FOR RUBBERS AND BLADES RING OR WRITE 37th World Championships ~ose ~ank Sports also for other T.T. equipment/clothing Tokyo '83 at Discount Prices NOW AT: 119 WITTON STREET BRILLIANT BRONZE FOR ENGLAND NORTHWICH, CHESHIRE Telephone: 0606-48989 (day) by George R. Yates 0978-76'0249 (after hours) Not since those heady days of the to the host nation, were feats that set the late 40's to the middle 50's, during heart pounding. Undoubtedly England's shock element the era of leach and Bergmann, has was that unperturbable 1S-years-old school­ DAY OF DECISION an England men's team achieved a boy, Carl Prean, from the Isle of Wight who, medal position in the Swaythling on debut in the world championships, At the AGM of the ETTA to be held whirled his combination bat with such in London on July 9 the Management Cup. The feat was last performed in devastating effect that memories of John Committee will pro,po'se that the Utrecht in 1955 but, with the most Hilton's feats in Berne were evoked. National CouncU be directed to apply unlikeliest of teams, the capture of Prean, in contesting 19 sets in the team the newly-approved ITTF regulation bronze medals in Holland was event had 15 wins to 4 losses with Douglas, app'ertaijning to racket coverings. for once taking second place, achieving 14 emulated in the Yoyogi National wins to 7 losses. The new regulat'ion, to become Stadium, Tokyo over the period AUTHORITY effective as 'from January 1, 1984, reads: April 28 to May 3, 1983. But, overall, it was aga.in the Chinese liThe two surfaces of the racket blade Having, prior to, under the non-playing who stamped their authority over the cha.m­ shall be of clearly different colours, captaincy of Peter Simpson, quitted the 7th pionships winning six of the seven titles at whether or not bot'h sides are used for Commonwealth Championships in steamy stake with Guo Yuehua retaining his men's striking the ball". Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia with their tails very singles title and also sharing the mixed much between their legs - only five bronze doubles title with Ni Xianlin. The Management Committee's pro­ awards as against five gold in Bombay ­ The only title to elude them was the posal 'is that this regulation be applied morale could not have been very high. men's doubles won, in the most exciting of to open tournaments, County Champion­ And yet, lifted by the presence of fashion, by the Yugoslavs Zoran Kalinic, the shi;ps, Naf'ional League, National Team Desmond Douglas, who had along with giant penholder, and the ageless Dragutin kno1ck-out competitions and any other Karen \Nitt flown direct to Japan, the team Surbek. events covered by the ETTA computer exceeded all expectations and in topping Both team titles were retained by the ranking scheme, with effect from Jan. 1 their group in the Stage 1 proceedings put Chinese, the men's with a final 5-1 success next year. us in the most unlikeliest of positions in over Sweden whose Mikael Appelgren beat challenging the might of the People's Xie Saike, and the women's with a final 3-0 Republic of China, Sweden and Hungary victory over Japan. Indeed such was the And, furthermore, that the N$tional for the top four placings. superiority of the Chinese women that in Council shall issue a direction that any No matter that we finished fourth behind nine matches they shed nary a set! County Assoc'iation or Local League that formidable trio, to have beaten, in turn, This superiority was again emphasized in which so chooses may adopt the regula­ Italy, Poland, Russia, Hungary, the People's the two women's individual events with Cao tion for its own competitions, but so that Republic of Korea and Denmark, losing only Yanhua succeeding Tong Ling to capture no County Ass,ociation shall have power to direct a Local League to adopt ill for domestic competit'ion. Clearly these moUons are of great concern and more especially to the local league player. It therefore beholds those representatives present at the AGM, or those entrusted with thei1r votes, to seek op'ini'on now and be mandated accordingly on the day of decision. ENGLISH TABLE TENNIS ASSOCIATION Patron: Her Majesty The Queen. President: M. Goldstein, O.B.E. Life Vice-President: Hon. Ivor Montagu. Chairman: T. Blunn. Deputy "Chairman: G. R. Yates. Hon. Treasurer: A. Drapkin. General Secretary: A. W. Shipley. Management Committee: (Vice-Chairmen) C. J. Clemett, R. J. Crayden, A. E. Ransome, N. K. Reeve, E. G. White. The Yoyogi National Stadium in Tokyo. Page 3 reigning champion Kiyoshi Saito rattled up a treble and former world champion Seiji Dna, having lost to Douglas, made amends by beating both Hilton and Prean. But it was back to winning ways against the Soviet Union with Douglas and Prean sharing four successes and Graham Sandley savouring a win over Mikhail Ovcharov in a 5-1 triumph, Sandley losing to Igor Solopov. Then followed the win which put the icirag on the cake 5·2 over Hungary! Who, CO~d beUeve it with the Hungarians re'prese,nt d by Istvan Jonyer, Gabo,r Gergely and Zs It Kriston. First to the table in this memorable en­ counter was Douglas pressed all the way by Kriston who eventually suc.cumbed -21, -20. Next to the table was Sandley, not given much chance against Jonyer, and so it proved with the balding Hungarian coasting home 2-straight. Much then rested on the shoulders of young Prean who in the first game against Gergely edged home 22-20 but was obliterated in the second -8, only to come back with a third game 21-15 triumph to put England 2-1 in the lead. Capitalising on this success Douglas Guo Yuehua on his way to retaining his men's singles title. made it 3-1 in beating Jonyer and Prean followed on with an equally tight win over Kriston to make it an unbelievable 4-1. the G. Geist Prize and Oai Lili and Shen wherein England's men began with a 'white­ Jianping the W. J. Pope Trophy for the wash' result over Italy with Douglas and Sandley, in attempting the coup-de-grace women's singles and doubles titles. Hilton sharing four sets and Prean repeat­ against Gergely, went down fighting putting What one can do to bridge the gap that ing his victory in the Italian Open team the onus on Prean to beat Jonyer for exists between the Chinese and the rest of event, with a win over Massimo Costantini. victory. But after winning the first at 19 and the world was the question most often A good start. going down 23-25 in the second, with posed but nobody had the answer. The fact It was followed by a 5-3 success over Jonyer giving nothing away, odds were on the Hungarian taking the decider. that when next the championships are Poland in which match Douglas twice contested in Gothenburg different coloured faltered, against Andrzej Grubba and Stefan NOT TO BE rubbers on either side of the bat will be the Dryszel, and Hilton lost to Leszek But it was no,t to be as Prean recorded order of the day will, in my opinion, make Kucharski. But Prean despite going to a his second significant lreble, 16 in the' third, no difference whatsoever. decider in all his three sets came up for an English succe,ss that, on paper, was Substitute frying pans for rackets and the trumps when the chips were down. never on. Chinese will still win fo'r their mobility allied ONLY LOSS Following such a victory the challenge of to skill is the essence o,f the-ir repeated Then came our first and only loss in the Democratic People's Republic of Korea success,es. Stage 1 when that previous 5-3 scoreline and Denmark held no terrors for an English But back to the team championships was reversed in favour of Japan whose team with their tails aloft and wagging. And so it proved with the North Koreans seen off 5-1, Hilton losing to Cho Yong Ho but winning his other to supplement a brace each for Douglas and Prean. A clean sweep was effected against the Danes, Douglas and Prean again obliging with two each and Hilton obtaining the other with not one set going to a deciding third game. And so there we were top of the heap with a cross over match against Sweden in the offing. Sadiy the success story must end there for the Swedes, represented by Appelgren, Erik Lindh and Jan-Ove Waldner fairly pulverised us with only one of the five sets going to three in which Douglas took the tirst game off Appelgren. Both Lindh and Waldner proved invincible with Prean in his only set losing to the latter -24, -16. Nor were Hungary going to be taken tor a second time for in the final encounter for 3rd and 4th positions, after they had been beaten 5-0 by China, it was the Hungarians who had the last laugh beating us 5-2 with Jonyer supreme, Kriston losing to Douglas and Janos Molnar to Prean. Still from sixth to fourth was a feat in itself and one worthy of praise which is something the Federal Republic of Germany China's new women's singles, champion - Cao Yanhua. would not receive on their homecoming having been relegated to Category 2 along with the Soviet Union.