TABLE TENNIS AUGUST COMPETITIONS

Evening Post, Issue 37, 12 August 1936, Page 5

TABLE TENNIS

AUGUST COMPETITIONS

For the Wellington Competitions Society's annua). festival, which commences in the Town Hall on Saturday week, August 22, and continues until September 5, a record of 4100 entries has been received, with .vocal, instrumental, elocutionary, and dancing talent from all parts of. New Zealand. The chief item on the programme will again be the "Dominion" grand opera contest, for which there are 23 entries. . Eleven of the competitors" will be heard on Thursday evening, August 27. twelve on Friday, and four recalls w.ill be taken on the Saturday evening. The winner will fproceed to Ballarat and Melbourne to represent New Zealand in the big Australian' opera contest in October. The society is again arranging the evening programmes in the form of grand non-stop concerts. Further details are advertised in this issue.

HUTT VALLEY NOTES

A GRADE CHAMPIONSHIP

(By "Net") Games. Cli. I Team. W. L. I). K. A. pts. |St. Remans 6 0 0 !)3 27 12 lAltcetown Triuity 5 0 \ 7t> 41 11 Emiiii-o No. 1 4 2 0 80 40 8 WniwlieUi 3 3 0 57 G3 I) Talta 2 3 J 53 G7 5 Unique 2 •) 0 G5 53 4 .St. James 1 5 0 42 78 2 Empire No. 2 0 0 0 10 101 0 As it has been decided that there will be no second round in the Hutt Valley Table Tennis-Sub-association's competitions, the season's activities, apart from the annual championships, representative fixtures, and section finals will be concluded on August 22. st: konans v. unique. Unique put up a very creditable performance in winning five matches from St. Ronans. K. Longmore and E. Hughes again went through their singles undefeated, the latter playing a very fine game. Longmore was generally content to rely upon his defence which was cleverly varied with superb control of spin. S. Blackie appeared to find the Unique Club's table a trifle fast in his earlier engagements. W. Day to all appearances was also troubled by the pace of the table, but as in the case of Blackie, Day when once he had settled down won his last two singles. Of the Unique team Pickering was most impressive, and drove very consistently. H. Mouton played his usual sound defensive game, and Glenderining gave an improved display, several of his shots being played with greater accuracy than in his earlier matches. ALICETOWN TRINITY v. ST. JAMES. Close and exciting games were witnessed in the Alicetown Trinity v. St. James A grade fixture, won by the former team by 14 games to 6. Apart from his match with Newman, Riddler was not extended to win his four singles, Newman giving him a great fight to take the score to 32-34. Newman is showing considerable promise. Another match which was exceptionally fast and interesting was the Pyre v Bates clash, which resulted in a win for the left-hander by 33-31. Both players adopted a forcing game, taking turn about in endeavours to smash each other off the table.' Bates found the left-handers' cross-court smashes coming hard into his body at a speed which gave Bates little or no chance of recovering the shot. Gray and Martin did not give their usual sound display, the former losing to Pyne 21-31 and just getting home from Newman 33-31. WAIWHETU v. EMPIRE No. 2. Although Empire played a very weak team against Waiwhetu, their display was below expectations, the Waiwhetu team having a comfortable win (18 to 2). Outstanding for. Waiwhetu was L. Roberts, who although not extended, won his singles with great ease. B. Pegler for the first time this season also recorded four wins in the singles. Empire's solitary successes were gained by J. B. Wilson and F. A. Jones, who each won a single from L. Corbett. TAITA v. EMPIRE NO. 1. The improvement shown by the Empire No. 1 team of late was . fully shown in- their match against Taita which they won by 16 games to 4. For Empire A, T. Wood was in excellent form, the stylist showing rare control in winning his four singles. One match in particular that was of special interest was that between Wood and Miss K. Tustin who in fully .extending Wood showed a remarkable defence. In his match with G. Tustin Wood won only after a gruelling display in which he- successfully top-spinned Tustin's chops. The surprise of the evening was the manner in which Miss K. Tustin literally drove ' her , way through to victory against J. J. Halligan whose defence was unable to withstand the whirlwind attack. Miss Tustin won the match by 31 points to 11. A. Harding played a sound but unattractive game in winning his four singles. . ■ . , A GRADE FINAL. Arrangements have been completed for the. final of the sub-association's A grade championship between St. Ronan's and Alicetown Trinity who are to meet at 7.15 on Friday evening next at the Petpne Fire Brigade's rooms. The very fast Unique table is. also available. Both teams have been practising seriously for the match and it is expected that the Alicetown Trinity team will put up a great fight to retain the championship. St. Ronan's are equally confident that they can avenge last year's defeat and win the A grade championship for the first time. REPRESENTATIVE FIXTURES. It has been announced that the Hutt Valley Sub-Association are negotiating with the Wairarapa Association for a | return match to be played in the Hutt Valley and also for matches with the Wanganui and Manawatu Associations. No mention has been made of a fixture with the Wellington Association but doubtless this has been overlooked. For these important fixtures the selectors (Messrs. K. Longmore, W. H. Day, and S. J. Smith) now have a better idea of form. Players whose form will merit serious consideration for such a fixture are K. Longmore, E. Hughes (St. Ronan's). L. Roberts (Waiwhetu), L. Ridler (Alicetown Trinity), whilst G. Tustin (Taita). A. T. Wood (Empire). S. Blackie (St. Ronan's), and either L. Pyne (St. James) or K. Bates (Alicetown Trinity) would have to be considered for the second team. In the ladies' section Miss K. Tustin. Mrs. Ingham, Mrs. • Brennan. Mrs. Cooper Miss B. Strang, and Miss M. Walsh are six ladies whom the selectors will find hard to separate.