orlowski (Cz) 12, 14, 7. J. Secretin (Fr) bt J. Borszei (Hn) 6, -15, 11, 16. Liang Ko-Iiang (Ch) bt C. Pedersen (Dn) 11, 17, 9. 1(. Johansson (Sw) bt M. Karakasevic (Vu) 19, 9, 17. J. Leiss (Gr) bt M. Savnik (Yu) -19, 18, 14, 8. S. Sarkhojan (Su) bt B. Obisanya (Ni) 9, 9, 20. Li Peng (Ch) bt Chan Shing Hing (HK) 16, 23, -22, 13. 1. Jonyer (Hu) bt E. Caetano (Ca) 7, 16, 14. S. Bengtsson (Sw) bt Li Ching-kwang (Ch) 20, 11,5. M. Kohno (Ja) bt Chul Yun (KD) 14, 15, 19. Hsu Shao-fa (Ch) bt P. Sandstrom (Sw) 9, 15, -25, 12. D. Surbek (Yu) bt F. Timar (Hu) 18, IS, 18. Round 4: Hsi En-ting bt Gergely II, 9, 18. Stipancic bt Taylor 19, 17, 18. Takashima bt Secretin 21, 6, -19, 18. Johansson bt Liang Ko-liang 17, 17, -12, 17. Sarkhojan bt Leiss 7, 13, 22. Jonyer bt Li Peng 12, -14, 16, 10. Kohno bt Bengtsson -18, 19, -18, 16, 10. Surbek bt Hsu Shao-fa -16, 19, 16, -18, 19. Quarter-finals: Stipancic bt Hsi En-ting 8, -21, -21, 7, 17. Takashima bt Johansson 18, 23, -21, 12. Jonyer bt Sarkhojan 19, 16, -16, 20. Kohno bt Surbek 7, 10, 18. Semi-finals: Stipancic bt Takashima 10, 6, -20, -19, 13. Jonyer bt Kohno 13, IS, 23. Final: JONYER bt Stipancic ·17, -12, 14, IS, 19. Women's Singles-Round 2: H. Lotaller (Hu) bt A. Gedraitite (Su) -12, 17, 14, 16, 11. Yung Sun Kim (KD) bt B. Thiriet (Fr) 14, 10, 3. H. Riedlova (Cz) bt I. Puri (In) -10,7, -12, IS, 16. Chung Hyun Sook (KR) bt A.-C. Hellman (Sw) 16, 18, 13. Huang Hsi-ping (Ch) bt J. Siswono <Id) 13, 14, 14.

Ph.oto by ajoy dey, Calcutta.

China's Hsu Shao-fa serves to Dragutin Surbek in a fourth round contest won ·16, 19, 16, .18, 19 by the Yugoslav.

M. Alexandru (Ru) bt A. Rangelova (Su) 6,7,9. T. Ferdman (Su) bt Sung Nak So (KR) 19/ 16, 13. Y. Ohzeki (Ja) bt Yen Kuei-Ii (Ch) IS, 19, -12,22. Cheng Huai-ying (Ch) bt N. Bakker (Ne) 13, 17, 13. E. Palatinus (Yu) bt B. Olsson (Sw) 12, -18, 14, 6. Ke Hsin-Ai (Ch) bt Sim Kyung Ok (KR) 12, IS, -21, 13. E. Antonian (Su) bt T. Edano (Ja) 12, 6, 17. Chu Hsiang-yun (Ch) bt A. Grofova (Cz) IS, 17/ II. S. Yokota Ja bt B. Calinska (Po) IS, 14, 16. M. Lezay (Ru) bt C. Ono (Ja) 16, 13, 17. Chang Li (CIl) bt S. Federova CSu) -18, 19, 14, 8. Round 3: Yung Sun Kim bt Lotaller -21, -17, 17, II, 16. Chung Hyun Sook bt Riedlova 9, -17, 17, 22. Alexandru bt Huang Hsi-ping -17, 18, 18, 18. Ferdman bt Ohzeki -IS, 10, -16, 19, 23. Palatinus bt Cheng Huai-ying -19, 13, -14, IS, 17. Ke Hsin-Ai bt Antonian IS, -16, 18, 11. Chu Hsiang-yun bt Yokota -II, 7, 8, 11. Chang Li bt Lesay 12, 14, 8. Quarter-finals: Yung Sun Kim bt Chung Hyun Sook -13, 19, -20, 16, 21. Ferdman bt Alexandru 12, IS, 16. Ke Hsin-Ai bt Palatll1us 9, 9, 8. Chang Li bt Chu Hsiang-yun 7, 17, 16. Semi -finals: Yung Sun Kim bt Ferdman -10, II, -17, 19, 11. Chang Li bt Ke Hsin-Ai 17, 13, 13. Final: YUNG SUN KIM bt Chang Li -24, 12, 14, 15. Men's Doubles-Round 3 U. Soewindo/G. Sutedja (ld) bt Bengtsson/Johansson -II, IS,

22, 19. J. D. Constant (Fr)/Secretin bt. Leiss/Stellwag 19, -20, -IS,

16, 19. Hsi En-ting/ Lu Yuan-sheng bt Orlowski / J. Turai (Cz) 12, 16, 10. Gergely/ Jonyer bt S. Fraczyk/W. Woznica (Po) 10, -18, -12,

17, 15. ~tipancic/Surbek bt J. I(unz/ P. Ovcarik (Cz) 20, 12, -18, 15. I-i Cho-min (Ch) / Liang Ko-liang bt B. Grimstrup (Dn) / Pedersen

II, 9, 4. Abe/S. Itoh (Ja) bt P. Pinkewich/R. Tuckett (As) 7, 18, 13. (iomozkov/Sarkhojan bt B. Persson/ I. Wikstrom (Sw) 9, 13, 18. Quarter-finals: Constant/Secretin bt Soewindo/Sutedja 19, 9, 3. Gergely/ Jonyer bt Hsi En-ting/ Lu Yuan-sheng IS, 20, 18. $tipancic/Surbek bt Li Chow-min/Liang Lo-Iiang -16, 16, IS,

-IS, 14. Abe/ltoh bt Gomozkov/Sarkhojan 20, -13, -16, 16, 22. Semi-finals: Gergely/Jonyer bt Constant/Secretin -18, 10, -10, 12, 22. Stipancic/Surbek bt Abe/ltoh 16, 14, -22, 13. Final: GERGELY /JONYER bt Stipancic/Surbek 14, -19, 16, 16. Women's Doubles-Round 2: Ozheki /Yokota bt Hu Yu-Ian (Ch) !I(e Hsin-Ai -13, 17, 14, 11. E. I(orpa/D. Fabri (Yu) bt E. Neykova (Su)/Rangelova 17, -5,

17, 9. Chu Hsiang-yun/Lin Mei-chih (Ch) bt M. Lesay/V. Moldovan (Ru)

5, 19, 17. Chung Hyun Sook/Sim Kyung Ok bt E. Jeler (Yu)/Palatinus -19,

13, IS, 21. Grofova/Riedlova bt Chang Li/Cheng Huai-ying 14, 12, 13. Alexandru/S. Takahashi (Ja) bt C. Bergeret (Fr) /Thiriet 17,

9, 14. Edano/Ono bt J. Eberle/W. Hendriksen (GR) 19, IS, 17. Antonian/Ferdman bt Son Hye Soon/Sung Nak Sok (KR) -19,

19, 16, 17. Quarter-finals: Ozheki/Yokota bt Korpa/Fabri 12, 14, 18. Chu Hsiang-yun/Lin Mei-chih bt Chung Hyun Sook/Sim Kyung Ok

13, 7, 12. Alexandru/Takashima bt Grofova/Riedlova -17, -14, 13, 18, 20. Antonian/Ferdman bt Edano/Ono -17, 12, 18, -19, 16. Semi -finals: Chu Hsiang-yun/Lin Mei-chih bt Ozheki-Yokota 16, 14, 12. Alexandru/Takasllima bt Antonian/Ferdman -17, 12, 18, -19, 16. Final: ALEXANDRU/TAKASHIMA bt Chu Hsian-yun/Lin Mei-chih 18, -9,

II, 14. Mixed Doubles-Round 3: Liang Ko-liang/Chang Li bt A. Strokatov (Su) /Gedriatite IS,

16, 16. Li Te-yang (Ch)/Huang Tsi-ping w.o. Orlowski/Grofova (ser.>. Sarkhojan/ Antonian bt Stipaneic/ Palatinus 20, 16, -16, 16. Li Peng/ Ke Hsin-Ai bt Jonyer/J. Magos (Hu) -13, 21, 12, 15. Gomozkov/Ferdman bt Gergely/Lotaller 14, 17, 16. Lu Yuan-sheng/Hu Yu-Ian bt Li Ching-kuang/Yen Kuei-Ii 18, 14,

17. Ito'h/Ozheki bt T. Gheorge/V. Moidaval (Ru) 16, 14, 9. Li Cho-min/Cheng Huai-ying bt Secretin/Bergeret 19, 18, 17. Quarter-finals: Liang Ko-ling/Chang Li bt Li Te-yang/Huang Tsi-ping 8, 13, 12. Sarkhojan/ Antonian bt Li Peng/Ke Hsin-Ai IS, 16, -IS, 15. Gomozkov/Ferdman bt Lu Yuan-sheng/Hu Yu-Ian -9, IS, 14, 13. Itoh/Ozheki bt Li Cho-min/Cheng Huai-ying 12, 9, 22. Semi -finals: Sarkhojan/ Antonian bt Liang Ko-Iianq/Chang Li 14, 19, -IS, 16. Gomozkov/Ferdman bt Itoh/Ozheki 20, II, 15. Final: GOMOZKOV/FERDMAN bt Sarkhojan/Antonian 13, 13, 21. JUBILEE CUP Quarter-finals: Poon Weng Hoe (Sn) bt Chat Mei Van (VR) II, 15. G. Roland (Be) bt D. Stuart (As) 17, 17. K. t\()e Iler (Lu) bt Leah Neuberger (US) 9, 20.

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T. Boggan (US) bt I. Levine (US) 7, 13. Semi-finals: Poon Weng Hoe bt Roland 9, -19, 12. Noeller bt Boggan 16, 13. Final: NOELLER bt Poon Weng Hoe 14, -12, 22. Consolation Singles-Men Quarter-finals: E. Knapp (As) bt M. Firaneseu (Ru) 19, -II, 18. G. Bisi (It) bt R. Tuckett (As) 17, -17, 19. S. Dobosi (Ru) bt S. Feldstein (Ca) 10,8. N. Bajaj (In) bt Z. I(osanovic (Yu) 8, 5. Semi-finals: Knapp bt Bisi 14, 15.

Stanislav 'Gomozkov and Tatjana Ferdman, of Russia, with the Heydusek Prize for the mixed doubles winne·rs.

Jonyer awaits the outcome of this return by his Hungarian compatriot, Gergely, in the men's doubles final.

PhOtO by ajoy dey, Calcutta.

Dobosi bt Bajaj 15/ 17. Final: DOBOSI bt Knapp -17, 6, 17. Consolation Singles-Women Quarter-finals: E. Korpa (Yu) bt V.Moldevan (Ru) 7, 14. M. Zizkova (Cz) bt M. F. Germiat (Be) 16, 17. M. Kneip (Gr) bt D. Tejasukmana (ld) II, 9. C. Little (As) bt I. Puri (In) 19, -13, 17. Semi -finals: Korpa bt Zizkova 11/ 18. Kneip bt Little 11/ -18, 13. Final: KORPA bt Kneip 14, -18, 20.

Photo by ajoy dey, Calcutta.

Page 5

33rd World Championships

TEAM EVENTS China back in command : England's women shine

by George R. Yates

An impressive lin.e-up of dignitaries in the Netaji Stadium, Calcutta, for the ,opening c'eremony. From I to r: Shri A. L. D'ias, Governor of ~West Beng'al; H. Roy 'Evans, President I.T.T.F.; iShri F:akruddin Ali Ahmed, President of India., who inaugurated the ch.ampionships; Shri Siddhartha Shankar Ray, Chairman, Organising Committee; and Shri T. D. Ranga Ramanujan, President, of India.

Pride of place in the tea'm championships write-up must go to England's women who, from finishing tenth in Sarajevo, reached the dizzy heights of fifth nation in the World, following wins over Rumania, Poland, Yugo­slavia, Bulgari,a, Czechoslovakia and last, but by no means least, Russia, in the Corbillon :Cup.

All this was ac'complished after a shock opening defeat at the hands of Federal Ger1many and was directed hy non-pliaying captain Bryan Merrett who, forsaking Karenza Mathews and Carole Knight in the last five matches, put his faith, and rightly so, in the hands of Jill H,ammersley and Linda Howar.d. It is now a matter for the re,cords that JIll and Linda never, in eight doubles, tasted defeat and that Jill, in eight matches, lost only 3 of her 15 singles.

Praise must naturally go to the event win­ners, China, who recaptured the 'Corbillon Cup lost in Sarajevo to Korea Republic, who were the beaten finalists in Calcutta, with Japan retaining third place. The final was fitting two such ,contestants and the outcome had to await the meetin~ of Ke Hsin-ai and Lee Ailesa in the final set which the ,Chinese girl won with the ,convincing scores of 14 and 10.

It will be re'called that Korea Republic's Lee Ailesa went through the whole of the Cor1billon ,Cup competition in 8araievo without loss and yet in the ,Calcutta final she tasted defeat twice, in the first set on court, to ChangLi.

Table Tennis Federation

of their dress and deportment and the utter professionalis,m they displayed.

In the final re·ckoning it did not matter that the first encounter, against the Germans, went against us, although at the time it was a bitter pill to swallow.

Carole Knight, who had, at Brighton, beaten both Ursula Hirscn,miiller and Weibke Hend­riksen, ,was a Imust for inclusion, and her two losses the harder to take. Jill, too, was by no means at her best against Hendriksen, who really won the day. Our sole singles victory was obtained 'by Jill, against Hirschmiiller, with the doubles being won by Jill and Linda against the latter paired with Monica Kneip.

BACKLASH Rumania it was who caught the backlash

with J,ill beating both Magalena Lesay and Maria Alexandru and sharing a doubles win with Linda.

Against Japan, Jill accounted for Yuki Ohzeki, losing to Tomie .Edano, but again comhining with Linda for the doubles. But with Carole losing both her singles it was victory to J ap,an 3-2.

China was a lost ,cause, or so it was thought, and Jill was rested with Carole and Linda contesting the singles and Karenza and Carole the doubles. China won 3-0.

From then on not a single match was lost, the breakthrough Ibeing accomplished against Czechoslovakia in the second stage encounters which were won 3-2.

Hana Riedlova had wins over .Till and Linda but that was all, as Ludmila g,midova twice took the count, as did Riedlova and Alica Grofova in the doubles. No explanation was forthcoming as to why Grofova did not play singles nor, after the win, was the questionpursued.

And so it was for positions 5 and 6 that we finally took on Russia ''\Tho, in the absence of Zoya Rudnova-having a baby I was told­were represented by Elmira Antonian an d Tatjana Ferdman, the latter a beaten senIi­finalist in the girls' singles event in the last European Youth Championships played in Greece, where she lost to Lidia llie, of Rumania.

Jill opened the proceedings by beating the Russian senior new'comer, and Linda, strivingmight and main, only just went down to Antonian -23 in the third! The doubles was taken, now as a matter of' course, leaving Jill with the not impossible task of beating

But back to England's girls, who did their Scene from the cultural programme which formed part of the opening ceremonycountry credit, all four of them, in the manner in the Netaji Stadiunt. Photo lby ajoy dey, Calcutta.

Page 6

Continued from Page 6

Antonian, which she did 13 and 14. So there we were fifth in the world and feeling on top of it.

SECOND O,NLY Despite 'the' failure of the opening gambit,

the smile on Bryan Merrett's face was one that could not be washed off. I'll bet it is there yet!Well done, girls, you were great, and second only to Hungary of the European. teams.

By contrast, the efforts of our men, in the Srwaythling Cup left a great deal to be desired, with two exe'mptions, na.mely Denis Neale and Nicky Jarvis.

Neale had a singles set analysis of 11 to 6, with Jarvis running him close 9 to 6, both having a bout of sickness in the latte.r stages when we might well otherwise have retained tenth position or even bettered it.

The first stage series began with four suc­cessive defeats at the hands of Hungary, Yugo­slavia, Japan and China, with Neale England's only winner in the first t1wo.

Against Japan, however, it was Jarvis who came into his own, and like Trevor Taylor in Sarajevo, rattled up an i,mpressive treble at the expense of Abe, T'akashima and Furukawa. It was great stuff and one felt, that at last, the England No. 1 was really justifying that rank­ing.

Neale succeeded only in ,beating Ahe-no mean feat----put poor old Trev, who had lost t1hree against Hung,ary, failed to improve or even commence a credit balance. China, again, seemed a lost cause, as it turned out, ,but what a blooding for Jim,my Walker in this, his only match.

India, Indonesia and Rumania were all subsequently beaten with the loss of but one set, by Jarvis to T'eodor 'Gheorge, and we went forward to the second stage grouping for positions 9 to 12 with every confidence.

ST'RUCK DOWN But alas, Neale was struck down with a

chest infection and a high te1mperature, as was Brian Burn, the n.p.c., tbut both were at the ringside for the match against France.

First on court was Taylor who, in desultory fashion, went under to Patrick Birocheau. Jarvis restored the balance with an easy win over Christian Martin, whose compatriot, Secretin, then accounted for Douglas, who had taken tme first ganle at 19.

For the second time Jarvis levelled the match score with a 2-straight victory over Birocheau, but thereafter the rot really set in with Taylor and Jarvis both falling to Secretin, and Dougl,as a poor second to Martin.

With positions 9 and 10 not now a target, it was a renewed match with Rumania (,beaten 5-1 in the Stage 1 match) for positions 11 and 12.

Jarvis, suffering a strong dose of the "runs," had joined Neale on the sick list, but the latter, showing a slight improvement, was preferred to Walker, who remained fit throughout though somewhat inactive.

T'aylor started us off on the right foot by ac,counting for Serlban Dobosi, ,but then followed three unexpe,cted defeats with Douglas going down to Gheorge; Neale to Firanescu and Taylor affording Gheorge a second win!

The fight was truly on when Neale defeated DO'bosi and [Douglas won his only Swaythling Cup set in beating Marin Firanescu to bring the match score to 3-3.

Back came Neale for his last set, against Gheorge,...by which time the England No. 2 was be.ginning to .feel the strain, not being up to the mark, and despite winning the first game, fell away in the .next two.

CUR'TAINS Down ralttled the 'curtains in the next set

when Taylor, victorious in the first ga,me, also fell away ,badly and the Rumanians, much to their surprise, were the winners by 5 sets to 3! It was a reverse that put us in a final twelfth position, a drop of two places from Sarajevo.

Page 8

'China, with seven wins in a row, topped the group, as did Czechoslovakia in the parallel one, with a similar record. Runners-up, re,s­pectively, we.re Yugoslavia and Sweden, the Swaythling Cup holders, whose one loss was to the Czechs.

Shocks abounded in the Second Stage play­offs for Positions 1 to 4, with Yugoslavia 'bea'ting the Czechs 5-3 and China, going one better, winning 5-2. Sweden's only winner against China was Johansson, who beat Liang Ko-liang and Li Chen-shih, Bengtsson gOling down to the latter as well as to Usu Shao-fa.

In the Czech/Yugoslav encounter, Surbek had wins over Turai .and Kunz with Orlowski conceding with the start of his illness. Stipan­cic had wins over both Orlowski and T'urai.

All this followed Czechoslovakia taking a 2-0 lead when Kunz beat Stipancic and Orlowski beat Karakasevic. Turai won their other set in ,beating Karakasevic.

Alas, Yugoslavia seem fated to occupy the role of runners-up, for despite taking a 2-1 lead against China in the final encounter, they subsequently found the.mselves 2-4 in arrears, alleviated when Surlbek beat Li Chen-,shih but made absolute when Hsu Shao-fa thundered home against Stipancic, who, as events turned out, was to suffer twice nl0re before the cham­pionships were concluded. Still to finish in second position is no mean feat and I feel sure that Dusan OS'managic is in no danger of losing his job as Trainer/Coach of the Yugo­slav team.

Continued on Page 12

George R. Yates, Deputy Chairman E.T.T.A., presents the Sway.thling Cup to China's non-playing captain, Li Fu-jung, with captains Dusan Osmanagic (Yugoslavia), /Hans Alser (Sweden) and Vlado Mike (Czechoslovakia) looking on.

Photo by ajoy dey, Calcutta.

Japan's Shigeo Itoh serves to India's Vilas Menon in a Swaythling Cup encounter which Japan won 5-1. .

************************ COUNTY NOTES SUPPLEMENT •••••••••••••••••••••••¥

LINCOLNSHIRE NOTES by Alan G. Birks

SPOTUGHT ON SUZANNE The County No. 1 girl, Suzanne Hunt

(Grantham) has reached the highest ranking ever achieved by a Lincolnshire girl. After being ranked sixth in the Under-14's Suzanne, she ttH'ned 15 on Mac. 1, came into the Junior rankings at No.8 in September.

Now, following her wonderful performance at iLougfJ'borough, where she played some excellent table tennis to win the title, she has been promoted six places to stand second to Yorkshire's Melody Ludi, beaten by Suza'nnein the quarter..final of the championship. In the final she met Angela Tierney, who had won the U-14 title the previous day. Both girls sta·rted nervously but Angela settled down quickly to win the first game 21-9. Suzanne then took the initiative with some fine attack· ing play to level at 1-1 and take a lead in the decider. Again nerves began to show and Aniala fought back to reduce the lead but Suzann~ finally triumphed. After this fine win she went on to -n.n .ne Yorkshire 2-Star at Hull, beating Julie McLean in the final.

Suzanne came into the County Junior team in December, 1972, when she played in the girls' doubles with her sister, Christine, and in the mixed with J. Smith, against Derbyshire.Both sets were lost. In the next match, at hoMe to Nocthants, at Spalding on Jan. 20, 1973, she tasted County victory for the first time in the doubles, when she partnered her Grantham friend, Marie Featherstone. to a -12, 15, 14 win over A. Wallis and V. Feakin.

In the same match she lost the singles in straight games. In March, 1973, Suzanne had her first County singles win when beating Miss R. Hodgkiss (Staffs) 13, 16. Since then she has played the singles in every County Junior match and has the fine record of winningall but one of these, going down to Kathleen Cropper~oming a cropper to Miss Cropper! The Lanes. girl won 19, 11 on Mar. 30, 19.74. During the same period of time, Suzanne has

. played in every girls' doubles, usuallypar.tnered by Marie, and has been on the losing end on only two occasions.

Her remarkable record is a tribute to the encouragement of her parents, the hard work of .those who have helped with her coaching,and her own dedication to the game. Con­gratulations, Suzanne-and continued success.

LlNCS. LEAGUE ROUND-VP With five rounds of the Lincolnshire Cham­

pionships completed, one title is alreadydecided; another looks to be almost settled; and only two regular performers remain unbeaten. Spalding, having won all their four matches, have retained the Butlin Cup by a distance and their captain, Miss J. White. has again proved unbeatable. Last year's runners­up, Grim9by, without the services of their No.1, Mrs. C. Moran, who is not yet fit to play following an operation, bave so far managed to gather only one point. In the Haigh Cup, newcomers Wyberton look

more than likely to 'put a new name on the trophy at their first attempt, which is hardlysurprising as they are able to call on the two top·ranked men in the County. Their match against holders Grimsby, seemed to hold the key to the ultimate destination of the championship. Wyberton opened up a 5-1 lead but Grimsby fought ·back by winning the next three sets with P. Taylor beating G. King -22, 13, 17; B. Allison again proving too good for M. East 12, 5 (East's only defeat to date), and M. Sheader overcoming King 9, 19. In the deciding set B. Hill maintained his 100%

record with a 12, 11 win over Taylor to giveWyberton the points.

It is appropriate that the two players who head the current County ranking lists, Jean White and Brian Hill, should be the two players yet to be beaten in inter-town compe­tition.

Gainsborough, who dr01Fed only three points in last year's Hai Cup matches, started where they left 0 with convincingwins over Skegness and Scunthorpe, but since then injury has robbed them of the services of their No.1, B. Edlington, and they have had no more successes. It is pleasing to see Mabletborpe in thiro place in the league. Last season they managed only four points alto­gether but this term they already have five. It is sad to note that C. Judson (Lincoln) who is playing so well for the County this season, is not turning out for his 'home town.

The Wyberton Butcher Cup players are not enjoying the same success as their seniors and are pointless at this stage. Just above them in the league are Lincoln, with two points from a victory over Wy·berton. Lincoln are follow­i.ng a youth policy which 'Must ,produce results in rite future.

Last year's second placed team in the Butcher Cup, Boston, have full points from their first five matches but still have to meet the two teams one point behind them, :Grantham and Grimsby. For Boston, M. Vaughan and N. Fossitt are playing very con­sistently. Vaughan has lost two sets, to A. G. Birks (Skegness) and J. Beaumont (Spalding),,the old County player. Fossitt has been beaten only by Beaumont.

When holders, Grimsby, travelled to .Grantham, the home team took a point, thanks largely to the efforts of the County No. 1 junior, N. Neal, who won his three singles and helped in the winning of the doubles. All of his singles went to three and he won two of them on deuce. Neal's only defeat so far has been 'It the hands of another member of the County Junior team, C. Burlinson '(Scun­.thorpe) ·19, 18, -22.

SUSSEX NOTES by Robin Pierce

RECORD BREAKER Brig,hton's Roger Chandler, who has domi­

nated Sussex play since 1962, won the Sussex "Closed" men's singles title for a record­~reaking eighth time at Brighton's Corn 'Exchange on Jan. 12th.

Chandler, who had some minor trouble against Crawley junior, Gerald Pugh, in the semi, winning it 11, 19, coasted throughoutthe tournament. His final victim was his Brighton colleague, Robin Stace.

Stace and Chandler have been firm friends since their junior days. But Chandler displayed little friendship in seeking revenge for his defeat earlier in the season at the Sussex Top Eight Tournament.

The Sussex champion splattered Stace all over the hall with a succession of powered loops and crashing kills. It was all over in ten minutes and the champion won 9, 15.

Stace had played well in .the earlier rounds and put paid to the chances of men like Keith Hocton (Crawle~), Steve Marley (Chichester) and, in the semI, Sam Ogundipe (Brighton).

Littlehampton's Suzanna Kavallierou, runner-up to the absent Judy Williams so often in the past, claimed her just reward byout-smarting Eastbourne's Diane Gard, -19, 17, 13.

Diane hustled her opponent well in the first but Suzanna, having the greater tourna­ment experience, was able to slow thingsdo.wn and force her rival into all sorts of errors in .the last two games.

All four seeds reached the semi-finals in this event. Margaret Dignum did well to take the first game from Suzanna but was well out of things by the end.

Worthing teenager, Linda Wales, continues

to show substantial progress but needs to think out her tactical play more. She seemed all at sea, despite some fine retUl'ns, against the 'bomb" hitting of Oiane Gard.

Linda's lack of progress at this stage was not helped by her continual looks of appeal to well-wishers in the crowd.

Despite holding a 19-17 lead in the third game of the men's doubles final, Chandler and Stace fell to Chichester's Steve Marley I8Dd Crawley's Keith Horton -16, 16, 19. Robin's forehand let him down at this crucial stage and this allowed the Chichester/Crawley com­bination to snatch sweet revenge fOl' last season's defeat at the same seRge.

The unfortunate Stace was also on the wrong side with Linda Wales in the mixed final. The winners here were Suzanna Kaval­lierou and Sam Ogundipe, who came through19, 19.

A triple success looked very much on the cards for Miss Kavalliel'ou when she, in part·nership with Margaret Dignum, led Pat and Linda Wales -13, 15 and 20-19 in the women's doubles final. Tbe mother and daughter l'air­ing kept their heads, however, and the ball on the table to save two 'Match points before winning it M 23-21.

This was a most .popular win as Pat and Linda have gone close on a number of occa­sions in the past.

Other Results:-InteMlediate Singles: G. Pugh (Crawley) bt

M. Douglas (Crawley) 16, 19.Women's Intermediate Singles: Miss A. Terry

bt Miss C. Randall (Eastbourne) 11, -13 5. Veteran Men's Singles: J. Mileham (Craw\ey)

bt G. Batt-Rawden (Brighton) 18, 7.Women's Veteran Singles: Mrs. P. Wales

(Worthing) be: Mrs. I. Gillett (Bexbill) 10, -20, 19. There was a shock at the top of the Men's

Division 1 of the Inter-League where a rather :weak Crawley side left their clash with unrated East Grinstead 8'S 5-4 losers. This defeat seems to have handed the title to Brighton on a plate.

Littlehampton have also been knocked off the top rungs following a 5-4 loss at the hands of Hastings.

Thel'e is still all to play for in the women's section as Hastings, without Susan Franklin, fell 5-4 to Eastbourne. A lot now depends on the Eastbourne/Wortbing clash.

STAFFORDSHIRE NOTES by Jack Chalkley

EARLY BLOODING A little luck would have made a world of

difference to the Staffordshire senior teams in their. recent County matches. Against the strong Leicestershire side, which included two England-ranked women, Staffs. "A" were able to hold them to a draw and with Steve Rowe going down to Maurice Newman 20 -22, -19 in the key match, the home side couid consider themselves unlucky not to have gained both points. Brian Keates was the star for Staffs, winning his two singles and with Janet Carr, taking the mixed fmm Newman and Karen Rogers.

County Junior Stephanie Jones turned out for the "B" side against Northants and after a long trip to Kettering, they w&e unluckl to lose 4-6. Three sets went against the viSItors on 19 in the third, including both doubles in which Stephanie took part. Nevertheless, this early "blooding" at senior level will be useful experience, and judging by her performancethe County can consider her a bright prospectfor the future.

The Veterans have yet to gain a point after three matches this season, but not to worry,they enjoy their table tennisl For the next match, however, A. Buxton and P. Hancock join the team following recent trials, and with Don Pritchard and Barbara Hall, we wish them well against Oxfordshire. The Juniors took a hammering from Warwickshire, failing to win a game, but with 'a 7·3 win over Shropshire

Page ~

earlier, the picture is not too gloomy, particu­larly as they have yet to field their strongest side.

County entries in the National Inter-League Competitions are unfortunately few-in fact only two. The Potteries team of Steve Rowe, Tony Isaac and Trevor Burr(}ws have reached the third round of the Wilmott Cup with a sound 5-2 victory over Derby, but West Brom went out of the Rose Bowl in a close contest with Stockport, last year's finalists, the score being 5-4.

News from Terry Phillips! Potteries Press Officer, shows that table tennis is still thrivingin the North of the County with 49 clubs entering 135 teams in the ten divisions. At the half-way st'age only three teams retained a 100% record-Dept. of H. & 8.S. (Div. 9),Great Chell C.C. (Div. 6) and Carmountside "c" (Div. 5).

Norton "A" have a clear lead in the Premier Division, their needle match against their close rivals, Spode "A", last year's champions,proving to be a one-sided affair. The Norton squad of Tony Isaac, Steve Rowe and RayBooth overwhelmed the Spode team (}f John Riley, Adrian Higgs and Brian Keates by 9 sets to 1. Meir C.1. "A" are the third team in contention at the top of the Premier Divi­sion, and Meir "B" and "c" are also in the running for promotion from Div. 1. It could be a good year for Meir! Outstanding player in the Premier Division is Trevor Burrows, a 17­year-old from Crewe, who has played for Brad· well "A" for four years, during their progressfr()l1J Div. 7. After losing to Brian Keates at the beginning of the season he has since remained unbeaten in the league and earlier in the year he added to his successes bywinning the Yorkshire Junior Open, beatingthree ranked juniors 10 doing so. Under­standably, the Potteries select him for their Wilmott Cup team, and perhaps we shall see him in the English ranking before the end of the season.

I must apologise for my error in misquotingJohn Dainty last month. In the Wolverhamp­ton League, teams are composed of four players, so whilst W(}Odfield "c" have three women in their team, the fourth player is that oh-so-lucky man, Tony Phillips. They tell me he has been in very impressive form this season. Well, no wondec! Who wouldn't be, under such circumstances. Enough to bring a veteran out of retirement.

NORFOLK NOTES by J. S. Penny

The Norfolk Closed Championships at the University of East Anglia saw the No.4 seed, Mick Musson. of Norwich, retain both his singles and Men's Doubles crowns. In the semis, he overcame the No. 1 seed, John Fuller, at 22-20 in the third, after being 15-19 down then, in the final. against No. 8 seed, Bob Mitcham. he lost the first game at 18 and was 13-17 down in the second before rallying to win it at 19. and the last game at 13. Mitcham had beaten the No.3 seed. Neville Graver. then No.7 seed. John Turner, who had previously knocked out the No. 2 seed, Bob Thornton.

Edna Fletcher, of Yarmouth, regained the Women's title, against her old opponent, the holder, Betty Cassell, and in the semi-final she ousted a newcomer from Yorkshire, Mrs. Linda Simpson, n(}w of King's Lynn. Linda won the W.D. with Betty Cassell and the Mixed with Stephen Barrett, and was awarded the Victor Ludorum. Results: ­M.S.: M. Musson bt R. Mitcham -18, 19, 13. W.S.: Mrs. E. Fletcher bt Mrs. ,B. Cassell -18,

8, 15. V.S.: G. Wood bt K. Edwards 13, 15. M.D.: M. Musson/J. Fuller bt R. Thornton/ S.

Francis 19, 13. W.D.: Mrs. B. Cassell/Mrs. L. Simpson bt Mrs.

R. and Miss W. Hogg 16, 16. X.D.: S. Barrett/Mrs. L. Simpson bt R. Thorn­

ton/Miss W. Hogg -17, 16, 18. The East Anglian League Senior Champion­

ships, revived after several years, were held

Page 10

on Jan. 5, also at the University of E. Anglia. This time, Musson, seeded No.1, went down in the semis to Thornton, No.3, who had pre­viously turned the tables on Turner, No.5. In the other semi Fuller, No.2 seed, beat Stan Honor, ,but lost to Thornton in the final. Thorn­tton also 'Won the Men's Doubles. In the Women's Singles, Judith Langridge, the 16­year-old Bury St. Edmunds and Suffolk player, had a fine victory over Edna Fletcher 10 the semis, before losing to Betty Cassell in the final. She also joined with Edna to take the Women's Doubles. A word (}f praise is due to Mike Parker, the league secretary, for his organisation. Results: ­M.S.: R. Thornton (Norwich) bt J. Fuller

(Yarmouth) 14, 18. W.S.: Mrs. B. Cassell (King's Lynn) bt Miss J.

Langridge (Bury) -19, 15, 9. M.D.: R. Thornton/S.Francis bt J. Fuller/M.

Musson 17, -18, 19. W.D.: Mrs. E. Fletcher/Miss J. Langridge bt

Cassell/Simpson 16, -12, 20. X.D.: S. Barrett/Mrs. L. Simpson bt M.

Broughton/Janet List 16, 17. Restricted Smgles: K. Savage (Lpswich) bt M.

Archer (Yarmouth) 12, 19. Norfolk Juniors made it four wins in a row

when they beat Lincolnshire 7-3 at Norwich C.E.Y.M.S. in Division Junior East of the County Championships. For Norfolk, DougBennett. Paul Durrant and Mike Archer won all their singles, but it was hard going for our Girls. Wendy Hogg, awarded her Junior county colours before the start, had to face Grantham's Suzanne Hunt. recently ,promoted to EnJdand's No. 2 Junior foll(}wing her triump6 in the Wayfarers English Junior Championships at LoughborouJili. For L1Ocoln­shire, Miss M. Featherstone also played well. Our Juniors have to play Northants at home and Cambridgeshire II away. Both matches will be followed with keen interest. Can a Norfolk team head a Junior Division for the first time?

In the King's Lynn championships, held at their Y.M.C.A., Steve Barrett (Y.M.C.A.)became the first Lynn player to 'Win this event for over ten years when he beat the holderBa'l"ry Wilson (Tydd.). Mrs. Betty Casself (Downham Market) regained her crown and was successful in two out of three finals. She has been singles champion for 24 out of past25 contests. Results: ­M.S.: S. Barrett bt B. Wilson -12, 19, 19. W.8.: Mrs. B. Cassell bt Vivien Rowell (Isling­

ton) 22, 13. M.D.: B. Wilson/No Rains ,bt J. Moorhouse/P.

Gaskin -21, 19, 17. W.D.: Vivien Rowell/Mrs. Patricia Tingey bt

B. Cassell/Mrs. A. Alden 18, -18, 12. X.D.: J. M(}Orhouse/Mrs. Cassell bt D. Tiddle/

Mrs. P. Tingey -17, 21, 14. Veterans' Singles: Gordon Wood bt Peter

Saunders. Divisional champions were: 2, C. Hawks­

worth; 3, R. Mitchelson; 4, K. Sutton; 5, T. Smith; 6, J. Bensley, and 7, R. Goldsmith.

In the Wilmott Cup, Dereham did very well only to go down 4-5 to Ely, since Ely have England's No. 1 Junior, Paul Day, who duly'Won his three. In the next round, the third, Ely, with Paul Day, put paid to Norwich 8-1 to enter the zone final. Norwich, in the second round, had beaten Cambridge 5-4.

There is a very dose struggle in the Premier Division of Norwich league. The two leaders, C.E.Y.M.S. and Lads' Club. fought it out on the "Church" table, and "Church" nosed home 6-4, Mick Musson, the Norfolk champion, winning three of the six.

SOMERSET NOTES by Mike Hawkins

NAIL-BITER In a really exciting, nail-biting match,

Somerset Seniors were held 5-5 at the Y.M.C.A., Weston·super-Mare, by local rivals,Wiltshire, in their last Second Division West game.

This result was expected to go the "Cider­men's" way after crushing Dorset 9-1 and

Cornwall 10-0, especially as the Wiltshire sidt! were lying in a mid-table position.

Brian Reeves was in fine fOI'm. He won both singles against Bill Moulding and Terry Bruce respectively. The expedite rule was used on two occasions, Somerset getting the "upper­hand" on both. For the visitors Alison Boyce played 'Well in her win over new Somerset player, Alma Taft-Heath winning 21-15 in deciding game.

The Somerset Junior team are still lookingfor their; first win of the 1974-i5 seasonrecently suffering an away defeat at Cornwalf and a home defeat at Swainswick againstWiltshire. Junior secretary.. Fred Laidler, is doiug a grand job of worK with some keen youngsters and I feel sure they will get their first victory before the season closes.

In the Somerset Inter-Town League, Weston­super.Mare 'A' head the first division table, with Taunton "B" and Chard level-pegging in Division Two; Bridgewater lead the Junior Division. The following players have 100% playing records in the league: B. Reeves, M. Baker, Mrs. L. Baket', Mrs. B. Dickason, Mrs. R. Weeks, Miss S. Beazer, Miss N. Mason, Miss V. Neale, Mrs. P. Watson, Miss Jill Wilson and Miss R. Knight.

Mrs. Doreen Henderson is working hard on the coaching side, and recently held a suc­cessful course in the North East Somerset area at Writhlington School, Radstock, when eighteen promising youngsters turned up.

As stated in my last notes that I would eat .my hat if Dunkerton beat Oldfield Park Baptists "A" in the Stiga National Club Cham­pionships, there was no chance, as the Oldfield side ran out easy winners, and met Weston­super·Mare Y.M.C.A. in the next round away,Oldfield, the Bath Champions, came out on top with a good win and n(}w meet the Exeter champions, Heavytree, who recently beat the West Wiltshire champions, Studley, at Trow­bridge. My bet is on Oldfield, the Bath cham­pions, who include stars Tony Clayton and Junior-ranked Chris Sewell.

One of the main topics of conversation in this area at the moment is the formation of a new Table Tennis County called Avon County.The Bristol and District League and the North­East Somerset League have already opted to go Avon. but what about the rest? And is there going to be any advantages or disadvan­tages? Does changing county status make anydifference to the player who enjoys his one evening out a week and a drink at the local?

·THE SUFFOLK SCENE

by R. C. Langridge

WHERE IS mE SUFFOLK "PUNCH"? .Following their five-all draw when away to

Norfolk in mid-December, the Suffolk Senior side were hoping for a favourable result at home against Hertfordshice. Their hopes were dashed, howeverl by a very fast and fit Herts team who took me match easily ·by seven sets to three.

John Kitchener had to struggle to overcome a subtle Chris Pickard, but against BarryWhite he was quick to spot and exploit a weakness and ran out an easy winner.

Kathy Brierley, making her debut for the County, teamed well with Mick Palma' to win the Mixed and, despite losing in the W()I1Jen'sSingles, Kathy also fought very hard againstthe experienced Sue FeIStead.

Hertfordshire 'Won the remaining seven sets in an easy and relaxed fashion and obviouslySuffolk must add more fire and steel to their game if they are to remain in the Second East Division.

The Juniors also suffered a 7-3 defeat when at home against Norfolk. In this match the Suffolk boys had a most unfortunate time against the impressively-coached y~ung Norfolk trio. Only when their girls, Judith Langridgeand Debbie W(}Otton, were mvolved did the Suffolk team pick up their three consolation sets.

Continued from Page 8 Y. OhzekilYokota bt N. Lotaller/Magos 21, 14. Yokota bt Magos 19, 7.

CORBILLON cUP RESULTS Takahashi bt Kishazi 17, 17. CATEGORY 1 -- GROUP A For Positions (5-6)

12 34567 8 W L Place U.S.S.R. . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .. 1 England , . . . .. .31 Korea R. . . x 3-0 3-0 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 7 0 1 2 HungaTY . 0:3 x 3:2 3:1 3:1 3:0 3:0 3:0 6 1 2 Hammersley bt T. Ferdman 13, -18, 18; bt

E. Antonian 13, 14.3 U.S.S.R. . . 0:3 2:3 x 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:0 3:0 5 2 3 4 Czechoslovakia . 0:3 1:3 1:3 x 3:2 3:2 3:0 3:1 i!_ 3 4 Howard lost to Antonian -13, 18, -23.

Hammersley/Roward bt Antonian/Ferdman 10, 12.5 Sweden . 0:3 1:3 1:3 2:3 x 2:3 3:0 3:0 2 5 6 6 France . 0:3 0:3 1:3 2:3 3:2 x 3:1 3:0 3 4 5 For Positions (7-8)7 Indonesia . 0:3 0:3 0:3 0:3 0:3 1:3 x 3:2 1 6 7 Yugoslavia 3 Czechoslovakia 28 India . 0:3 0:3 0:3 1:3 0:3 0:3 2:3 x 0 7 8

For Positions (9-10)GROUP B Rumania S Germany FR 112 34567 8 W L Place 1 China . x 3:1 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 7 0 1 For Positions (11-12) 2 Japa,n . 1:3 x 3:0 3:0 3:2 3:0 3:0 3:1 6 1 2 France . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. .. 3 Sweden. . . . . . . . .. . . . . .. .. 2 3 Rumania . 0:3 0:3 x 3:1 1:3 1:3 2:3 3:1 2 5 6

For Positions (I :{-14 ) 4 Germany FR . 0:3 0:3 1:3 x 3:2 1:3 3:2 3:1 3 4 5 5 England . 0:3 2:3 3:1 2:3 x 3:1 3:0 3:0 4 3 3 Poland .. .. . .. . .. .. .. .. .. 0 Bulgaria. . .. .. . .. . . . . . . . .. 3 6 Yugoslavia . 0:3 0:3 3:1 3:1 1:3 x 3:0 3:0 4 3 4 For Positions (15-16)7 Poland , . 0:3 0:3 3:2 2:3 0:3 0:3 x 0:3 1 6 8

Indonesia . . . . . . . . . . . .. .. 3 India. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 08 Bulgaria . 0:3 1:3 1:3 1:3 0:3 0:3 3:0 x 1 6 7

ENGLISH RESULTS

v Germany (lost 2-3) CATEGORY 2 ---- GROUP AFederal 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 W L PlaceC. Knight lost to U. Hirschmuller -14, 20, -14; lost to

1 U.S.A. . . x 3:0 0:3 1:3 1:3 w.o. 0:3 3:0 2 4 5W. Hendriksen 8, -10, -14. 0:3 x 0:3 0:3J. Hammersley lost to Hendriksen -22, -14; bt 2 Australia . 1:3 w.o. 0:3 3:0. 1 5 6

3 Belgium . 3:0 3:0 x 3:1 1:3 w.o. 3:1 3:0 5 1 2Hirschmuller 12, 11. 4 Singapore . 3:1 3:0 1:3 x 1:3 w.o. 2:3 3:1 3 3 4Hammersley /L. Howard bt Hirschmuller /M. Kneip 13, 17. 5 Hong Kong . 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:1 x w.o. 3:0 3:0 6 o 1

v Rumania (won 3-1) 6 Denmark . x x x x x x x x x x x Howard lost to M. Alexandru -14, -14. 7 Netherlands . 3:0 3:0 1:3 3:2 0:3 w.o. x 3:0 4 2 3 Hammersley bt M. Lesay 13, 13; bt Alexandru 11, 18. 8 Nigeria . 0:3 0:3 0:3 1:3 0:3 w.o. 0:3 x 0 6 1 Hammersley /Howard bt Alexandru/Moldovan 13, 19.

GROUP B v Japan (lost 2-3) 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 W L Place Hammersley bt Y. Ohzeki 16, -18, 20; lost to 1 Malaysia . x 1:3 3:1 3:0 3:1 3:1 w.o. 3:0 5 1 1

T. Edano -20, -19. 2 Canada . 3:1 x 1:3 3:2 3:1 1:3 w.o. 3:0 4 2 3 Knight lost to Edano -13, -12; lost to Ohzeki -4, -9. 3 New Zealand . 1:3 3:1 x 3:2 0:3 1:3 w.o. 3:0 3 3 5 Hammersley/Howard bt Edano/Ohzeki -17, 19, 16. 4 Greece . 0:3 2:3 2:3 x 0:3 1:3 w.o. 2:3 0 6 7

5 Switzerland . 1:3 1:3 3:0 3:0 x 0:3 w.o. 3:1 3 3 4 6 Luxembourg . 1:3 3:1 3:1 3:1 3:0 x w.o. 3:0 5 1 2

v China (lost 0-3) Knight lost to Chang Li -23, -5.

7 Ghana . x x x x x x x x x x xHoward lost to Hu Yu-lan -15, 15, -15. Knight/K. Matthews lost to Chang Li/Cheng Huai-ying 8 Brazil . 0:3 0:3 0:3 3:2 1:3 0:3 w.o. x 1 5 6

-9, -17. CATEGORY 2 - SECOND STAGE

v Poland (won 3-0) C. Hammersley bt Noworyta 13, 14. For Positions (17 -20) CATEGORY 2 ---- THIRD STAGE Howard bt Calinska 9. 13. g For Posi tionsA1 Hong Kong 3 B2 Luxembourg Hammersley/Howard bt Calinska/Norowyta 15, -9, 14. 17-18 Hong Kong 3 Belgium 1A2 Belgium 3 B1 Malaysia

For Positions (21-24) 19-20 Luxembourg......... 1 Malaysia 3v Yugoslavia (won 3-1) A3 Netherlands ...... 3 B4 Switzerland ......... 1 21-22 Netherlands ...... 2 Canada 3 Hammersley bt E. Jeler -20, 6, 17; bt Palatinus 14, 8. For Positions (25-28) Howard lost to E. Palatinus -14, 17. -17. A4 Singapore . . .. . .. .. 0 B3 Canada 3 23-24 Switzerland .....•••• 3 Singapore . . . . . . . .. 2 Hammersley/Howard bt Jeler/Palatinus 15, 14. A5 U.S.A. .. 3 B6 Brazil. 0 25-26 U.S.A. . ..0........... 2) Australia 2'0' • 0

27-28 Brazil 1 New Zealand 30 ••• 0 •••A6 Australia 3 B5 New Zealand 00v Bulgaria (won 3-0) 29-30 Nigeria 1 Greece 3For Positions (29-32) Howard bt E. Neikova 9, 19. Hammersley bt A. Rangelova 15, 5. 31-32A7 Nigeria w.o. B8 Ghana Hammersley/Howard bt Neikova/Rangelova 10, 15. A8 Denmark B7 Greece w.o.

CATEGORY 1 -- SECOND STAGE CATEGORY 3 For Positions (1-4) 1 2 3 4 5 6 W L Place

Al Korea R. 3 B2 Japan . . . . . . . . . . .. 0 1 Kenya ............................................. x 0:3 0:3 3:0 0:3 0:3 1 4 5 A2 Hungary.. .. . .. 0 B1 China .. .. .. .. . ... 3 2 Macao ................................................ 3:0 x 3:2 3:0 0:3 1:3 3 2 3

For Positions (5-8) 3 Nepal ................................................. 3:0 2:3 x 3:0 0:3 0:3 2 3 4 A3 U.S.S.R. . 3 B4 Yugoslavia J 4 Lebanon ............................................. 0:3 0:3 0:3 x 0:3 0:3 0 5 6 A4 Czechoslovakia . .. 2 B3 England . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 5 Thailand ............................................... 3:0 3:0 3:0 3:0 x 3:2 5 0 1

For Positions (9-12) 6 Vietnam R. ................... .............................. " " .... 3:0 3:1 3:0 3:0 2:3 x 4 1 2~

A5 France . . . . . . . . .. .. 0 B6 Rumania 3 A6 Sweden . . ... .. . . . .. 1 B5 Germany FR ...... 3 Final Overall Placings

For Positions (13-16) (previous positions in brackets)A7 Indonesia 0 B8 Poland . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 A8 India 2 B7 Bulgaria 6 1 CHINA (2) 10 Germany FR (7) 19 Malaysia (19) 28 Brazil (37)

2 Korea R. (1) 11 France (12) 20 Luxembourg (28) 29 Greece (24)English Result 3 Japan (3) 12 Sweden (9) 21 Canada (20) 30 Nigeria (38) v Czechoslovakia (won 3-2) 4 Hungary (4) 13 Bulgaria (16) 22 Netherlands (30) 31 Thailand (-)

Poland 32Howard lost to H. Riedlova -16, -18; bt L. Smidova 13, 5 England (10) 14 (15) 23 Switzerland (27) Vietnam R. (-)18. 6 U.S.S.R. (5) 15 Indonesia (13) 24 Singapore (25) 33 Macao (-)

Hammersley bt Smidova 13, 11; lost to Riedlova 7 Yugoslavia (11) 16 India (17) 25 U.S.A. (18) 34 Nepal (-)9, -14, -16. 8 Czechoslovakia (8) 17 Hong Kong (26) 26 Australia (21) 35 Kenya (-)

Hammersley/Howard bt A. Grofova/Riedlova 18, 15. 9 Rumania (6) 18 Belgium (22) 27 New Zealand (23) 36 Lebanon (--) CATEGORY 1 -- THIRD STAGE

For Positions (1-2) INDIVIDUAL RECORDS, CORBILLON CUP Korea R. . . . . . .. . .. . .. .. 2 China. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 3

Hammersley Howard Mathews Knight Ham/How Kni/Mat Opponents ft' ALee Ailesa lost to Chang Li -18, -14. 1-1 0-2 1-0 Germany FR . 2 3Chung Hyun Sook lost to Ke Hsin-ai 19, -10, -20. 2-0 0-1 1-0 Rumania . 3 1Chung Hyun Sook/Lee Ailesa bt Hu Yu-Ian/Ke Hsin-ai 1-1 0-2 1-0 Japan . 2 315, 21.

0-1 0-1 0-1 China . o 3Chung Hyun Sook bt Chang Li 16, 20. 1-0 1-0 1-0 Poland . 3 0Lee Ailesa lost to Ke Hsin-ai -14, -10. 2-0 0-1 1-0 Yugoslavia . 3 1

For Positions (3-4) 1-0 1-0 1-0 Bulgaria . 3 0 Japan 3 Hungary 2 1-1 1-1 1-0 Czechoslovakia ., " . .~ 2 S. Takahashi lost to J. Magos -19, -15. 2-0 0-1 1-0 U.S.S.R . 3 1 S. Yokota lost to B. Kishazi -19, 13, -19. 11-3 3-5 0-5 8-0 0-1 22 14 ---------_......_- - ---- ­

NOIRWICH UNI'O:N ENGLISH CHA,MPI,OINS,HIPS

Our own national cha,mpionships con­tinue under the paitron'aige of Norw'ich Union with the Crystal Palace National 'Sports Centre as the venue on Ap,ril 3-5, 1975.

Admission is SOp (25p 'children) e:ach da'y (pa,ya:ble at the do,or) and the finals will be shown on IIWorld of Sport" on the Sa!turday a,fternoon.

~-----_..--_------

Page 12

S)GEs·r~A.~ ,~tlNAN'$. 0.... .~ ~. ~ ~~

~~ ..~13 # WRITE FOR '\ ~ ;:: ~ CATALOGUE ~ '", ALEC BROOK

6

5

SWAYTHLING CUP RESULTS For Positions (5-6) Japan 1 Hungary 5CATEGORY 1 - GROUP A

1 2 3 4 567 8 W L Place For Positions (7-8) 1 Sweden . x 5:2 3:5 5:2 5:3 5:2 5:0 5:0 6 1 2 U.S.S.R. . 5 Germany FR 0 2 U.S.S.R. . . 2:5 x 2:5 5:1 5:2 5:2 5:0 5:1 5 2 3 For Positions (9-10)3 Czechoslovakia . 5:3 5:2 x 5:2 5:0 5:3 5:1 5:0 7 0 1 Korea R. ................•. 2 France . . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. .. 52:5 1:5 2:5 1:5 5:3 5:14 Korea R 5:2 3 4 5x. 5 Germany FR. . . 3:5 2:5 0:5 5:1 x 5:1 5:1 5:0 434 For Positions (11-12) 6 France . 2:5 2:5 3:5 3:5 1:5 x 5:3 5:3 2 5 6 Rumania ...............•.• 5 England. . . . . .. . . . . .. . .. .. 3 7 Austria . 0:5 0:5 1:5 1:5 1:5 1:5 x 3:5 0 7 8 Dobosi lost to Taylor -19, -16. 8 Denmark . 0:5 1:5 0:5 2:5 0:5 3:5 5:3 x 1 6 7 Gheorge bt Douglas -11, 17, 17.

Firanescu bt Neale 12, 14. GROUP B Gheorge bt Taylor 12, 15.

1 2 3 4 567 8 W L Place Dobosi lost to Neale -19, -19. China . x 5:3 5:2 5:0 5:0 5:0 5:1 5:0 7 0 11 Firanescu lost to Douglas -18, -16.

2 Japan . 3:5 x 3:5 3:5 5:4 5:1 5:1 5:2 434 Gheorge beat Neale -11, 16, 15. Firanescu bt Taylor -19, 16, 15.;3 Yugoslavi a . 2:5 5:3 x 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:0 5:1 6 1 2

4 Hungary . 0:5 5:3 1:5 x 5:2 5:0 5:1 5" 35

24

53 For Positions (13-14)5 England . 0:5 4:5 1:5 2:5 x 5:0 5:0 5:1

0:5 1:5 2:5 0:5 0:5 x 5:4 4:5 1 6 7 Denmark 1 Indonesia. . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5Indonesia . 7 India . 1:5 1:5 0:5 1:5 0:5 4:5 x 0:5 0 7 8 For Positions (15-16)8 Rumania . 0:5 2:5 1:5 1:5 1:5 5:4 5:0 x 652 India . . .. . .. . .. . .. . .. . •• •• 5 Austria. . .. . . . . . . . . . . .. .. 2

ENGLISH RESULTS CATEGORY 2 -- GROUP A

1 432 567 8 W L Place U.S.A . x 5:2 5:1 5:1 5:2 5:0 4:5 5:1 6 1 1

v Hungary (lost 2-5) 1 N. Jarvis lost to G. Gergely -14, -13; lost to 1. Jonyer

-12, -15. 23

T. Taylor lost to F. Timar -16, -15; lost to Gergely 4

2:5 5:0 5:2Netherlands . 5:1 5:1 5:0 5:0 6 1 2x 1:5 0:5 x 3:5 0:5 5:4 3:5 5:1

gf::~iea 1:5 2:5 5:3 x 1:5 5:0 2:5 5:0 652

3 4... ::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::::: -16, -14; lost to Jonyer -10, -16. 5 Hong Kong . 2:5 1:5 5:0 5:1 x 5:1 5:1 5:2 5 2 3

D. Neale beat Jonyer 18, 19; bt Timar 11, 19. 6 Belgium . 0:5 1:5 4:5 0:5 1:5 x 4:5 5:2 1 6 7 7 Italy . 5:4 0:5 5:3 5:2 1:5 5:4 x 2:5 434v Yugoslavia (lost 1-5) 8 Wales . 1:5 0:5 1:5 0:5 2:5 2:5 5:2 x 1 6 8

Jarvis lost to D. Surbek -20, 17, -10; lost to A. Stipancic 17, -10, -18. GROUP B

1 432 567 8 W L PlaceNeale bt M. Karakasevic 18, 14; lost to Surbek 17, -20, -11. 1 Malaysia x 2-5 5-3 5:3 5:3 0:5 w.o. 5:3 4 2 3.

2 Poland 5:2 x 5:0 5:1 5:1 2:5 w.o. 5:0 5 1 2D. Douglas lost to Stipancic -12, -14; lost to . 3 Iran 3:5 0:5 x 5:3 2:5 1:5 w.o. 4:5 1 5 5Karakasevic -16, -17. . 4 Canada . 3:5 1:5 3:5 x 3:5 1:5 w.o. 5:3 1 5 6

v Japan (lost 4-5)

Taylor lost to K. Abe -19, 19, -18; lost to N. Takashima -13, -15; lost to T. Furukawa -14, -2I.

Neale lost to Furukawa 12, -17, -14; bt Abe -21, 11, 14;

5 6 7 8

Singapore Australia Israel Switzerland

.

. . .

3:5 5:0

x 3:5

1:5 5:2

x 0:5

5:2 5:1

x 5:4

5:3 5:1

x 3:5

x 5:0

x 3:5

0:5 x x

1:5

w.o. w.o.

x w.o.

5:3 5:1

x x

3 6 x 1

3 0 x 5

4 1 x 1

lest to Takashima -13, -14. Jarvis bt Takashima 21, 16; bt Furukawa 16, -18, 20; CATEGORY 2--SECOND STAGE CATEGORY 2--THIRD STAGE

bt Abe 19, -9, 17. For Positions (17-20) For Positions Al U.S.A. .. 4 :82 Poland 5 17-18 Poland 5 Australia 4v China (lost 0-5) A2 Netherlands 1 B1 Australia 5 19-20 U.S.A. 5 Netherlands 3

5Douglas lost to Liang Ko-liang -5, -15; lost to For Positions (21-24) 21-22 Hong Kong 3 Italy . Li Chen-shih -11, -14. A3 Hong Kong 5 B4 Singapore 23-24 Singapore 2 Malaysia 5o

3J. Walker lost to Li Peng -10, -9; lost to Liang Ko-liang A4 Italy 5 B3 Malaysia 25-26 Nigeria 3 Iran . 5 -19, -8. For Positions (25-28) 27-28 Canada 3 Greece . 5

Neale lost to Li Chen-shih -21, -11. A5 Nigeria 5 B6 Canada 3 29-30 Belgium 4 Switzerland 5 t\6 Greece 4 B5 Iran 5 31-32 Wales W.o. Israelv India (won 5-0) For Positions (29-32)

Neale bt S. Phadke 12, 17; bt N. Bajaj -15, 12, 12. A7 Belgium W.o. B8 Israel Taylor bt Bajaj -21, 9, 14. A8 Wales 1 B7 Switzerland 5 Jarvis bt V. Menon 15, 8; bt Phadke 20, 13.

CATEGORY 3-GROUP Av Indonesia (won 5-0) 3 4 5 W L Place21 Neale bt E. Wuisan 15, -17, 18: bt U. Soewindo 24, 13. 1 Ghana x x x x x x. x x Jarvis bt Soewindo 12, 14. 2 Mexico . w.o. x 5:0 0:5 2:5 223 Taylor bt A. Rodjak 17, -19, 17; bt Wuisan 19, 12. 3 U.A.E. . . w.o. 0:5 x 0:5 0:5 134

4 Vietnam R. . . w.o. 5:0 5:0 x 5:0 401 v Rumania (won 5-1) 5 Nepal . w.o. 5:2 5:0 0:5 x 312 Jarvis lost to T. Gheorge 19, -20, -10; bt S. Dobosi GROUP B17, 11. 3 4 W L Place21Taylor bt Dobosi -11, 18, 11; bt M. Firanescu -20, 13~ 16. 1 Brazil . x 5:0 5:1 2:5 212 Neale bt Firanescu 16, -15, 15; bt Gheorge 19, -4, 17. 2 Yemen PDR . 0:5 x 2:5 0:5 o 43

3 Palestina Gaza . 1:5 5:2 x 0:5 1· 2 3 CATEGORY 1 -- SECOND STAGE 4 Macao . 5:2 5:0 5:0 x 301

For Positions (1-4) GROUP C

Al Czechoslovakia 3 B2 Yugoslavia 5 1 2 3 4 W L Place 1 New Zealand . x w.o. 5:0 w.O. 301

A2 Sweden 2 B1 China 5 2 Sth. Africa Bd .. x x x x x x x 3 Sri Lanka . 0:5 w.o. x w.o. 212

For Positions (5-8) 4 Chile . x x x x x xx A3 U.S.S.R. 2 B4 Japan ............ 5 GROUP D

43 W L Place1 2A4 Germany FR 1 B3 Hungary ......... 5 1 Lebanon x 5:2 w.O. 0:5 212

For Positions (9-12) 2 Kenya 2:5 x w.o. 0:5 123

AS Korea R. . . .. . .. .• 5 B6 Rumania 2 3 Khmer x x x x x x x 4 Egypt 5:0 5:0 w.o. x 301

A6 France . . . . . .. . .. •. 5 B5 England 2 GROUP E

Taylor lost to P. Birocheau -14, -15; lost to 1 2 3 4 W L Place J. Secretin -9, 5, -II. 1 Luxembourg . x 5:2 5:0 5:0 301

Jarvis bt C. Martin 16, 8; bt Birocheau 21, 13; lost to 2 Turkey . 2:5 x 5:0 4:5 123 Secretin -10. -15. 3 Mauritius , . 0:5 0:5 x 0:5 034

Douglas lost to Secretin 19, -12, -14; lost 4 Thailand . 0:5 5:4 5:0 x 212to Martin -19, -13.

CATEGORY 3 - SECOND STAGE For Positions (13-16) For Positions (33-37)

Al B1 C1 D1 El w L PlaceA7 Denmark 5 B8 India 3 Al Vietna·m R . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x 3:5 3:5 3:5 3:5 o 54 A8 Austria '2 B7 Indonesia 5 B1 Macao 5:3 x 0:5 2:5 1:5 31

2 4

Cl New Zealand 5:3 5:0 x 4:5 2:5 2 321

D1 Egypt 5:3 5:2 5:4 x 3:5 3 1CATEGORY 1 -- THIRD STAGE E1 Luxembourg 5:3 5:1 5:2 5:3 x 4 o

For Positions (1-2) For Positions (38,-42)

Yugoslavia 3 CHINA.................. 5 A2 B2 C2 D2 E2 LW Place A2 Nepal . x 3:5 4:5 5:2 3:5 1 3 4Stipancic bt Lu Yuan-sheng 26, 17.

Karakasevic lost to Li Chen-shih -16, -19. B2 Brazil . 5:3 x 3:5 5:1 4:5 2 C2 Sri Lanka . 5:4 5:3 x 5:1 4:5 3

32 5 1

214 o

Surbek bt Hsu Shao-fa -21, 16, 14. Stipancic lost to Li Chen-shih -12, -8. Surbek lost to Lu Yuan-sheng -10, -20.

D2 Lebanon . 2:5 1:5 1:5 x 0:5 o E2 Thailand . 5:3 5:4 5:4 5:0 x 4

Karakasevic lost to Hsu Shao-fa -14, -17. For Positions (43-47)Surbek bt Li C~n-shih 20, 17. A3 B3 C3 LD3 E3 PlaceW

1Stipancic lost to Hsu Shao-fa -16, -13. A3 Mexico . x 2:5 x 5:1 0:5 2 2

For Positions (3-4) B3 Palastine 5:2 C3 x x

x x 1:5 0:5 1 2 4 x .x x x x x

'3Sweden.. .. . . .. .. . . .. . . .. 5 D3 Kenya 1:5 5:1Czechoslovakia . . .. . ..•• 4 X 0:5 1 2x E3 Turkey 5:0 . 5:0 5:0 x 3 o 1xP. Ovcarik bt S. Bengtsson 19, -15, 18.

J. Kunz bt U. Thorsell -15, 15, 18. For Positions (48-53)J. Turai bt, K. Johansson 15, 19. A4 B4' C4 D4 Place

3 E4 W L

2Kunz lost to Bengtsson -19, -19. A4 U.A.E . x 0:5 x x 0:5 o Ovcarik lost to Johansson -19, -10. B4 Yemen PDR 5:0 x x 2:5 x 1 1 2 Turai lost to Thorsell 15, -14, -10. C4 x x xX x x x x Kunz bt Johansson -16, 19, 19. D4 x x x x x x x x Turai lost to Bengtsson 20, -14, -13. E4 Mauritius 5~0 5:2 1

x x x x 2 o

xOvcarik lost to Thorsell -14, 20, -8. A5 x x x x' x x

Page 13

FINAL OVERALL PLACINGS

(previous positions in brackets) WELSH NOTES 1. CHINA (2) 25. Iran (23)2. Yugoslavia (6) 26. Nigeria (25)3. Sweden (1) 27. Greece (22) 4. Czechoslovakia (5) 28. Canada (24) 5. Hungary (7) 29. Switzerland (33) 6. Japan (3) 30. Belgium (30) 7. U.S.S.R. (4) 31. Wales (35) 8. Germany FR (9) 32. Luxembourg (42) 9. France (12) 33. Egypt (-)

10. Korea R. (8) 34. New Zealand (38) 11. Rumania (15) 35. Macao (-)12. England (10) 36. Vietnam R. (-)13. Indonesia (11) 37. Thailand (-) 14. Denmark (16) 38. Sri Lanka (-)15. India (14) 39. Brazil (37) 16. Austria (13) 40. Nepal (-) 17. Poland (19) 41. Lebanon (39) 18. Australia (29) 42. Turkey (45) 19. U.S.A. (17) 43. Mexico (-) 20. Netherlands (21) 44. Kenya (48) 21. Italy (31) 45. Palestine Gaza (47)22. Hong Kong (26) 46. Mauritius (-) 23. Malaysia (18) 47. Yemen PDa (-)24. Singapore (27) 48. United Arab Emirates (-)

INDIVIDUAL RECORDS, SWAYTHLING CUP

ENGLAND

Jarvis Neale Douglas Taylor Walker Opponents F A 0-2 2-0 0-3 Hungary 2 5 0-2 1-1 0-2 Yugoslavia 1 5 3-0 1-2 0-3 Japan 4 5

0-1 0-2 0-2 China 0 5 2-0 2-0 1-0 India 5 o 1-0 2-0 2-0 Indonesia 5 o 1-1 2-0 2-0 Rumania 5 1 2-1 0-2 0-2 France 2 5

1-2 1-1 1-2 Rumania 3 5

9-6 11-6 1-7 6-10 0-2 27 31

WALES

A. Griffiths G. Davies J. Mansfield B. Everson Opponents F A 1-1 0-2 0-2 U.S.A. . 1 5 0-2 0-2 0-1 Nigeria 0 5

0-2 0-2 1-1 Greece 1 5 1-1 1-2 0-2 Belguim 2 5 0-1 0-2 0-2 Netherlands . 0 5 2-0 2-1 1-1 Italy.... 5 2 0-3 0-2 2-0 Hong Kong 2 5 1-1 0-2 0-2 Switzerland 1 5

4-8 4-14 4-12 0-3 12 37

by H. ROY EVANS Another County success, this time against

Bedfordshire, without Trevor Taylor, and .Gla'morgan's fight to sltay in the Premier Division is on the way to success.

It was a good ,match against the tea.m which gained promotion at the same time as Gla'morgan, and an ,enthusiastic crowd had plenty to keep them .occupied at the well­equipped Sports Centre at Albercynon.

Alan Griffiths and Graham Davies (both lost to Peter Taylor, ;but won their othe,r singles and the doubles. With Betty Gray coming hack with a good win, and Johnny Mansfield gain­ing an important success against 'P,aul Harmer in expedite, Gla·morgan just got home 5-4.

The Glamorgan Open, although lacking the usual Lancashire and ,Cheshire players who were in the Ponte1fract Open, nevertheless sparkled ,with some excellent mat,ches in the closing stages.

Alan 'Griffiths retained his title with a fine win over England Junior, ,Chris Sewell, in a nail-,bitingfinal in which there was never more than three .points ,between the players.Chris had earlier had anothercliff.hanger with Graha'm D'avies, just winning 25-23 in the third, and had then beaten Alan Fletcher, of York­shire, with ,more conviction. Alan had a close affair with a much-improved Mike Owen, and tihen dropped a ga.me to John Mansfield before striking his best ,form in the Final.

Youthful visitors from Staffordshire, Heather Round and Janet Carr, were most unkind to the Welsh women, and they fought out a wonlen's singles final which saw Janet demon­strate that she is just that much more in control. Heather took the girls' singles, but Welsh Junior, Pat Allen, had her chances to win. Pat and Julie Ralphs also went ,close with Heather land Janet in the women's doubles.

Ken Bull and 'Geo,rge Evans took yet another men's doubles title, ,whilst Ken and his partner of many years-Sandra Pickering, took the mixed.

Amongst good perfor1mances were some fine wins by 15-year-old Jonathan Hardiker, CherylJ e,well's de,feat of Margaret Phillips and Kim Johnson's win over Betty Gray.

Scores:­Men's Singles-Semi-final:Alan Griffiths !beat John Mansfield -19, 6, 14. Chris Sewell beat Alan Fletcher -19, 13, 13. Final: GRIFFIT'HS ibeat Sewell -18, 17, 19. Women's Singles-Se,mi-finals: Janet Carr Ibeat Ki'm Johnson 17, 11. Heather Round Ibeat Glenys Thomas 17, 17. Final: CARR beat Round 10, 16. Men's Doubles-Final: George Evans/Ken Bull beat Alan FletcherI

Pat Glynn 16, -16, 17. Women's Doubles-Final: Heather Round/Janet Carr beat Pat AlIeni

Julie Ralphs -18, 19, 19. Mjxed Doubles-Final: Ken Bull/Sandra Pickering ,beat George Evansl

Heather Round 12, -10, 19. Junior Boys' Singles-Final: Chris Sewell -beat Trevor Bu.rrows 10, 15. Junior Girls' Singles-Fin,a!: Heather Round beat Pat Allen -14, 18, 20.

IOn the Sunday ,after the tournament, squadplayers from South and North Wales combined in an intensive work-out, the seco.nd O'f these' imlportant get-togethers.

LANCASHIRE NOTES

by George Yates

HORWICH THE MECCA

All roads should lead to the re,cently-o,pened Horwich L'eisure Centre, near Bolton, on Thursday, April 10, when, in the Pre·mier Division of the European League, England play France, in what could well ,be described as a "crunch" 'encounter, with the losers destined for relegation.

Tiered seating providing accommodation for over 900 spectators will ,be available and already sales are going well. Tickets, priced at £1, 75p and 50pcan be had ,from Mr. Gordon Southworth, at 86 Hill Lane, Blackrod, Bolton ('Phone: Bolton 691883), but please also include a stamped addressed envelope with postal applications.

The probability of France including their super star, Jacques Secretin, should be a draw in itself but there is so much at stake, with the Frenchmen victorious 5-2 when England last ,crossed swords with them in ·a Swaythling Cup match in Calcutta, not to mention the female element.

Sadly the news must Ibe imparted that on

Friday, February 28, whilst participating in a L:ancashire and Cheshire League match, for Salford against Barrow, Roy Crusha·m-a former Lancashire player who came to the fore in the Manchester League-collapsed and died at the early age of 31.

Roy was the dearly loved son of the late Nellie and Tho,mas Crusham, and very dear brother of Carol and Thomas. Roy was buried at Phillips Park Cem·etery on Mar. 6, further mourned by his tea,mmates and many friends in northern table tennis circles.

"Die-hard traditionalists who insist on having their w·eekly wages handed to them in cash opened the way for a £371 snatch in Liverpool" . . . so read a report in the "Liverpool Daily 1>os'1" of Feb. 14. At the receiving 'end of the grah was Lancashire County Secretary, John MC1Kim, who was knocked to the ground in the process. Luckily he escaped serious injury 'and he didn't have any County monies with him at the time!

According to John, "'It was all over in the t,winkling of an eye. They didn't really hurt ime. But it was all so quick. One put his ar.m around me and thre,w me to the floor while the snatch took place." That~s what comes of using High Karate.

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Page 14

WESTERN LEAGUE N'OTES by Grove Motlow

EXE'TER WITHDRAW It is with regret I have to report that Exeter,

through administrative difficulties, have had to withdraw their ,men's and women's teams at this late stage of the season.

Keith Ponting, who infor,med m'e by letter, deeply regrets having to make this decision, as they have long been associated with us, but the hope is that they will return once again next season.

Bourne:mouth men's home match with EXlmouth gave them a 7-2 vi,ctory. Paddy Shepherd opened the match with a good win over Cyril Bush while Paul Stone (ex-Exeter) also beat the same opponent. But these wins were all that Ex,mouth could get. "Bunny" Ellis, coming in for Steve Wilson, played well to secure three good wins, as did Trevor Smith.

New,comers Poole had an excellent match with Newbury, who just got home 5-4. Poole went into a 2-0 lead with Neville Thorley and Michael Hughes successful over David and Tony Reeves. But then Paul Trott and David Reeves levelled matters with wins over Graham Hill and Hughes. Trott then put Newbury into the lead by :beating Thorley, but back came Hill with a win over Tony Reeves.

Newbury too a winning lead through Trott and David Reeves with Thorley winding up the proceedings by beating Tony Reeves. Bournemouth, at home to Newbury, went down 3-6 with the visitors including Simon Heaps. Trevor Smith was again Bourne­mouth's star with a treble, Heaps, Trott and David Reeves sharing the visitors' successes.

In the Women's section Newbury "A" had a 6-3 home win over NeWiport,whose Elizabeth J ones was in great for,m, 'beating Carol Hough­ton, Mandy Smith and Christine Rogers. New­bury's wins were registered against Joan Evans and Pat Perrett.

In my January article I gave Jim Andrews, of Weston, as beating, Bob Parkins, of Plymouth, whereas Bob actually had a 'maxi­munl of three victories while in the December issue Parkins lost to Mike Darlington, of Exeter. Sorry about these errors, lads, but my eyesight is not, or ever will be, as it should be.

DEVON NOTES

by Keith Panting

BARBARA AND MIK,E ARE THE :CHAMPIONS

This year was the turn of Exeter to stage the ICounty (Senior Closed at Exeter College on Sunday, Feb. 9. This is an event enjoyed by ,many players from ,all parts of Devon, sometilmes m'eeting each other for the first ti.me in a year and old and friendly rivalries were evident throughout the day.

As in most tournaments there were some shock results, most notable being the defeats of top seeds in the Men's and Women's singles, Barry Davis and Elaine Lamb, fronl Plymouth, and a first time win for Barbara Pearson over former England International, Pam Mortimer. Elaine went out to Nancy Hollywood, whilst Barry fell to the holder, Boh Parkins, again from Plymouth. Bob has not had one of his best seasons, but he certainly found his fornl on the day to make his seemingly endless number of appearances in the final.

The finals started with the two Men's Singles Semi-lfina]s in which IMike Rattue easily beat hiQi' tea.m-mate from Exeter, Paul Stone. Parkins had yet another hard match against Plymouth"s Keith James,but just came out on top in the third ga.me. David Bazell from Exmouth, making his first entry in th~ VE;terans' event, just had the edge over Colin MItchell, from Plymouth. A very popular win was that of Elaine Lamb and Kathy Rowe from Plymouth, who beat the 'holders of th~ Wo,men's Doubles, Nancy Hollywood and Barbara Pearson.

Another fine performance was that of Rattue and Stone to dispose of Parkins and Mike Short in the Men's Doubles. In the Mixed, Rattue and Pam Mortimer had to pull out all the stops to halt the ,challenge of Short and Elaine Lamb.

Aliter her win in the Plymouth Champion­ships the week before, Barbara Pearson was full of confidence against Mavis Scott, also from Plymouth, in the Women's final. This was a dour, defensive struggle with Mavis matching her opponent stroke for stroke throughout a long match. Barbara eventually won through to take the title she has not won for many years.

In the ,Men's Singles final former holder, Rattue brought the house down with some brilliant play. Parkins had no answer to the power of Mike's strokes and went down in straight ganles.

The awards were presented by Mrs. Frances Jarvis, the popular President of the Associa­tion. The venue was cleared up by 9 p ..m., one of the earliest finishes ever, due, I have no :doubt, to the splendid organising of the Referee, Bill Spry.

THE EXETER JVNIO,R 1-STA'R Results:­

U-13 B.S.: G. Sandley bt P. Whiting 12, 4. U-13 G.IS.: _A. Gordon bt 'N. Pine 9, 13. U-15 B.S.: K. Edwards bt I. James 18, -18, 11. U-15 G.S.: E. hamlb 'bt W. Parker 15, 20. U-17 B.S.: R. Jermyn bt S. Claxton 20, 16. U-17 G.S.: Lam1b bt J. Wilson 15, 18. U-17 B.D.: W. Dawe/M. Hodgetts bt Edwards/

,Claxton -18, 20, 19. U-17 G.D. Parker/Wilson ht S. Jones/S. Watton

16, 15. U-17 X.D.: Edwards/Parker bt Claxton/Watton

16,16.

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Page 15

OPEN TOURNAMENT RESULTS compiled by

L. F. LANDRY & G. R. NEWMAN

16-years-old Andrew B,arden, of Middlesex, made hay whilst the SUD shone on England's elite in Australia and India, by winning the men's singles titles of the Ken.t, Lancashire and Essex 2-Star Opens all within the space of three weekends.

KENT 2-STAR OPEN Men's Singles-Semi-finals: Barden bt Horsham -14, 16, 15. Hilton :bt Taylor 8, 25. Final: BARD,EN bt Hilton 19, 17. Women's Singles-Semi-finals: S. Hession (Essex) bt S. Harness (nee Beck­

:with) (Essex) 22, 20. S. Henderson (Surrey) bt J. Hellaby (Essex)

19, 19. Final: HIEND,ERSO'N bt Hession 16, 9. Men's Doubles-Final: BAR,DEN/,DAY bt Horsham/Mitchell 16, -17,

15. Women's Doubles-Final: H,END'E,RSON/HESSION bt Hellaby/Tarten

13, 14. Mixed Doubles-Final: JOIH,NS/HESSION bt Tan/Dove 19, 18. U-20 B.S.-Final: TAY:L,OiR bt Day 14, -17, 18. U-20 G.S.---..;Final: GR,EE!N'OD'G'H bt Witt 17, 10. Veteran Singles-Final: D'ARCY bt Batterick 12, 12.

LANCASHIRE 2-STAR OPEN Men's Singles-Semi-finals: Parker bt Johns 13, -26, 11. Barden bt Hilton 9, 11. Final BARDE,N bt Parker 19, 16. Women's Singles-Semi-finals: S. Lisle (Ches) bt L. Hryszko (Yorks) 8, 16. A. Stevenson (Lei,cs) bt K. Rogers (Leics)

17, 15. Final: ~ STEVENSO'N bt Lisle 15, 16. Men's Doubles-Final: BARDIE,N/LA'NDIRY bt Johns/Johns 17, -20,

17. Women's Doubles-Final: LISLE/ST'EVE,NSON bt Ludi/Rogers 19, 18. Mixed Doubles-Final: tHAM,PSO,N/LISLE bt Robertson/Hryszko 23,

19. Veteran Singles-Final: 1SCHOFIELD bt D'Arcy -12, 10, 16.

Page 16

w.s.: S. Henderson (Surrey) bt J. CoopESSEX 2·STAR OPEN (Hants) 18, 12.

Men's Singles-Semi-finals: :M.D.: B. and D. Johnson (Warwks) bt Bruce/ Barden bt Day 19, -18, 7. W. Moulding (Wilts) 18, 19. Johns bt Boasman 15, 13. W.D.: CooP/J. Reading (:Hants) bt K. Groves Final: (Warwks)/Henderson 16, -20,12. BAR',DIEN bt Johns -15, 9, 12. X.D.: Clayton/Henderson bt S. Smith (Hants)/ Women's Singles-Se'mi-finals: Coop 14,20. S. Lisle (Ches) bt K. Witt (Berks) 17, 9. B.S.: D. Johnson bt I. Collins (Kent) 19, 14. S. Hession (Essex) bt A. Mitchell (Middx) G.S. Reading bt J. Mitchell (Surrey) 10, 19.

7, -14, 20. Final. LISL,E bt Hession 19, 13. CHAN,GE OIF ADDRESS Men's Doubles-Final: JOHNS/PARK,E,R bt Barden/Day 20, 20. As from Feb. 24, Johnny, Daisy and Jeffrey Women's Doubles-Final: Le,ach changed their address from 8 Tangle­LiJSDE/STiEV,ENSON bt Court/Hession 10, 12. wood 'Close, Shirley, Croydon, to 18 High Mixed Doubles-Final: Elms, Manor Road, Chigiwell, Essex, lG7 6NF PA,R,KEIR/SliEVEINSO,N bt Horsham/Hession (,'Phone: 501 1966).

-21, 9, 12. I.S.B.-Final: HALEX PROFICIENCY AWARDTA~L,OR lbt :Horsham -17, 19, 7. I.S.G.-Final: SCHEME SliEVE,NSON bt Hellaby 17, 12. Some news for entrants for the Silver andVete'ran Singles-Final: Gold Award Standards of the' HaJex ProficiencyFO'U,NllAIN bt Herber 19, 13. Award Scheme. 'From M~ch 15th a fre'e Halex

Te,e Shirt will be given a,way with each Silver or Gold Certificate and Badge awarded. FullTITLES FOR TONY details are being sent to all relevant County ,Coaches and Umpir'es connected with the

AND SUE 4Award Scheme, so enter now as the offer Icloses on July 15th.

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played at Winton Y.M.e.A., on Feb. 9, six of All sale iteims such as ties, ,books, etc., arethe seven events were won by seeded players, now available from the E.T.T.A. Office and notwith Tony Clayton beating Terry Bruce in a from Mr. F. J. Inch, of Durham, who, forwell-fought men's singles final and Sue Hender­ business and health reasons, has relinquishedson aCrcounting for Joy,ce ,Coop in the counter­ the task of handling all E.T'.T'.A. sales.part women's ,event. Results:---.. Enquiries for sale ite;ms should therefore be

M.S.: A. Clayton (Yks) bt T. Bruce (Wilts) directed to the E.T.T.A. Office in Hastings, and17, 12. not to Mr. Inch.

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County Notes CoatiauecI from page 10

NORTHANTS NOTES by Dennis Millman

BACK ON BEAM Victory at last for the County First team,

and a best of the season performance from No.1 player, Rod Marchant, wh~ threw. off his recent lethargy to take all hIS sets 10 a style reminiscent of his brilliance of two years ago. This display, including a memorable straight games win over. Eng~and .No. 11, jo.hn Kitchener, has come Just 10 time to gIveMarchant the necessary confide~ce to def~nd his County title in the forthcommg champlo~· ships, to be staged at Northampton on Aprd 5-6.

Rod's was not the only top class perfor.mance, for the 'Women, Connie Bane !'ond Anne Wallis were much too good for theIr Suffolkcounte'r,parts.. and won all t.heir sets without bein~ unduly troubled. WIth john Palmer winmng his opening debut set, and Ste,:e Lyon also registering a sin~es success, thIS was the home team's ~est dIsplay ~o! a lo~g time. With County jumors also reahsmg. theIr potential the future is perhaps not qUIte so black as 'it looked earlier in the year.

The Kettering & District ~ague Closed w.as the first to be completed thIS season, and Its 15 events produced some 300 entries from wellover 100 competitors. Individually the honours went to Geoff Atkinson, wh~ took the Me.n's Singles against John Palmer, 10 an outstandmgfinal and then the Men's Doubles partneredby Graham Feakin, who also triu~phed in the Premier Division Handicap S1Ogles.. Anne Wallis was in a class of her own 10 the Women's events, taking all thre~ titles, sup­ported in the doubles, first by sIster Mandy, and then by John Palmer.

Results: Men's Singles: Geoff Atkinson bt John Palmer

·16, 20, 20. . h' . Women's Sinldes: Anne Walhs bt G nstme

Dilley 12 11. Men's Doubles: Geoff Atkinson a~d Graham

Feakin bt Dick Cole and Denms MIllman 14,14. . d M d

Women's Doubles: Anne Walhs a.n an yWallis bt Tina Coleman and DIane Doyle 18, 18. W II' Mixed Doubles: john Palmer and Anne a IS bt Terry Sutton and Pa~ Rix!»n 19, 18. .

Veterans' Singles: Denms MIllman bt DIck Cole 10, 20. .

junior Singles: Mandy WallIS bt Stuart Rollings ·22, 15, 18.

junior Doubles: Valerie Feakin and Ma.ndyWallis bt Chris Millman and Stuart Rolhngs

18, ·18, 12.Under·15 Singles: Adrian Mann beat Gary

Robinson 15, 17.Under-13 Singles: Ken Nicoll bt Graham Ball

22, 6. On the league front, the major iSliues are

still undecided. In Northampton, U.T.C. "A" continue to lead Y.M.C.A. "A': in the inevit· able two-team contest. Kettermg also has a two-horse race, with Rothborough's Geoff Atkinson Graham Feakin and Steve West looking likely to bold on, t~, their p'resent lead over Kettering Town 'A . Wellin~orouJP1' too sees the probability of youth tnumphmgove'r experience, for follo~ing ~othborough's surprising, yet merIted WI~ agamst a Ke~ter. ing Town trio, never preVIously beaten 10 a league competi-;ion of any kind.. it would seem that Boro' or Compton Nomaas have only to win their forthcoming league clash to make reasonably sure of the title. Gary Alden, wh!»se haHrick against Town "A" /Was the VItal factor, could well prove the trump card.

The South East Midlands scene c01?tinues to shine ·brightly for Northampton 10 the Veterans' Division and to a lesser e?tten~ f~r Daventry with their Reserves, whIle It. IS interesting to see Northampton, Welhng.

borough and Kettering faring equally well in the Men's section, particularly the latter, who for so many years have languished near the bottom. However, if the League is to be divided into First and Second 'Divisions at the end of the season, it would appear that Wellinp>orough and Northampton should qualify for the upper section, with Ketteringjust failing to make the grade.

While on the subject of South East Midland League matters, it was encouraging to see so many Northampton competitors at the first Reserve Tournament, led by Compton'senthusiastic trio Mick Edwards, Romano Gallo and John Horne, who did so well to reach the Men's Final. A smaller party travelled from Kettering and Daventry, but Welling­borough was not represented, and missed the opportunity of taking part in an interesting venture, in the palatial atmosphere of the new St. Ivo Recreation Centre at St. Ives, an impressive building possessing excellent all· round facilities, ,but unfortunately not purposebuilt for table tennis, as some competItorsundoubtedly found out.

NORTHUMBERLAND NOTES

by Pauline Jackson HONOUR WELL DESERVED

Northumberland officials and players were very pleased to see that at long last Andrew Clarke has been included in Group "A" of the latest England Junior ranking list.

This is an honour which is well deserved. as Andrew has had several good games in both County matches and tournaments this season. His approach to the game sets an examplethat some of the other players would do well to follow, and with one more season as a junior, there is every possibility that he will eventually arrive in the top flight.

The County teams fared only moderately in their fixtures for January and February.The second team, without Dave ArmstrongPauline Jackson and Pat Small were weIi bea,ten 0.10 away to Cheshire III, but the juniors were highly delighted when a 4-6 defeat at home to Lancs. II on the same day was turned into a 6-4 win, because Lancs. fielded an ineligible player and forfeited two sets. Andrew Clark turned in his usual con· sistent performance to win two singles, but credit must also be given to Ann Henderson and Valerie Smith, who won their first·ever girls' doubles, and Valerie rounded off a goodday by partnering Eddie Thomas to win the mixed. This result can do nothing but goodfor the juniors, who are improving with each match.

The first team, meanwhile, did not have a fixture until Feb. IS, when they entertained Lincolnshire at North Shields Y.M.C.A. It was anticipated that this would be a close match and in fact the final result was a 5-5 draw. This, however, was a match that Northumber· land really should have won, as Lincolnshire were without Brian Hill and Mick East. Ian Robertson and Andrew Clark-the latter given a further opportunity of senior playas there was no junior fixture-both played well to take two singles each. Peter Hoyles surpris­ingly lost both his singles, although he and Ian Robertson combined well to take the men's doubles.

In the Stiga National Club Championships,Northumberland were successful in two rounds of the Wilmott Cup. Their first match was away to Carlisle, where they just scrapedhome 5-4, the sets being won by Malcolm McMaster (2), Dave Donalson (2) and Ian Robertson (1). In the next round the team of Robertson, Peter Hoyles and Andrew Clark had a convincing S-O win over Aycliffe, who included Durham County players StephenHaughney and Jimmy Crawford.

The juniors reached the next round of the Carter Cup by beating Carlisle 8-1, the se~s !being won by Andrew Clark (3), 'EddIe Thomas (3) and Glenn McCardle (2).

Still with the younger generation, it was most encouraging to hear that 70 boys and

girls attended Ray Neal's coaching session fOl' schools at Newcastle Polytechnic on Feb. 2, and there was every reason to hope that the next course, on Feb. 16, would be as success· ful.

LEICESTERSHIRE NOTES

by Phil Reid

HOPES RISE Leicestershire's hopes of tOJ?ping the 2nd

Division (Midland) rose conSIderably when they beat Warwickshire II 9-1. The opening set between two highly promising juniors-ChrisRogers and Duggie Johnson-set the tempofor the whole encounter. Rogers, 9·2 down in the third, recovered to lead 19-14. Johnson fought back then to level at 200all before losing 22·20. The final point will be talked about for a long time by all who saw it. Rogers hit five magnificent drives, each of which looked a certain winner-yet johnson contrived to return the first four but even he couldn't manage the fifth one.

Another incident worthy of note-in the second set Paul Randell v Barry Hayward. Randell, having won the first 21·19, led 20.17 in the second. A long rally followed and it culminated when Haward suddenly picked upthe ball, saying he played it twice. A fine piece of sportsmanship-particularly when it was clear that neither the eagle-eyed Cambridge umpire, Mike Jackson, nor his opponent had the slightest inkling what had happened.

The Veterans had a nerve.tingling win over Staffordshire with Phil Overend proving a real hero. In the final match he beat P. Hancock 27·25, 20.22, 22-2o--they don't come much closer than thatl

The Junior 1st team took another step'towards relegation when they could onlybring ,back one win from Essex, that beingwhen Chris Rogers beat Robert Potton. It is unfortunate but the real facts are that there are just not sufficient juniors of Premier Divi· sion standard for Leicestershire to have a real chance of survival. The Junior 2nd team were narrowly beaten when Steven DaY' lost to Bilton 23-25 in the third. Two wins by David Gannon were the highlight of the match.

The Rose johnson Bowl has now reached the concluding stages with King Richard's Rd.W,M.C. I, Jones & Shipman III~ Belgrave S~. Michael's and Great .t!len I beml the seD!l­finalists. Some unfalDlhar names there but 10 a handicap competition that's what it should all be about. The young jones & Shipman team look hot favourites to take the title but Belgrave St. Michael's could be the "dark horses."

The Leicestershire Towns League was againsuccesHully held at Louliliborough and once again Leicester retained their title. With Paul Randell, Chris Rogers and Graham Hughes(ranked I, 2 and 4 in Leicestershire) in their team, this was hardly a shock, but Hinckley put up a good fight in the last match, Chris Brewer and Maurice Newman both beatingLeicester skipper Graham Hughes.

All is now in hand for the "Leicestershire Closed", this season being handled by the very competent Hinckley League.

The committee meetings at Leicester League meetings seem to get shorter and shorter­the last one lasted 15 minutes-but with no power cuts or postal strikes and all clubs keen to Jiiay their fixtures, there hasn't been much to discuss.

This enthusiasm is noticeable in other leagues, particularly Hinckley and Lough·borough, but increased postal charges, etc., must cause headaches. The abolition of County Rebate too, will cause problem~-almost certainly there will be a pruning of Countyteams-by far our ·biggest item of expenditure.

However, there is no point in being unduly pessimistic-more representative table tennis than ever is being played in Leicestershire and with many enthusiastic helpers, it is prettyclear that an answer to all our problems will be found II

Page 11

HERALDING HEREFORDSHIRE by Ian R. Crickmer

FIRST FOOTS First champions reported for the 1974-75

season are those of the Leominster League­in their individual events played at the begin­ning of February, the titles went as follows:­

Singles Final: M. Richards. beat M. Charters. Doubles Final: M. Richards and R. Cooke

beat B. Davies and G. Mytton.Under-17 Singles Final: K. Leddington-Hill

beat M. Conod. A very tililit situation exists at the top of

Leominster Oivision One. After playing eight matches each, Little Hereford 'A' have 33 points, and Leominster 'A' and Little Hereford 'B' 32 each. Similarly, with five points at stake in each match, Division Two sees Leominster 'B' with 43 points from nine matches and Little Hereford 'c' on 38 .points after eight fixtures.

At County level, the Western Division pro­gramme finished with two heavy defeats at Village Farm-both visiting. teams were involved with the neck and neck struggle for this title. Worcestershire II left Allensmore 8-2 victors, and Gwent went one better with a 9·1 success. Of eight sets won by Hereford­shire in their four fixtures, five were capturedby Mike Prosser in singles. With an eye to the future, it was decided to include Linda Owen as the second lady versus Gwent. This proved a particularly hard match as the Welsh county was intent on building up its sets record to maintain a Championships challenge.

In contrast, the winning of Division Three of the Junior Midland League has given a welcome fillip to Hereford fortunes. A 9-1 victory away to Leamington, in which the only borne win was by Adrian Sankey at the expense of Jeremy Bower, was followed bythe vital home match versus Stratford-on· Avon. A hair's breadth-or a coat of cellulose -separated the visitors from the title; needing a draw to concede only one point compared with Hereford's two, they trailed 4-5, but Steven Cull led by a game and 20-19 againstMark Owen. A missed kill now cost him dearly, as Mark then levelled at 23-21 and took the third 21-15. Winners .by 6-4, Hereford made no mistake in their final fixture with a 7·3 victory on the long journey to Derby to meet the homesters' third team.

There has been no recent activity in the Open Division of the Worcestershire County League, but Hereford look forward to the second part of the Junior-Intermedial.e Divi­sion to be played on April 6th. In the first section at Worcester, in January, they headed the table with three wins, Evesham were beaten 8-2, with Linda Owen defeating new Worcestershire girls"champion, Mandy Mytton 21-16 in the third-then the .families 'clashed again, Mark Owen beating Nicky Mytton 11 and 10! 7·3 was the scoreline versus Redditch. Mark moved up to the intermediates but could not contain Richard Warby, the latter winning21·11 in the third. However, Mark and Michael Owens recorded a fine doubles win over Warbyand Simon Gray, and Stephen Halford had the encouragement of his first representative success when beating Gary Dunning. Linda surprisingly went down to Mandy Hough, of Worcester, but on loan to Redditch. In the Worcester match, Linda had another close encounter to beat Melanie Dilley 23-21 in the third, but the turning point in the 6-4 Here­ford su'ccess was the capture of two doubles against home predictions. The mixed event was won 21-18 in the third, and Halford proved a good partner for Richard Owens in over­coming Simon Claxton and Sheila Foley.

Amidst this welter of activity, the Hereford youngsters have still managed to attend the nearer Open tournaments. Michael Owens recorded a fine win in the Burford Junior Open, ousting the top seed in the Under-13 Boys' Singles, Graham Sandley, who is No.8 on the English cadet under-14 ranking list.

On the domestic scene, Ledbury lead Divi­sion One in Hereford by two points with a match in hand, but two recent defeats make

Page 18

them less secure-either Village Farm team, Challengers or Dodgers, could take advantageof any further slip.

At the foot of the table, R.A.F. are grounded without a point-likely to replace them in the top flight are Rank Xerox. The Mitcheldean side has maximum points, but below them any one of five sides could capture second spot.Currently Civil Service Ravens have 20 points, followed by their feathered friends(?) Civil Service Hawks, on 18-the former have a far superior games average. A 7-3 victory for Pembridge 'B' over Night Owls in the top of Division Three ·battle put the former three points clear. Night Owls are themselves five points ahead of Bulmers Strongbow.

An identical position in Division Four sees Post Office 'A' three points in front of Saunders Valve 'B', who in turn lead South Wye Hintonians by a further points margin of three.

M.E.B. have an unassailable eight .points advantage in the Fifth, and the main questionis, who joins them in promotion? College Hill Youth Club 'A' (18 points) and Mother's Pride 'D' (16 points) are current contenders. The second M.E.B. side are also leaders in Division Six, where three points separate them from a chasing group of five teams, covered 'by a range of three points only. At the other end of this Division, Commercial Road Ladies took likely to take the wooden 9poon, but no culinary quips lest I be accused of being a male chauvinist.

In conclusion, my Hereford correspondent.Geoff Davies, has recently left the area, and I wish him well in his new appointment in myhome city, at Worcester Department of Employment and Productivity.

CHESHIRE NOTES

by Brian Kean NIGEL COMES GOOD

Since these notes last appeared so much has happened it is impossible to give mention to everything, so please don't think you've been overlooked. The County first string is riding'high in the County Championships with wins over Yorkshire and Lancashire keeping us close on the tail of front runners, Essex.

Nigel Eckersley at last came good in these two victories, collecting three wins from four matches, whilst our ever faithfuls, Mike Johns, .lohn Hilton and Sue Lisle contributed generously' to the successes.

Competition is hot for places on our veteran team at present. There are so many goodplayers available it must be a headache for the selectors.

A contrasting situation arises in the Junior ranks, where only Trevor Burrows is produc­Ing the magic touch; however, that duo from the Wirral, Neil Roberts and Ann Hepple, are still improving.

Our main hopes lie in Trevor Gatley, who could shortly explode on the success trail. He's tremendously dedicated and enthusiastic, so that's 75% of stardom's requirements.

Middlesex's Andy Barden has proved a spanner in the works of Cheshire's success machine. Twice in tournament finals he's halted the gallop of John Hilton, who has been causing havoc on the national ranking list by 'collecting the scalps of braves in higherplaces.

In all the "AFRO BOMBER" has 3 times fell under the "INDIAN SIGN" in the penultimateround.

Contrasting tales to tell in the case of Nigel Eckersley, who has won 5 open titles this season, .bringing his total to 8. I.f this trend continues he'll be chasing the records of ageing tournament heroes Mike Johns and Derek Schofield.

Tournament champ this season must be Pete D'Arcy, who has collected 13 veteran titles, one being the English (Norwich Union)Open.

Another tournament champ is Trevor

Burrows, who won the Yorkshire Junior Open.QUICKSNIPS

John McNee-has been rewarded for his fine performances this season by beingincluded in the Scottish Senior squad.

DonCollester, Fred Hepple and John Wood­ward-all doing great work on the 'coaching scene.~Well done lads!

MIKE JOHNS-as you may well know. was married earlier in the year, and on behalf of the County Management Committee, I extend our best wishes to both him and wife Annette.

TREVOR GATLEY-has been banned flOm the kitchen at home since he allowed the chip pan to catch fire-the result-kitchen burned down! When asked of his pa,rents' reaction, he replied-"I don't know, I went to bed before they came home"!

NOTTINGHAMSHIRE NOTES by Colin Hammond

DEPRESSION CONTINUES I start, as always, wiil:h rite latest County

matdt results, and for the second time runningvhey make rather depressing reading, with three defeats and one victory.

The Senior first team were hosts ,to a stronger .than usual Derbyshire team, and went down 2-8. Alan Croome was unfortunate in that after a c()mfortabie WlO over Maurice Billington, he was leading Eric Hall early in the first game, only to dislocate his shoulder and retire. Brian Mayfield enjoyed the only other success over Ivor Warner. Martin KinseHa, aged 18, making his first team debut, wasn't overawed and came close to 'beatingWarner. As expected, -Pat Hopkin and Dianne Maxfield had a fruitless evening against t.Jhe more experienced Sandra Walters and. Jackie Billington. The experiment of bringing in an extra player, Bob Nelson, for the doubles, did not succeed, and the dismal run of doubles losses continues.

The Senior 2nd team, at home to Warwick­shire 3rd, lost 2·8 on the table but 4-6 even­tually, due to the visitors playing an unranked player. Rod Corbett was the only Notts winner in the singles. Nicky Kirkland and Tony Rusi­nowski both performed well on their debuts, Nicky combining -with yours truly to win the Men's Doubles. As in rite first team, the women, Sue Osborn and Dianne Chapman, had a disappointing match.

The Junior team travelled to North Wales and los.t a close mail:ch 4-6, the decisive factor once again being doubles. The boys did well to win 4 of the 6 .singles, Glen Stredder win­ning two, with Dave Bilton and 'Chris Stock­dale winning one each. However, the girls, Karen Mayfield and Jackie Wright were out­played, and the all-important .boys' doubles was lost. .

The only success, once again came from our extremely consistant Veterans' team, who, although deprived of the services of John Ellis and Pat Hammond, beat Worcs. 6-3. Ron Bolton and' John Burraston continued their personal successes with maximums, and BettyMarriott won her singles convincingly in her first County match of the season, as well as combining with Bolton to win the mixed. Unfortunately, Don Horton, in his first County Match, had an unhappy night, and went down in all three of his sets.

An attempt has been made by Alan Packer, local sports shop owner, to improve playing conditions locally. He 'has instigated a compe­tition with £100 prize money, but with entryrestricted to regIstered clubs who can boast County standard conditions, and who have a junior eligi,ble to play.

The Inter-town leagues have just re-started after a lapse of a year. The Competition is 'lplit into four leagues-Men's, Women's, JUl1lors and Veterans, and the final positions will be aggregated and a cup presented to the most successful league. Nottingham must be favourites, but it is encouraging to see an entry of 19 from the 4 leagues, with Retford, Worksop, Newark, Mansfield and Nottingham all entering teams.

REVISED SENIOR RANKINGS

NEALE RE.GAINS HIS THROINE Meeting in 'Basingstoke over the weekend

of the South of England 3-Star Open, the National Selection Committee, 'with the results of the '3rd Commonwealth and 33rd World Championships before them, revised the senior rankings and restored Denis Neale to the No. 1 position after the brief reign of his Or:mesby clubmate, Nicky Jarvis.

Trevor Taylor, who for the third time run­ning won the Comlmonwealth men's singles title and reached the last sixteen in the World Championships, was also elevated to No.3, displacing Desmond Douglas who, like Jarvis, is demoted one position. Men

1. D. Neale (Cleveland) (2) 2. N. Jarvis (Cleveland) (1) 3. T. Taylor (Bedfordshire) (4) 4. D. Douglas (Warwickshire) (3) 5. J. Walker (Cleveland) (5) 6. A. Barden (Middlesex) (14) 7. I. Horshalm (Essex) (6) 8. D. Parker (Lancashire) (9) 9. D. Alderson (Cleveland) (7)

10. P. Taylor (Bedfordshire) (12) 11. J. Hilton (Cheshire) (17) 12. D. Brown (Essex) (10) 13. P. Day (Camibridgeshire) (13) 14. M. Johns (Cheshire) (11) 15. J. Kitchener (Suffolk) (11) 16. A. Clayton (Yorkshire) (16) 17. N. Eckersley (Cheshire) (-) 18. M. Mitchell (Middlesex) (-)

Women 1. J. Ham1mersley (Buck'gha,mshire) (1) 2. L. Howard (Surrey) (2) 3. S. Lisle (,Cheshire) (4) 4. C. Knight (Cleveland) (6) 5. K. Mathews (Middlesex) (3) 6. A. Stevenson (Leicestershire) (8) 7. K. Rogers (Leicestershire) (9) 8. S. Henderson (Surrey) (7) 9. S. Hession (Essex) (5)

10. J. Hellaby (Essex) (-)

FRIENDL Y MATCHES Mr. Borje Bergqvist, former Secretary to

the Swedish Table Tennis Association, has been in touch with the E.T.T.A. O'ffice regard­ing a possible visit to England by the junior players from his Club, IFK Osteraker, of Bt­sektionen, Lansmansvagen 5, 184 00 Akers­berga, 8weden.

It is planned ;that some twelve/fifteen youngsters between twelve and sixteen years will journey to England during early May for a stay of one wee~. During this time they would very much like to play sonte friendly matches against our own Clubs.

Mr. Bergqvist advises us that his girls' team belongs ;to the Second National League in Sweden and his boys are members of the Fourth National League.

Would any interested 'Club please contact Mr. E. R. T'aylor, General Secretary, E.T.T.A., 21 Claremont, Hastings, East Sussex, T,N34 lHA - telephone number "Hastings 433121, by the 9th April, 1975, at the latest.

GWENT OIPE,N One tournament not listed in the E.T.T.A.

'Tournament ,Diary is the ,Gwent Open, to be [fun on Satl.U'day, April 19, and for which entries close on Saturday, April 5, to Mr. G. E. Motlow', 29 Carishrooke Road, Newport, Mon. (,Phone: Ne1wport 71964).

After being held for 23 successive years at the premises of Standard Tele,phones and Cables, the venue is s'witc'hed to ICiwmibran Stadium Sports Centre, off Oakfield Road, C'wmbran. Prize money totals £100 and play will he on 8 Dunlop Barna tables with TSB balls.

MIDAS SILVER SPOT Table Tennis bats represent a genuine advance in sandwich rubber. Top players have been amazed at its versatility, for it helps both attacking and defensive shots without any sacrifice

of ball control. This special blend of natural and sponge rubber was developed in Japan by a leading manufacturer in consultation with

Johnny Leach. It is endorsed by such British stars as Chester Barnes and Denis Neale,

and is marketed exclusively by S. W. Hancock. The MIDAS SILVER SPOT bat

features a specially constructed ply blade, to take maximum advantage of

this super rubber, and also a sntooth­grip waisted handle. It is available in either Leach or Barnes shape and style in four different thick­nesses-1mm, 1.Smm, 2mnt, and

2.Smm. MIDAS SILVER SPOT Rubber is also available as a separate pack, so that a player

may, if he prefers, affix it to his own favourite blade.

MIDAS SILVER SPOT IS THE CHOICE OF CHAMPIONS, including: JOHNNY LEACH (twice world Singles Champion), JILL HAMMERSLEY (En~lish Champion and No.1 player), CHESTER BARNES (S times English Champion), D'ENIS NEAL,E (4 times English Champion and No.1 player). LINDA HOWARD (England's No.2), RICHARD YULE (Scotland's No.1).

? WHY ARE THEY ALL SWITCHING TO MIDAS SILVER SPOT ?

Ask your local sports dealer for MIDAS SILVER SPOT, the bat with the magic sandwich surface that Chester Barnes, and his fellow British Champions, are all switching to. Denis Neale is switching because:

"MIDAS SILVER SPOT gives me extra speed AND spin without sacrifice in ball control."

Jill Hammersley says: "It's ideal for girls."

But let Chester Barnes have the last word: "MIDAS SILVER SPOT is the best thing to happen in table tennis for ten years," he says. And he's not kidding.

TRY IT - AND GIVE YOUR GAME A TOUCH OF MAGIC

ANSWER: THEY'RE ALL SWITCHING BECAUSE MIDAS SILVER SPO'T IS THE BAT OF THE FUTURE

.5. W. HANCOCK LIMITE'D 119 THE CHASE CLAPHAM LONDON SW4 ONS ENGLAND

Telephone: 01·622 3345/6

41 HOLLANDS ROAD HAVERHILL' SUFFOLK ENGLAND Telephone: 0440 5666 & 5566

INTRODUCING

Page 19'

YORKSHIRE JUNIOR OPEN Results UNDER-17 EVENTS Boys' Singles-Quarter-finals:T. Burrows (Ches) bt B. Baxter (Yorks) 7, 17. I. Girdler (Surrey) bt S. Hazelwood (Yorks) -19, 17, 17. M. Harrison (Yorks) bt K. Richardson (Cambs) 17, -18, 17. R. Hazelwood (Yorks) bt I. Kenyon (Kent) 19, -19, 12. Semi -finals: Burrows bt Harrison 19, 16. Girdler bt R. Hazelwood 21, -16, II. Final: BURROWS bt Girdler 12, 2I. Girls' Single5-Semi-finals: S. Hunt (Lines) bt R. Newman (Cambs) IS, -21, 14. J. McLean (Yorks) bt L. Hryszko 17, 17. Final: HUh••T bt McLean 10, 17. Boys' Doubles-Semi-finals: Hazelwood/ Hazelwood bt Burrows/G. Hoy (Lanes) 22, -16, 14. K. Beadsley/J. Naser (Yorks) bt A. Metcalfe/B. Metcalfe (Yorks)

-II, 21, II. Final: HAZELWOOD/HAZELWOOD bt Beadsley/Naser 17, 13. Girls' Doubles-Semi-finals: B. Chamberlain (Hunts)/M. Heffernan (Kent) bt C. Haworth

(Yorks) / Hryszko 14, -17, 15. A. Gordon (Berks)/Newman bt M. Oddy (Yorks)/J. Inch (Durham)

17, 14. Final: CHAMBERLAIN/HEFFERNAN bt Gordon/Newman IS, 17. Mixed Doubles-Semi-finals: S. Hazelwood/McLean bt Burrows/Chamberlain 9, II. Beadsley/Hryszko bt P. Masters (Durham)/ Inch 14, -18, 12. Final: S. HAZELWOOD/McLEAN bt BeadsleY/Hryszko 20, 15. UNDER-15 EVENTS Boys' Singles-Semi-finals: C. Reed (Cumbria) bt Harrison -22, 14, 19. Beadsley bt Kenyon 16, -17, 13. Final: REED bt Beadsley 13, 14. Girls' Singles-Semi-finals:Chamberlain bt Gordon -16, 19, 17. Hryszko bt Newman 10, 13. Final: CHAIVIBERLAIN bt Hryszko IS, 7. Boys' DOLibles-Semi-finals: Reed/N. Smith (Cumbria) bt Harrison/M. Thirkettle (Yorks)

17, -13, 18. Beadsley /T. Bottomley (Yorks) bt S. Yallop/J. Hibbert (Derby)

II, 8. Final: REED/SIVIITH bt Beadsley/Bottomley 16, 9. Girls' Doubles-Semi-finals: Haworth/ Hryszko bt A. Lutkin/ A. Hudson (Yorks) 10, 10. Gordon/L. Holmes (Derby) bt S. Jones/S. Watton (Staffs) 19, 18. Final: HAWORTH/HRYSZKO bt Gordon/Holmes 10, 11.

Page 22

UNDER-13 EVENTS Boys' Singles-Semi-finals:S. Harmer (Beds) bt S. Binns (Yorks) 6, 7. R. Albutt (Derby) bt I. Reed (Cumbria) 16, 17. Final: HARMER bt Albutt 7, II. Girls' Singles-Semi-finals: Gordon bt J. Hunter (Norfolk) 8, 14. L. Beadsley (Yorks) bt E. Mathie (Cumbria) IS, 7. Final: GORDO Iv bt Beadsley 17, 11.

BURFORD JUNIOR 2-STAR Results UNDER-11 Boys' Singles:B. JOHNSON (Berks) bt M. Oakley (Surrey) -18, IS, 17. Girls' Singles:H. WILLIAI\llS (lVIiddx) bt P. Townsend (Wilts) -19, 16, 17. UNDER-13 Boys' Singles:A. PROFFITT (Herts) bt C. Wi Ison (Hants) 18, 15. Boys' Doubles: S. HARMER (Bucks)/B. JOHNSON bt G. Sandley/A. Proffitt

IS, 14. Girls' Singles: M. SMITH (Berks) bt A. Gordon (Berks) -IS, 18, 18. Girls' Doubles: GORDON/J. PURSLOW (Berks) bt Smith/G. Heath (Berks) 16, 14. UNDER-15. Boys' Singles: R. JERMYN (Herts) bt J. Robinson (Dorset) 13, 17. Boys Doubles: IVI. DEXTER/D. WARD bt Jermyn/K. Edwards (Wilts) 19, 15. Girls' Singles: J. NEW (Dorset) bt Gordon -17, 13, 14. Girls' Doubles: GORDON/PURSLOW bt B. Chamberlain (Hunts)/J. Thorpe (Berks)

14, 14. UNDER-17 Boys' Singles-Semi-finals: D. Johnson (Wks) bt P. Trott (Berks) 18, 13. J. Proffitt (Herts) bt K. Edwards (Wi Its) 16, 17. Final: JOHNSON bt Proffitt 18, 11. Boys Doubles: JOHNSON/MOUNTFORD (Wks) bt G•. Stewart/P. Smith w/over. Girls' Singles-Semi-finals: J. Reading (Hants) bt New 18, 15. B. Green (Wks) bt W. Parker (Wilts) 11,20. Final: READING bt Green 14, 18. Girls' Doubles: NEW/READING bt GOi'don/Purslow IS, -18, 16. Mixed Doubles: J. PROFFITT/READING bt Robinson/New 18, 8.

UNDER 13 SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIPS

These events are to be sponsored in 1975 by Alfred Reader and Co. Ltd., the United Kingdom agents ;for Cor du Buy equipment, and will be known as the Reader-Cor du Buy English Under-13 Singles Championships. Some changes in organisational structure have been made, and sixteen hoys and sixteen girls will contest the National Finals at Reading on May 24. ~welve of these are players nominated by

the National Selection Committee, whose choice is: ­

Boys: Simon Hall (,Leicester), Sam Harmer (Aylesbury), Adam Proffitt (Barnets), Ian Reed (Barrow), 'Graham Sandley (North Middlesex), Colin Wilson (Bournemouth).

Girls: Alison Gordon (R'eading), Sharon James (IWest Cornwall), Jill Purslow (Read­ing), Mandy Reeves (North Acton), Helen Robinson (Middlesbrough), Mandy Smith f lSfewbury) . Entries closed on March 1, and ,at the time of going to press, thos'e regional details which had been definitely settled were:­Region 1: April 20-Belllfields Youth Centre,

Hazel Avenue, Guild£ord. Region 8: April 13-Stret'ford Sports Centre,

Great Stone Road, Manchester. Region 9: April 12-North Kesteven Sports

Centre, North Hykeham, Lincoln. Region 10: April 27----0rmes,by T.T.C., Middles­

brough. Negotiations w,ere then in progress for the

six other Regions-all subject to confirmation. Region 2: East London. Region 3: Wisbech. Region 4: Reading. Region 5: Exeter or Plymouth. Region 6: Cheltenham or Swindon. Region 7: WoIrverhampton.

1975 TABLE TENNIS CHAMPIONSHIPS Pontin's proudly present a great sporting week for players, spectators and their families.

Combine your favourite sport with the fun and relaxation of a modern self-catering seaside

village and you have all the ingredients of a superb holiday week. Chalets for two to seven

persons, self-service restaurants, sports, tours and nightlife. Big prize money. Heats as follows:

BREAN SANDS H'LIDA Y VILLAGE BURNHAM-ON-SEA, SOMERSET Tel. Brean Down 203

10th • 17th May, 1975

., SOUTHPORT HOLIDAY VILLAGE AINSDALE, SOUTHPORT, MERSEYSIDE Tel. Southport 77165

10th • 17th May, 1975

CAMBER SANDS HOLIDA Y VILLAGE CAMBER, Nr. RYE, EAST SUSSEX Tel. Camber 333

3rd • 10th May, 1975

HEMSBY HOLIDA Y VILLAGE Nr. GREAT YARMOUTH, NORFOLK Tel. Great Yarmouth 730698

10th • 17th May, 1975

Tariffs from £14 for a chalet for 3 (plus V.A.T.) - Full details of heats and finals from MR. W. ROWLEY, PONTIN·S HOLIDAYS, BOURNEMOUTH BH1 2NT

County Notes Continued from page 18

KENT NOTES

by Eileen Koutikoff

MISSION IMPOSSmLE The main issue in the first division of the

Kent League this season has been that of the e~rimental idea of playing 8 matches, on the sa.me day, a.t a 'Central Venue." This scheme originated from the players themselves ane appeared to 'be a good idea in theory, as it gave the players a full day's play and drasti­cally ,reduced the amount of weekends indi­vidual .matches took up. Whereas in the pasteach league ,provided its own venue, and indeed refreshments ( !), with the Central Venue system the responsibility of finding a hall witlh space and conditions to accommo· date 8 matches of first division standard, fell into the lap of Development Committee memo ber Henry Buist. But the niceties of beingsupplied with a cup of tea and a sandwich had to be thrown out the window.

Had it been realised how impossible this task would be, I am sure the new idea would ;never have been adopted. At 'the first session, 'held at Ashford, a tournament venue the players were familiar with, the first few cries of discontent, regarding cramped space, began. Unfortunately venues from then on further deteriorated. It was suggested at one session, which was 'being held in a hall built in iapproximately 1780, whh gas lighting :to match! that the next Central Venue be in Ken Baker's 16' x 16' garage! The humour displayed at this suggestion, however, did illustrate ,that the situation was not near the mutiny stage.

But the organising of these .matches was becoming more and .more of a nightmare as not only space, conditions, loca.tion, had to be taken in consideration, -but also dates so as not to clash with other important events. As a last resort matches then were being organ· ised for Saturdays and this brought forward an influx O'f protests as many of the players either wor'ked or were otherwise commItted.

The ·players, I am sure, appreciate the probelems but nevertheless have put forward their protests strongly and it is likely that for next season matches will revert to the old system. It might be suggested that the Central Venue syste.m continue but with the number of 'matches cut by half but . . . I am sure this tIme a rather careful research into availabilityof venues able ·00 cater for 4 matches will bt carefully looked at first.

In the first division or the Kent League,Bromley 'A" are topping the division with W(lolwich 'A" right behind them. The title will be fought out ,between these two when they .meet in ·the fi·nal match of the season. As these two neighoouring teams have battled it out so many times in the past, this local "derby" again promises to ·be "The Game" of the season. The WO(llwich side will likely be Paul Beck, Barry Meisel and Clive Morris. Bromley's team may well include Terry Farlie and Ray Tilling, the third member usually being Les Etheridge.

The Kent League Secretary has been battling with hoards of results and SoCore cards to come up with the first division player who has had the best season so far and after going throughthe results and judging them against the standard of players that have been beaten, he assures me that Ray Tilling has had by far the best seasC'n. As Tilling is in the Bromleysquad, look out WooIwich!!

In the Women's first division, Medway have walked away with the title, a lot of their success being due to Kent No.1, Joyce Ellis, holding a 100% record.

In division one of the Junior League, N.W. Kent are way ahead of their nearest rivals. Vince O'Brian and Robert Brown can claim a great deal of c~ediJ1: for this: AlthoughBromley were fieldmg a team, It must &e

pointed out that Kent Juniors Nos. 1 and 2, Ian Kenyon and Ian Collins, did not partici­pate.

N.W. Kent also seem to have the league sewn up in the Veterans' section, as RegWilliams and Bill Chittock have been "spoton" for every match.

The Girls' division one title is still in strongdispute between TOIIIbridge and Gravesend. Lynn Surman·Wells has been this season's out­standing player for Ton-bridge but Gravesend's Gillian ,Ballard' has also been playingextremely well.

GLOUCESTERSHIRE NOTES

by John Cooper

Chris Sewell won the Glamorgan Open Boys' Singles title and was runner up in the men's singles.

In the County field we drew with Leicester­shire (after they gave us 2 start) whilst the juniors beat Devon 6-4.

W. Dawe, P. Lewis, P. Webb, A. Golding, M. Hodgetts, Jane Dovey, Vanessa Cruwys and Wendy Simmons went down to Exeter to trytheir luck and WebbjHodgetts won the doubles. Lewis was runner·up in the under· 15's and Dawe lost in the semi·final of the under-17's. This party stayed down in the area to go on to the Cornwall match, which theywon 7·3. Hospitality was excellent.

Bristol had difficulty in the Carter Cupagainst Newbury, going down 0·7. Sewell had a sprained ankle. Bristol girls (WendySimmons, Donna Vowles, Susan Lovell) played well to go down only 3-6 against the strongBromfield side, whilch included Julie Readingand Janet' New.

In readiness for the coming E.T.T.A. under· 13 competitions, Bristol have had their under-13 competition and Cara Rowe and Kim Morris came forward again, Kim for the third time.

A large contingent from the Leagues .ven­tured out to Burford. Dawe, Webb, lMorgan, Lane, Smith Patterson, Johnson, Jane Dovey,

jJackie Bulock and Julie PhiUips from Gloucester; Paul Lewis, T. and K. Morris, Wendy Simmons and Cara Rowe, Bristol (thelatter frightening the life out of ~:;illian Heath); V. Cruwys, Greening, S. Slack, M. Hodgetts and I Cooper, of Cheltenham.

Stroud men beat St. Kirby's 'B' 7-3 and drew with Oxford. In the Rose Bowl, Stroud did well to only go down 4-5 to Basingstoke.

Cheltenham lost to West Brom 8-2. The two came from Boyd and Collier, with Mick Collier particularly being on form, nearly taking Colley.

Gloucester boys beat Birmingham 'B' 9·1, and the Vets, after beating Stratford, went on to excel with an 8·2 win over Oxford. In the County Junior League our girls beat Bristol 'B'.

Jan. 24 was the second annual Glos. and :Dlst. Schoolgilrls' competition, and despitehandicap starts being given to the weaker players, the County Nos. 1 and 2 girls came through to the final with Jane Dovey repeatingher triumph over Vanessa Cruwys. The general response from schools was 'Poor but an inter­esting and restricted under-IS event was won by Julie Phillips.

A Junior sports time for youngsters 8-14 on Saturday mornings, including table tennis, at the Leisure Centre, has prospects.

BEDFORDSHIRE NOTES

by O. A. Reeves

"STRONG AT THE TOP" After an excellent start in their first-ever

season in the Premier Division when theydefeated Yorkshire 5-4, the Bedfordshire team have found competition to be exceedingly "strong at the top." Unfortunately, for 3 of the 5 matches played so far, they have been

without their number 1 player, Trevor Taylor,and are now going to have to fight really hard in the remaining two matches against Lanca­shire and Cheshire to retain their place.

The second team have had greater success in the Eastern Division, and at the time of writing, have won 3 matches and lost 1. They still have a very good chance of winning the Division and, if the first team remain in the Premier Division, gaining promotion to the Second -Division East.

A great deal of coaching activity has been taking place iii the County during the current season and this was highlighted by a coaches' 'course, held in Luton, at the end of January, when 18 coaches and potential coaches had 2 days of intensive instruction from national ,coach, .Peter Hirst, abJ:y assisted ·by Paul IHarmer. Now that the County is running two senior teams the need for coaching juniors has never been greater and very determined efforts are being made to ,bring on the next generation of County players.

The current Bedfordshire Junior team are having a fairly good season and in their latest match defeated Hunts by 6-4. Alan Chandler was the mainstay of the Beds team. He was successful in winning both his singles and teamed up with Martin Harlow to win the men's doubles. This will be Alan's last season as a junior and he will no doubt be fighting for a place in the senior team during next season.

The County recently organised a fund­raising night at .Cesar's Nightclub, at Luton, at which the star ()f t'he show was Frankie Vaughan. A most enjoyable evening was had by all and the County funds are now in far better shape as a result of this evening. Colin Crowe, who was for many years the Bedford­shire number one, worked very hard to make this evening a resounding success.

WORCESTERSHIRE NOTES

by Doug Moss

HEREFORD JUNIORS LEAD The County K.O. competitions have been

proceeding satisfactorily with the handicapcompetition, particularly interesting with entries from Bromsgrove, Evesham, Hales­owen, Hereford, Kidderminster, Malvern, Redditch and Worcester.

Having completed the first round it seems the handicapping was well done. With team handicaps ranging from scratch to plus-300, there were some close finishes. The averagelead {or winning teams ,was 31. In one match between S.D.F. "AU (Kidderminster-receive 80) and Needle Industries, Studley (Redditch-receive 130) the scores finished up exactlylevel! The Committee agreed the match be replayed with a reverse venue.

In the ,County League Div. 1, the Hereford team is at present carrying all before them. They have, however, not yet played Hales­owen and the clash of these two teams will have a significant effect on the championship.

The Junior Division of the County Leagueis being played on two occasions at Lea & Perrins, Worcester. In the first half of the CGmpetition Hereford did very well to take the lead. Table:­

P W L F APts Hereford . . . . . . . . . . .. 3 3 0 21 9 6 Worcester 3 2 1 19 11 4 Evesham . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 1 2 11 19 2 Redditch . . . . . . . . . . . . 3 0 3 9 21 0

The second part (If the competition will also be played in Worcester on April 6. The exhor­bitant price of petrol naturally causes the County Committee some concern, 'especially having to undertake such long journeys, such as to Cornwall, involving overnight stay.

However, the policy is not to entertain anycur,tailment of the programme but to find more money-making enterprises. Beryl Sham­mon, County Sec., is looking at competitions.It is hoped the ·players who benefit most

Page 23

fr()m the Association's activities will do their best to help.

It is also intended to hold a Dance at Bromsgrore w1hich ~ay Cope ·(Bromsgrovedelegate) will ()rganise. This may be towards the end of March or early April and is intended as a real social occasion and also make a contribution to the finances.

HUNTINGDONSHIRE NOTES by David Deller

,TWO TITLES FOR BELINDA The New Year started wi.th great success

for the County's top tournament competitor,Belinda Chamberlain, winning two titles at the .Yorkshire lunior Open. She carried ()ff the V-15 singles beating Yorkshire's Linda Hryzch() 15, 7 in the final after a stiff semi encounter against Berkshire's Alison Gordon. The Buckden girl's other title came in the U-17 Girls' Doubles when partnered by N. Hefferland.

In South East Midland League matches St. NeotsVeterans, winners of the title the season before last, have again Sltarted well, winning their first four matches and have amassed 32 points including a drubbing (1()'() over near neighbours Hunts Central. The latter are doing well in the Juni()r Seotion. Alan Smith, the Fisher twins and Leno Coppolaro have won four out of their five matches played,beating Kettering and Wisbech by maximum scores, Peterborough 9-1 and Dunstable 6-4. St. ~eots were good 7-3 winners in the Men's Section against Hunts Central with ,Alan Lamprell and Len Say:well d()ing their part.

St. Neots made their exit from the Rose Bowl, losing 3-6 to Cheshunt, Belinda Cham­berlain taking all the local sets. Hunts Central Juniors .travelled to Derby and went down 1-8, Alan Smit'h winning the one.

The County Association have decided to hold an annual wmpetition in memory of Paul Chariton, Hunts' most successful youth player,who was tragically killed last year. The trophywill be played for by youngsters between the ages of 17 and 21 a.t the County Tournament on Mar. 23. The trophy is to be bought from donati()ns received after his death.

St. Neots men, at home to Harlow, were narmwly beaten in rhe second round of the Wilmott Cup 4-5. Lamprell won two with "Gus" Albon and Gordon Cockram taking one apiece.

Five juniors have been selected to join the Eastern Region squad, these being Alan Smith, Steven Fisher, Mark Fisher (St. Ives), Belinda Chamberlain (St. Neots) and Gregg Baker (Peterborough).

With the change of the year, a change of fortune for the County Senior team. After defeats at the hands of Essex III and Hertford­shire II, Hunts gained their first win of the season at the expense of Norfolk by a 9-1 margin. Representing the winners were Alan Lamprell, Stephen Andrews, Tim SPeller, Barbara Pace and Diane Bushby. Onfy the men's doubles went against the Hunts quintetthis being the largest win recorded in the County Championships by Hunts Seniors.

The Veterans were less successful. When visiting Kent they finished on the wrong end of a 6-3 result. A mixed doubles success along with singles gains from Cockram and Ken Green finished the scoring for Hunts.

Sunday, Jan. 19th, saw two coaching rallies within the county boundary. At St. Ives, 44 Cadets joined together from all three member leagues of the County Association. A success­ful coaching session under the direction of a dozen coaches was forthcoming, 11 tables beingused to the full. At nearhy St. Neots the Eastern Region squad session was held under the direction of Staff Coach Peter Hirst.

In the latest South East Midland League'tables, high positions are held by Hunts Central Juniors and Reserves, but both fell heavily to North Herts, unable to gain a pointin either section. Peterborough's men's team recorded their first victory recently, beating

Page 24

'Daventry 9·1. The form of young Peter Berna, playing at No.1, continues to show great encouragement, averaging a win per match in the last few games.

Local players figured in one final, four semi­finals and one other quarter-final at the Bur­ford Junior Open. Belinda Chamberlain (St.Neots) partnering Janet Thorpe (Berkshire)reached the final of the Under-15 Girls' Doubles, losing to the Berkshire pairing of Alison Gordon and Jill Purslow.

Special note for our youngest competitor in the tournament, Melanie Ringrose (St. Ives),who reached the semi-final of the Under-11 event ·before losing by two points in the decid­ing game to the No.2 seed, P. Townsend.

MIDDLESEX NOTES by Laurie ,Landry AMAZING RECORD

Main talking point in the County in recent weeks !has been the continued progress of our 16-years-old No.1, Andrew Barden. Three senior lIDen's singles titles in consecutive weeks is his amazing record. A big improvement on his No. 14 nati()nal ranking is now very much a .possi.bility.

The County Inter-League competitions are having varied success but there is no doubt that the new Victor Barna competition (3-a-side for men) is ,proving quite popular. The topdivision in this appears to be a three-h()rse race between the two strong North Middlesex telmlS and Willesden. The second division of tlbe Victor Barna looks to be out of their depth for the young teams of Willesden. II and Staines II, whilst promotion is on the cards for Wembley and S.W. Middlesex.

The Norman Pegg Trophy (2 men and 2 women) is over the half-way stage. Acton are the only unbeaten team but there are still some important matches to come. North Acton seem set for promotion from Div. 2 in this competition. The Junior Division looks like another win for North Middlesex and there­'fore retention of the D. W. BirminghamTrophy. . A friendly match was played between a Middlesex Select and the Universities' Athletic Union (U.A.U.) as well as the W.I.V.A.B. (Women's Inter-Varsity Athletic Board). The Middlesex men (David Tan, David Jemmett and Laurie 'Landry) beat UA.U. (Donald Parker, John Fuller and David Boulter) by 5-4 whilst the women (BerylClayton, Molly Prowen and Barbara Devine)lost to W.I.V.A.B. (,Pat Hammond, Val Duffinand Christine Iacona) 4-5. The matches were played at N.C.R. and proved most enjoyable.

DERBYSHIRE NOTES by Derek Oldman

TOUCH OF SADNESS This month's County notes are tinted with

a touch of sadness due to ·the sad and sudden passing of their former author, Walter Reeves, who collapsed during a tournament and died in hospital two days later. A tribute to him a·ppears elsewhere in this magazine.

With the season well into the second half, excitement is mounting with the possibilityof all three County teams remaining unbeaten and indeed becoming clbampions of their res· pective divisions. Without "counting our chickens, etc." we are keeping our fingerscrossed and hopi.ng.

Only Gloucestershire and Leicestershire are barring the way to a place in the play-off for premier positions at the end of the season. If the former can be overcome, then we would go to Leicester with at least a two pointadvantage. In the latest victory over Stafford­shire, Maurice Billington was in magnificentform, winning both his singles, and at times bringing an enthusiastic "audience" to its feet. Sandra Walters and Jackie Billington also gave 100 % support and Derbyshire jjustscraped home by 6-4. A lot of the credIt is due to new captain David Smith, who 'builds up a dossier of opponents before each match

and certainly at the moment he appears to be reaping the due rewards.

The Cou-nty 2nd team, under its new skipper,'Terry Morran, have to date collected five points from three matches. Arthur Downer has been the star player to date-what a joy to see him doing so well after the terrible accident he was involved in not lon~ after movins north from Sussex. With VIctories over Clwyd, Northants 2nd and a draw against W1arwicks 3rd, the team is full of confidence for the remaining matches.

The Juniors are keeping up the promises'ho;;'11 last season when they reached the playoffs. To date Shropshire have 'been emphatically beaten, a draw aohieved against C].wyd, and in the latest match, a magnificent victory over a strong Warwickshire side. Mark Jenki-ns, from Det'lby, and Robert Allen, from Chesterfield, have each won 5 singles ()ut of 6, while Stephen Webb (Chesterfield), Allyson Marples, Lindsey Mellor-both Chesterfield­and Linda Holmes, from Derby, have all playedtheir part in achieving the excellent results. Peter N()rman reckons that this year the team could go one better than last season.

In a recent round of the Rose Bowl compe­tition, the top 6 ladies in the County came upagainst each other, and on this occasion the Chesterfield trio of Jackie Billington, Sandra Wl8lters and Mandy Mellor got the ·better of Susan Holmes, Carol Downer and MarilynDeakin, from Derby. The winners now have a very attractive home fixture against Leicester.

The Chesterfield men's team were cruelly·eliminated from the Wilmott Cup by the organising committee after the match at Chester had never got off the ground, due in no way whatsoever to the Chesterfield secre­tary, Neil Marples. As both the junior teams are already out, the ladies now carry the sole hopes of the "spire" town.

BERKSHIRE NOTES .by Peter Charters

LION'S SHARE FOR READING In the Berkshire inter-town competition,

held over two weekends, one in October, the other in January, Newbury took the main event, Bracknell tAe Junior Boys' Division Two and Reading teams won all the other six Divisions.

Men's Division 1 was a clear _victory for Newbury, Simon Heaps, Garry Roberts, David Reeve'S and Dave Wise being too stron~ a group of players for any of the oppositIon.Newbury won all of their ten matches.

The Ladies' Division was an equally con­vincing victory for Reading, winning all their matches, although on occasions they needed a good all·round team effort to pull through.

The new Berkshire town (not table tennis)of Slough was invited to take part in the events and although they did not get III winning team, the Slough players seemed to enjoy the competition.

Full league tables are:-Jun. Boys' Div. 1 Reading 'A' . 710399 Maidenhead 'A' . 5 1 2 31 17 Reading 'B' . 2242028 Didcot 'A' . 1 3 4 17 31 Slough . o 3 5 13 35 Jun. Girls'. Div. Reading 'A' . 600324 Newbury . 4 0 2 30 6 Maidenhead . 1 0 5 7 29 Reading 'B' . 1 0 5 5 31 Men's Div. 1 Newbury 10 0 0 50 10 Reading 'A' 7 0 3 41 19 Didcot ',A' . • . . . . . . . . . . .. '5 0 5 22 38 Bracknell 'A' 4 0 6 25 35 Slough 3 0 7 -22 38 Maidenhead 'A' 1 0 9 18 42 Women's Div. Reading 'A' . 8 0 0 37 11 Newbury . 4 1 2 129 19 Maidenhead . 4 0 4 28 20 Reading 'B' : . 2 1 5 15 33 Slough ; ...•....• o 2 6 11 37

3rd Commonwealth Championships Nigerian team, coached by two Chinese, Tseng and Chiang, deserved a better fate than to be beaten 5-0. The first three sets all went to three and in losing them the Nigerians seemed to lose heart a1so, for both Lekan and Fenuyi aQd Babatude Obisanya, on their second excur­

ROLL OF HOINOUR

Men's Singles Women's Single,s sions to the table, were but a pale' shadow of

TREVO:R TAYLOR JILL HA,MMEiRSLEY their former selves.

I ( England) (Engtand) Again at 9 a.m., on Monday morning, only token resistence was encountered in meeting the representatives of Singapore, which left

Womle'n's D'oubles Men's Douibles just one more river to ,cross for the men's title and, appropriately, it was Australia whoI JILL HA,M'M'ERSLEY and D,ES,M10IND DO,UGLAS and

I I LIND'A H,OWARD

(England)

I I Mixed Doubles

DE,SM:O'NiD D,O,UGLAS

LI'ND'A HO'WARDI (England)

I Men's Te'a,m

I E'NGLAND1

'7-up' in Melbourne by GEORGE R. VA,lES

Successful in retaining all their seven Commonwealth titles in Melbourne over the period Jan. 25-31, England's table tennis players had just cause in redressing the balance of Anglo-Australian sporting conflicts following the mauling suffered by Mike Den­ness and the touring M.IC.C. cricketers.

Landslide victories in both team events­the men dropped only two sets in nine matches and the women none at all in six-were followed by a clean sweep of the five individual titles with both Trevor Taylor and Jill Ham­mers~ey retaining their singles crowns first won in Singapore (1971) and successfully defended in Cardiff (1973).

It was all so easy in the team matches and never more so for the men in their opening encounter against Papua-New Guinea ,who, on the eve of independent nationhood, were com­peting in the Conlnlonwealth Championships for the first ti,me. Indeed, it was the first time that the players had travelled outside their homeland. All were students ,at the University of Papua-New Guinea, where their captain, Neil Roberts, is a lecturer.

The late arrival of the Kenyan team resulted in a walk-over and a stand down in the ,after­noon session to be followed, in the evening, by ca romp honle against Canada, whose Errol Caetano was credited with the only game dropped and that by Douglas in the penulti ­mate set.

At 9 a.m. on the Sunday morning Fiji were seen off in quick sticks and only Gary Murphy succeeded in taking a game, off Taylor, in the aftern.o~n wh~n New Zealand provided the OPPOSItIon.

And so to the evening session and the fifth match against India who, it will be recalled, gave us the fright of our lives in Singapore when they led England 4-1 and lost! Not so on this occasion, for apart from Niraj Bajaj, who beat Taylor 2-1 in the third set, no other loss was incurred.

IMPROVED Later that sa,me night a much-improved

barred the way. The Aussies, too, had suffered DEN'IS NEAtE no defeat but had shed three sets to Singapore

and one each to Canada, India and Nigeria.( England)

Here then was the chance for Australia, before their own crowd, to improve on the four sets they obtained against England in Cardiff when ",Charlie" Wuvanich carried hisa,nd bat and Paul Pinkewich got the better of Nicky Jarvis.

The teams only differed in one respect with Douglas, by the toss of a coin, joining Jarvis and Denis Neale to the exclusion of Taylor.

Women's Tea.m Jarvis, opening the proceedings for England, avenged his loss at Cardiff with a 2-straight

ENGLAND win over Pinkewich, who proved difficult to _ shake off in the first game.

Next on to the scene was Australian cham­pion Wuvanich, the ex-Thai international, who

Commonwealth men's doubles champions, Denis Neale (foreground) and Desmond Douglas, on their way to victory over Paul Pinkewich and Bob Tuckett, of Australia.

Photo by courtesy of "Herald-Sun," Melbourne.

Page 25

Ex-Thai international, "Charlie" Wuvanich, Australia's No.1, who suffered a first round defeat in the men's singles at the hands of Babatunde Obisanya, of Nigeria. Photo by courtesy of "Herald-Sun," Melbourne.

was taken ill on the flight out from London and failed to recover sufficiently to c'Ontinue on to India and the World Champs. Regrets to Ray Carlile, lie Transport in Melbourne, who (was involved in a car crash on the eve of the Championships and could view them only through the medium of TV alongside his hospital bed. Trust you have both recovered gentlemen. And the salme goes for ex-inter­national Ron Jones, another of our genial hosts in Australia, who was to enter hospital for an Ope directly the Championships were over.

SOA,KING Wednesday, Jan. 29, brought an intensifica­

tion of the heat ·conditions which shot the thernl0meter beyond the 100 degrees mark! Soaking shirts were the order lof the day with more than a few nairne-tagged Steve Kn'!pp who, like England's TrainerlCoach in his halcyon days, perspired profusely.

That the seeding for the men's singles was done correctly was evidenced in 7 out of the 8 reaching the quarter-final stage. The only faller was Wuvanich who, having beaten England's Jimmy Walker in the first round, (-14, 18, -14, 21 and 15), was ousted by Obi­sanya, of Nigeria.

In failing to shake hands with his victor, who triumphed 19, 18 and 18, Wuvanich incurred the wrath of the Australian officials and subsequently, after much speculation as to his sentence, was the recipient of a severe reprimand.

All the major shocks occurred in the quar'ters as a result of which the title became Taylor-made, for he alone of the four English­men engaged succeeded in winning.

Neale, puffing like a grampus and growing more wea'ry by the nlinute, succumbed to a grafting Pinkewich, whose stolid play finally broke the Clevelander. On the next court in the spacious Mel,bourne Town Hall, a perspir­ing Knapp triumphed over Jarvis in a titanic

be.gan where he left off in Wales !by beating Douglas 2-1 to level the match score and the battle, or so it seemed, was well and truly on.

But it was flattery only to deceive, for the Englishmen took the next four sets only one of which-Wuvanich versus Jarvis-went the distance. Truly anti-climax for home sUjJ­porters whose whe,tted lips were crystalised .dry.

If the ,men had it easy, what of England's women? They played magnificently and indeed dropped only two singles games throughout their 6-match series, Linda Howard losing her first to Kek Hiang Tan, o:f Singapore, whilst Carole Knight was taken to three by India's Shailaja Salokhe.

MEDIOCRITY The final 'match was against ,Canada who,

having lost 0-3 to India, posed no threat nor, in reality, ever rose above mediocrity in again losing by the same s,core. Jill Hammersley drove in the all-important first nail with Carole Knight, no mean swinger herself, accounting for a sluggish Violetta Nesukaitis. The doubles brought proceedings to an end with Jill and Linda Howard easy winners over Violetta and Mariann Dormonkos.

Australia's women disappointed in finishing no higher than fifth, their only suc.cesses being against the "old enemy", New Zealand, and Nigeria. New Zealand were the "wooden spoonists" without a win to their na,me and only 4 sets on the ,credit side.

Tuesday was the free day with a sunshine barbecue in.l'Albert Park where the steaks fairly sizzled and the beer was real cool! It 'was good to have the sun on a back that had been starved of it, especially in the genial company of Australia's Keith Bowler and Len Haycraft, Marge Waldron, Jose Tomkins and Art Werier, of Canada, and, from New Zealand, Ken Wilkinson and the indefatiga'ble Frank O'Gor,man, Timaru's "Mr. Table Tennis."

A word of comimiseration here f'Or Canada's Roy Powell, his country's team manager, who

Page 26

Babatunde Obisanya, who was finally ousted by Eng,Jand's Trevor Taylor, third time winner of the Commonwealth men's singles title.

Photo by courtesy of '''Herald-Sun,'' Melbourne.

5-ga1me encounter, as did Ohisanya over a flagging ,Des Douglas in the far distance.

Taylor, opposed by Bajaj, avenged his defeat by the Indian No. 1 in the tea1m event in three comfortable ga1mes and continued his winning way Iwith a like victory over Obisanya in the semis. Pinkewich had given his all in denying Neale and proved no 'match 'for the younger Knapp in the other penulti,mate set.

Knapp won the opening ga1me against Taylor in the final but thereafter play never reached gre'at heights with Taylor always the master and tactically sound.

RESOLVED A similar situation at the quarter-final stage

of the ,counterpart women's event was resolved very differently with all four Englishwomen winning through, Jill against Salokhe, Carole against Ethel Jacks, of Nigeria, Linda at the expense of Nesukaitis and Karenza Mathews beating Ann Middleton (nee McMahon), of Australia.

There followed two hard-fought semis, none better than the set-to~ between Linda and 'Karenza which the Surrey girl won at 18 in the 5th. Jill di.d not have it much easier against Carole, who fought like a tigress before going down 20-22 in the fourth.

And then came the final with Linda going into a 2-1 lead and looking very much like taking the title from her compatriot. But every credit to Jill, who 'fought back in the true tradition of a cha1mpion to take the next two Ifor victory. This set was by far the best of the final session and really had the crowd buzzing. It was table tennis par excellence and worthy of the TV screening it got and deserved.

IPredictalbly all three doubles titles were won by English pairings, the men~s by Neale and Dougla1s, whose final victilms were Pinke­wich and Bob Tuckett, of Australia. Jarvis and walker went out to Obis,anya and Sunmola, of Nigeria, whilst Taylor, playing with Williams, of Australia, succum,bed to Alex Polosois and Eddie Lo, of Canada, who won 3-2.

Jill and Linda retained their women's doubles title at the final expense of New Zealand's Ann Stonestreet and Neti Traill, who in the se'mis had ·beaten Karenza and Carole.

In the mixed 'Neale and Karenza, the holders, went out in the third round when beaten -17, -10, 15, 20, 19 by Bajaj and Indu Puri, of India, who subsequently lost to Caetano and Nesukaitis, victors in the previous round over Walker and Carole.

CLINCHED Douglas and Linda eventually clinched the

title after five hard games with Jarvis and Jill to make it a celebration affair in a local night-spot.

All in all a memorable championship despite the absence of Ghana, which reduced the

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Alex Polisois, of Canada, who fell to India's Niraj Bajaj in Round 2. Photo by courtesy of "Herald-Sun," Melbourne.

1S-years-old Leanne Morrow, Australia's leading lady, who was hammered out of the women's singles in Melbourne 21-10, 21-7, 21-2 by England's Jill Hammersley, who went on to retain her title. Photo by courtesy of "Herald-Sun," Mel:bourne.

Page 27

men's teams to 10, resulting in a round robin instead of a t'win group systeim of play.

A,ccomimodation was of the highest order in the most modern of hotels and the problems of feeding, both players and officials was over­come by the allocation of Imoney s,o that one could feed oneself, and the steaks, if nothing else, 'were cheap.

Long may the trams rattle along the wide thoroughfares of Victoria's capital city and thanks, one and all, for the memories of 'Nonderful hospitality and such places as Melbourne Cricket Club, the R.A.C.V. Club and the Beachcomber, at St. Kilda's. We Pom!mies enjoyed every minute.

-------- -----~--:-

Message from the Right Honorable The Prime Minister of Australia, Mr. Gough Whitlam,

Q.C., M.P.

Australians have always prided themselves .on Itheir love of sport.

Australian participation in international cOlllLPetition has dominated our sports pages 'and 'often our front pages, especially when our sportsmen and women have enjoyed success out of an proportion to our numbers.

But many Australians have been content to bask in the reflected glory and re,ad about our athletes' prowess, or take the easy way out by becom1ing television spectators.

For too long we have paid only lip service to that cherished saying of Baron Pierre Coubertin: "The important thin,g is not to win but to take part."

However, our increasing consciousness of the dangers of too sedentary 'a life, and our aware· fness of the prospect of increasing time for recreational opportunities, have helped us to recognise the importance of personal partici. pation in sporting activities.

Personal particip,altion does not have to be at world or even neighbourhood championship level for it to be both enjoyable and beneficial to the individual.

Table tennis is a classic example of a sport 'that is at once easy to play at one level and yet capable of devastating sophistication when played by the great exponents of the game.

These Third Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, hosted for the first time by Aus,tralia, have brought to our shores men and women of great skill and artistry and with world rankings and reputations.

Understandable admiration for their skill should not obscure the message that table ~ennis is a wort that most Australians can play-irrespective of age or sex.

Whether the game is enjoyed in sophisti. cated table tennis centres or in our own back· yards during summer holidays, it has a great deal to offer us.

Australia is fortunate to have been selected to stage such an important contest and we welcome the many nations that have responded Ito our invitation to attend.

Pa~e ~8

RESULTS

Men's Singles: Round 3: D. Neale (En) bt G. Munday (As) 7, 15, 7; P. Pinkewich (As) bt M. Dua (In) -6. -19, 17, 22, 17; S. Knapp (As) bt A. Savige (As) 15, -17, 19, 15; N. Jarvis (En) bt R. Javor (As) 12. 11. 13; D. Douglas (En) bt S. Phadke (In) 11, -13, 21, 17; B. Obisanya (Ni) bt P. Gonda (Ca) 12, 14, 6; N. Bajaj (In) bt R. Tuckett (As) 14, 18, 13; T. Taylor (En) bt A. Shahara (Ca) 7, 13, 11. Quarter-finals: Pinkewich bt Neale -16, 17, 15, 17; Knapp bt Jarvis 18, -17, 18, -12, 16; Obis.anya bt Douglas 14, 18, -17, -12, 12; Taylor bt Bajaj 14, 15, 14. Semi-finals: Knapp bt Pinkewich 9, 20, 17; Taylor bt Obisanya 18, 14, 9. Final: TAYLOR bt Knapp -22, 12, 14, 15.

Women's Singles: Round 3: J. Hammersley (En) bt G. Hsu (Ca) 7, 5, 9; S. Salokhe (In) bt J. Morris (NZ) 15, 6, ]JJ; C. Knight (En) bt H. Morrow (As) 11, 12, '14; E. Jacks (Ni) bt Tan Kek Hiang (Sn) -17, 14, -20,

12, 9; V. Nesukaitis (Ca) bt A. Yee (Sn) 10, 14, 7; L. Howard (En) bt M. Le Gassick (As) -14, 16, 17, 17; A. Middleton (As) bt P. Vatsala (In) -15. 9, 17, 5; K. Mathews (En) bt J. Brown (As) 6, 8, 8. Quarter-finals: Hammersley bt Salokhe 15, 13, 16; Knight bt Jacks 14, 10, 12; Howard bt Nesukaitis 15, 14, 14; Mathews bt Middleton 18. 13, 12. Semi-finals: Hammersley bt Knight 14, -19, 13, 20; Howard bt Mathews 17, -11, 21, -18, 18. Final: HAMll'IERSLEY bt Howard 16, -19. -19, 19, 15.

Men's Doubles: Quarter-finals: Douglas/Neale bt F. Ayinde/L. Fenuyi (Ni) 12, 12. -18.

16; Dua/Bajaj bt E. Caetano (Ca) /Gonda 20, -10, 18, 18; Obisanya/L. Sunmola (Ni) bt Jarvis/J. Walker (En) 18,

-7, -18, 11, 17; Pinkewich/Tuckett bt E. Lo/A. Polisois (Ca) 12. 7. 7. Semi-finals: Douglas/Neale bt Bajaj /Dua 15, 15, 18; Pinkewich/Tuckett bt Obisanya/Sunmola 20, 15. 24. Final: DOUGLAS/NEALE bt Pinkewich/Tuckett 11, 15, 19.

Women's Doubles: Quarter-finals: Hammersley /Howard bt Y. Fogarty/K. Fraser (NZ) 10,

11, 6; 1. Puri (In) /Salokhe bt Brown/S. Rapken (As) 15, 13,

12; Knight/Mathews bt A. Brackenridge (NZ) /Morris 16,

14, -17, 13; A. Stonestreet/No Traill (NZ) bt Jacks/O. Majekodunmi

(Ni) 11, -17, 18, 7.

Australia 5, New Zealand 0; Nigeria 5, Kenya 0 (w.o.).

Australia 5, Kenya 0; India 5. New Zealand 0; Singapore 2, Nigeria 5; England 5, Fiji 0; Canada 5, Papua-New Guinea O.

Singapore 5, Kenya 0; Australia 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; England 5, New Zealand 0; Canada 5, Fiji 0; India 5, Nigeria O.

Australia 5, Singapore 0; England 5, India 1; Nigeria 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; Uew Zealana 5, Fiji 0; Canada 5, Kenya O.

Kenya 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; Australia 5, India. 1; England 5, Nigeria 0; Canada 5, New Zealand 1; Singapore 5, Fiji O.

New Zealand 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; England 5, Singapore 0;

Australia 5, Nigeria 1; India 5, Canada 2; Kenya 5, Fiji O.

India 5, Singapore 1; Nigeria 5, Canada 4; New Zealand 5, Kenya 0; Fiji 5 Papua-New Guinea 0; ENGLAND 5, Australia l.

English Results:

v. Papua-New Guinea (won 5-0) J. Walker bt N. Roberts 8, 11; bt D. Petelo 11, 9. T. Taylor bt R. Purai 9, 9; bt Roberts 10, 10. D. Douglas bt Petelo 8, 10.

V. Canada (won 5-0)

N. Jarvis bt E. Caetano 15, 18; bt A. Polisois 12, 11. Douglas bt E. Lo 15, 13; bt Caetano -20, 16. 13. D. Neale bt Polosois 16, 15.

v. Fiji (won 5-0) Neale bt S. Yenkanna 6, 2; bt A. Traill 5, 12. Walker bt Traill 7, 12. Douglas bt J. Buksh 5, 10; bt Yenkanna 10, 9.

v. New Zealand (won 5-0) 'Taylor bt G. Murphy -16, 21, 13; bt R. Blair 6. 10. Neale bt Blair 9, 12. Jarvis bt J. Morris 10, 17; bt Murphy 8, 10.

V. India (won 5-1) Neale bt G. Jagannath 10, 19; bt N. Bajaj 12, 15. Jarvis bt Dua 12, 7; bt Jagannath 17, 16. Taylor lost to Bajaj -14, 16, -19; bt Dua 18, 13.

v. Nigeria (won 5-0) Jarvis bt B. Obisanya -19, 13, 18; bt L. Fenuyi 8, 10. Neale bt Fenuyi 17, -18, 9. Douglas bt L. Sunmola 17, -19, 14; bt Obisanya 11, 10.

v. Singapore (won 5-0) Douglas bt Tan Khoon Hong 19, 14; bt Tan Kai Kok 9,

8. Neale bt Tan Kai Kok 12. 15. Taylor bt Sen Poh Lin 7, 10; bt Tan Khoon Hong 7. 13.

v. Australia (won 5-1) Jarvis bt P. Pinkewich 20, 14; bt C. Wuvanich 16, -18,

13. Douglas lost to Wuvanich -16, 15, -19; bt S. Knapp 19,

14. Neale bt Knapp 14, 10; bt Pinkewich 9, 20.

Individual Team Records

Jarvis Neale Douglas 1-0

Taylor 2-0

2-0 1-0 2-0 2-0 2-0

2-0 1-0 2-0 2-0 2-0 1-1 2-0 1-0 2-0

1-0 2-0 2-0 2-0 2-0 1-1

10-0 10-0 10-1 7-1

Semi-finals: Hammersley/Howard bt Puri/Salokhe 18, 15, 14; stonestreet/Traill bt Mathews/Knight 19, 19, -16, 19. Final: HAMMERSLEY/HOWARD bt Stonestreet/Traill 14, 11, 7.

Mixed Doubles: Quarter-finals: Bajaj/Puri bt Neale/Mathews -17, -10, 15, 20, 19; Caetano/Nesukaitis bt Walker/Knight -19, 17, 19, 17; Jarvis/Hammersley bt Dua/Salohke 9, 11, 12; Douglas/Howard bt A. Webb (As)/Woodward 19, 18, 18. Semi-finals: Caetano/Nesukaitis bt Bajaj /Puri 17, 14, 11; Douglas/Howard bt Jarvis/Hammersley 14, -15, 13, -17,

11. Final: DOUGLAS/HOWARD bt Caetano/Nesukaitis 12, 17, 16.

TEAM EVENTS

MEN Nigeria 5, New Zealand 1; Singapore 4, Canada 5; England 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; Australia 5, Fiji 0; India 5, Kenya 0 (walk-over).

Singapore 5, Papua-New Guinea 0; Australia 5, Canada 1;

England 5, Kenya 0 (walk-over); Nigeria 5, Fiji 0: Singapore 5, New Zealand 0; Papua-New Guinea 0,

India 5.

England 5, Canada 0; India 5, Fiji 0;

Walker Opponents F A 2-0 Papua-N.G. 5 0

Canada 5 0 1-0 Fiji ............... 5 0

New Zealand 5 0 India ............... 5 1 Nigeria 5 0 Singapore 5 0 Australia 5 1

3-0 40 2

FINAL PLACINGS (Previous positions in brackets)

1. ENGLAND (1) 2. Australia (3) 3. India (2) 4. Nigeria (7) 5. Canada (8) 6. Singapore (6) 7. New Zealand (13) 8. Kenya (-) 9. Fiji (-)

10. Papua-New Guinea (-) Malaysia (4), Hong Kong (5), Ghana (9), Wales (10),

Scotland (11), Ireland (12), Mauritius (14), JersEY (15) and Guernsey (16) competed in the 2nd Common­wealth Championships in Cardiff but not in Melbourne.

WOMEN England 3, Singapore 0; Canada 3, New Zealand 0; India 3, Nigeria 1. India 3, Australia 0; England 3, Nigeria 0: Canada 3, Singapore O. Australia 3, New Zealand 1; England 3, India O.

Singapore 3, Nigeria 0; India 3, Singapore 2. Canada 3, Australia 0; New Zealand 2, Nigeria 3. England 3, Australia 0; Canada 3, Nigeria 0; New Zealand 0, Singapore 3.

Continued on Page 3)

MILLWAY (SPORTS) LTD. Stansted, Essex.

T.S.P. Three Star Balls at bargain price - less than 11 peach. £1.30 per dozen - boxe'd. Post free.

Same day despatch.

v. India (won 3-0)Continued from Page 28 Knight bt S. Salokhe 13, -17, 16. Hammersley bt I. Puri 18, 8.Canada 0, India 3; England 3, New Zealand 0; Knight/Mathews bt Puri/Salokhe -17, 17, 15.Australia 3, Nigeria O.

India 3, New Zealand 1; Australia 0, Singapore 3; v. Australia (won 3-0) ENGLAND 3, Oanada O. Knight bt H. Morrow 20, 14.

Hammersley bt C. Little 15, 9.English Results: Hammersley/Howard bt Little/A. Middleton 16, 19. v. Singapore (won 3-0) L. Howard bt Kek Hiang Tan -19, 15, 18. v. New Zealand (won 3-0)

Howard bt Y. Fogarty 13, 6.J. Hammersley bt Ai Suan Yap 11, 8. C. Knight/K. Mathews bt Kek Hiang Tan/Noi Hwoy Peck Hammersley bt K. }4'raser 8, 17.

19, 15. Knight/Mathews bt Fraser/A. Stonestreet 11, 17.

v. Canada (won 3-0) Mathews bt O. Majekodunmi 13, 15. Hammersley bt M. Domonkos 13, 12. v. Nigeria (won 3-0)

Hammersley bt C. Arinye 5, 11. Knight bt V. Nesukaitis 18. 16. Hammersley/Howard bt E. Jacks/Majekodunmi 7, 8. Hammersley /Howard bt Domonkos/Nesukai tis 7, 10.

Individual Team Records

Hammersley Howard Mathews Knight H/H K/M Opponents F A 1-0 1-0 1-0 Singapore 3 a 1-0 1-0 1-0 Nigeria 3 o 1-0 1-0 1-0 India . '" 3 o 1-0 1-0 1-0 Australia 3 o 1-0 1-0 1-0 New Zealand 3 o 1-0 1-0 1-0 Canada 3 o

6-0 2-0 1-0 3-0 3-0 3-0 18 0

FINAL PLACINGS

1. ENGLAND (1) 2. India (3) 3. Canada (2) 4. Singapore (6) 5. Australia (4) 6. Nigeria (8) 7. New Zealand (5)

Malaysia (7), Ireland (9), Scotland (10), Hong Kong (11), Wales (12), Jersey (13), Ghana (14) and Guernsey (15) all competed in Cardiff but not in Australia.

W.D.: P. Fleming/E. Smith bt E. Craig/McKay 9, -7, 6.

iEdinburgh Oilen Junior and Youth, 2-2-75 (Meadowbank)

B.S. V-15: K. Paxton (Durham) bt G. Sandley (Middx) 5, 8.

B.S. V-17: Paxton bt T. Gelder (Durham) 18 12. '

Y.S. V-21: J. McNee bt A. Mathew 21, 19. G.S. V-17: G. McKay bt S. Jenkins (Durham)

20, 11. G.S. V-21: P. Fleming bt G. McKay -13, 11, 12. seoTTISH NEWS G.D.: E. Craig/G. 1\.fcKay bt P. Fleming/C.

Walker (Durham) 15, -13, 14. by DENIS GEORGE X.D.: I. Svenson/B. Murtagh (Durham) bt

The S.T.T.A. Inter-League Competition was P. McQueen/Walker 19, -15, 15. held at Meadowbank, Edinburgh, on Jan 4. The B.D. U-17: R. Brown CW. of S)/A. Mathew bt men's event Group "A" was won by West of Gelder /Paxton 18, 19. Scotland, for whnm Jim Graham and Douggie Y.D. V-21: B. Mullin/J. McNee bt R. Brown/ A.Mullin were undefeated; Aberdeen were ,Mathew 18, 17. second. BENEAGLES PERTH OPEN

In Group "B" Edinburgh were top with Bert This tournament, played on Feb. 9, turnedKerr and Terry Forker undefeated; Dundee

out to be a resounding success with a largewere second. In the semis, West of Scotland entry, a knowledgeable, interested andbeat Dundee 5-0 and Edinburgh beat Aberdeen generous sponsor----<Peter Thomson (Perth)5-2. In the final Kerr 'won his 3 for Edinburgh

to go through the ,competition unbeaten, but Ltd., the b.lenders and bottlers of Beneagles Extra SpeCIal Scotch Whisky' an enthusiasticForker lost to Mullin for West of Scotland to bunoh of local committee ~embers and thewin 5-4. interest and obvious appreciation of the local

Group "A" of the Juniors was won by population led by the Lord Provost and hisLanarkshire with Alan Alexander unbeaten Lad~. Congr.atulati?ns, Pert.h; already they areand Group "B" by West Dunbarton with Brian talkIng of ImpOrtlng foreIgn super stars inGrundy unbeaten. In the senlis W. Dunbarton 1976!beat Aberdeen 5-3 and Lanarkshire beat Edin­

In the men's singles Russell Brown defeatedburgh 5-1. Lanark won the final 7-2 with P~ter McQueen but then lost to Ram Bhalla.Alexander retaining his unbeaten record. RIchard Yule had a hard ganle with John

The women's event was played in one group MeNee and eventually lost to Nigel Eckersleywith Dundee, represented by Mabel Neish and in the semis. In th~ other half, veteran BertM. Murray, going through without loss; West Kerr defeated ArchIe MoCulloch, John Wilson of Scotland ,were second. a!1d Ian Robertson, No. 2 seed, to gain the

Tournament results:- rIght to meet Eckersley in the final. Nigel how­ever, won in straight games. ' West of Scotland Open, 18-1-75 (Glasgow)

M.S.: P. Hoyles (Nthld) bt J. Graham (W. of ~he wO'!l1en's single~s was dominated byS) -18, 14, 18. ElaIne 8mlth and PatrIce Fleming, who con­

W.S.: P. Fleming (W. of S) bt B. Kearney tested the final, Elaine winning in straight(Nthld) 14, -13, 14. games. Results: ­

M.D.: T. Forker (Edin) /Graham bt J. Hawkins/ J. Hay (W.. of S) 13, 11.

B.IS.: A. Mathew (Aberdeen) bt R. Wiley MAKE(Cleve) 17, 11. G.S.: G. McKay (Edin) bt E. Craig (W. of S)

13, 13. OLYMPUS SPORTSEdinburgh Open 19-1-75 (Meadowbank) M.S.: J. Wilson (W. of S) bt P. McQueen YOUR FIRST CALL

(Durha,m) 16, 16. FOR T.T. BATS ANDW.S.: E. Smith (Edin) bt G. McKay 8, 16. M.D.: R. Balla/D.Fraser (W. of S) bt D. E.QUIPMENT

Mullin (W. of S)/J. McNee (Ches.) 5,18.

Page 30

Men's Singles-Semi-fi.nals: N. Eckersley (Ches) bt R. Yule (Scot) 18, -12,

22. R. Kerr bt I. Robertson (Nthld) 18, 15. Final: Eckersley bt Kerr 18, 16. W.S.: E. Smith bt P. Fleming 9, 13. M.D. Eckersley/ J. Graham bt A. McCulloch / J.

Wilson 19, 15. W.D. Fleming/Smith bt Craig/McKay 15, 11. X.D.: Yule/Smith bt Svenson/Murtagh 14, 18. B.S.: K. Paxton bt R. Brown 17, 20.

by MAX McNEILL

Tommy Caffrey returns to the joint No. 1 position in the Irish rankings following his 3 tournament victories this season over his main rival, Jim Langan. Ji'm's brother, Tony, who has ,been out of the game for 3 years, comes in at No.9.

The full list is as follows:­(L-Leinster V-Vlster M-Munster)

Men Ladies 1. J. Langan (L) 1. K. Senior (D) 1. T. Caffrey (L) 2. K. Stewart (V) 3. A. Cairns (V) 3. B. Stewart CD) 4. K. Keane (L) 4. S. Fildes (L) 5. D. Weir (D) 5. B. Thompson (D) 6. S. Tracey (D) 6. B. Cody (M) 7. K. Leonard (L) 7. V. ,Moore (D) 8. !P. O'Brien (L) 8. E. Cash (U) 9. T. Langan (L) 9. M. Ryan (M)

10. B. Larrigan (L) 10. P. Maguire ('4) 10. D. Addy (D) 10. T. Carton (L)

Cork City Hall provided a most suitable venue 'for the Irish Closed ,Championships on Jan. 31-Feb. 1. Jiim Langan carried off the treble and in winning the men's singles slcored his first tournament win of the season over Tommy Caffrey (15, 15). Karen Senior con­fir'med her No. 1 position in the country with an impressive win over Kyra Stewart (W!~.)l).

The tournament provided a ni~51 ~\i . in Irish Table 'Tennis 'with SOp being "cdi for each match won in both the 1. - dJ

wonlen's singles events. ,. The idea... d very popular amongst the players. .

The Norwich Vnion International Cham­pionships in Brighton brought very little suc,cess for the Irish team of Jim Langan, Tom Caffrey, Karen Senior and Kyra Stewart. Best perfor,mances came from Karen Senior, who reached t~e final of the consolation singles befGTe gOIng down to I vasko (Hungary) 19 in the 3rd. Karen 'Senior and Kyra Stewart reached the quarter-final of the women's doubles and in the mixed Langan and Karen Senior almost created a surprise before losing na~ro~ly ~o ~he Chinese com'bination WangChIa-hn/Ll MIng by 3-2 after having a 2-1 lead.

IRISH WIN Ireland gained their first win in Division 2

-Group A of the European League when at Craigavon, on Feb. 28, they beat Denmark 5-2.

TO'URNAMENT CAN,CELLATI10,N',S Three open tournaments, scheduled for the

month of April, have been cancelled. They are:-the ,Merton Junior I-Star (April 6) the Slough Vnder-21 (April 19-20) and the Jo'seph Leckie Junior I-Star (April 26-27).

9 Headstone Drive, Wealdstone,

Harrow, Middlesex

Tel.: 01-863 2455

County Notes Continued from Page 24

YORKSHIRE NOTES by Tony Ross

HUDDERSFIELD TITLE BID Hudciersfield's men's team look favourites

to regain the Yorkshire League Division 1 'title they last won at me end of !the 1967-68 lSeason, since when the "Yorkshire EveningPost" Cup has gone exclusively to Middles­brougb, no.w, of course, part of Cleveland. Huddersfield's hopes were much improved bya close 6-4 win over closest rivals Sheffield, at Hillsborough B.C. in February. Sheffield were 0-4 down and 1-5 down, but recovered to 4-5 before the unfortunate Roy Bro.th·well went down to Malcolm Mear, who won his 2 s~ts for the visitors. The top two players on each side were evenly matched, with Sheffield's David Rayner losing to David Hirst but beatingJohn Kedge, and County No.1 Junior, Brian Baxter, losing to Kedge but beating Hirst.

Essex County player, David Boulter, cur· rently at Hull University, is finding success difficult to come by in Division 1-ne lost his two sets in Hull's 4-6 defeat ·by Leeds at Hull. County No.2 boy, Mike Harrison, was the onlyhome player undefeated. Other "foreign"players in the Yorkshire League include Chesterfield and Derbyshire's Neil Marples,Bob Allen and Lindsey Mellor, who are turn­ing out for Sheffield.

Answers to a questionnaire sent to leagues in the Yorkshire League have provided some interesting results. By 10 votes to 3, a changefrom 4 to 3-a-side for the men's and women's divisions is favoured; the veterans' division is already 3-a-side, whilst the Junior divisions are arranged particularly for mixed teams of 3 boys and 1 girl. Two up and two down promotion and relegation rules are supportedby 11-2, but the idea to award a point for each set woo split the leagues 6-7. With 19 leagues competing and the usual indifference to ques·' Jonaires, competition secretary Graham Ca' "a~ '''ell pleased by t'he response.

''1ppointing 6-3 defeat of the County's .. by Lancashire means that YorkshIre

r.o. ..:very set they can get in their remainingmatches against Middlesex and Essex, On the credit side, the second team, with Bradford match secretary, Richard Priestley, on debut, and David Hirst recalled to captain the side, registered an impressive 10-0 victory over an experienced (hut somewhat long in the tooth)Cheshire II side. Highlights of the Junior first team's excellent draw against Surrey at Hull were Mike Harrison's long opening set with Martin Shuttle, narrowly won by the Surreyboy, and Brian Baxter's wins over Shuttle and Max Crimmins, the only below par perform­ance 'being Melody Ludi's loss to Kay Green­ough. The junior secood team continues to J?rogress, with Steve Hazelwood now challeng­ang the top ,boys for a place in the first team, .but there must be some concern at the low standard of the girls behind the top 4.

Arranging Wilmott Cup, etc. matches is often a .problem with .players committed to tournament and inter-league and countymatches. In the case of the Hull - Sheffield Round 3 Carter Cup tie, it had to be playedin the evening following the Yorkshire-Surreyjunior match, and it was the home team's Mike Harrison who stood the pace, registering3 wins in Hull's 6-3 victory, including one over County colleague Baxter. Showing an encour· aging improvement in form Mike won the junior titles at the Pontefract and Sbuth Yorkshire Opens against top-seeded oppositionprovided by Leicestershire's Chris Rogers.

A dream has been realised for E.s.T.T.A. Chairman, Tom Mathews, headmaster of Moor Grange School, Leeds, where a 10-table centre has been installed by the Leeds League with the backing of the County and the Yorkshire and Humberside Sports Council. With existing coachin~ centres at Bradford and Halifax, the West RIding's table tennis future should be

set fair, but in Sheffield a coaching centre project has hit local authority resistance. In the east, however, Humberside County Council is offering financial support towards coaching schemes, whilst .plans are afoot in Harrogatefor a centre on local authority premises.

Lo! A ·pen-holder who's writing his name. Thus ran Malcolm Hartley's cryptic table tennis headline in Bradford's "Telegraph and Argus". The pen-nolder referred to was Brad­ford University's No.1, Clem Lo, who won the Hong Kong Universities' championship an March last year and generated the Bradford headline by leading, undefeated, his Division 3 University team to a shock 7-2 cup win over a Hermits "A" team which included the Nos. 3 and 4 Bradfard players. Hermits had previously won the trophy 5 times in the last 10 years.

England's European League fixture witlh Yugoslavia on Thursday, 24th April, will be played in Hull at the Y.P.I. Ferens SportsCentre, Chanterlands Avenue North, at 7-15 p.m. T~ckets, priced £1.50 (ringside) and £1 are avaIlable from Mr. C. R. Pawson, 75 Rivers­dale Road, Hull, HU6 7HB. Tel.: Hull 856844.

The County dinner-dance will be in Knares­borough on Wednesday, 30th April. Tickets (£2.25) are available from social secretaryAlan' Cram, 8 Heath Drive, Boston Spa. Tel.: Boston Spa 842829.

YORKSHIRE LEAGUE (Leading positions at 19-2-75)

Div. 1 P W D L F A Pts

HUddersfield I . 5 4 1 0 34 15 9 Sheffield I . 5 4 0 1 36 14 8 Bradford I . 5 3 1 1 32 18 7 Leeds I . 4 2 1 1 21 19 5 Div. 2 Doncaster I . 5 5 0 0 47 3 10 Hull II . 7 4 2 1 40 30 10Barnsley 1 . 6 4 1 1 37 23 9 Sheffield III . 6 2 3 1 32 28 7 Junior Div. 1 Sheffield . 5 4 0 1 33 12 8 Halifax . 6 3 0 3 28 26 6 Hull I . 3 2 0 1 18 9 4Leeds I . 3 2 0 1 17 10 4Hull II . 4 2 0 2 15 21 4Doncaster I . 3 2 0 1 12 15 4 Veterans' Div. Barnsley I . 8 8 0 0 63 9 16 Leeds . 7 6 0 1 49 14 12 Bradford I . 7 6 0 1 39 24 12 Bradford II . 8 5 0 3 47 25 10 S. & D.W.S.A. 8 5 0 3 33 39 10 Women Bradford . 6 6 0 0 48 12 12 Sheffield . 7 5 0 2 40 30 10 Leeds . 6 3 1 2 30 30 7 Halifax . 6 3 1 2 27 33 7

DURHAM NOTES by Fred J. Inch

TREMENDOUS WIN Durham County Juniors had a tremendous

win over Cleveland at Newton Aycliffe on Feb. 15, and on behalif of the County officials and Executive Committee may I congratulatethe team and N.P.C. Alan Jenkins on their accomplishment, especially Keith Paxton, of Sunderland, who beat England-ranked Junior, Stephen Souter.

Detailed results (Durham names first) were:­P. Masters (Philadelphia) lost to S. Souter

-15, -24; bt I. Plummer 12, 14. IK. Paxton bt S. Rowlands 19, 18; bt 'Souter

19, 18. A. Gelder (Sunderland) bt Plummer 12, ·18,

17; bt Rowlands 17, 18. Miss S. Jenkins (Murton) lost to A. Tierney

-11, -16. Paxton/Gelder lost to Souter/Plummer -21,

18, -20. Masters/Miss J. Inch (Murton) lost to Row­

lands/No Carne -6, -19. Jenkins/Inch bt Tierney/Carne ·19, 18, 16.

The 6-4 -win certainly opened up the Junior Division North with much to play for in the

final matches when ,J.)urham play LancashIreII at home and Yorkshire (away) and Cleve­land travel to Cheshire.

The "V.G. Club Ohampionship" will be held Ithis year as a one-day event on April 19. The trophies, as well as those for the ''V.G. Awards" and the Durham County Closed, will be presented -by one of the Directors from Josihua Wilson & Bros. lAd., the V.G. Food­stores wholesalers in the North-East.

Congratulations are also due Keith Paxton on his England Junior GROUP "A" ranking,and to Geoffrey Inch (Philadelphia) for attaining No. 12 positio.n in the Cadet ranks.

SURREY NOTES by Ted Simpkin

CONVINCING WIN The Senior side seem almost certain to

finish at tne top of the 2nd Division South after maintaining their 100% record with a convincing win against Sussex at Guildford. The 8-2 margin was not flattering, as can be seen by the fact that only one of the seven singles won by Surrey went to three, Susan Henderson just pipping Sue Kavallierou 18 in the third. Richard Yule was particularly ~arP' The attendance again was meagre, and It IS clear that the spectators who stayed away following lack-lustre performances in the past have not yet been wooed back by the more challenging displays now being put on.

The Wandsworth League did not come forward with the news which was promised in t~e ll.lst issue, but Sutton has stepped into the hmehght. The Sutton and District Leaguewhich caters for the activities of clubs withiIi Sutton, Cheam, Banstead and surrounding areas, was formed in 1948. Of that inauguralcommittee, Chairman Frank Priest still keeps the~ in order from the chair, and Iris Boover cont~nues to produce the Handbook. It is partIcularly good to note that the first Men's champion, Dennis Rivett, has not yet seriouslythought of hanging up his .bat.

The League began with three men's divi­sions and one women's, but it was nat until mixed teams joined in that Sutton's successes began. The team of Mary Wright, Jean Head, Clarice Rose and Shirley Prior, joined later by 'Pauline Piddock and Betty Bird, became pretty well invindble, and three times in rapid succession the National Rose Bowl found its way to Sutton.

The men also have had their share of suc. cesses, and whilst not winning any National titles, have produced International or Countyplayers in Michael McLaren, Jackie Head, Eric Filby, Gordon Chapman and Emil Emecz, ;and it was from the Sutton stable that "Connie" Warren started his volatile career and became the County number one.

The League now has four divisions and while the strength of the first division is not what it was, there is always hope that true competitiveness will lead to further success in the long term.

SHROPSHIRE NOTES by Alan Cavell

NEW TOURNAMENTS The changes in the boundaries of District

Councils that took place in Shropsohire last year have also altered the areas covered bythe local sports advisory councils. The Telford Table Tennis Association has now changedits membership to the Wrekin and District Sports Advisory Council and the AlbrightonTable Tennis .club has joined the Bridgnorthand District SPOl'ts Advisory Council. Clubs and Associations taking a full J?art in the developmen.t of local sporting actIvities often become eligible for grant aid from local authorities. In Shropshire over £20,000 will be available to clubs in 1975.

The Albrighton T.T.C. has now arranged tournaments for local hoys and for local girls; age groups for each will be Under-ll, Under­13, Under-15. Thes'e will be American tourna·

Page 31

ments, based on groups 0If 4, followed by a knock·out, and will take place at the Club on Saturdays, March 1st, March 8th and March 15th. Financial backing for these is beinggiven by Sheba World Travel (Midlands) Ltd'Jof W.olverhampton. Members 0If the club wilJ handle the tournament arrangements.

The first tournament organised by the Telford T.T.A. for players who have not flayedin any town team was very successfu. This was also played as an American tournament in groups of 4, followed by a knock-out. The last eight were C. Neo (R.A.F.), N. Austin and R. Spencer (Albrighton), T. Evans and C. Hems­ley (Decca), M. Langford (Burnhill Green), L.Stephan (Owens) and P. Collier (Madeley). In the final defensive Tony Evans beat attackingMalcolm Langford 21-10, 21-6.

Shropshire Closed by Alan Cavell

The organisation of the County Closed was simplified by the use of Harlescote Youth Centre, Shrewsbury, and this year's senior events were well run by Bill Harris and Barry Taylor. ~ntries ~ere:-M.S.-73; W.S.-1!!.;M.D.-34, W.D.-8, X.D.-18 and Veterans-I.

There are few outstanding men in the County and two seeds were eliminated in Round 1. Only three, A. Hiscock, C. Neal and G. Samuel reached the quarters. In the final top seed Hiscock beat Samuel 15, -10, 8.

The women playing in the County team were both elimi'nated in their first singlesmatches. Mrs. S. Rogers lost to Mrs. M. Robin· sha.w and Miss S. Evans to Mrs. C. Ashley.Neither of these winners reached the final in 'Whioh Mrs. J. Jones beat Mrs. G. Gee ·18, 20, 13.

All four seeded pairs in the men's doubles reached the semis and last year's winners, Neal and K. Walton, beat Hiscock aud Samuel in the fiIllal 14 and 19. Neal achieved another success in the mixed when he and Miss Evans beat W. Davies and Mrs. Ashley 16 and 10.Mrs. Ashley was again a losing finalist in the wOll1len's doubles when losing with Mrs. M. Cartwright to last year's winners, Mrs. Rogen'8Jld Mrs. Jooes, who won 18 and 21.

Both seeds reached the final of the veterans wilth the No. 1 seed, J. Bishton, beating R. Smith 12 and 17. Beiore the veterans' final was played, Smith had also reached the semis of the men's singles (including victory over last year's men's champion, M. A. Smith) and of the men's doubles. The result ()f the veterans' fiIllal was t1he reversal of the fint round encounter in dIe men's singles between Bishton and Smith, which the latter had won 20, 14.

Woreestershire Closed by Doug Moss

These Championships, played at the LeysStadium, Redditdt, attracted a rather reduced entry ,but there was certainly no falling off in me standard of play, and a remarkable number ()f surprising results.

The outstanding example was the perfor­mance of Sheila Foley (Worcester) and Jill Watte (Evesham) in wmning the women's doubles event, beating the very experienced pairing of Jt?ycE; Lloyd an~ Janet Hunt, who have won thIS tItle many tImes.

Another exceptional performance was achieved by Jeff Nix and Simon Gray (Red­ditch), who reached the final of the men's doubles, beating on the way, Simon Claxton and Andrew Oakley 22-20 in the third.

In the men's singles, seeded County team players bit the dust. Brian Belcher, after beat­mg Brian Jarvis 21-4 in the first game, lost the next two, and Mike Sykes fell to Steve Taylor(Bromsgrove). Andrew Oakley was beaten byGrahanI Collier (Malvern).

But the really outstanding performance wasby Bob Brown, the County No.1, ,who became

Page 32

a triple champion, bis final win in the men's singles being agamst young Claxton who, in the first ga,me, outhit his senior colleague.

BrowoJl combined with Nick Bottom1ey to take the men's doubles and it was with Joyce Lloyd that Brown achieved his ha·t·trick. Results: ­M.S.: R. Brown bt S. Claxton ·15, 15, 14. W.S.: J. Lloyd bt J. Hunt 10, 17. M.D.: N. Bottomley/Brown bt S. Gray/J. Nix

13, 16. W.D.: S. Foley/J. Watte bt Hunt/Lloyd 17, -17,

14. X.D.: Brown/Lloyd bt Bottomley/Hunt. V.M.S.: M. Wood bt D. Reynolds -19, 9, 22. V.W.S.: B. Shammon bt D. Moss ·16, 16, 11. V.D.: J. Cukerman/J. Meredith bt F. Heritage/

L. Jobson 14, 15.

Bristol Closed by Dennis Pope

The Bristol "Closed" Championships took place on the weekend of Saturday/Sunday,February 15-16.

The Senior events were played on the Satur· day and many eyes were on the progress of the present Bristol "star", Chris Sewell, and as the holder 0If the Men's Singles title and also Bristol No.1, he was top seeded, and fullyjustified his ranking, winning all his sets two­straight, including the final against Brian Reeves. Incidentally, Brian had beaten Chris in the final of the Gloucester&hire Closed earlier in the year, but this time Chris made no mistake, winning 21·12, 21·11. With con· thlUed progress it is hoped Chris will once again put Bristol back on the table tennis map.

The only real shock in the Men's Singles ca·me when juniOl' Jerem'y Musselwhite beat Colin Feltham 15, -17, 11, but Jeremy was well beeten in the next round by Sewell. Chris also took 1'he Men's Doubles title when partneredby clubmate Gordon Mildred.

Due to illness, Pat Reeves only played in the Mixed, and despite her absence from the game for many weeks, won this title partneredby her hu&band, Brian. With Pat absent from the Women's Singles, we saw two familiar faces in the final, those of Pat Rowe and Janet Achurch, with the latter winning the final in "three". Janet was not so succes9fu:l in the Women's Doubles when partnered by Pat Rowe they were defeated by June Watts and Muriel Lewis.

The Junior events took place on the Sunday.and despite the presence of Sewell, who won the Under-17 Singles and Under-I7 Doubles

rartnered by Paul Lewis, the day belonged to 5-yeer-old Wendy Simmons, who reached five

finals, winning four of them and losing the other 24-26 in the thirdI A word of praise for 12-year-old Kim Morris; he lost a game 21-0 to Paul Lewis in a round of the Under-15 Singles, but came back to win the Under-13 Singles event. Kim shows exceptional promisefor his age, and together with his youngerbrother, Todd, one feels in the future a lot will be heard of the Morris Brothers.

Apart from the players, a welcome sight was the number of Vice"Presidents who attended the Championships, and togetherwith the Bristol Association President, Aubrey Simons, they gave the Juniors every encour· agement. Last, but not least, a big word of thanks to Referee Pat Archdale.

Results: ­M.S.: C. Sewell bt B. Reeves 12, 11. W.S.: J. Achurch bt P. Rowe ·9, 19, 16. M.D.: G. Mildred/Sewell bt R. Bowles/Reeves

19, 17. w.n.: M. Lewis/ J. Watts bot Achurch/Rowe

-15, 13, 18. X.D.: Reeves/P. Reeves bt P. Lewis/M. Jubb

·20, 9, 8. V.S.: D. Rowe bt N. Thompson -18. 10, 17.

Under·17 B.S.: Sewell bt J. Musselwhite 11, 18. B.D.: P. Lewis/Sewell Ix C. Mayow/N.

Stopher 14, 17. G.S.: W. Simmons bt D. Vowles 15, 16. G.D.: S. Lowell/J. Wilson bt Simmons D.

Vowles 18, ·20, 24. Under-1S B.S.: P. Lewis b't R. Wolfe 13, 11. B.D.: Lewis/Wolfe bt I. Crew/G. Totterdell

12, 11. G.S.: Simmoos bt D. Vowles 14. 9. G.D.: Simmons/Vowles bt C. Rowe/G. Sperring

15, 13. Under·13 B.S.: K. Morris bt M. Smith 17. 9. G.8.: G. Rowebt L. Crandon 7, 2. X.D.: P. Lewis/Simmons bt Musselwhite/J.

Wilson 15, ·16, 14.

Ponte&aet I-Star Open by Tony Ross

It was almost a Leicestershire benefit day at the Pontefract 1-8tar Open on Jan. 25. Paul Randell won the men's title after a marathon battle with Cheshire's Nigel Eckersley, bavingbeaten his County colleague.l Chris Rogers, in the semis. The other semi-nnalist was Leeds. junior, Steve Hazelwood, a much·improvedplayer recently.

Karen Rogers beat Melody Ludi to win the women's singles, and the Leicester contin~ent also took a·way the men's doubles and mIXed trophies, with Randell finishing the evening as triple champion. In the boys' singles it was Hull's Mike Harrison who checked the Leicester .band·wagoo by out-hitting Rogers inthe semis, going on to beat Hazelwood in the final. Men's Singles-Semi-finals:P. Randell (Leics) bt C. Rogers (Leics) 16,

-19, 16. N. Eckersley (Ches) bt S. Hazelwood (Yorks)

13, 19. Final: RANDELL bt Eckersley ·17, 17, 19. Women's SiDJIes-Semi-finals: K. ~ogers (LeIcs) bt J. Walker (Yorks) ??? M. Ludi (Yorks) 'bt S. Broadbent (Yorks) -21,

9, 17. Final: ROGERS bt Ludi 16, -19, 12. Men's Doubles-Final: RANDE,LL/ROOERS ibt K. Guy/K. Beadsley

(Yorks) 19, 19. Women's Doubles-Final: LUDI/J. McLEAN (Yorks) bt Rogers/B. Voss

(Lincs) 12, 12. Mixed Doubles-Final: RANDELL/ROGERSbt Eckersley/Voss 18, 12. Boys' SinlD!es-Semi·finals: M. Harrison (Yorks) bt Rogers 20,11. Hazelwood bt Beadsley 17, 10. Final: . HARRISON bt Hazelwood 14, -17,11. Girls' Sindes Final: LUDI bt McLean 18, 17. Veterans' Singles-Final:D.MARPLES (Deroys) bt A. Hanson (Yorks)

15, 15.

TWO TITLES FOR NEALE Denis Neale was quick to ,make his recovery

following his return from Australia and India by winning the men's sindes title both at Leeds in the Yorkshire 2-Star Open and at Basingstoke in the South of England 3·Star.

Jill Hammersley was the women's singleswinner at Basin~toke, beating Linda Howard in the final, WIth Susan Lisle successful at Rothwell Sports Centre, where the beaten fi·nalist was Karen Rogers.

. Neale's final victims were Nigel Eckersley, in Yorkshire, and Desmood Douglas, in Hamp­shire. (Full reports and detailed scores will appear in the April issue).

UNIVERSITY TABLE TENNIS

by DERE.K OLDMAN .

The spacious sports hall at Salford Univer­sity twas the venue for the U.A.U. and W.I.V'.A.B. annual tournament. The event attracted a record entry of 124 men and 46 women for the five events. Twenty-six Univer­sities and University Colleges were repre­sented out of a total of forty, this in itself indicating that at last table tennis is beginning to compete with the major sports such as soccer and rugby, etc" at University level.

The No. 1 seed for the men's singles was Donald· Parker, now r,esident at Loughborough College. As expected, he had little difficulty in winning the title; in fact the· highestnumber of points he conced,ed in any g.ame was 14. David Boulter, of Hull University and Essex, and John Fuller, the Norfolk County player, from Warwick, 'were unfortunate' to be drawn in the same half as Parker, Fuller being defeated in the quarter-finals and Boulter in the semi. More fortunate were Tony Morris, from Leeds, and Paul Tsan~, from Liverpool, who both reached the semI­final, although Morris had a long match with Andy Holdsworth, of Hull, and Tsang had if close victory over Clement Lo, from Bradford. The superior serving of T~a:t;lg was suf!icient for him to over-conle MorrIs In the semI-final, but he was no match for Parker in the final. M.S.----D. Parker (Loughborough) bt P. Tsang

(Liverpool) 10, 13. W.S.-V. Duffin (Leeds) bt P. Ham.mond

(Kent) 14, 12. M.D.-J. Fuller/M. Shahan (Warwick) bt A.

Taylor/A. P. McCarthy (Lancaster) 21, 11. W.D.----C. Jacopi/L. Stalbow (Nottingham) bt

Duffin/J. W'atson (Leeds) 12, 16. X.D.-A. Morris/Duffin (Leeds) bt P. Crane/

H. Beeson (Birmingham) 17, -18, 13. Many of the players who figured in the

U.A.U./W.I.V.A.B. ,Championships again came face to face at Leeds University over the weekend 18-1.9 January on the occasion of the British Universities' Cha1mpionships. Many students fro'm Scottish Universities, together with a small contingent "from Ulster, gathered in Leeds to do friendly battle with their English and Welsh ,counterparts. With Jean Krier having completed his studies and Elaine Smith, now the Scottish No. 1 lady, being ,engaged on international duty, all titles were bound to ,change hands, and as Donald Parker, being a college student, was not eligible, the tournament became the most open for many years.

Results: ­,Men's Singles: C. Lo (Bradford) bt J. Fuller

(Warwick) 15, 22. l\1en's Doubles: J. Fuller/M. Shaban (Warwick)

bt C. Lo/M. Douglas (Bradford) 15, 20. Ladies' Singles: P. Ha,mmond (Kent) bt C.

'Jacopi (Nottm) -17, 10, 18. Ladies' Doubles: C. Jacopi/L. Stalbow (Nottm) bt V. Duffin/J. Watson (Leeds) 21, 14. Mixed Doubles: E. Nelson/E. Meenan

(Queen's) bt M. Bishop/IC. Jac,opi (Nottm) 17, 11. A feast of table tennis is in store at Sheffield

University on 13-14 April when British Univer­sities are staging a Quadrangular International tournament for students. Lining up alongside Great Britain 'will be teams from Western Germany, Holland and Belgium. Both team and individual events will be played and play will take place on .,both days from 9-30 a.m. until 7 p.nl. Each competing country is entering teams of four men and four women and the British tea.ms are:

Men-Clement Lo (Bradford), John Fuller (Warwick), David Boulter (Hull) and Paul Bishop (Oxford) with Philip ,Crane (Bir,ming­ham) as reserve. Women-Elaine Smith (Edin­burgh), 'Pat Ham'mond (Kent), Val Duffin (Leeds) and Christine Jacopi (Nottingham) with Elizabeth Meenan (Queen's) as reserve.

ESSEX NOTES by Geoff Newman

In the County Championships all our teams appear to be having a good season and we have high hopes of li,fting a few titles. Our senior Pre'mier team is still going strong with a 100 % record we are hoping will stay intact. The second team are also going 'great guns 'with Graham Blomfield, Dave Bowles and David Randall in good form.

The Selection Com,mittee have ,been busy and have revised the ranking list's as follows:­

'MEN-l, I. Horsham; 2, D. Brown; 3, R. ,Potton; 3,L. Eadie; 5, D. Iszatt; 6, ,G. Blom­field; 7, D. Bowles; 8, D. Randall; 9, D. New­m,an; 10, D. Sehmbi; 11, lB. Mailey; 12, K. 'Caldon; 13, P. Hunt; 14, K. Beamish; 1~, D. Boulter.; 16, R. Melling; 17, N. Brierley; 18, F. Mauthoor; 19, A. Bawden; 20, G. Drew.

WO,ME·N-l, S. Hession; 2, J. Hellaiby; 3, E. 'Tarten; 4, S. Sutton; 5, L. Barrow; 6, J. Live­sey; 7, M. Nash; 8, L. Budd; 9, J. Boulter; 10, P. Ahbott; 11, S. Smith.

BOYS-Potton, Eadie, Iszatt, Newman, Sehm,bi, Caldon, Hunt, Bawden, 9, A. Ahbott; 10, S. Newman; 11, T. Marsh; 12, T. Heeney; 13, K. Owens; 14, J. Taylor; 15, M. Allen; 16, A. Stonell; 17, J. Iszatt; 18, K. Boulter.

'GIRLS-Sutton, Boulter, P. Abbott, 4, A. Maye; 5, ,C. Taylor; 6, H. Gore; 7, S. Smith; 8, L. Chamberlain; 9, E. Sayer; 10, M. Abbott; 11, J. Dell; 12, J. Reynolds.

In the Fairs Cities Cup, administered by the E.T.T.U., Fellows lCranleigh stor.med into the third round by virtue of an excellent 5-1 suc­cess at home to the Federal German side, F.C. Saar,brucken.

INTER-LEAGUE RESULlTS Senior Division 1

Dagenham "A" 8, Chel,msford "A" 2 BasHdon "A'" 4, Harlow "A" 6 Romford "A" 3, Southend "A" 7

Junior Division 1 iDagenham "A" 8, Walthamstow 2 Southend "A" 8, Ro,mford "A" 2 Chelmsford "A" 6, Dagenham "A" 4

Veterans' Division 1 Dagenham "A" 7, .BasHdon "A" 2 Southend "A'" 3, Romford "A" 6 Thurrock "A" 8, Southend "B" 1

CAMBRIDGESHIRE NOTES

by Leslie Constable

It is with much pleasure that I report that Camhridgeshire have iWon the Eastern Division of the County Championships. They achieved this by beating Hertfordshire 6-4 at Waltham Cross. Keith Richardson achieved victory by winning 25-23 in the last game of the last set! The tea:m of Paul Day, Mick Harper, Keith Ri'chardson, Sally Hirst and Valerie Scripps must be congratulated on this brilliant achie,vement.

ICa,mbs Juniors drew 5-all with Middlesex at East Finchley, and this was mainly due, once again, to Day, who won both his sets, to Keith Richardson, who won a singles, and to the girls"Ruth Newman and Susan Ellis, who beat the England-ranked pair Marilyn Sangster and Sue Dove in the Girls' Doubles. This meri­torious draw should enable Cambs to hold their position in the Pre,mier Division. ~

In the Eastern Division Cambs II were beaten 6-4 by Hunts, at Duxford, but the heartening feature was the singles wins of Wisbe,ch Juniors, Tony Holmes ,and Geoff Davies, who were playing in their first senior nlatch. This augurs well for the team in next season's competition.

Prior to this Cambs had a good 8-2 win over Northants and at one stage led 8-0! D,ay won 'both his singles, against Hamilton and Marchant, 'but Harper had it tougher, althoughbeating .Marchant, he lost to Lyon 20-22 in the third. Richardson beat Lyon but lost to Hamil­ton. With Linda Woodcock heating Miss Wallis and Day and Richardson accounting for Hamil­ton and Lyon, ,Ca'mbs were all set for a big victory. As it was, they won both the Mixed and Women's Dou:bles to complete a fine evening's work.

Cam,bs Junior II are going along very nicely in their division and have had recent victories over Beds (7-3) and Hunts (9-1). In these encounters Mike Crowson won all his singles and Tony Holmes and Derrick KiddIe only lost one each. The ,girls also did well, winning all their e'vents against Beds and only losing one against ,Hunts, whose Belinda Chamber­lain beat Vivienne Rowell 21-13, 21-16. This series of wins puts the team at the top of the division with Norfolk---well done Juniors!

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Page 33

LINCOLN LEAGUE 40th ANNIIVERSARY

The Lincoln and District Table Tennis League recently celebrated its 40th Anniversary. The c.elebration w:as in the for'm of a social evening for offi'cers of the League both past and present, at which presentations were made to Mr. S. Haigh and Mr. IG. E. Sendall, the President and Chairman respectively.

These presentations were made to co:mm,emorate ,a unique re,cord in local sporting circles in that both Mr. H.aigh and Mr. Sendall have served as officers of the League throughout its 40-year existence; and indeed, were the driving force resulting in the L,eague's formation. Both have had a long and distinguished career in table tennis.

Mr. Haigh w'as Chairman of the League from its conception until 1959, when he became President. He, along with Mr. Sendall, was a founder member of the Lincolnshire Table Tennis Association, which has Mr. Haigh as its current and only President, and also instigated the East of England Championships.

Mr. Send-all served as both Vi,ce-Chair,man and Treasurer until 1959, when he succeeded Mr. Haigh as Chairman. As the League's representative to the County Associ.ation, Mr. Sendall has been tireless in his ,efforts to further local table tennis.

Mr. W. Smalley, one of the League's Vi'ce-Presidents, presented Mr. Sendall with a garden seat and Mr. Haigh a wall plaque as a nlark of the League's appreciation of their servi·ce.

The photograph of the presentation to Mr. Sendall is reproduced tby courtesy of the "Lincolnshire Elcho," Lincoln.

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Page 34

Obituarl'

WALTER REEVES In an age dominated by an attitude of

~'What's in it for me?", the altruism of 'Walter Re'eves w'as an example and inspira­tion to his many friends. He gladly gave 'of that most valuable of all com,modities, time,. 'Tim'e to consider and help his fellow men. His e'arIy death places in true perslPec­'live how gre:at was his contribution to the game he loved-table tennis. , A player of considerable ability, Walter ,Reeves represented D'erby on a number of occasions and more recently was one of the outstanding veteran players of the county. He devoted much of his time to fostering interest and ability in young players and there are many who remeulber with affection and gratitude the help and guidance they rece.ived from Walter.

His organisational gifts were of great value to the Derbyshire Associa.tion and many of its tournaments and competitions have benefitted from bis willingness )to 'tackle any task which would contribute to the success of a particular venture. Whether it was playing, organising or umpiring, Walter could be relied ,on to give of his best.

He wiill be sadly missed by his many friends in Derbyshire and indeed in table tennis circles throughout Britain, for few have that quality of determination without histrionics which characterised him,. Our very sincere sympathy goes out to Carol, his daughter and his wife, Elsie, who for so long has shared his activities and pro­vided that background encouragement and practical assis,tance which made his efforts so very worthwhile.

FRED MO'ODY.

European League NOif YET OUT OF D'ANGER

by George R. Yaltes

Faltering only in the final set of their European League Premier Division match against Federal Germany at Gillingham on Felb. 27, when Nicky Jarvis lost to Jochen Leiss, England had cause to rejoice in the unexpected ease of their 6-1 victory.

But following France's surprising 4-3 win over Russia, who England play in Moscow' on Mar. 20, England's match ,with France at Horwich Leisure 'Centre, near Bolton on Thursday, April 10, nolW becomes of para;JI~ount importance, for two teams will be relegatedthis season.

Denis Neale was England's strong ,man at Gillingha,m, 'with wins over Leiss and Peter Stellwag. Individual scores were:­D. Neale Ibt J. Leiss 15, -18, 12. N. Jarvis bt P. Stell,wag -14, 18, 13. J. Ha'mlmersley bt W. Hendriksen -20, 14, 10. Ne'al/Douglas bt Leiss/Stall'w'ag 18, -8, 7. Douglas/L. Howard ht Leiss/M. Kneip 14, 15. Neale bt Stellwag -17, 12, 14. Jarvis lost to Leiss -20, -11.

Other results: ­Sweden 5, Hungary 2 Czechoslovakia 6, Yugoslavia 1

Table:­P W L F A Pts

Czechoslovakia 4 3 1 19 9 3 Sweden . . . . . . . . . . .. 4 3 1 18 10 3 Hungary . . . . . . . . . . .. 4 3 1 1.5 13 3 Russia . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 2 14 14 2 Yugosla,via . . . . . . . . . . 4 2 2 12 16 2 France 4 1 3 13 15 1 England . . . . . . . . . . . . 4 1 3 12 16 1 Federal Germany .... 4 1 3 9 19 1

Other fixtures on March 20 are:­Hungary v Czechoslovakia, Federal Germany v Yugoslavia and France v Sweden.

John Woodford

Disco,u,rses on Fixture Manipu:ation

When the County chanlpionships organisa­tion be,comes merged with the E.T.T.A., it OCicurs to me that it 'may, I hope, not be so easy for counties to nlanipulate num'bers of fixtures so that star juniors like Andy Barden and Mark ,Mitchell, of Middlesex, can, if selected, appear for both junior and senior sides.

This is an old chestnut, but one I haven't taken up before. It happens throughout the structure of table tennis and no doubt in most other sports. It happens most frequently in local league play where a team cannot field its strongest Iman, or men, or women on the agreed date. I suppose, that up to a point this is acceptable, providing the 'match is played within the limits laid down.

There can Ibe few leagues these days who do not have a time-linlit on postponed matches. In e1very league, in my ,experience, there are a few clubs who are frequently up to this little game, giving their opponents plenty of trouble. The trouble comes when a secretary or a team captain announces he cannot raise a side on a particular night and then the opposition say that they have no spare nights available at their pre1mises.

If this doesn't happen too often then O.K., but it seems to be on the increase. As a team captain ,mysel,f, I am -beginning to' harden my attitude ,by saying, "Either you play a reserve player or you forfeit the Imatch, because my players a.re not going to ,be messed about."

At the ,middle level, Ascot National League Competition or inter-league matches, the problem is even more acute because here you com'e up against the star players who are involved in tourna1ments most weekends, local matches two or three nights a week and so on.

Personally, I regard the requirements in these fixtures, of offering four dates as a laugh! Hnw many star players, possibly involved in County matches can be sure of being available for their league or town at four different times? Very ,few have I come across. Fixture secretaries at this level have one hell of a task in trying to muster their stars, especially when they get as far as Round 3 in the Wilmott Cup, for example.

My experience has been that it pays to get on the 'phone to the opposing secretary and reach mutual agreement on one date. Not long ago I claimed a tie against a league for not agreeing a date because his star females could not be tied down to a certain day. This man took tinle efi work to travel 33 miles by train to plead his case for a last chance!

But now, I hear fixture manipulation has spread to the County championships. I under­stand that a number of mat'ches in the juniordivisions, involving Middlesex, have been moved from the usual Saturday reserved dates so that these wonder boys ,can nlake double appearances.

My admiration for the efficiency of John Wright never ceases, ,but I cannot wonder

Page 36

what would happen if other ,counties attenlpted si~milar moves.

It would, I am sure, lead to chaos and inconvenience, especially as 'more counties are now running senior and junior County matches on the same day at the same venue and even simultaneously.

I have strong doubts if John Wright, as secretary of the County Championships, would tolerate a batch of similar requests from other counties, so these Middlesex junior matches should not have been moved this season, or any future season.

ASCOT BUTTERFLY NATIONAL LEAGUES CHAMPIONSHIPS

Herewith listed are the fourth round draws to be completed ,by Sunday, March 30:­WILM'OTT CUP (MEN) Northumberland v *Ormesby Manchester v Sheffield Stocl{Jport or 'Chester v Potteries Oxford v Birmingham Cheshunt v Ely Willesden v North Middlesex Brighton v East London Bournermouth v Central London I.M. ROSE B,OWL (WOMEN) Ormeshy v Northumberland Bradford or Live'rpool v Blackpool Chesterfield v Leicester Cheshunt v \Cambridge Wembley v St. Albans Central London v Southend Eastbourne v Guildford Basingstoke v Bournemouth CARTER CUP (BOYS) Northumberland v *Ormeshy or Barrow Hull v Leeds Lei'cester v Birmingham Dunstable v Ely or Norwich North :Herts v Wemhley Barking v North Middlesex B.ronlley v Thames Valley Bournemouth v Ne.wibury BROMFIEL,D TROPHY (GIRLS) Liverpool v Ormesby Wolverhampton v Birmingham Granthaim v Chelmsford North A'cton v Newbury North ,Middlesex v St. AI;bans Southend v Dagenham Gravesend v Guildford Bourne-mouth v Basingstoke * Title holders Ormesby (formerly North

Yorkshire) .

STIGA NATIONAL CLUB CHAMPIONSHIPS STIGA ORMESBY CUP (MIEN)

INTE,R-ZO,NE FI,NA,LS (Completion date March 30)

*Ormesby (Ormesby) v Kings Cross Libs. No.1 (Halifax)

Gatley Y.M.,C.A. (Stockport) v English Electric (Liverpool)

Hewitts "A" (Grimsby) v Sheepbridge (Chesterfield)

Soham (Cambridge) v Handsworth Victoria (IBirmingham)

A.W.R.W. Aldermaston (,NeW/bury) v Dunstable Vauxhall (Luton)

Ellel1lborough (N. Middlesex) v Fellows Cranleigh (East London)

Chadwell Heath (Ilford) v Heavitree "A" (Exeter)

St. Annes (Staines) v Snows T.T.C. (Southampton)

STIGA GAINSFORD CUP R,O;UND 2

(Completion date March 30) Or'mesby (Ormeshy) v

B,ritish Legion "A" (Grimshy) Gatley Y.M.C.A. (Stockport) v

Bolton Colleges (Bolton) Central Y.M.IC.A. (Birmingham) v

Conservative Club ('Chesterfield) Blue Circle (London B.H.L.) or

Northwood & Oxey (We.mbley) v *Gainsford (Central London)

Maldon Wanderers (Chelmsford) v Letchworth Settlement (N. Herts)

Gidea Park (Rom,ford) or Dunstable Vauxhall (Luton) v

Fellows Cranleigh (E. London) Byfleet L.T.C. (Byfleet) v

Woolton Hill Newbury) Exeter Community Centre (Exeter) v

Merton (Bournemouth) * Defending Champions.

The winners of all the foregoing matches will enter the Quarter-,Finals and will be required to play in the "Stiga Weekend" at Aston University, Birmingham, on Saturday,April 19.

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County Championships continued Z North: Cleveland 8, Durham 2 JUNIOIR P'REMIER P WD L F A PtsWarwickshire 4, Derbyshire 6 Z Midland: Gloucestershire 5, Derbyshire 5

ESisex . 5 4 1 o 34 16 9Three of War1wicks wins in straight games, 2 West: Berkshire 9, Somerset 1 Middlesex . 5 4 1 o 34 16 9all the other s,ets went the distance. Eastern: Hertfordshire II 6, Essex III 4 Berkshire . 5 2 2 1 27 23 6 Clwyd 6., Warwickshire 4 Yorkshire . 5 2 2 1 26 24 6Western: Worcestershire II 3, Glamorgan 7

Translport difficulties meant Warwicks had Surrey . 5 2 1 2 25 25 5Veteran Midland: Cliwyd 5, Wor,cesterslhire 4 to concede the first 3 B.S.-Clwyd could have Cam!bridgeshire 5 o 2 3 21 29 2 claimed ,more but preferred to play them. Lancashire . 5 1 0 4 21 29 2 Derbyshire 6, Staffordshire 4 DIVISIONAL TABLES Leicester'Shire 5 o 1 4 12 38 1

The undefeated Robert Legge made Derby's (up to and in,cluding February 16th, 1975) JUNIOR SOUTHwork h,arder for this one than they had Middlesex II . 4 4 0 0 36 4 8eXJpected; clinched ~y Robert Allen over Neil PREMIER Sussex . 5 4 0 1 34 16 8Rafferty 14, -19, 11 In 10th set. P W D ,L F A Pts Hampshire 4 3 0 1 30 10 6 Leiceste'rshire II 4, Nottinghamshire 6 Essex . 5 5 0 0 32 13 10 Hertfordshire II .. 4 1 2 1 19 21 4

All decided on the last set, lost at -23 in 3rd. Cheshire . 5 4 0 1 25 20 8 Essex III . 4 1 1 2 21 19 3 A very good match by David G,annon~ but h0.lne Middlesex . 4 2 0 2 21 15 4 Buckinghamshire .. 4 0 1 3 7 33 1 girls were not quite giOod. enough to gIve Yorkshire . 5 2 0 3 22 23 4 OXJfordshire 5 0 0 5 3 47 o Lei,cs the point they otherWIse deserved. Glamorgan 4 2 0 2 16 20 4

Lancashire 5 2 0 3 18 27 4 JUNIOR NORTHJUNIO,R DIIVISION EAST Warwicks . 5 1 0 4 20 25 2 Cleveland . . . . . . .. 5 4 0 1 35 15 8Bedfordshire 3, Cambridg:eshire II 7 Bedrfords 5 1 0 4 17 28 2 Yorkshire II 5 4 0 1 31 19 8Norfolk 7, Lincolnshire 3 Durham 4 3 0 1 26 14 6

2 SOUTHLincolnshire 4, Suffolk 6 Cheslhire . . . . . . .. 4 2 1 1 24 16 5Surrey . 4 4 0 0 31 9 8 NorthulTllberland 4 1 0 3 10 30 2Huntingdonshire 4, Bedfordshire 6 Middlesex II . 4 3 0 1 26 14 6 CUlmbria 4 0 1 3 11 29 1Norfolk 5, Northamptonshire 5 Sussex . 4 2 1 1 21 19 5 Lancashire II 4 0 0 4 13 27 0Essex II . 4 1 0 3 16 24 2JUNIOR DIVISION WEST

Glamorgan 9,Cornwall 1 Kent . 4 1 0 3 16 24 2 JUNIO'R SOUTIH·EAST Hampshire 4 0 1 3 10 30 1 Essex III . . . . . . .. 4 4 0 0 33 7 8Somerset 2, Wiltshire 8 Surrey II 5 3 2 0 34 16 8

Gloucestershire 6, Devon 4 2 NO'RTH Kent 4 2 2 0 29 11 6Yorkshire II 3 2 1 0 23 7 5Dorset 8, Worcestershire 2 Hertfnrdshire 4 1 2 1 19 21 4Cleveland . 2 2 0 0 15 5 4 Berkshire II 4 1 0 3 19 21 2Cornwall 3, Gloucestershire 7 Lincolnshire 4 0 3 1 18 22 3 Hamp/shire II 4 1 0 3 9 31 2Dorset 6, Wiltshire 4 Northumberland 4 1 1 2 17 23 3 Sussex II . . . . . . .. 5 0 0 5 7 43 0

Glamorgan 10, Somerset 0 Cheshire II . 3 0 2 1 10 20 2 Durlham . 2 0 1 1 7 13 1 JUNIOR MID'LANDVETERAN DIVISION SOUTH Clwyd . 5 4 1 0 31 19 9Essex II 5, Hampshire 4 2 MIDLAND Derbyshire 4 3 1 0 27 13 7Both Ray Lush ,and Daphne Gray unbeaten Devbyshire . 3 3 0 0 22 8 6 War'wiickshire 5 3 0 2 38 12 6in a real nail-biter. The all left-handed Men',) Leicestershire 4 2 2 0 28 12 6 Nottinghamshire 4 2 0 2 16 24 4Doubles (very rare?) went the distance with Staffordshire 4 2 1 1 22 18 5 Staffordshire 4 1 0 3 15 25 2Roy Coussens providing the steadiness t,o keep Gloucestershire 3 1 1 1 15 15 3 Leicestershire II .. 4 1 0 3 13 27 2Vic Ireland going. Vic, not really recovered Warwickshire II 4 1 0 3 13 27 2 Shropshire 4 0 0 4 10 30 ofrom illness, looked as if he would not last to Nottingha.mshire .. 4 0 0 4 10 30 o

t1he end of his s,econd singles, but did, and JUNIOR EASTmade the score 4-all for Laurie Fountain to 2 EAST Norfolk . 5 4 1 0 36 14 9clinch victory in the 9th set. Camlbridgeshire .... 3 3 0 0 21 9 6 Cambridgeshire II .. 4 4 0 0 29 11 8Hertifordshire 4 2 1 1 22 18 5Kent 6, Huntingdonshire 3 Suffolk . 4 2 0 2 18 22 4

NnrthaJmptonshire .. 3 1 1 1 14 16 3 Bedfordshire 4 2 0 2 16 24 4Essex 8, Wiltshire 1 Norfolk . 3 0 1 2 12 18 1 ~orthamptonshire .. 3 1 1 1 16 14 3 Hamjpshire 4, Essex 5 Suffolk . 3 0 1 2 11 19 1 Lincolnshire . 4 0 0 4 14 26 o

Essex trailed 2-4 but the highlight, and Hunting'donshire 4 0 0 4 11 29 o2 WESTmatich-clincher, Ken Be.amish v Ray Lush, went De,von . 3 3 0 0 25 5 6-18, 14, 16 to Beamish ,and Essex took the JUNIOR WESTBerkshire . 3 3 0 0 25 5 6other two as well. Dorset . 5 4 1 0 37 13 9Somerset . 3 2 1 0 24 6 5 Gla,morgan . 540 1 38 15 8Huntingdonshire 3, Essex II 6 Wiltshire . 5 2 1 2 28 22 5 Worcestershire . 5 2 2 1 30 20 6

Kent 6, Hertfordshire 3 Wor!cestershire . 3 2 0 1 19 11 4 Wiltshire . 522 1 28 22 6 A really awful muddle by Kent who were Cornwall . 4 0 0 4 6 34 o Gloucestershire . 522 1 27 23 6

without their usual captain, and managed to Dorset . 5 0 0 5 3 47 o Devon . 6 2 1 3 30 30 5 play their 3 men in reversed order. 8-1 on Cornwall . 5 104 15 35 2SOUTHERNthe table became a less flattering win. Somerset . 6 0 0 6 8 52 oSurrey II . 3 3 0 0 23 7 6VETERAN DIVISION MIDLAND Kent II . 3 2 0 1 23 7 4 VETE,RAN SOUTHClwyd 0, Cheshire 9 Sussex II . 4 2 0 2 20 20 4 Essex . . . . . . . . . . .. 4 4 0 0 26 10 8

Oxfordshire 3 1 0 2 10 20Nottinghamshire 8, Leicestershire 1 2 Essex III . . . . . . .. 5 4 0 1 29 16 8Berkshire II 3 0 0 3 4 26 oStaffordshire 6, Oxfordshire 3 Kent . . . . . . . . . . . . 5 3 0 2 26 19 6

EIanlpshire 4 2 0 2 21 15 4Warwickshire 4, W'orcestershire 5 NOR,THER,N Wiltshire . . . . . . .. 4 1 0 3 14 22 2W orcestershire's 18th Veteran match, and Cleveland II 3 3 0 0 25 5 6 Hertfordshire 4 1 0 3 11 25 2their first win! I promised Doug Moss a big Cheshire IIJ 3 2 1 0 21 9 5 Huntingdonslhire 4 0 0 4 8 28 0write-up when it happened, but War:wicks Durhalm 11 . 4 1 1 2 18 22 3

didn't send me anycom,m,ents. Two singles Cumlbria . 3 1 0 2 12 18 2 VETE,RAN M,ID'LANDwins for Malcol!m Crane, and X.D. with Diana ·Northumiberl'd ![ .. 3 0 0 3 4 26 o Cheshire 5 5 0 0 42 3 10Moss; a singles for B. White, and M.ID. with J. Nottinghams\hire .. 5 5 0 0 33 12 10MID!LANDSmith gave them a 5-2 lead bef,or Warwicks War;.vickshire 5 3 0 2 23 22 6D,er:byshire II 4 3 1 0 30 10 7picked off tlhe last two. All two-straight. Leicestershire 5 2 0 3 17 28 4Warwi,ckshire III .. 4 2 1 1 20 20 5Cheshire 9, Oxfordshire 0 O~fordshire 5 1 0 4 19 26 2Nottingh'shire II .. 4 1 2 1 23 17 4

3rd consecutive maximum victory for Clwyd 4 1 0 3 12 24 2Staffordshire II 4 1 1 2 19 21 3Cheshire, with Alan Summerfield and Mary Clwyd 4 1 1 2 17 23 3 Staffordshire 5 1 0 4 15 30 2 Leigh hoth continuing in excellent for;m. Wor1cestershire .... 4 1 0 3 10 26 2Northamptonshire II 4 1 0 3 11 29 2 Leicestershire 5, Staffordshire 4

EAST'ERNThe hard luck Leics had in Junior Midland about levelled out here. Phil Overend beat Hertfordshire II . 3 3 0 0 21 9 6 FOR SA.LE

Bedfordshire . 4 3 0 1 23 17 6Dnn Pritcha:r:d -16, 22, 22; paired with Charli~ Jacques to take M.D. 23, -18, 18; then clinched Essex III . 3 2 0 1 18 12 4 STIGA ROBOT FOR SALE

Huntingdonshire 4 2 0 2 20 20 4the match 25, -20, 20. I exp,ect he slept well that night! Norfolk II . 4 1 0 3 17 23 2 Anyone interested please contact­

Cambridgeshire II .. 4 0 0 4 11 29 oNottinghamshire 7, Warwickshire 2 R. Pendleton,WESTERNCOUNTY CIHAMPIONS,HIPS-ST'OP P'RESS Wor1cesterslhire II .. 3 3 0 0 22 8 6 22 lMalrion Court, 136 Tooting High Stre1et,

GWENT WIN WESTERN DIVISION Gw,e'nt . 4 3 0 1 27 13 6 Tooting, Bro1adway, Glamorganshire II .. 3 2 0 1 19 11 4Results (not shown in tables): ­Shropshire . 4 1 0 3 14 26 2 London, S.W.17.

Premier: Middlesex 8,Glamorgan 1 Here,fordshire 4 0 0 4 8 32 o

Page 38

County Championships continued

NOIRTHERN DIVISION Cheshire III 10, Northumberland II 0

Nothing needed a ~eciding glame, althou&h M.D. did reach 28-26 In first. Good play ag,aln from T'revor Burrows, ,and nice debut by Wendy Shaw at a ne1w venue for Cheshire (Owley Wood, Weaverham). Cheshire want to spread the,ir matches around, and would welcome offers. Cumbria 7, Durham II 3

The first ever win for Cumhria ,at Senior level (as 'Cumlberland they managed one draw). And it came against a useful Durham teaim, so it imay be the sign of things to come! John WiUis and Peter Polczynski played a lar,ge part, each winning 2 x M.S. and combin­ing to take 'M.D. at 19 in 3rd. Cumbria 4, Cheshire III 6

A very tight m.atch, with -Cumbria most unlucky not to add at least a point to the pair taken v Durham. John Willis went down 15. -11, -22 to C. Benson (the only unde,feated player) ,and M.D. w'ent to the visitors at 20 in 3rd. Durham II 3, Cleveland II 7

Durham came back from 0-4 Ito 3-5 but former Durham player, Malcol,m C-orking (ea,rlier fortunate to beat Peter Masters), ended the recovery. Excellent 20, 14 .win for M,asters over Tony Martin, and a team per­for,mance which promises well for the host's future. MIDLAND DIVISION Clwyd 5, Nottinghamshire II 5 Derbyshire II 10, Northamp,tonshire II 0 Staffordshire II 7, Warwickshire III 3 Nottinghamshire II 9, Northamptonshire II 1 Warwickshire III 6, Clwyd 4 Staffordshire II 3, Derbyshire II 7 EASTERN DIVISION Essex III 4, Bedfordshire II 6 Huntingdonshire 9, Norfolk II 1 Cambridgeshire II 2, Hertfordshire II 8

Herts all the way, with clean sweeps for Simon ,and Jonathan Proffitt. Valerie Scripps won W.S. ,against her old ,County, though, beat­ing Linda Towler -16, 9, 15. Cambridgeshire II 4, Huntingdonshire 6

"Digger" Laimprell too experienced for this Cambs team with 4 Juniors, and his maximum salw Hunts home. Good senior debut for Geoff Daviels with 2 x M.S. Bedfordshire II 6, Norfolk II 4 WESTERN DIVISIO·N Gwent 7, Shropshire 3 Herefordshire 2, Worcestershire II 8

Sets 2-7 all went the full distance, with Mike Prosser's set with Mervyn Wood going to expedite 'with Prosser leading 14-12 in 3rd. W,oodcame back to win 18, -21, 17 ,and the whole tl11atch lasted 4 hours. Here'fordshire 1, Gwent 9

After ,an uncertain start, with John Bloomer dropping a game to Richard Owellis and Andrew Evans unable to clinch a 20-18 position ,in 3rd v Mike Prosser,G-went crushed !the home team to keep alive Championship hopes. A difficult m,atch for junior Linda 'Owen, on de/but. JUNIOR PREMIER DIVISION Cambridgeshire 4, Surrey 6 P. Day bt 1M. Shuttle 9, 12; bt 1. Girdler 12, 5. K. Richardson bt Shuttle 18, 14; lost to M.

'Crim'mins -18, -17. G. Davies lost itO Girdler -16, 18, -20; lost to

Crimmins -19, -12. Day /Richards-pn bt 'Crimmins/Girdler 10, -18,

18. ./' Miss R. NeWlman tlost to Miss K. Greenough

-8, -9. Davies/Miss S. Ellis lost to Shuttle Miss J.

Mitchell -10, -12. Ellis/Newman lost to Greenough/Mitchell -16,

-13. 'Canlbs led 2-0 and 4-3 with usual three from

Paul Day, but in the last set Keith Richardson (earlier ,a good winner over Martin Shuttle), could not ,get the better of Max (best No. 3

in the business?) CriJm,mins. Geoff Davies so close to Ian Girdler. Essex 8, Yorkshire 2 R. Potton bt B. :B,axter 17, 12; bt M. Harrison

13, 17. D. Iszatt bt Baxter 19, 18; bt K. Beadsley 13,

19. D. Newlman bt Harrison 17, 14; bt Beadsley

18, 20. Newman/Potton bt Baxter/Harrison -13, 14, 11. Miss S. Sutton bt Miss M. Ludi -14, 18, 10", Iszatt/Sutton lost to ,Beadsley/Miss J. McLean

-17, -15. Miss P. Abbot/Miss J. Boulter lost to Ludi/

M,cLean -7, -8. All three Essex boys gave good, consistent

displays in their singles, and Bob Potton and D,avid Ne'wlman did well to get back into B.D. with fine aggressive play. Star was Sandra Sutton, encouraged by her te,a,m mates, who got better and better v Melody Ludi and looked the only possible winner in the 3rd. This was the first "girls" set dropped -by Yorks this season. But Sandra poor in X.D. which gave Kevin Beadsley a deserved success for much 'hard work. Middlesex 7, Berkshire 3 A. Barden bt G. Roberts 15, -16, 12; bt P. Trott

13, 6. M. IMit,chell bt Roberts 15, 10; bt D. Reeves

18, 21. M. O'Mahony lost to Trott -11, -18; lost to

Reevies -17, -14. Mitcihell/O'Mahony lost to Reeves/Roberts

-17, -14. Miss A. Mitchell bt Miss C. Reeves -18, 12, 16. Barden/A. Mitchell bt T'rott/Miss K. Witt 9,

-16, 15. Miss S. Dove/Miss M. Sangster bt Witt/C.

Reeves -17, 19, 19. A competent performance by Middlesex,

who won all the 4 sets which went the distance, including ,a fascinating Girls' Doubles.

Leicestershire 2, Lan.c:ashire 8 C. Rogers lost to N. Hallows 16, -20, -13; bt 1.

Smith 13, 15. G. Hall lost to H,allows -19, -18; bt G. Hoy 24,

-20, 17. K. Hall lost to Smith -11, -12; lost to Hoy

-13, -8. Rogers/G. Hall lost to Hallows/Smith -19, -15. Miss G. Sinkinson lost to Miss K. Cropper

-17, -11. K. Hall/ Miss J. Revill lost to Hoy/Miss J.

Dixon -21, -16. Revill/Sinkinsoill lost to Cropper/Dixon -15, -14.

Nigel HallO'ws a trifle fortunate to emerge unbeaten, but fortune favours the brave!

Essex 9, Leicestershire 1 Lancashire 3, Berkshire 7 N. H,allows bt G. Roberts 13, 8; bt P. Trott

17, 20. 1. Smith lost to Roberts -17, 17, -20; lost to D.

Reeves -19, -18. K. Williams lost to Trott -6, 14, -13; lost to

Reeves -15, -7. Hallows/Smith bt Reeves/Roberts 17, -20, 15. Miss K. Cropper lost to Mis'S C. Reeves -22, -19. Williams/Miss J. Dixon lost to Trott/Miss K.

Witt 19, -18, -14. Cropper/Dixon lost to Reeves/Witt -12, -13. Yorkshire 5, Surrey 5 B. Baxter bt M. Shuttle 18, -21, 18; bt M.

ICri,mmins -17, 18, 18. M. Harrison lost to M. Shuttle -21, 19, -19; bt

I. ,Girdler 11, 21. K. Beadsley lost to Crimmins 15, -17, -17; bt

IGirdler 16, -17, 17. Baxter/Harrison lost to Crim,mins/Girdler -14,

-19. Miss M. Ludi lost to Miss K. Greenough -15, -9. Beadsley/Miss J. M,cLean lost to Shuttle/Miss

J. Mitchell 18, -21, -18. Ludi/MlcLean bt Greenough/Mitchell 21, 17.

The high st,andard of the opening 'set between Mike Harrison and Martin Shuttle was not generally maintained. Brian Baxter's power game gave hi1m two B.S. wins, but Melody Ludi was off-song and capitulated to K,ay Greenough. Max Crim.mins in trouble v Kevin B1eadsley when a long 'way down in 2nd game, but fought back to give Surrey a 5-4 lead, which Harrison quickly levelled for a fair result.

Middlesex 5, Cambridgeshire 5 A. Barden lost to P. D,ay -19, -16; bt K. Richard­

son 18, -16, 16. M. Mitchell lost to Day -19, -17; bt M. Crowson

13, 10. M. O'Mahony lost to Ridhardson -12, -14; bt

Crowson 13, 14. Mit,chell/O'Mahony lost to Day/RiC'h.ardson -14,

18, -21. Miss A. Mitchell bt Miss R. Newlman 8, 9. Barden/A. Mitchell bt Crowson/Miss S. Ellis

9, 8. Miss S. Dove/Miss M. Sangster lost to Ellis!,

New,man -17, -20, -14. A ,bitter disappointment to Middlesex, who

must now win their last two matches to be certain of the title. The "'banker" of Girls' Doubles never really looked ,as good on the talble ,as on paper and despite ,a brave effort by Mark Mitchell and Mike O'Mahony in B.D., a valuable point dropped. JUNIOiR DIVISION SOUTH Oxfordshire 0, Essex III 10 Hertfordshire II 2, Sussex 8

The whole team contributed to this r 'esult. For Herts, Gavin Booth pi.cked up both singles, and l1-year-old J.anice Harding looked promis­ing in her first match. Middlesex II 7, Hampshire 3

An excellent win for Marilyn Sangster 22, 15 over Linda Wales. Hampshire 10, Buckin&hamshire 0 Essex III 3, Sussex 7 Middlesex II 10, Buckinghamshire 0

No trouble here for the hosts, who did not drop a game. Poor Bucks, let down for a second tirne by their girls, only one of whom arrived. Oxfordshire 3, Hertfordshire 7

The 20, 17 ,win ,by David Burnett over Gary Harding put Oxfords in the le,ad and gave them their first set of the s'eason. Triumph short-lived, however, as in the next game Gavin Booth allowed Adam M'c:Collin 1 point! JlJNIOR DIVISION NORTH Cleveland 7, Yorkshire II 3 Cumbria 1, Durham 9

MUlch closer than 1-9 suggests, with 5 sets going the distance (all won by Durh,am). Lancashire II 4, Northumberland 6

The careless fielding of Keith Williams, ranked 3 and not eligilble for 2nd team, cost Lancs the two sets he won on the taible and changed 6-4 into 4-6. Cumbria 5, Cheshire 5

The first two sets lost at -20 and -19 in 3rd or Cumbria might have had both points. Durham 6, Cleveland 4

What a shock for Alan Ransome on his return from Calcutta! Durham back in the title race although Cleveland must still be f,avour­ites. A. Gelder, in his first County ,match, WOll 2 x B.S., as did Keith Paxton. Peter M,asters weighed in with one, and Shirley J.enkins and Julie Inch picked up vital G.D. v Angela Tierney and Norma Carne -19, 18, 16. Lancashire II 3, Yorkshire II 7 JUNIOR DIVISION SOUTH-EAST Berkshire II 4, Surrey II 6

All three of the girls' events taken by the hosts in a good match. Stephen Boxall and Keith Seager had another impressive day for Surrey Kent 5, Hertfordshire 5 Sussex II 0, Essex II 10

Very few problems posed for this useful Essex te.a:m. Hertfordshire 6, Berkshire II 4

First win for Herts, with 5 from Jon P,roffitt and Richard J er:myn. Kent 5, Surrey II 5 Hampshire II 6, Sussex II 4 .

An even matIch, which looked like a dra\v until Kevin Batt recovered to take the last set -18, 20, 16 v Gr,aham Gillett. JUNIOR DIVISION MIDLAND Nottinghamshire 6, Staffordshire 4 Shropshire 3, Clwyd 7

Continued on Page 38

Page 39

I

ALMOST UNASSAILABLE Two more Pre,mier wins for Essex put the:m

in an almost unass.ailable position, hut at the foot of the table things ·are still far f'rolm cle'ar. Warwicks and Bedfords, each with two points, .are clearly in gre'at trouble and itl

should be noted that :both have been deprived orf the services of their No. 1 man on several occasions already. None of the four counties with 4 points ,can yet feel really s,a.fe, and after the Ros'es m,artch Yorkshi're must also be in some difficulty as they have m,atches against Essex and Middlesex to come.

B,arring the' totally unexpe,cted (Middlesex due' for Pre1mier relegation AN,D a loss by 2-8 or worse to Middlesex II) Surrey are in the Senior Challenge', and e,ven Herts feel that C,a,mibridge will be representing 2 East. At the moment of writing, 2 West is wide open, and Cleveland and Derbyshire see,m likely to com'e through from th'e other sections.

oan't f,ancy Leicester's chances of retailn­ing Junior Pre'mier status, and the other "drop" position will be Ca,mhs. or Lancs. BUll: Camlbs II could, if necessary, be ,able to save th'eir 1st team as they are' well placed in J East with closest rivals Norrf.olk still to play. Nice to see Glamorgian with a renewed inte'rest in J West, where' they or Dorset se'e'm certain to provide any challenge'r.

The' tre.mendous strength of Essex Veterans is shown by V'et. South tables, and in Vet. Midland, Cheshire and Notts can hardly be caught. PRE,MIE,R DIVISION Cheshire 6, Lancashire 3 M. Johns bt D. Parker 13, 10; lost to P. Bowen

-16, -19. J. Hilton lost to Parke,r -12, -19; bt N. H!allows

20, -16, 20. N. Eckersley bt Bowen 18, -17, 16; bt H,allows

19, 8. Johns/B. Johns bt Bow'en/Hallows 18, -24, 10. Miss S. Lisle bt Miss .B. Kirk'man 10, 16. B. Johns/Lisle lost to Parker/Kirrkman -20, -19.

Ex:citi.ng stuff, with Lancashire taking a 2-0 and 3-1 lead, then Cheshire storming back. A crowd of 150 s,aw Mike Johns completely overwhelm Donald Parker to give Cheshire the le,ad, and then Nigel Eckersley wrapped it up v Phil Bowen and added to his earlier fine win ove'r Nigel Hallows. Glamorgan 5, Bedfordshire 4 A. G'riffiths lost to P. Taylor 19, -19, -19; bt F.

Nilam 13, 9. G. Davies lost to Taylor -15, 15, -16; bt P.

Harmer 21, -17, 14. Davies/Griffiths bt Harmer/Nilam 21, 16. Mrs. B. Gray bt Mrs. B. H,am~mond 17, 20. Mlansfield/Gray lost to Taylor/Ham,mond -14, -15. Middlesex 3, Essex 6 A. Barden lost to I Horsham -10, -21; lost to D.

Brown -14, -18. M. Mitchell lost to Horsham -17, -19; bt R.

Potton -16, 15, 19. D. Tan lost to Brown -15, -14; bt Potton 15, 22. Mitchell/Tan lost to Brown/Horsha.m 12, -19,

-16. Mrs. D. Court lost to Miss S. Hession -12, -9. Barden/,Court beat Potto!n/Hession 17, 17. Yorkshire 6, Warwickshire 3 A. Clayton bt P. Judd 9, 17; bt D. Munt -14,

22, 19. A. Fletcher lost to Judd -14, -23; bt D. Johnson

9, -13, 19.v" D. R;ayner lost to Munt -12, -5; bt Johnson

20, ..16, 14. Clayton/Flet,cher btt JOIhnson/Munt 18, 17. Miss S. BrO,adbent bt Miss B. Green 16, 8. Rayner/B,roadbent lost to Judd/Green 14, -17,

-19. Not a convincing victory for Yorkshire,

whose players were too tent.ative. Important w'in in the se,cond set for Tony Clayton against

the defence of Derek Munt to level the score after Paul Judd had given the visitors the lead. Sylvia Broadbent ended the singles run of young Beverley Green and although Doug Johnson played well, Warwick'S clearly missed Des Douglas. N'ext month's Roses clash will need to see the White Rose in better form! Lancashire 6, Yorkshire 3 D. Parker bt A. Clayton 19, 17; bt D. Rayner

5, 17. P. Bowen lost to Clayton -8, -14; bt J. Kedge

12, 16. N. Hallows bt R:ayner 21, -11, 16; bt Kedge

13, 18. Bowen/Hallows bt Clayton/R.ayner 20, -17, 19. Miss B. Kirk,man lost to Miss S. Broadbent

-19, -15. Parker/Kirkman lost to Kedge/Broadbent -19,

17, -19. Warwickshire 3, Cheshire 6 R. Gunnion lost to J. Hilton 13, -11, -15; lost to

N. E,ckersley -10, -12. P. Judd lost to Hilton -16, -18; lost to R.

Ha,mpson -7, -17. D. Munt bt E:ckersley 20, 12; bt H,a,mpson 11,

-19, 20. Gun:nion/Judd bt Eckersley/Hilton 20, -17.. 11. Miss B. Green lost to Miss S. Lisle -10, -5. Munt/Green lost to Hampson/Lisle -16, -11.

First outing of the season for Ralph Gun A

nion, suddenly promoted in the ranking list from 7 to 2 (!!). Bedfordshire 3, Essex 6 P. T,ay~or lost to I. Horsham 11, -16, -15; bt D.

Brown 13, 15. F. Nila,m lost to Horsham 17, -18, -20; bt R.

Potton ll-all, retired hurt. P. Harme'r lost to Brown -10, -16; lost to l'ctton

-17, -17. Nila,m/Tay.lor bt Brown/Horsha,m 18, 11. Mrs. B. Ham·mond lost to Miss S. Hession -14,

-9. Harmer/Hamm.ond lost to Potton/Hession -8,

-17. An unfortunate injury to Bob Potton in the

last set led to his having to retire v Firoz Nilam. Earlier, Nilam had just gOlle under to I,an Horsham, and Peter Taylor had recorded a convincing win against David Brown. SECON,D DIVISION SOUTH Middlesex II 7, Hampshire 3

David Je'mmett, the home star, with two nice M.S. wins, and splendid X.D. result with Sus,an Dove over the awkward and experienced Trevor Smith and Joyce Coop. Angela l\1itchell took convincing revenge over Linda Wales for the W.D. defe,at, and the other two Hants wins came f.rom Keith Sum,merf1.eld in .M.S. and M.D. (with Steve Wilson). Surrey 8, Kent 2

The Surrey men in fine forln, taking all 6 M.S. sets at the c.ost of only one game. Joyce E:llis edged out Susan Henderson for the second Kent success after they had taken M.D., but they could get no more. First team debut for Jenny V,ass, unscathed, and last season's Division winners still seeking their first point. Sussex 8, Essex II 2

Al.an Hydes making first appearance for Sussex (and only one of the season?) dropped a Ime're 32 points in his singles. Essex II 2, Middlesex II 8

Two wins for David Bowles, but the rest all Middlesex. Fine win for Angela Mitchell over Janet Hellably, and another maxilmum for D,avid J e.m,mett. Kent 9, Hampshire 1

First points of the season for Kent, who dropped only Men's Doubles. Surrey 8, Sussex 2

The 20, 18 win by Steven Lyons over Roger Chandler in the first set gave Surrey the initiative, and they never looked like lettingit slip.

SECOND DIVISION NORTII Cheshire II 0, Yorkshire II 10

Cheshire included 4 Veterans and the team age topp'ed the 200 ye,ars. The side was well beaten by visitors who did not relax the p'ressure, and ended the evening feeling even older! Northumberland 5, Lincolnshire 5

A close and fluctuating match with enter­prising pl,ay from both sides. Ian Robertson very impressive, and the unbeaten Lincoln­shire women too steady for the home pair. SECOND DIVISION MIDLAND Derbyshire 6, Staffordshire 4 Gloucestershire 5, Leicestershire 5

A surprise result, and Leics were given 2 st,art when Roy Morley and Bill Daw'e arrived late, misdirected for a hOlne match! Chris Sewell in really impress1ive forIn. Warwickshire II 6, Nottinghamshire 4 Staffordshire 7, Nottinghamshire 3 Leicestershire 9, Warwickshire II 1

A result which keeps Leics in the Champion­ship race. Chris Rogers and Doug Johnson produced the best set, won by Rogers -16, 4, 23. Barry Hayward, who later scored the only visiting success, sportingly ad.mitted a "not-up" at set point aglainst himself v RandeJl--no-one ·else in the room had seen it. SEICOND D,IVISION EAST Suffolk 3, Hertfordshire 7

John Kitchener struggled v Chris Pickard, then "killed" IB,arry White 5, 9. Cambridgeshire 7, Norfolk 3

Norfolk fought hard and held their own to 3-all but Cam:bs fairly comforta,ble \vinners in the end. Cle.an slweep for Paul Day and Keith Richardson, despite problems posed by John Turner and his plaid wood bat, and Linda Simpson the best-looking wonlan (in more ways than one?). Hertfordshire 4, Cambridgeshire 6

The ·match-winner virtually certain to take the Division and ex-Herts players, Mick Harpe,r and V,alerie Scripps, won the vital X.D. at 14, -11, 18, over Jack Bender and Bar1bara Peters. Th'en Keith Richardson took the last set v Chris Pickard -12, 13, 23! A closely-fought m,atch, worthy of the two top tea:ms in the Division, although Paul Day in a 'class of his own. ICould be Herts first senior detfe;at ,by C,almhs. Northamptonshire 7, Suffolk 3

Well done Rod Marchant, who beat John Kitchener 18, 16. He, and the home women, Connie Bane and Anne Wallis, kept clean sheets in ,a keenly-fought match. SE,CO,ND DIVISION WEST Cornwall 2, Berkshire 8 D,orset 1, Devon 9

Splendid win 17, 17 for Janet New over Pam Mortinler, but little else for the home side to enthuse over. Worcestershire 3, Wiltshire 7 Wiltshire 10, Dorset 0

A very comfortable hOlme win. Slack play in the second ganle of W.D. and X.,D. caused these to be dropped, but nothing else went the distance. SOUTHERN DIVISIO,N Berkshire II 1, Sussex II 9

The experien,ced Sussex team too strong for complete.ly Junior Berkshire. The sole home success from Karen Witt in W.S. David Reeves and Si.mon Douglas both put up good displays, but G,ary Roberts 'right out of touch. Surrey II 10, Oxfordshire 0

AJter their perfor1mance against Sussex I had hoped this se.ason would see an OXlford­shire revival, but here they ,are again, back to the dis'mal for.m of re,cent year~.

Oxfordshire 6, Kent II 4 A very welcome surprise, which ends

Oxford's run of 12 matches without a win. Sussex II 4, Surrey II 6

Continued on Page 39

Printed and Published for the English Table Tennis Association, 21 Claremont, Hastings, Sussex Page 40 by Wallace (Printers) Ltd., 37 Rose Hill, Bolton, Lanes.