CHAPTER ELEVEN

 

            1965: Klein/Martinez Win U.S. Open. 1965: World Championships—Team Play.

1965: World’s—Women’s Singles/Doubles. 1965: World’s—Men’s Singles/Doubles.

 

            On the cover of the Apr., 1964 issue of Topics, four players at doubles looked to have a big table tennis fan watching them. Yep—a BIG fan: an up-close ELEPHANT! Just in case you want to read the cover explanation:

 

“Cobo Hall is capable of housing the world’s largest conventions. It is not unusual to find several different organizations in session at the same time without being crowded. Recently the circus was in town and the elephants were housed in a section of Hall D. The Michigan Table Tennis Association has a sixteen-table center open every evening from 7 to 11 p.m. from November 1^st to May 1^st also in Hall D. It was natural for this friendly animal to give vent to his opinion of the caliber of play of some Cobo Hall employees enjoying a friendly game during their lunch period. Would [Referees and Umpires Chair] Cyril Lederman call a let at this point? Michigan President Sam Veillette promises there will be no such distractions at the 1965 U.S. Open….” (2).

 

            O.K., no elephants, but a thundering herd of 340 players at this Mar. 19-21, 1965 Detroit U.S. Open. The Program, however, is outrageously not a U.S. Open one, save for the roster of contestants, and a list of the Defending Champions, but a Michigan one. There’s nothing about the top contending players, and no photos of them—only Ann Arbor and East Detroit players are pictured, along with details about their clubs. Michigan rankings in various events, down to 16 players in the Women’s Novice, cover most of a page. Grand Rapids League standings show the position of 48 players. Detroit’s Chuck Burns and Jim Rushford, who are running for USTTA E.C. office, are blatantly given bios to the exclusion of others. The Michigan Association should be praised for their inter-city network of loyal workers, but they’re too in-group, too enclosed to the rest of the t.t. world. They aren’t interested in sharing with Topics readers, including members of their own MTTA, photos and stories about their major tournaments.

With 40 tables in play at this U.S. Open, we’ll begin with the event that has the most entries, the Men’s. In the round of 32 there were four 5-game matches: Laszlo Varenyi over Jack Howard, 23-21 in the 5^th; Jerry Kruskie, down 2-1 after winning the 1^st 25-23, over Doug Cartland 4 months shy of his 50th birthday; Dave Sakai, from two games down, over Marty Prager; and Chuck Burns over John McLennan, Jr. Only one of these winners advanced in the 8^th’s—that was Kruskie who zipped rather than nipped hometown hope “Pete” Childs in what spectators had predicted would be a tough competitive fight. Actually, of the last 15 matches, only two went the limit: Jim Blommer over Gusikoff in the 8^th’s, and Doss over Kruskie (after being down 2-0) in the quarter’s.

Bukiet’s win over Bozorgzadeh brought him to the semi’s and Doss. Or was supposed to bring him there. But, as Tom Aldrich had asked in his “Remembrance” of Bernie, “Where is he?” ‘Cause now, as Tom says, it’s match time:

 

“…Doss paces nervously near the table like a caged beast while Bernie’s fans are assuring the tournament desk that he’s on his way (he had overslept at the hotel, they said). It’s now a few minutes past playing time, and still no Bernie. There are heated consultations among the tournament directors. Still no Bernie. Finally a woman runs, out of breath, to the desk saying, “He’s in the building and on his way down.” Doss, looking as though he was about to become unglued, is yelling, “Default him.” Finally Bernie limps in, conveniently wearing his warm-up slacks over his playing shorts, and is not defaulted. He is smiling and Doss is scowling—and Bernie proceeds to beat his fellow German expatriate three straight. What entertainment! Does Bernie have more guile than I had thought? Was it all staged to play on Doss’s emotions—to “ice” him? Did Bernie really oversleep? Others suggested [a la some previous tournament] he actually was ‘sleeping’ in a nefarious way at the hotel. Could he have been sure he wouldn’t be defaulted?…”

 

Klein, meanwhile, had gotten to the final by downing Blommer then Pecora who’d eliminated Miles. Gusikoff’s comment that, after the Women’s final, who’d want to watch Klein play Bukiet will be explained in a moment. But Ontario Newsletter Editor Jose Tomkins wrote that this final was an “exciting exhibition [not the best word] of lightning drives, counter attacks, and almost impossible retrieves.” Erwin successfully defended his title—his 4^th and last such Championship. Thereafter, for the next 40 years, if not more, only one other native-born player, Eric Boggan, would win the U.S. Open.

Regarding the Women’s, I want to note that months before this National tournament, Patty Martinez’s father, Jess, in a Dec. 6^th, 1964 letter to our International Chair Rufford Harrison, said that Patty had sponsors and might be interested in going to the 1965 Yugoslavia World’s (code name: SPENT). What would it cost not only for Patty but for himself as chaperone?

            On Dec. 9^th Rufford responds in a lengthy letter. He speaks of how the USTTA plans to send three men to the World’s if each pays $300 towards his expenses. As for our women, sorry, but they “are quite poor on a world scale,” and moreover “of all the women and girls whom we have sent to the World Championships in the last six years, not one [not Doubles specialist Barbara Kaminsky?] has learned anything that was reflected in subsequent improvement.” So the Association isn’t funding them, and, if they want to go, they must pay all their expenses.

            “Patty, at 13,” says Rufford, “is perhaps our best hope for a future world-ranking woman.” “You,” he addresses Jess, “are perhaps the only one who can say whether the trip to the World Championships at her present stage will help her or discourage her. The plain fact of the matter is that the best women in the world are almost as good as our men….” And, he emphasizes, I want you to realize this.

However, Rufford also says, “I do not wish to discourage you or her in the least….If you think she can learn from it [going to the World’s], there is no better place to learn….Patty will spend two weeks there that she will remember for many years.” Rufford thinks it’s wonderful that Patty has sponsors—and estimates the cost of the trip to be $1,000 per person. If Jess feels it’s too much money for him to accompany Patty, he needn’t worry, she’ll be well looked after, by Rufford and his wife, for example, and there’ll be other players there from other countries her own age or only slightly older she’ll feel at ease with.

He concludes by saying that there are also Junior tournaments, for example in England, that Patty could go to—but, anyway, if she does want to go to the World’s, she’ll need a small-pox vaccination less than three years old, a passport, and a visa.

A month later, after the Martinez family has talked it over, Jess writes Harrison that “Patty may not be ready for world play.” He says, “I am quite sure the Council of Latin-American Clubs would approve the money for Patty, but I am afraid that if Patty did poorly I would hesitate to ask again at a later date.” He ends by saying, “Maybe we better wait and see how she does at the National’s.”

Which of course is where we are now. So how’s Patty doing? Quite well—she’s won both the Girls Under 15 and the Girls Under 17 from Toronto’s Violetta Nesukaitis. Patty’s a little disappointed, though, for this is the first tournament her mother’s been unable to watch her play. How proud of her she would have been.

And in the Women’s—how’s Patty doing there? Pretty good—after getting by Donna Chaimson and Priscilla Hirschkowitz she’d advanced to the semi’s to meet Defending Champion and this year’s Barna Award winner Bellini, after Vallerie had eliminated Helen Sabaliauskas who’d survived a 7, -18, 20, 19 struggle with Pat Havlick Pecora. Val had to vividly remember Patty’s 5^th game rally a month earlier at the Golden State that had nearly toppled her from what she thought was very secure footing. But, down 2-0, to Patty here she didn’t fold, won the 3^rd at 19…only to lose the 4^th at 17. In the other semi’s, Stace, who’d blanked Chotras, was herself blanked by Neuberger.

Question was now: could the kid get her head together for the final, so as to threaten, maybe even upset, her aging but very experienced opponent? We’ll soon see, for here is Brooke Williams—Patty’s 1964 U.S. Open Doubles partner—giving us (in the Mar. 29 USC-Santa Barbara campus newspaper El Gaucho) her first-hand account of this historic match:

 

“‘My purse, my purse—I can’t find it. This is the third time I’ve lost control over it,’ wailed the thirteen-year-old California comet….

Two minutes remained before she was to play the match of her thrilling young life against the fabulous New Yorker Leah Neuberger, holder of twenty-nine national titles plus a world crown.

…

‘What was in your purse?’ I asked, while Vallerie [Bellini] was saying, ‘You can do it—just go out there and win.’

‘My comb—and a dollar,’ answered my question. I was fearful that this confounded purse episode might perturb the otherwise imperturbable youngest junior champion in United States history. ‘Here’s my comb, Patty—and I’ll give you a dollar. Now please forget the purse—this is your big moment.’

Just then she found her purse, thank goodness!

Half an hour earlier there was more excitement. ‘Have you eaten, Patty?’ ‘Oh yes.’ ‘What did you eat?’ ‘A coke and a French fuzz.’ !!! I dashed to my suitcase and extracted a protein bar, which she dutifully consumed.

‘Have you worked out against rubber?’ asked the wise Valleri. ‘Leah uses rubber, you know.’ She hadn’t!

I grabbed her hand and sprinted to Sol Schiff, the great veteran rubber player, who was swamped with customers (Sol sells and manufactures table tennis equipment). ‘Sol, would you please hit with Patty—now?’ That wonderful man instantly left customers and equipment and took Patty into the practice area and gave her a thorough workout against rubber until she was called for her final against Leah.

Then the lights went out and the floods were trained on the two storybook stars—the junior and the great veteran, each the consummate champion, and each born to make history….”

           

            The match went “tit for tat all the way” until in the 5th Leah stretched a 16-14 lead into 20-15 match point….But play was far from over. At 20-17 came a turning point:

 

“Patty attempted a putaway, which, however, floated high and apparently out. But wait! It now descended rapidly and just nicked the end of the table!

At this point the building became electrified—anything could happen. ‘Look at her body,’ table tennis theorist Jack Carr observed about Patty, ‘not a trace of tension.’ 20-18 plowed the score; 20-19, and yes, 20-20!!!

Now all spectator inhibitions vanished. Thousands [sic] rose to their feet and screamed their lungs out.

All right, all right, you’ve guessed it—Patty took the next two points and the United States Open Women’s singles crown.”

 

            All else seemed anticlimactic at this tournament—though not of course to the other winners. In Singles and Doubles: Men’s “B”: John Hart over Tom Williams in 5 in the semi’s and Ron Beckman in the final. Women’s “B”: Lansing’s Jan Himmler over El Paso’s Henrietta Moore. Esquire’s: John McLennan over Bernie Hock. Senior’s: Schiff over Burns. Senior “B”: Santa Barbara’s Howard Wilcox over local advancer Zen Varnas. Women’s “B” Consolation: Barbara Payotelis over Ann Arbor Women’s City Closed Champion Nora Liu. Nora’s husband, University of Michigan Chemistry Professor C.F. Liu, is the Ann Arbor Men’s City Closed Champion, and their daughter, FaanYeen, 15 years later will be a U.S. Closed Women’s Singles finalist. No wonder C. F.’s a Champ. Read his “Psychological Warfare” article in the Apr., 1965 issue of Topics (12-13) and, since he describes there every distracting ploy known to mankind, you can be sure nobody’s gonna break his concentration, psych him out. 

            Men’s/Women’s Doubles winners: Men’s: Klein/Bukiet—their 3^rd straight title—over Pecora/Blommer. Women’s: Stace/Chaimson—in a successful defense of their ’64 title—over Bellini/Williams who’d had to go 5 with Shahian and Maureen Angelinetta (Heather’s sister). Mixed: Sweeris/Stace (after being down 2-0 to Canadians Ivakitsch/DeAbreu) over Doss/Neuberger (who’d survived 5-game battles with Bozorgzadeh/Kronlage and Schiff/Bellini). Esquire: Bernie Hock/Gene Bricker over John McLennan/George Stenbar, deuce in the deciding 3rd. Senior: Harry Deschamps/Frank Tharaldson (who’d beaten Defending Champs Schiff/Rushford in 5) over Mitch Silbert/Howie Ornstein (who’d beaten Burns/Wilcox in 5). Senior “B”: Bob Poyser/Varnas over Harold Garman/Eric Pratt.

            Boys’/Girls’ Singles winners: Boys’ Under 17: Defending Champion “Pete” Childs (from down 2-1) over Dave Sakai. Boys Under 17 “B”: George Rideout over Tommy Cohen. Boys’ Under 15: Mike Peterlein over Tom Williams. Boys’ Under 13: John Tannehill over Glenn Cowan—though down 2-0, Glenn, center-of-attention comfortable from having given exhibitions in “hospitals, orphan asylums, schools and youth centers,” forced John into the 5^th, thereby insisting on a combative rivalry in the years to come. Girls’ Under 13: Violetta Nesukaitis over Alice Green.

            Boys’/Girls’ Doubles winners: Boys’ Under 17: Childs/Herman Johnson over Tony Poulos/Peterlein. Boys Under 17 “B”: Mark Geier/Bob Hawkins over Algis  Krasauskas/Rideout. Under 17 Mixed: Sakai/Barbara Bohning over Peter Cohen/Ronni Klein in 5. Boys’ Under 15: Tom Williams/Fred Henry over Cowan/Peterlein. Boys’ Under 13: Tannehill/Roger Lewis over Cowan/Steve Sheckard.

            Disappointingly, just as there had been no coverage of the Eastern and Central Opens in Topics, so there was no coverage of the U.S. Open, only the results. It was left to Jose Tomkins, Editor of the Ontario Newsletter, to say that Patty’s composure was amazing, and that Leah was a gallant loser.

            So all the more now will Patty consider going abroad? In a May 1^st letter to her father Jess, Rufford speaks of the possibility of Patty going to Australia (it’s the tournament season there, but not in England or France). She’d also be welcome in Sweden, he says, for training and/or coaching camps. Rufford recommends that she go to a three-week July coaching camp in Sweden, “probably the best [table tennis] country in Europe.” Cost for the camp? It’s “$5 per day, including food, accommodations, and coaching.” Rufford adds, however:

 

“One mild warning: The Swedes cautioned me to discourage Patty’s attendance unless she is in top physical condition to start with [cokes and French fuzzes won’t help]. The sport in the rest of the world is very fast and demanding. Unless Patty is prepared to consider table tennis as an athletic regime, it would be a waste of her time to take part in the Swedish course. On the other hand, if she is prepared to take it seriously, there is no reason at all why she should not be a great player within a few years.”

 

            Uh, Patty is a little chunky, and of course more or less plants herself up close to the table and just stays there, doesn’t move much. Promising player that she obviously is with her effective block-and-hit style, Rufford’s “mild” warning doesn’t sound encouraging—and she doesn’t go to Sweden, or to Australia for the three tournaments there in July.

 

1965 World’s—Corbillon Cup Play

            That other Pat—Pat Pecora—did go abroad, but as she was the only U.S. woman willing to pay her own way to Yugoslavia, she had no teammates for Corbillon Cup play. Leah Neuberger professed an interest in going, but (because the USTTA wouldn’t pay any expenses?) refused to play for the U.S. Team, would only play in Individual matches. This attitude understandably irritated Team Captain Harrison to the point where he said if it were just up to him he wouldn’t enter her in the tournament. As it turned out, she had qualms about traveling alone (having taken an aloof, proud position, she wouldn’t feel comfortable being dependent on Team connections?), and so didn’t go to the World’s.

Canada, however, sent a Women’s Team—their three top-ranked players: Velta Adminis, Jenny Marinko, and Helen Sabaliauskas. (In the absence of a government grant, Team players had to bear most of the expense, but some contributions were raised through lotteries at tournaments). Marge Walden, Ontario TTA President, told us in the June, 1965 Ontario Newsletter how the Canadian women fared. 

Play in three stages began on 20 tables (there were also 12 practice tables) at Ljubljana’s New Sports Hall, Tivoli Park, Apr. 15^th. In Stage 1 (four teams in 8 groups), Canada was blitzed by East Germany, Czechoslovakia, and India. Said Walden: the competition at this World’s compared to last “was even faster and more deadly….When the loop is added to the many other skills, including some fabulous services, it is little wonder that our players found the competition both devastating and frustrating.” Of course, as Editor Jose Tomkins pointed out in her Mar., ’65 Newsletter, Velta and Jenny have long been used to competition—indeed, they have similar athletic backgrounds. Both like volleyball, and both have been active in track and field (Jenny, for example, had won trophies in running and the broad jump). Both had started playing table tennis in Germany—after which Velta immigrated to Canada in 1951 and Jenny in 1952.

In Stage 2, playing in Group 4, Section A (solely among the 0-3 losers), the Canadians lost to Ghana 3-1 with only 17-year-old Sabaliauskas able to win a match. However, against Iran, Helen won two singles and Velta one for a 3-1 victory. Then against Finland a real team effort produced a 3-2 win—with Velta and Jenny taking singles matches, and Jenny and Helen the doubles. I hadn’t heard anything about Helen competing in other sports, but she does play the violin in her high school orchestra and perhaps the discipline that goes with that helps her table tennis, for she focuses well and is patient and persistent.

            Stage 3 saw Canada lose 3-2 to Scotland. Helen and Velta won the doubles, and Jenny a singles—but that was it. Of  the 31 teams competing, Canada finished 28^th.

            The Corbillon Cup winner? Not the Japanese, who’d won every Championship since ’57, but China (its first Championship), 3-0 over Japan, though both Cheng Min-chih and Lin Hui-cheng, while easy doubles winners, lost the 1^st game of their singles (Cheng to Masako Seki; Lin to Naoko Fukazu). In the tie for 3^rd-Place, England’s European Team Champions Diane Rowe and Mary Shannon (the English Closed Champion and the only European to be ranked among the World’s Top 8 this season) went down docilely to Romania’s Ella Constantinescu and Maria Alexandru, the only European woman who’d make the Singles quarter’s.

 

Swaythling Cup Play

            Those who might have been on the U.S. Swaythling Cup Team were the Selection Committee’s #1 pick, Erwin Klein (whose airfare East would have been paid by the USTTA), the #2 pick, Marty Doss, and Bobby Gusikoff and Bobby Fields—but none of these players put up the requisite deposit of $100 (towards the $300 they’d have to pay), so could not be considered. Harry Hirschkowitz, after first saying he didn’t want to be considered, then, in part because he was no longer managing Gusikoff’s Club, said he did, knew he didn’t have enough participation points, so really wasn’t being serious. Eventually, the #3 pick, Bernie Bukiet, along with Jerry Kruskie and Dell Sweeris were

named to the Team, and, as an Alternate, Danny Pecora.

Harrison, as their Team Captain, was meticulously thorough in his preparations and directives. The Team’s look, its appearance was particularly important to him. From London he would bring their Fred Perry sportswear, Dunlop Green Flash shoes, and R.C. Hough, Horsford & Terry track suits; their job was to bring the shoe-whitener. Sneakers, however, were not to be worn while traveling, nor blue jeans—preferably suits or sport jackets.

The Americans, Rufford was happy to see, were well behaved and well received in Ljubljana—though the Editor of the Swedish magazine Bordtennis accused the Yankees of not taking their play so seriously. “Thus it was possible to see one of the Americans nonchalantly smoking a cigarette while playing the ball in a practice session.* He did, however, put this poison-stick down as match-time approached” (TTT, Nov., 1965, 2).

            In Stage 1, the U.S. ripped through Malta and Luxembourg, but lost to World #12 Iran when Houshang Bozorgzadeh won all 3 (he would also win all 3 against powerful North Korea),** and Amir Ehteshamzadeh, though losing to Pecora 22-20 in the 3rd (the only tie Danny played), won two from Kruskie and Bukiet (after Bernie was up 13-7, faltered, and then, down match point, served off). Harrison in his later Team Captain’s Report, in which he praised these World Championships as the best he’d yet attended, said that Bernie was just too “slow” and that, though it’s a credit to him that he’s played so well in his later years, age has inevitably caught up with him. (Still, no U.S. player would have a better record than Bernie’s 11-11.)

             In Stage 2, the U.S. would lose all their ties. They fell to World #19 France 5-2 when Vincent Purkart and Jacques Secretin didn’t give up a match. Against World #17 Poland they played grittily—but lost 5-4. (Bukiet won a key early match from Andrzej Domicz, 23-21 in the 3^rd, but when Kruskie was beaten 19 in the 3^rd by Janusz Kusinski, we were down 4-1. Now, however, Sweeris stopped both Domicz and Jerzy Skublicki (later “Jerry” would come to the States), and Bukiet evened the tie at 4-4. But in the 9^th match Kruskie couldn’t continue the rally against Domicz.

            Harrison felt Kruskie was a “valuable player,” but had “no team spirit whatsoever”—though, as Rufford added, since such spirit was largely unknown in the U.S., Jerry couldn’t be faulted too much for lacking it. Rufford was more disturbed that Jerry refused to “take advice…either from myself or from other members of the team.” Dismissively he would say, “I’m the one who has to hit the ball,” or “And what other brilliant advice do you have?” (Though Kruskie would finish 10-10, Rufford regretted that he hadn’t a moral right to play Pecora in his stead.)

            On to World #21 Austria, against whom we lost 5-2—with Kruskie and Sweeris winning matches (Dell from Conrad Kollner, 19 in the 3^rd). Next, World #15 East Germany…and only Bukiet could win as much as a game. In going down 5-2 to World #14 Denmark, Bernie and Jerry beat Huckelkamp soundly. But Dell lost 21-8 games to Niels Ramberg and Freddy Hansen, and Bernie dropped one game 21-3. However, in their Stage 3 last tie against Switzerland, a group effort gave them a 5-1 win and 23^rd-Place.

             Sweeris, with a 6-10 record, Harrison thought “a real surprise.” Apparently there was some question as to whether he should be on the Team in the first place. (Schiff reportedly had pushed for his inclusion.) But, said Rufford, Dell “was the quickest of our players by far, and it is speed that counts these days.”

            The Canadians, meanwhile (Mike Behan, John McLennan, Jr., and Modris Zulps), in their Stage 1 competition, fell 5-0 to England and East Germany, but beat Ecuador 5-1 (Behan, former Irish Schoolboy Champion, then National Doubles Champ before immigrating, lost the sole match, 19 in the 3^rd). In Stage 2 vs. five teams, they were shut out. Against Australia they couldn’t take a game. Against Belgium, who fielded former U.S. star Norby Van de Walle, they had no chance—though Latvian-native Zulps, who started playing table tennis in Germany in 1947 before coming to Canada in ’49, went 19 in the 3^rd with Frans Lanckmann. Van de Walle, said Sweeris, “uses sponge, loops, and is ready and waiting to come back to the United States.” Hmm. But he never does—not until almost 40 years later when, with a tear or two, he’s inducted into the USATT Hall of Fame. The Canadians were also blanked by Finland and Cambodia. At least in both their remaining 5-2 losses to Luxembourg and Pakistan, Modris, a volleyballer for the National Team at the last Pan-Am Games, took two. Thus Canada finished 36^th out of 43 teams.

China, Swaythling Cup winner in ’61 and ’63, continued its dominant play under Captain Fu Chi-fang by defeating Japan 5-2 in the final. World #4 Hiroshi Takahashi, with his strong backhand play, provided save-face encouragement for the Japanese by downing both Chang Shih-lin and two-time World Champion Chuang Tse-tung. North Korea defeated Yugoslavia, 5-2, for 3^rd-Place—with Istvan Korpa winning from World #12 Kim Yung Sam and Vojislav Markovic from World #17 Pak Sin Il (who would knock out Ogimura in the Singles).

Regarding China’s win, an article in the Aug.-Sept., 1965 Topics, based on a United Press International dispatch from Tokyo, quoted The Peking People’s Daily as saying:

 

“….This remarkable achievement is the result of holding high the great red banner of Mao Tse-tung’s thought, laying emphasis on politics…and learning wholeheartedly from the Liberation Army” (7).

 

Women’s Singles/Doubles

            Our only woman player, Pat Pecora, pregnant, lost her 1^st Pre-lim Singles badly to the Yugoslav #5, lost the opening match in Women’s Doubles with her 15-year-old Russian pick-up partner, but in the Mixed with husband Danny defeated the Indian team of Divan/Kulkani before losing to the Russians Gomozkov/Paijsarv. None of the other U.S. men played in the Mixed.

            As for the Canadian women, none won a Singles or Doubles match.

The Women’s Singles, in the absence of Defending Champion Matsuzaki, went to another Japanese, Naoka Fukazu. But not without a struggle. In the quarter’s, after getting a mere 25 points total in the first two games from China’s Cheng Min-shih, she rallied to win the 3^rd at 19 and then take the match, giving up 27 points total in the last two games—a strange reversal. In the semi’s, again down 2-0, this time to her teammate Noriko Yamanaka, she won deuce in the 5^th. And in the final, attacking against China’s Lin Hui-ching, the shakehands defender who’d beaten her in the Team’s, she took the Championship in 5—with 4 of the games being played under the Expedite Rule.***

China’s Corbillon Cup stars Cheng and Lin, whom startlingly we’ll see still dominant six years later after the Cultural Revolution, really won the Women’s Doubles in the quarter’s, so to speak, when they survived an unheralded Polish pair, Czeslawa Noworyta/Danuta Szmit, from down 2-0 and at deuce in the 4^th. In the Singles, Noworyta had averaged 12 points a game against Japan’s Masako Seki and Szmit had averaged 12 points a game against China’s Liang Li-chen. I can only conclude that China was giving the Poles a chance for glory if they could come through. Would China give up a World title? What do you think? Of course who did Cheng/Lin beat soundly in the semi’s but another strong Chinese pair, Feng Meng-ya and Singles semifinalist Li Li. In the final, China just did outlast Seki/Yamanaka, 19 in the 5^th, after the Japanese, down 2-1, had gotten by another hovering Chinese pair, Liang and Li Henan whom we’ll later find at a World’s as a U.S. Coach.

The Mixed went to Japan, though again, as with the Women’s Singles, it was easy to speculate that China could have won this title too. The one semi’s had two Chinese teams playing, and the other semi’s had two Japanese teams playing (but only after Ken Konaka/Fukazi had eliminated China’s Wang Chia-sheng and Ti Chiang-hua who’d originally been on China’s Corbillon Cup team before being replaced by Cheng Min-shih). Japan’s Koji Kimura teamed with Seki to defeat Chang Shih-lin/Lin Hui-cheng in 5 to take the title. Big chance gone for these Chinese. But never fear, when next they make an appearance together, they’ll have their reward.

 

Men’s Singles/Doubles

            The U.S. men saw little remaining play. In the Singles, Bukiet went down right away in 5 to a Cambodian; Kruskie had the bad luck to initially draw Domicz, the Pole he lost the 9^th match to in the Team’s and, averaging only 10 points a game, had to be beat before he started; Sweeris stopped Lajos Antal, a Swiss he’d lost to in the Team’s through some “wild hitting,” then understandably could make only an 11 point game of it against World #4 Kimura; and Pecora, after a good 5-game win over Gerard Bakker of the Netherlands, did well to go 4 with China’s World #17 Wang Chia-sheng. In the Doubles, Bukiet/Sweeris eliminated a weak Welsh team, then fell to the Russians Anatoly Amelin/Nikolai Novikov, 3-0. Kruskie/Pecora knocked out a Yugoslav pair in 5 before losing in straight games to the strong Hungarians Janos Fahazi/Laszlo Pignitzki.

The U.S. gave Dick Miles permission to play, but he couldn’t because word was that at least one country, Iran, wouldn’t permit his late entry. Rufford Harrison played a match in the Jubilee Cup, which was won by Ferenc Sido.

            The Canadians had results similar to the Americans—the occasional singles but no doubles win. McLennan, who was fit enough via the track and field interest he’d had at Ontario’s Waterloo University, beat a Swiss deuce in the 5th, but then couldn’t contest with the not yet famous Yugoslav Dragutin Surbek; Behan got the best of a Spaniard in 5 before being blitzed by the impressive West German Eberhard Schoeler (off-court intent on an economics degree, as well as marriage to England’s Di Rowe); and Zulps was 3-0 zipped by an Australian. Strangely, Modris was the only Canadian or American player to enter the Consolation—though a Welsh quarterfinalist there, Graham Gear, would one day immigrate to Toronto and then, on becoming an American citizen, call Las Vegas home.

Chinese of course dominated the late rounds of the Singles and Doubles. When you’ve got four Chinese teams in the semi’s of the Doubles, you can be assured that even Harrison, who criticized his U.S. players (and N.Y. observer Ron Heilman) for gambling, would bet that a Chinese pair had to be victorious. Chuang Tse-tung/Hsu Yin-sheng took the title without dropping a game.

In the top half of the Singles Draw all quarterfinalists were Chinese. As he had the two previous World’s, Li Fu-jung advanced to the final—this time over Hu Tao-pen, 18 in the 4^th, then Chou Lan-sun, 19 in the 4^th, after Chou needed only to go through the motions to down Hsu Yin-sheng. In the lower half of the Draw, Defending Champion Chuang Tse-tung also advanced to the final with easy wins over Japan’s Takahashi, who’d somehow beaten him in the Swaythling Cup, and “defensive marvel” Ebby Schoeler, the only European contender for the title.

Schoeler’s quarter’s match with Chang Shih-lin, “The Magic Chopper,” was the talk of the tournament. Here’s Sweeris commenting on it (see John Dart’s article in the Aug.-Sept., 1965 Topics):

 

“The match was brought into the expedite rule (in the 2^nd game) with [Magic Chopper] Chang Shih-lin topping for 15 minutes while Schoeler chopped every one back. The German won the first two, but the Chinese got more consistent and brought the match even, and then pulled to an 11-6 lead in the fifth (game). Schoeler closed the gap but could never catch up until the score was 20-17. He deuced the game and then proceeded in thrilling the crowd by exchanging five ads. Schoeler finally emerged the winner 27-25” (3).

 

            Canadian Captain Marge Walden also wrote of Chang attacking furiously and Schoeler defending, but said that the German player was also very effective in interspersing his defensive play with “flash hits.” How grueling the 90-minute struggle must have been for both players. “In one of the games after 10 minutes had elapsed, the score was only 2-1.” Since the tournament schedule had to be held to, Schoeler had little time to rest, so no wonder he was beaten so convincingly in the semi’s.

            Coming out to meet Chuang in the final was Li, a native of Shanghai where it’s said his father works in a Turbine Factory that has 140 League teams. Shanghai, I might add, according to a Nov. 4 article by Charles Taylor of the Toronto Globe and Mail, has cleaned up the decadence of its “legendary 120-foot bar,” home to the sometimes 1,000 seamen in the sprawling port. Girls? Forget girls—now in the basement you can play table tennis until the place closes…at 11 p.m. sharp. 

The final between Chuang and Li stretched into the 5^th.  Time magazine, in its May 7, 1965 account of the match, said:

 

“…Li was the crowd favorite. Often laying back as far as 20 ft. from the table, he brought gasps of astonishment from the crowd of 8,000 as he casually returned smash after smash, biding his time until he uncoiled to slam a blur of white past Chuang for a point.”

 

            Edgar Clark, in his Nov. 30, 1964 Sports Illustrated article, mentioned that, in the 1963 final between Chuang and Li, there was some talk that Li had been instructed to throw the match to Chuang. “But no one who saw the matches believed it” (E 12). Now in this ’65 final the score in the 5th was 15-all. “And then suddenly,” recalls Sweeris in that Topics article, “Li Fu-jung couldn’t seem to keep the ball very low…and Chuang Tse-tung killed the next six to win the title for the third straight time.” Noting that Li had abandoned his offense, English Team Captain Ron Craydon was quoted by Time as saying, “It seems to have been a bit fixed.”

 

SELECTED NOTES.

            *See the photo of Jimmy McClure in Vol. II, Chapter 30, p. 316. The jacket he’s wearing shows 5 stars—the number of World Championships he as player/captain won.

            **Houshang’s successes against many different teams while playing in many different countries prompts me to include the following description of a climactic match he’s to have, I don’t know where, but I believe in the late 1960’s, with Anatoly Amelin—a match that will decide whether Iran will prevail over Russia or not. If Houshang wins, glory to him, his teammates, and supporters—not the least of whom, watching the match, was that same Mr. Hadjebi who’d welcomed the U.S. Team of Bernie Bukiet and Bobby Fields to play Houshang in Teheran in 1957.

            Up 18-9 in the deciding 3^rd, Houshang seems to have victory in hand. But then Amelin begins to get hot, begins winning point after point—and Houshang begins to hear behind him little gasps and urgent shouts—impossible to make out, but ones that understandably suggest worry. Alright, alright, dammit, I’m trying hard, he mumbles to himself. But 18-13…18-14…18-15….More gasps, more shouts and little screams, more commotion….I’m trying, Houshang thinks, I’m trying. Can’t you see I’m concentrating only on the match?…18-16…18-17….And now suddenly all is quiet behind him. Had his supporters given up on him? But though they may have lost faith, Houshang steadies, plays beautifully, and runs out the match! He hurriedly shakes hands with Amelin and the umpire, then spins round triumphantly for his reward, half a step on the run to jump into his teammate Amir’s arms. Only…there is no one there!

            Turns out that Mr. Hadjebi, the Presidential friend of the Shah, had suffered a serious, though not fatal, heart attack, had been taken away, and all had shortly followed to see if he lived or died….

            ***Hikosuke Tamasu, in his Songs of International Friendship (1993), says that Fukazu was one of those dedicated Japanese Team members who in training were “not permitted to go to bed unless they could hit chops back 1,000 times without missing. Fukazu’s win could have been the result of this training” (43).