Thanks to the eonception of our new rubbers, Torpedo and Rapid XPress, we are entering a new rubber dimension in regards to the rubbers' quality and game potential which mains characteristics are the following:
a harder and faster rubber surface
. a new gluing technique of the rubber surface with the sponge
a new sponge with an extraordinary strength
r an extremely adhering and long-lasting rubber sur{ace
the IIBI|AR af this new surfoce, but this
noia powerful lhe
EUROPEAN TABLE CHAMPIONSHIP§
BELGRAI'E SERBIA
25'h March - rs April 2oo7
THESE CHAMPIONSHIPS ARE ABOUT TO TAKE PLACE
We thank the Serbian Organisers for their generosity in inviting five of our Members to attend
ZAGREB - CROATIA
27* MAY 2oo7
The Croatian Association have invited eight of our Members to attend on this memorable occasion. We thank you most sincerely for all your assistance.
EUROPEAN VETERAN§
Swaythling Club lnternational - Six lnvited Cuests
Any member wishing to apply for one of these places please contact the S.C.l office no later than the 15th March.
SWAYTH LING CLUB INTERNATIONAL
SWAYTHLING CLUB INTEBNATIONAL
WORLD VETERAN§ CHAMPION§HIP§ 2ooE
RIO I'E JANEIRO
Our World Veterans Committee, represented by Diane Schöler and Hans Westling visited Rio de Janeiro from the 27th November until the 3rd December to oversee the playing venue and hotel accommodation in preparation for the World Veterans Championships in 2008.
Dr. Alaor Azevedo, President of the Brazilian Federation was our host throughout our week's stay and we were able to meet all of his staff and assistants for the forthcoming event. All areas regarding the organisation were discussed, allowing their responsible Committees to proceed with the tournament preparations smooth ly and efficiently.
Rio is a fantastic city and it's suburb of Barra, where the event will take place has it's own special attributes - including wonderful beaches - restaurants and friendly assistants giving an atmosphere of welcome to visitors.
The Organisers will be attending the European Championships 2007 in Rotterdam - where you can receive all the necessary information.
SWAYTH LING CLUB I NTERNATIONAL
CANADA
Canada has a "golden girl"! - Sonia Flynn. At the World Veterans Championships in Bremen last year, she won Cold in the Over B0 Singles Event and coupled with Anne Butzke (Ger) captured a Silver Medal in the Doubles event. At the same event in 2002 she teamed with Olga Devicenska of Latvia to win the Over 75's in doubles.
This was not the first Cold for Sonia - at the Nike World Masters Cames in 1998 she won four Colds - in Portland Oregon and at the World Masters Cames held in Calgary in 2005 Sonia won three gold medals in the over 75 years (singles - doubles and team).
Soniawas born in London, England on July2gth 1925 - starting her playing career in a canteen whilst serving in the Women's Royal Navy Service during the Second World War. |n1957, together with her husband and children she left England for Vancouverraising her children and earning degrees at U.B.C and S.F.U.
After 35 years she returned to her sporting recreation - table tennis, joining Dunbar Table Tennis Club, where she was not only a player, but also became an umpire.
She still has further plans! At the moment she is preparing for the U.S. Nationals 2007 in Louisville, Kentucky - and is going for more Medals at the World Veterans Championships in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil in 2008.
What a great achievement. Keep healthy and happy Sonia!
COUNTRY CORNEB CZ,E.CH REPUBLIC
The Czech S.C.l. will be holding their annual meeting on 1'lth April in Prague.
Mrs. Libuse Uhrova - former long time Representative for the S.C.l. Czech Republic - will carry on the duties of Mrs. Hana Veithova-Riedlova; due to her death, until their proposed meeting.
SWAYTHLI NG CLUB I NTERNATIONAL
Congratulations to Mr. Ludvik Vyhnanovsky on reaching his BOth birthday. We wish you many more to come.
CZECH REPUBLIC / z
Congratulations also to Mr. Lumir RuzhaChairman of the Czech Veterans Association - on his B0th Birthday - We wish you many more years of competition and togetherness.
Mr. Ludvik Vyhnanovsky opening a present!
Mr. Ludvik Vyhnanovsky'together with Mr. S. Cerdjikov.
Mr. S. Cerdjikov together with Mr. Lumir Ruzha
B}th Anniversary - From left: loseI Dressler, Vlado Miko, S. Cerdjikov, Mrs. Koudelkova. Mr. Koudelka, Dr. Petr. Nemlnar and lng. lose[ Posejpal. Mr. Lumir Ruzha together with his wife \
SWAYTH LING CLUB INTERNATIONAL
4
COUNTRY CORNEB IDENMARK
/SOMETHING TO SMILE ABOUT' -
by Niels Ramberg
From Neustadt - where a Veterans Tournament took place.
"l formed a team with Mr. Rauscher and Dr. Neubauer. ln the very first match we came up against a team from Karlsruhe, who we did not know and I was up for the first match.
After hitting a few balls, we were ready to start and my opponent put his bat and his glasses on the table and turned to his partner for advice. I had nothing else to do, so I grabbed his glasses and put them on - staring at him in complete innocence when he returned and started looking for his glasses. First he emptied his bag 2 or 3 times and then he wandered around in small circles before he was about to leave the arena and hall to go and look in his car.
As you know, I am a very friendly man so I asked him politely "What are you looking for"? - "My glasses" he said. I became more friendly and said: "Well, you can borrow mine" and handed over his glasses to him! I believe this was the peak moment, when I read his expression thinking something like: "How can that idiot think that his glasses can do me any good?" However, after fumbling around and around a minute with the glasses, he finally put them on and in that very same minute he said: "Oh, but they are perfect, they are just like m........'he discovered the truth. He did not get offended - he was too busy laughing and so were his partners. We shared beers the rest of the week-end and I also grew particularly fond of his partner as he has a Schnapps distillery in Karlsruhe!! !"
HUNGARY
Hungarians celebrate
We have a tradition every year that the Hungarian TTA together with the Hungarian Swaythling Club invites the former champions and officials to a friendly dinner. ln 2006 we had a good reason to celebrate with a lot of friends on the occasion of memorable birthdays.
During the dinne4 gifts and plaques were awarded by Mr. Laszlo Ormai, HTTA Honorary President to the following persons among others:
SWAYTH LING CLUB INTERNATIONAL
GERMANY
On the 27th October, 2006 Hans Wilhelm Cäb, Chairman of the Stiftung Deutsche Sporthilfe, a foundation which supports the top athletes in Cermany, received the Olympic Order from IOC Vice President Dr. Thomas Bach at the "Festival of Cathering" in Munich.
Following a successful career as Table Tennis International and beside his outstanding professional positions for example at Ceneral Motors, he contributed to numerous positive developments which led sport into the centre of society. Through these he was and still is closely connected with the Olympic Movement.
Hans Wilhelm Cäb, former President of the German Table Tennis Federation (DTTB) and still a member of many umbrella organizations of Cerman Sports, has in particular speeded up the co-operation between sport, trade and industry. Today as Chairman of the "Sporthilfe", he ensures that athletes can carry out their sports at the highest level.
Hans Wilhelm Cäb is a reserved but exceedingly clever sports politician, a gentleman, highly intellectual, with a fine humour, open-minded and last but not least a master of diplomacy. For many years Hans Cäb has pleaded for transparency, fairness and tolerance in sport and actually lives these values. This is why the Olympic Sport owes Hans Wilhelm Cäb gratitude and respect.
The Olympic Order is awarded to personalities, who through their actions correspond to the Olympic ldeal in a very special way, who have had remarkable achievements or demonstrated significant services to the Olympic Movement. The nomination is made by an Honour Commission consisting of the IOC President and the four Vice Presidents the decision is taken by the IOC Executive Committee.
Among the personalities who have received this honour in the past are outstanding athletes such as Jesse Owens, Jean Claude Killy and Steffi Craf as well as celebrities such as lndira Chandi and Nelson Mandela.
We sincerely congratulate Hans, our representative of the Cerman Section of the S.C.l., on this wonderful honour.:
Hans Wilhelm Cäb
SWAYTHLING CLUB INTERNATIONAL
COUNTBY CORNEB IRELANI)
The Irish Swaythling Club Reunion Lunch was held in the Castle Bellingham Arms Hotel, Dundalk on the 19th November, 2006. There was a great attendance with a Broup of fifteen members in all. Joe Veselsky, Wesley Pappin and Roy O'Connell brought along their wives which added greatly to the occasion.
The four special guests were:
Anna Kelly. Who is the Performance Director for the ITTA and is on the Board of Management. She is a great enthusiast and has worked tirelessly over the past 25 years.
DerekWeir.Who gained his first lrish Cap over 25 years ago and took part in the World Championships in Birmingham in 1979.
Carl Mc Bridge. Who reached the last'16 at the Worlds in 1959 and who, together with Derek Weir is very successful in keeping the Belfast T.T. League going over many years.
Tommy Rowsome. Who has been coach at his club, morning noon and night and in the B0's produced Colum Slevin, Kevin Heath and Ann Leonard - the full lrish Team !
Before Joe Veselsky presented the special awards - I gave a short speech as to why these four persons should receive the awards which was very well received. This was followed by a few well-chosen wordsin English for a change!
Willie Walsh who received a special award last time - was invited to be with us - sadly passed away ten days before our Reunion.
An enthusiastic worker for our game of T.T. in the Galway area over many years. He will be sadly missed.
Pat O'Brien - lrish S.C./. Representative
lrish"Swaythling CIub Reunion held in the Castle Bellingham Arms
Tommy Rowsome, Anna Kelly, Derek Weir, and Carl Mc Bride after havin§ received their special awards
Joe Veselsky together with Anna Kelly and Tommy Caffery. h i
SWAYTHLI NG CLUB I NTERNATIONAL
COUNTRY COBNER I§RAEL
The following Minutes from the Meeting of the lsraeli S.C.l. (No.10), which was held in Petach-Tikva on the 3rd January, 2007.
Present: Messrs. F. Borys - Chairman, S. Ezratti, Dr. S.Kedar, Y. Parcelina, D.Polak, Z. Rathaus-Raz, E. Vider, Ms. S. Hoze.
Secretary: Mrs. R. Snapir
At the beginning of the meeting the members honoured the memory of three members who had contributed to the lsraeli T.T. and have lately passed away:
Mordechai Shoham Team Prof. Manager Michael Binder SCI Member Aharon Goldenberg
The Chairman, Mr. Borys reported that the Swaythling CIub lnternational founded in 1967 will celebrate it's 40th Anniversary during the World Championships in Zagreb. A new booklet to commemorate this occasion is being prepared by Mr. and Mrs. L. Földy (S.C.l. Press & Publicity). Mr. Borys reminded those present of his promise from the previous meeting, to donate two trophies to the twelve and eighteen years of age winners of the competition in Beni Polak's memory which will take place on the 3rd Febru ary 2007 in Carmiel. lt was decided that the lsraeli National Charnpionships will include, from now on/ two competitionsone for men in the memory of Joseph Yeshua and the other for women - in the memory of Angelica Rozeanu.
The members praised the T.T. Network site and intend to extend the advertising on television.
The meeting closed after a pleasant time was enjoyed by all members.
Mr. Firma Borys tog,ether with the S.C.l. Members Mr. Dror Polak, Mr. Zvi Raz and Mrs. Sarit Hoze
S.C.I. Members at the Meeting
Mr. Firma Borys together with Mrs. Sarit Hoze
SWAYTHLING CLU B I NTERNATIONAL
NETHERLANDS
The S.C.l. Netherlands organised a Reunion Dinner in Amsterdam together with former lnternationals, National Champions, and the Organisers of lnternational Events. Together with their partners, in all a total of thirty-four persons.
The whole evening was filled with a happy reminiscence of times gone by and the pleasure in meeting old friends and acquaintances once again.
Two new members were welcomed - Marian Spierenburg-van der Vliet - who represented her country 36 times, taking part in World Championships in Calcutta ('75) Birmingham ('77) and Pyongyang ('79). She was part of the successful Netherlands team which included Bettine Vriesekoop, Sandra de Kruiff and later on Mirjam Hoomann-KIoppenburg.
Bettine Vriesekoop is now living in China working as journalist/correspondent for a newspaper.
The second new member - Irene Schmidt - is disabled (wheel chair) and participated many times in the Stoke Mandeville Cames (Yalesburg), in the World Cups and in the Paralympics: 1972 Bronze (lndividuals) Cold (team), 1976 Cold (lndividuals) Cold (team). 1980 - ditto World Cup: 1973 Cold (lndividuals) 1974 Silver in (lndividuals) and (team). At the European Championships 1979 she obtained Cold (tndividuals) and Gold (Team). - What a fantastic record !
Everyone was enjoying themselves so much that the finally the restaurant owner had to close the evening with "Now it is a new day - we have to close" !
We welcome two new members to the S.C.l. from the Netherlands.
SWAYTH LING CLU B I NTERNATIONAL
SWIffZERLAND / z
75th Anniversary of the Swiss T.T. Federation
On the occasion of this Anniversary - the President of the Swiss Table Tennis Federation proposed Laszlo Földy to be elected as an Honorary Member of the Swiss Federation. Mr. Amedeo WermeIinger stated that besides Hugo Urchetti, there were very few persons who have influenced the development of our sport in this country. He has contributed to our sport as a player, as a National Coach and Captain and as an official.
Congratu lations Laszlo !
ASSIST US TO KEEP OUR SPORT UP.DATED AND ALIVE!
The Curator of the Museum, Mr. Chuck Hoey produced a first class Exhibition during the Liebherr World Team Championships in Bremen 2006 änd also during the World Veterans Table Tennis Championships 2006 in Bremen. Naturally, to keep up-dating this exhibition recording it's history, traditions and records is essential. Mr. Hoey gladly welcomes any memorabilia from earlier World Champions or previous World Championship Organisers, and was thrilled to recently receive objects of histor,ical value from the family of the late Laszlo Bellak, Hungary.
If any of our Members have, or know of anyone who has film ctippings of past female World Champions, these would be gratefully received.
At the same time should any member have or know of anyone who has film clippings of Mr. Stanislav Kolar (Czech Republic), please do inform Mr. Chuck Hoey at the ITTF in Lausanne
|.T.T.F - Mr. Chuck Hoey, Museum Curator, Tel: +41 21 340 7090 r Fax: +41 2'l340 7099 o E-Mail: museum@ittf.com
Mrs. Marie-Jeanne Urchetti together with Laszlo Földy
SWAYTHLING CLUB INTERNATIONAL
IN MEMORIAM
HANA VEITHOVA-RIEI'LOVA,
It is with great sadness that we have to announce the death of the new Representative of the Czech Swaythling Club International Hana Veithova-Riedlova who died suddenly and unexpectedly from a heart attack whilst on holiday in Tunisia last Septemberi at the age of 49 years.
Hana was a first-class lnternational player in the '70's starting her career in the famous Sparta Prague Club. ln 1973 (Athens) she became European Youth Champion in singles - won a bronze medal in the Team Championships at the European Championships 1974 (Novi Sad). She won the National Title in Doubles with Smidova (twice) and once with Crofova. Together with Turai she won the National Mixed Doubles Title.
With her team (Sparta Prague) she helped win the National Team Championships. ln 1973174 and was European Cup Champion in 1974t 75.
Her husband Vladimir Veith was a National lce Hockey player. They had two sons. She will be sadly missed by all those who knew her.
CH ECH REPU B LIC
IN MEMORIAM
MRS. YUKIE UCHIDA, fAPAN
On 1Oth September 2006 - Mrs. Yukie Uchida passed away at the age of 94, due to a heart attack.
Mrs. Uchida won the title of Over 85 years at the World Veterans Championships in Bremen 2006. A well respected player in her category - she will be sorely missed. Award in 1997.
SWAYTHLING CLU B I NTERNATIONAL
IN MEMOßIAM BOBBY GU§IKOFF, LJ.S.A.
- 1936-2006
My long time friend Bobby Cusikoff, who I'd known for over 50 years, was the 1953 and '54 U:S: Open Junior Champion, the 1959 U.S. Open Singles and Doubles Champion, (with Sol Schiff) and the 1960 and '6-1 U.S. Open Mixed Doubles Champion (with Sharon Acton) All told, he represented the U.S. at four World Championships. He also played exhibitions for the Clobetrotters with four-time World Champion Richard Bergmann. From the 1960's into the early '70's Bobby owned and operated the NewYork City Riverside Plaza Hotel Club, a second home for some of the most famous U.S. Champions. He then went on to organize the 1977 Hollywood U.S. Open. Perhaps his most noteworthy table tennis accomplishment, though, was the "Legends" tape he put together in the mid-1990's that featured the actual tournament play of many of the Sport's greatest players, particularly the legendary hard bat players from the 1930's, '40's and 50's.
Bobby was inducted into the USTTA Hall of Fame in 1984 - a dozen or so years before he suddenly, unexpectedly began the longest and most incredibly courageous battle of his ever-energetic life. Here's the opening to his "Lucky to be Alive" remembrance:
"Call911 Quick!" ltold mywife Karen - ltwas 7.00 a.m. July10, 1997. All the left side of my body had just gone totally numb and I had fallen back on the couch" Moments later I was in an ambulance, sirens screaming, speeding toward UCLA Medical Center. A blood vessel had ruptured on his brain - he'd suffered an aneurysm.
He read Christopher Reeve's book (l Am Still Here) and it helped him a great deal, and he also took strength from the many with unbelievable courage he saw during his therapy - two years later in obvious decline physically, he willed himself to make the arduous, very tiring wheelchair journey to Vegas to receive his Lifetime Achievement Award in the past - he was still to be part of life in the present with 7 years of suffering to come!
We will remember him
Tim Boggan
SWAYTH LING CLU B INTERNATIONAL
IN MEMORIAM
I'EREK WALL, SOUTH AFRICA
We are sorry to announce the death of Derek Wall - one time representative and player from South Africa.
ln the'1960's Derek moved to Canadaplaying many times in the Canadian Open.
