TABLE TENNIS NEWS Published on the 1st of each month, October to May inclusive. Postal subscriptions £1 for eight issues. 32nd WORlD CHAMPIONSHIPS Advertisements: Derek R. Tre­ mayne, General Secretary, English 1 Table Tennis Association, 21 Clare.. HSI EN-TING FINDS ·CHINK IN mon,t, Hastings, Sussex. 'Phone: Hastings 33121. EUROPEAN ARMOUR Circulation~ ~~bert W. Shipley, Assistant General Secretary, E.T.T.A. 21 Claremont, Hastings, Susse'x. ROLL OF HONOUR 'Phone: Hastings 33121. Distribution: Mrs. E. D. Yates, 43 Men's Single,s Women's Singles Knowsley Road, Smithills, Bolton, HSI EN-TING HU YU-LAN Lanes. BL1 6JH. 'Phone Bolton 42223 (China) (China) Ed itorial: George R. Yates, 43 Knowsley Road, Smithills, Bolton, Me;n's Doubles Women's Double::J Lanes, BL1 6JH. 'Phone: Bolton STELLAN BENGTSSON MARIA AlEXANDRU 42223 (h) 061-228 2141. Ext. 2698 and KJELL JOHANSSON anld M'IHO HAMADA (b) . (Sweden) (Rumania/Japan) Mixed Doubles LIANG KO-LIANG and LI LI Medicinal (Chi,na) by G£ORG£ R. YATE.S Swaythling Cup Corbill'on Cup Compound SWEDEN SOUTH KOREA EI.sewhere in thiiS issue wiU. be Asia had the last laugh over Jubilee Cup found the viewpoint of Cheishire Europe in the men's singles event at T.T.A,.'s Ang:lo..Scotti'sh Publicity BJORNE MELLSTROM the 32nd World Championships, (Swedien) Se1creta!ry, Brian Kean, on England's played in Sarajevo from April 5th­ shortcoming~s aUeged in the field of 15th, when Hsi En-ting~ China's third internationall table tennis. ranked player and seeded No. 12 beat A calpta1in of greater pe1rsonality i;s Kjell Johansson of Sweden, seeded suggl8sted as one olf the requ,i:re~ No.5. ments needed to bol,ster saggiing In trying to emulate the deeds of / morale, a palranel being drawn his compatriot Stellan Bengtsson in between the respecti,ve merits of Nagoya, 26-year-old Johansson ­ Frank O'FairreU and Tommy Docherty winner of the European title in Malmo aiS manager of M,anchestler United in 1964 and at Wembley in 1966 ­ A.F.e. stretched his tall frame to the limit to gain a 2-1 games advantage after But to take sueh a, cOlmpa:ri:son a, Hsi En-ting had taken the first. stagle furthe,r, into the international! airena in fa,et, it reaUy cannot be sa,id But it was all in vain for despite that Engiland's fo!ortball suprem:o, Si.r another tremendous fight-back in the Alf Ra!mlsey, would cOim!e out top fifth and deciding game when he of a popularity p'Olil iin thi,s rega,rd. pulled up from 15-19 to 18-19, he had the game, set and title snatched And yet, under hi,s guidance" world away from him when two "edge" cup succ,ess ha,s been achieved and balls got 27-year-old Hsi En-ting despite more recent adversity he is home. Johansson was deserving of stiU at the helm despite the baying better 1uck. of the hounds. Outnumbered seven to one by No matte:r what the sport, different Europeans in the quarter-finals, Hsi 'doctors' p.,escribe different cure,s En-ting put dO\\Tn the challenge of and if, in the calse of table tennis, Milan Orlowski (Czechoslovakia) and what might be termed strong m'edi­ Anton Stipancic (Yugoslavia) to reach cine is not to the Iiking of ce'rta,in the fInal. Johansson's response was to recipiients, and the'ir chalmpions, the oust H.ussia's Sarkis Sarkhojan and cure remaliins of paramount Dragutin Surbek of the host nation. iimportance. In the quarters, Stipancic had The tail should not be anowed to beaten Janos B6rzsei, Hungary's wa:g the dog and a, dedi'caiti,on of stone wall defender, and Surbek, to purpose can onl¥ be reali!sed by a the further delight of a noisy parti­ discilplline of chalra,cter which, in the san audience, ..hammered his way to norma,l course of events, should not a straight-games win over the French ha,ve to be forciblly i1mpiosed-not by champion, Jacques Secretin. anyone. By comparison, the women's singles final, although giving China another t.itle, was a prosaic affair with Hu ENGLISH TABLE TENNIS Yu-la.n, the national champion of the ASSOCIATION P'eople's Republic, seldom troubled in disposing of Czechoslovakia's Patron: Her Majesty the Queen Alicia Grofova who had thereto per­ Presidenj: A. K. Vint, O.B.E. formed wonders. Life Vice-President: In the semi-finals, Miss Grofova had Hon. ·Ivor Montagu beaten South Korea's Park Mi Ha and Hu Yu-lan had beaten her Corbillon Chairman: C. M. Wyles Cup team mate Chang Li. Top seed, Deputy Chairman: G. R. Yates Cheng Min-chih of China - defeated Hon. Treasurer: T. Blunn finalist in Nagoya - took her depar·· ture when beaten, in the second Management Committee: round, by Elmira Antonian of the I. R. Crickmer, M. Goldstein, Soviet Union, who subsequently lost A victory salute from the new world champion" Hsi En-ting of China L. Hoffman and K. Watts to Miss Grofova. who took over possession Q£ the St. Bride Vase from,. Stel1an Bengtsson. Page 2 THE OPENING CEREMONY The defending doubles champions, man hammered his way to a 14-11 Istvan Jonyer and 1'ibor Klampar of lead, on which he capitalised to win Hungary, failed at the last hurdle at 21-17. An impres,sive array of competitors line up for the opening ceremony \vhen Sweden's Bengtsson and Johans­ Sensing his opponent was tiring, at in Saraljevo. son made up for their earlier disap­ the change of ends in the decider, pointments to triumph 21-15 in the N'"eale exerted all the pressure at his fifth and deciding game. It was a command, and, from leading 12-11, i hird win for Johansson in this par­ he took the next consecutive eight ticular event for it was back in 1967, points, fInally winning 21-12 with a in Stockholm, that he first won the contemptuous backhand sweep which title, when partnered by Hans Alser, found I-Iasegawa stranded in the the same pair retaining it two years wrong area of the court. later in Munich. Meanwhile defending champion, China took their third title when, Stellan Bengtsson of Sweden was hav­ in the mixed, Liang Ko-liang and Li ing to pull out all the stops when Li had a final win over Anatoliy taken to a fifth and deciding game by Strokatov and Asta Gedraitite of Federal Germany's Wilfried Lieck. Russia. England's only medal winner Desn10nd Douglas, England's young was Jill Hammersley, the 21-year-old hopeful - he qualified for the first Bucks star, who with Beatrix I<:ishazi round proper following wins over of Hungary, reached the penultimate Iran's Mohamed Sanjari (16, 7, -2.2, stage of the women's doubles event 18), P'eong Tak Seng of Malaysia (-10, to qualify for a bronze award. In 15, 19, 15) and Graham Davies, the their semi-final set against China's Welsh No.2 (17, -18, -18, 18, 15) ­ Chou P'ao-chin and Lin Mei-chun, the fell to Luxembourg'S Jean Krier a AnglojHungarian pairing held a 2-1 Hull University student (13, -12, -'20, games advantage but failed to har­ -14). monise in the closing stages of the fourth and fifth games both seem­ Nicky Jarvis was also engaged in ingly reluctant to make an attack­ the preliminary sorties but after ing stroke. Not so Ma,ria Alexandru beating the Welsh No.3, Bob (Rumania) and Miho Hamada (Japan), Bishop (12, 13, 9) fell to Malaysia's two notorious defenders who took Loong Peng Sun - beaten by Trevor Taylor in the Commonwealth Cham­ the title with ease. ' beautie~s pionships in Cardiff - by scores of No less impressive is this bevy of carrying into the arena SHOCK DISMISSAL -20, -19 and -12. Not a happy worlds the I.ToT.F. World Championship :Bag. England's Denis Neale brought for young Nicky. off the win of his life in ousti'ng Scotland's Richard Yule was a Japan's former world champion, first round faller, going down to Nobuhiko Hasegawa, the No. 2 seed, Rumania's Dorin Giurgiuca (-18, -14, in the very first round of the men's 16, -11). Triumphant, however, in singles I this eventful first engagement of the The 28-year-old Yorkshireman came giants, was Holland's Bert van der back from a 0-2 deficit but from the Helm who beat Witold Woznica start of this five-game encounter a (Poland) -15, 18, -14, 17, 20 and rejuvenated Neale appeared confident Stephen Knapp of Australia who to exchange hit for hit with the crew­ ousted Jean Denis Constant of France cut Jap, who came from behind in (13, -17, 17, -16, 21). both the opening games, to take the "Charlie" Wuvanich, the former first at 23-21, after trailing 14-18, and, Thai international now playing for the second at 21-18, after Neale had Australia, did not make it against led 17-16. Belgium's gallant retriever Norbert In the third, by the judicious use Van Der Walle who won 18, -3, -15, of a short service to Hasegawa's fore­ 13, 23. But Nigeria's Y. Aiyesoro hand followed bY a fast counter stroke covered himself in glory with a -17, to his opponent's backhand, Neale -17, 17, 26, 16 win over the experi­ got off to a 10-3 lead, never again to enced Czech, J iri Turai ! And all the really falter in \vinning 21-13.