Sad news with Malcolm Wong passing away on Tuesday (7/12/2021). Malcolm had lots of friends in the table tennis community here in Wellington but also all over New Zealand as well as overseas with official umpiring at international events such as the 2018 World Juniors, 2017 World Masters Games, 2014 World Vets, Commonwealth Table Tennis Champs (Glasgow) in 2009. Malcolm loved to travel around New Zealand both to play as umpire and having a keen interest in table tennis history was a prolific writer for our player profiles and travel reports here.
Malcolm has been the president of Table Tennis Wellington since 2017 and has been active in many capacities and for multiple clubs over the years with Te Rama his home base.
Malcolm will have a private funeral in Wellington followed by a public funeral in Auckland.
After an intriguing final night, Manish Ahlawat finished the four week competition on top, thus retaining the title he won last year. Sabine Westenra had a strong last night coming from five points behind to pip Ian Talbot for second place by one point.
Thanks are extended to all those who played in this competition, along with all the other tournaments and competitions that were held in 2021.
1978, NZ Junior Boys Teams Champions (Northern Hawkes Bay Shield)
L-R Trevor Cullen, Tony Hawes, Simon Edmonds and John Taylor
NZ Junior Teams (Under 18 and Under 14 Boys and Girls) were held for the first time at the 1978 NZ Championships held at the Centennial Hall, Napier (24-25 August).
The Hutt Valley Under 18 Boys Team was Simon Edmonds, John Taylor, Trevor Cullen and Tony Hawes. Simon was from the Silverstream Club, and the others from the Waterloo Club. Alan Costley was the Manager and Neil Addis and Keith Barnes were the coaches for the Hutt Valley Junior Teams.
From 1966-77 the NZ Junior Teams tournament was held on a regional basis, with the regional winners playing off in a final. The first winners in 1966 was Hutt Valley (Boys) and Otago (Girls).
Wellington boys were runner ups in 1975 and won the NZ Junior Teams 1976 and 1977. In the 1975 final Wellington (Lloyd Richards, Malcolm Elley, David Williment) beat Franklin 10-1, Hamilton 11-0 and lost to Canterbury (Stuart Armstrong, Alister Amstrong, Henry Redmond) 3-8. In the 1976 final held at the Empire Club, Petone (7 August), Wellington (Lloyd Richards, David Williment, Malcolm Elley, Richard Williment) beat Manawatu 8-3, Auckland 6-5 and Canterbury 6-5. In 1977 Wellington (David Williment, Richard Williment, Lloyd Richards, Grant Taylor) retained the title, at the Empire Club (6 August) by beating in the final, Auckland 9-2, Wanganui 9-2 and Canterbury 6-5.
The final was on Friday evening, 25 August. Hutt Valley raced to a 4-0 lead. In the first match Trevor Cullen upset Malcolm Temperley 14-21 21-17 21-11. John Taylor continued by beating Barry Griffiths 21-17 22-20. Then Simon Edmonds beat Don Tate 21-19 21-16. In the first Doubles Edmonds/Taylor beat Temperley /Tate 14-21 21-14 21-12.
Malcolm Temperley started the Auckland comeback by beating John Taylor 21-14 18-21 21-16. Then Don Tate beat Trevor Cullen 21-16 14-21 21-19. And Barry Griffths beat Simon Edmonds 21-14 24-22. In the second doubles Temperley/Griffths won the first game 21-5 and lead 19-15 in the second game. It seem that the match would be tied up at 4-4. However Cullen/Taylor recoverd to win 21-19 and then won the third 21-10 to give Hutt Valley a 5-3 lead. John Taylor then beat Don Tate 21-10 21-16 for Hutt Valley to win the 1978 NZ Under 18 Boys teams 6-3.
Thanks for the information in the Auckland Table Tennis Magazine, Vol 17 no 6 (18 September 1978 p4-5 , the Canterbury Table Tennis Association Magazine (21 up) Vol 5 no 7) October 1978 p10-13, TTNZ website (Titleholders and Chronicles), TTNZ Annual Reports, Alan Costley and the 1975-78 Wellington Table Tennis Association Annual Report.
Adrian was born in 1948 in Wellington and started table tennis age 16 at the Kilbirnie RSA. As a right handed counter attacking player Adrian was very determined and very colourful, talking a lot during his games which often attracted a large crowd at tournaments, sometimes even breaking his bat after losing a match.
Adrian had a number of pet sayings that he would often shout out during his table tennis/tennis matches. These shouts often amused his opponents and spectators but they were often mystified as to their relevance to the match they were playing. One of his most regular shouts was “The Luck of the Irish!”, often shouted if his opponent had pulled off a lucky shot such as the ball clipping the table edge or hitting the net cord and dropping dead. However Adrian often also shouted the same if he won a point with a lucky shot.
Another was “Tuck it away Barrie”. His contemporaries think he heard well known Hutt Valley Tennis player Barrie Shute say that when he was not happy with his smash of a lob ball. Adrian adopted it and would often shout it if he missed a ball he thought he was going to hit for a winner or when he had it a winner and was showing self approval of the shout. Players on adjacent courts would sometimes mimic him so occasionally there might be players on different courts all bellowing “Tuck it away Barrie” for no obvious reason. It certainly made interclub entertaining.
Adrian and Brian Kennedy used to train several times a week as well as playing A Grade interclub on Tuesday nights. Adrian and Brian adopted the regular practice of arriving at 6:30pm for 7pm interclub start. So they would hit up for 20 minutes or so, then change their shirts and put on their tracksuits so they would not cool down. When their opposition arrived they would get them to the table promptly for the allowed 2 minute hit up and then start the match. They often raced away to a big first set lead because their opponents were still cold. Surprisingly it was rare for other players to arrive early and have a decent hit up before starting interclub. In 1974 Adrian lost only 1 singles in interclub.
1971 Wellington Table Tennis A Grade Team Champions with Gerald Bell Memorial Cup.
Kilbirnie RSA (Brian Kennedy, John Woodcock and Adrian Lust).
Miramar Tennis Team which won the inaugural Wellington/Hutt Valley Senior A Grade Interclub Title
1970 Adrian Lust playing in the Wellington Championships
1973 NZ Senior training squad
L/R back: Barbara Taylor, James Morris, Bain Attwood, Gary Murphy, Alan Tomlinson, Maurice Burrowes, Cathy Tadema, Adrian Lust.
front: Jan Morris, Kerry Palmer, Yvonne Fogarty, Trevor Flint (Director), Neti Traill, Thelma May, Kathy Fraser
The Autumn Open was held on 1&2 May with a very good turnout of local players, plus a good number of quality players from other Associations. Competition was keen across all events with a number of upset results. Mention should be made of many junior players new to tournaments, all of whom performed to a good standard.
The Summer Interclub 2021 competition has finished with some close playoff matches. See attached tables for the full Series results.
In Division One, HYJW (Hugo Yick and Jack Webb) reversed the round robin defeat by the same score when they beat Empire Tigers (Manish Ahlawat and Robert Dias) 3-2 in a sudden death, one set doubles match. The two teams had been at the top of the grade all series and fought hard for the title. Division One had many close matches during the series with nearly a third of fixtures finishing with the one set doubles tie breaker.
In Division Two, LJMS (Liam Johnston and Michael Stechman) held off Daleks (Peter Bloor and Josh Brown 3-1 to take the title. The standard was a bit wider in this division, but there were still plenty of good players to give the leading teams some challengers.
Thanks to all players for their participation. Next Interclub will be the first Series of Winter Interclub commencing in May. In the meantime, we have the Autumn Open happening on 1&2 May. Make sure you enter!
The Wellington Veterans Tournament was held with a good attendance of regulars, enhanced by new faces from Upper Hutt and even Dunedin. Over half of the players competed in two age groups, making it a busy day on the tables. Thanks to all who participated and best wishes to those travelling to Christchurch for the NZ Veterans Championships.
Hutt Valley win 1975 NZ Men’s Table Tennis Teams A Grade (24-26 August)
Place
Team
Wins
Lost
Matches won
1
Hutt Valley
4
1
29
2
Franklin
4
1
27
3
Auckland
3
2
28
4
Northland
2
3
28
5
Wellington
1
4
19
6
Catnterbury
1
4
18
Hutt Valley v Auckland lost 3-8 v Northland won 6-5 v Canterbury won 8-3 v Franklin won 6-2 v Wellington won 6-5
Singles
Played
Wins
Losses
Gary Murphy
13
12
1
Terry Murphy
13
5
8
Murray Borlase
12
3
9
Hone Ridley
3
2
1
Pat Low
1
0
1
Doubles
Played
Wins
Losses
G Murphy / T Murphy
5
3
2
G Murphy / M Borlase
4
3
1
G Murphy / H Ridley
1
1
0
The 1975 Hutt Valley Men’s Team won the NZ Men’s A Grade (Kean Shield) in Christchurch (24-26 August). They were tied with Franklin (4 wins) but as Hutt Valley had beaten Franklin they won the title.
(Any other club champs results or links please send to me to link here!)
Titan
Lindsay Ward – Titan Club 2020 Singles and Over 40 Singles Champion
Lindsay Ward wins 13th Club Singles and 13th Over 40 Singles.
These were held on four successive Sundays from 10am onwards (22 & 29 November, 6 & 13 December) at the Newtown Stadium. Thanks to Robert Chung who organised the tournament.
Lindsay Ward won the Club Singles (22 Nov) for the 3rd successive year and 13th time overall when he defeated Paul Brown in the final 4-2 (-8, 8, 8, -4,5,4). Lindsay is this years North Island and Wellington Over 60 Singles Champion. Paul was also runner up last year and Depak Patel was runner up in 2018. In the semi finals Lindsay beat Joel Carton 4-1 (8, 10, 8, -6, 3) and Paul beat Yufeng Wang 4-2 (9,7,-5,-9,5,5).
There were 46 entries at the tournament, with players travelling from Canterbury, Marlborough, Otago and Wellington. Only 7 juniors played on the Sunday with no outside players.
Simon Fenwick (C) won the Men’s Singles against Tavish Voight (O) 4-0 (6 1 4 4) and Kris Alisch (C) won the Women Singles against Jackie Wood (ML) 4-3 (-9 -12 7 9 -9 2 7). The Men’s Doubles was won by Craig Dye/Simon Fenwick (C) against Nathan Watson (MN)/Tavish Voight (O) 3-1 (3 -9 4 4).
Sabine Westenra won 5 events. The Open Women Doubles with Kris Alisch (RR3), Over 40 Women’s Singles (RR3), Over 40 Mixed Doubles with Malcolm Wong (RR3), Over 50 Women’s Singles against Marion Wood (ML) 3-0 (2 2 2) and Over 50 Women’s Doubles with Marion Wood against Chris Cole/Patricia Martin (N) 3-0 (5 5 2). She was runner up with Jessie Wilson (C) to Simon Fenwick/Kris Alisch in Open Mixed Doubles 1-3 (-12 7 -7 -7) and lost in semi finals of Open Women’s Singles 1-4 (-8 -9 -11 10 -14) to Kris Alisch. Unfortunately there is no photo of Sabine from the tournament.
Malcolm Wong’s win in the Over 40 Mixed Doubles was his 10th Nelson Mixed Doubles Title (He last won the O40 XD with Glenda Ferguson in 2001). He also won the Over 50 Men’s Doubles with Mark Nalder (N) against Gregg Davey/Alan Moore (C) 3-1 (3 -7 4 11) which was their 10th Nelson Over 50 Men’s Doubles Title together. They were runner up in the Over 60 Men’s Doubles to Gregg Davey/Alan Moore 2-3 (-8 -6 8 4 -5). Malcolm’s best singles result was beating the second seed David Watson (N) 3-1 (9 -9 4 7) in winning his group in the Over 60 Men’s Singles. Malcolm has now won 32 Nelson Open Titles.
Mark Nalder and Malcolm Wong – Nelson Over 50 Men’s Doubles Champions for the 10th time
Thanks to Paul Op den Buysch, Robin Knight and the other Nelson people who assisted in running the tournament and the cafeteria.
Recently a teams tournament, open to teams from Associations in the lower North Island, was held on a November Saturday at Empire. Sixteen teams, each made up of two or three players, took part, five from Manawatu and eleven from Wellington.
The teams were placed in two grades and each grade into two pools of four. A round robin was played within pools and a final round against the team that finished in the same position in the other pool within the grade. Four rounds in a day was a challenge for some, but one that all players appeared to enjoy. Many played eight singles and four doubles in an eight hour stretch and all players kept to a timetable that allowed few rests, but just enough time to enjoy Maggie’s much appreciated catering.
The competition was good with some top rated players on display. Hopefully, this can become an annual fixture on the calendar and one shared around the Central Associations. Thanks to all who participated.
Results – Division One
Winner: The Legends (James Harter, Callum Rusbridge, Hayden Tapp) Runner Up: Manawatu Green (Matthew Ball, Nathan Watson, Jack Webb) Third: Egg (Sean Hanson, Hugo Yick)
Results – Division Two
Winner: WFSA (Isag Alamani, Michael Buhia, Michael Onganon) Runner Up: High Gear (Craig Gear, Scott Higham) Third: Team Stech (Liam Johnston, Michael Stechman)
The 2020 version of the November ‘Four Wednesdays’ competition has finished following some weeks of interesting and competitive play. Points were accumulated over the weeks, based on the closeness or otherwise of singles matches and a few doubles thrown in. A total of 29 players participated, 23 of them playing all four weeks. Thanks to all players for their commitment.
The winner this year was Manish Ahlawat, who had led from the second week, although he suffered a couple of losses in the final week. Runner up was Mat Hobbs, closely followed by Depak Patel and Darrell Brown. Congratulations to each of these players.
Brian (left in the image above) was born in Wellington (1947). At the age of 12, with his father and two younger brothers, they started playing table tennis in their garage. Later at age 14 he started playing table tennis at the nearby Northland Community Centre (Wellington). The same year (1961) Brian played A Reserve Grade table tennis for the Northland Club ( with Pat Williams, Colin Brydon and Phil Tessier). The team finished 2nd in the grade with 26 points. Just 2 points behind the winner, Municipal. Brian was a right handed attacking and counter-attacking player. His main weapon was his forehand heavy loop topspin shot.
The next year the team was promoted to the Wellington A Grade. Brian was to be in a A Grade team until he retires at the end of the 1975 season. In A Grade Brian played for Northland (1962-3), Onslow (1964-66), Kilbirnie RSA (1967-73), Kilbirnie United Eagles (1974) and Kilbirnie United (1975). He won the club singles at the Northland and Kilbirnie RSA Club. Kilbirnie RSA won the A Grade in 1971 (Brian Kennedy, Adrian Lust, John Woodcock) and 1973 (Richard Lee, Adrian Lust, Brian Kennedy, Lindsay Ward, Boris Halama). In 1974 Kilbirnie United Eagles (Brian Kennedy, Adrian Lust, Lindsay Ward, Warren Mak) won the A Grade.
Kilbirnie RSA ( R Lee, A Lust, B Kennedy) won the inaugural Rothmans National Club Team Competition in 1973, beating Canterbury University in the final 8-3 at Newtown Stadium, Wellington.. The players invested the $100 prize into the Wellington Association new stadium fund.
Brian first represented Wellington as a junior (1962-65). His first match in 1962 was for the Under 16 Wellington Boys team (with Bruce Young, Ken McNatty, Neil Langley) against Hutt Valley (lost 5-7). In the Junior Boys he was ranked 5th (1963) and 1st (1965). There was no Junior Boys ranking in the 1964 Wellington Annual Report. His brother Paul was also ranked in the Wellington Junior Boys. 10th (1965), 9th (1966) 7th (1967) and 2nd (1968). Brian won the 1963 Wellington Open Under 16 Boys Singles. In 1964 he won the Wellington Open Under 18 Boys Doubles and the Wellington Senior Secondary Schools Boys Doubles (both with Brian Gregory).
Brian was ranked on the Wellington Men’s List 10th (1966), 9th (1968), 6th (1969), 5th (1970, 2nd (1971 & 1972), 3rd (1973) and 1st (1974 & 1975). He was in the Wellington Men’s Team to the NZ Teams Competition (1970-75). The 1970 team was 6th in A Grade and lost the promotion/relegaton match to Northland 2-6 to be relegated from A Grade. His Wellington Team won B Grade in 1971 and lost the promotion/relegation match to Hutt Valley 1-5. In 1972 the team won B Grade and won the promotion/relegation match against Otago 6-0 to regain A Grade status. The team was in A Grade for the next 3 years when Brian was in the team. He was in the Wellington Team the won the Croudis Shield against Hutt Valley (1972 and 1973) and the Clapshaw Shield against Canterbury (1975). He was also in the Wellington Team that won the Lower North Island Teams Tournament (Hawera) in 1973 and 1975.
Malcolm Wong and Martin Young participated at this tournament held at the Edgar Centre, Portsmouth Drive, Dunedin. There were 18 tables (16 Butterfly and 2 Stiga Tables). 75 players entered in the novice and Over 35, 45, 55, 65, 70 and 75 age groups. Singles were in the morning and Doubles and Mixed Doubles were in the afternoon. Malcolm wins a gold in the Over 65 Men’s Doubles and bronze in the Over 65 Men’s Singles and Over 65 Mixed Doubles. Martin wins bronze in the Over 45 Men’s Doubles.
On Saturday Martin Young qualified second in his group behind John Fogarty (Dunedin) losing 2-3 to him and lost in the semi finals of the Over 45 Men’s Singles to Wang Qi (Dunedin) 0-3. In the bronze medal match in the Over 45 Men’s Singles he lost to John Fogarty 2-3. Martin Young with Peter Williams (Auckland) lost in the semi finals of the Over 45 Men’s Doubles to Willie Brocks and Zahid Hanif (Dunedin) 1-3. They won the bronze medal match in the Over 45 Men’s Doubles 3-1 against Richard Keen (Dunedin) and John Keenan (Masterton).
With Covid having an impact, only one series of Winter Interclub was held in 2020. A big thanks to those who participated.
Premier was split into two groups, streamed by TTNZ rating points to try and concentrate the talent. Two player teams played off and some good matches were seen. In Premier One, the Waterloo Wasps came out on top, with Sean Hanson going through unbeaten and supported well by Vance Kelly who improved with regular hard play. Premier Two saw the Empire Echoes come through on top after the round robin, but they were overcome by the Titan Tarantulas in the final.
Division One proved an interesting grade with many solid players and some close matchups between the top teams. The Empire Enigmas benefited from only using three players and deservedly won the grade, although they will look back on several close threats to their unbeaten run.
Division Three had only five teams and Karori Kaboom were the top team, scoring heavily most weeks. There were a number of new players in this grade and they will have benefitted from the experience.
Each grade had its own Grade Championships with the main results below:
Premier One Winner: Depak Patel Runner Up: Darrell Brown Premier Two Winner: Manish Ahlawat Runner Up: Nabetari Tioti Division One Winner: Sabine Westenra Runner Up: Om Thakur Division Two Winner: Quoc Dinh Runner Up: Roger Watkin
Sad news with Merv Allardyce passing away on Saturday (July 11) age 88. As a Life Member of the Empire Table Tennis Club he was also well known within the Wellington and indeed the New Zealand table tennis community including as a dedicated administrator for TTNZ in the head office for 11 years. He will be missed by so many, sympathies from us all to Merv’s family.
playing in the Wellington Championships
Table Tennis Wellington 