Distinguished Table Tennis Star
SZABADOS THRILLS WHAKATANE CROWD It will probably be a long time before this town has another chance of welcoming any sportsman as distinguished in his particular sphere as is Michael Szabados, eleven times world table tennis champion . , . and anyone who thinks “ping-pong” is just a kids’ parlour game should have seen Szabados and the Australian champion Phil Anderssen grilling each other at the Grand Theatre on Wednesday night. This game can be tough. It’s a sport for athletes, and fit athletes, the way these men played it. There was all the court-craft of tennis, with superlative ball control and wrist-play rarely seen in the outdoors game. • In their exhibition match, Szabados beat Anderssen by a narrow margin in an exhibition in which both appeared to be fully extended at times. Despite the restrictions of a small stage, their footwork would have done credit to many a lawn tennis star. Though the exhibition match had the crowd gasping its appreciation, the superb artistry of Szabados, the maestro, was shown to better advantage still in a burlesque match in which he played Anderssen with all manner of trick shots from all manner of positions, controlling the other’s fast deliveries with apparent nonchalance but uncanny accuracy and subtlety. Sonny Davis, local champion had a chance to try his hand against the visitors, and made a creditable showing against Anderssen, though outclassed by the other’s superior knowledge of positional play and ball-control. Szabados matched Davis sitting on a chair, and not even the latter’s complete freedom of movement could keep the ball away from the champion, so cunningly did Szabados place his shots. Of the variety artists in support, Ivan Diedrich, announcer, mimic, comedian, established himself as firm favourite with the crowd. Johnny Ashcroft, introduced as “the Singing Stockman” got a good hand with the Australian equivalent of American cowboy songs, self-accompanied on the guitar, with Jack Allen’s piano accordion items and Vivian Thompson’s songs next in popularity. George Davis’s comic gags never failed to get a laugh.
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Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 57, 18 June 1948, Page 5
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338Distinguished Table Tennis Star Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 12, Issue 57, 18 June 1948, Page 5
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