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.
– Malcolm Wong
Results from the quarter & semi-finals below.
Quarter final: Auckland 6 v Wanganui 5
Craig Mummery (Wanganui), who was ranked number 5 in the U18 Boys ranking, showed great form to win his 3 singles. He had won the 1975 NZ U16 Boys Doubles. 1974-76 North Island U16 Boys Doubles and 1975 & 1978 North Island Under 18 boys Doubles with Malcolm Darroch (Manawatu). For Auckland, Malcolm Temperley (NZ U18 Boys no 2 ranking and NZ Mens no 7 ranking), Barry Griffiths (NZ U18 Boys no 5 ranking) and Alan Whitton won 2 singles each. Malcolm had won the 1976 North Island U16 Boys Singles and 1978 South Island U18 Boys Singles. Barry was the 1977 NZ Under 14 Boys Singles and was to win the NZ Boys U16 Singles (1978-80), NZ U18 Boys Singles (1979 & 1982) and NZ Mens Singles 8 times (1982,1985-89,1991-92). Malcolm and Barry were future NZ Representatives.
Quarter final: Wellington 8 v Canterbury 3
David Williment (NZ U18 Boys no 1 1976-78) and Richard Williment (NZ Boys no 4) both won 3 singles. David was the 1976 and 1977 North Island Under 18 Boys Singles winner. He was in the first NZ Junior Team to the Australian Junior Championships. The others in the NZ Boys Team were Malcolm Temperely (A), Malcolm Darroch (MN) and Stuart Armstrong ( C ).Richard Williment was to win the 1978 NZ Boys Singles title. He was in the 1979 NZ Boys Team ( with Barry Griffiths (A), John Taylor (HV) and John Richards ( C ) that went to the Australian Junior Championships.
Quarter final: Northland 9 Franklin 2
Murray Batger and Michael Steele both won 3 singles for Northland, with John Duffy winning one singles. These 3 were in the Whangarei Boys High School Team that won the NZ Secondary Schools Teams final (1977 & 1978), where the North Island winners and the South island winners meet. They beat Kaikorai Valley High School 9-2 in Dunedin (1977) and Christchurch Boys High School 9-1 in Whangarei (1978).
Quarter final: Hutt Valley 8 v Manawatu 3
Malcolm Darroch (Manawatu) won his 3 singles (NZ U18 Boys no 3 ). He had won the 1975 U18 NZ Boys Singles and the 1978 North Island U18 Boys Singles. Malcolm was a future NZ Representative. Simon Edmonds (NZ U18 Boys no 6), John Taylor (NZ U18 Boys No 7) and Tony Hawes won 2 singles each. John Taylor was to win the 1979 North island U18 Boys Singles. Edmonds/Tayor had won the 1976 NZ U16 Boys Doubles and the 1977 and 1978 NZ U18 Boys Doubles.
The semi final results are below.
Semi final: Hutt Valley 6 Wellington 5
David Williment won 3 singles for Wellington. Simon Edmond and John Taylor won 2 singles for Hutt Valley.
Semi final: Auckland 7 Northland 4
Malcolm Temperley and Barry Griffiths won 3 singles each for Auckland.
Table Tennis Wellington 