Table Tennis Wellington

from Malcolm Wong

1989 Wellington B Grade remembered

There were originally 7 teams entered in the B Grade, with an additional team, Onslow, entering towards the end of section play. Te Rama and Titan had 3 teams each, with one from Apollon and Onslow. There were 9 Affiliated Clubs and 30 interclub teams in 5 grades in the Wellington winter interclub that year.

The first round was called Section Play. The Te Rama teams completely dominated and finished in the top 3 places. Te Rama A won all its matches. Brian Hearfield and Henry Anastasi had been in the Te Rama A team (with Ken Mitchell and Roger Watkin) that was runner up in the B Grade the previous year. They were joined by Malcolm Wong, who had played A Reserve in 1988, and was to win 10 Te Rama Club Singles. Brian and Malcolm were in the Te Rama Team that had been runner up in C Grade (1985), won C Grade (1986) and were runner up in B Grade (1987).

Their main rivals Te Rama C had regulars Roger Watkin and Peter Wong, joined by David Robinson and Martin Young, who had previously played C Grade for the Ling Tse Club which had folded up. Regular interclub players included Chris Papanicolau and Peter Varuhas (Apollon), Reg Seddon (Titan A), Ken Hindson, John Lister, Jeff Larsen, Giles Moiser (Te Rama B) and David Pyle (Titan B).

In the Championship Round Te Rama had won all its matches prior to the last round. They then lost to Te Rama C 4-8. Both teams finished with 12 points but as Te Rama A had 71 points compared to Te Rama C’s 65, they won the title. Team results and interclub averages are attached here.

Te Rama players dominated the interclub averages taking the first 6 places. Henry Anastasi headed the averages with 36 wins out of 39 games (92.30%) ahead of Brian Hearfield (27 /30) 90%. Te Rama also won the Sportswear Models Trophy awarded to the club gaining the best average of interclub wins, based on their 3 most successful teams. Te Rama had previously the Trophy in 1974, 1977, 1981 and 1987. A final win was to be achieved in 1990.

In the B Grade Championships (4 July), Henry Anastasi was the first winner of the Brian Hearfield Cup (B Grade Singles) when he defeated his team mate Malcolm Wong 21-16 19-21 21-13. The B Grade Doubles was won by Henry Anastasi and Malcolm Wong who won against Ian Searle and Rith Kim 21-10 21-14. Henry and Malcolm also won the A Reserve Grade Doubles (6 July), beating Jason Granville and Andrew Milburn 24-22 21-17. Malcolm’s previous success was the 1982 C Grade Regional Doubles with Brian Roberts. Henry had won the 1982 D Grade Regional Singles and Doubles (with B Hislop) and 1982 D Grade Open Doubles (with Richard Chung). He also won the 1988 B Grade Doubles with Bruce Lawrence.

In the Wellington v Hutt Valley Grades match (13 August) the Wellington B Grade Team (Henry Anastasi, Brian Hearfield, Malcolm Wong), lost 5-6. This was the last year that these 3 players were to play interclub together. Henry Anastasi moved to Australia the following year. Brian Hearfield remained in B Grade. Malcolm Wong moved up to A Reserve and later on to Premier 2 and 1.

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