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Table Tennis Club

Owing to the rapid growth of table tennis as a winter sport in Wellington secondary schools in the last half dozen years the Table Tennis Club has been greatly strengthened, both in numbers and in standard of play. This expansion of the game has only affected the club in the last two or three years but the influence will grow as the game grows in the schools. Up till 1952 the standard of play of the club had been very much the same every season. There were few players who had played table tennis extensively before they came to Victoria, and these few stood out from all the rest. Notable were J. B. Jones, H. Lampen-Smith and O. G. Collins, all of whom have now left the club. Jones, who won the N.Z. University singles and was influential in winning the table tennis section of the 1952 Winter Tournament for Victoria, was top man for Hawke's Bay in 1953.

In 1953 Victoria had her first A grade team for many years. The previous A grade team, which played in one season during the war, was a complete failure and was quickly cast out of A grade. The 1953 team performed creditably though not so well as expected, judging from the past performances of the players. The team consisted of R. A. R. Darroch, a Wellington representative in 1952 and ranked third in Wellington, A. D. Robinson, ranked seventh in Wellington and runner-up in the N.Z. junior singles to M. L. Dunn, D. R. Marple, an outstanding junior in 1952 and runner-up in the Wellington men's doubles with A. D. Robinson, and O. G. Collins, a promising player who had played B grade for several years. The first three have played A grade for Te Tapu, a one-team club, in the previous season. It was easy for them to change over and play for University. These played again in 1954. R. L. Davis, a semi-finalist in the N.Z. Men's Plate, replaced Collins, who was unable to play. So far the team has performed very well. With five matches played at time of writing the team has been unlucky to lose three games 7-5 but has won two convincingly 9-3.

An A grade team seems assured for the next few years in the influx of keen, proficient players from the secondary schools. But it can hardly win the A grade competition without the services of M. L. Dunn, the N.Z. international, who has clearly demonstrated by his overseas performances that he is in world class. At the moment, though he attends lectures, he plays interclub against University. No one can expect him to sever his links with the Trojan Club, which has done so much for him and for which he has played three years in A grade. It is now the club's policy to encourage very promising table tennis players in the secondary schools to have links with the University T.T. Club if they intend later to take lectures. If they have the time they can play inter-club for Victoria.

It is very important for the table tennis club to have a strong A team for it is partly through the A grade teams in any sport that the public has any contact with the university. Strong teams are also an

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important factor in winning Winter Tournament. A strong A and B grade team improves the standard of a club, and in table tennis it is well known that the more a player improves the keener he becomes, and vice versa. The club has more opportunities of meeting a cross-section of the public than any other university club. If outside clubs play a team that is not keen on the game they gain a bad impression of students. That has been the case in past years when up to fourteen teams have been entered at the beginning of a season only to have to withdraw one or more teams from the competition and to default a number of matches. That has led to the Victoria College students having a bad name with the Wellington Table Tennis Association and with other clubs generally.

Relations with the public are now showing signs of improvement. There is a solid core of interest in the club which will be increased every year by keen players from the schools. The number of teams is limited by the number of the very keen, but even so there are 13 teams. This number is to some extent accounted for by the amalgamation at the beginning of 1954 with the Weir House Table Tennis Club. A situation full of anomalies has been replaced by a system more advantageous to both clubs.

The Table Tennis Club at Victoria, with 13 teams and well over a hundred members, is now by far the largest table tennis club in Wellington. Only five other clubs have over five teams.

From any point of view the Table Tennis Club seems to have a prosperous future ahead of it.