OOAK Table Tennis Forum

Yep, got an old book called "Top Class Table Tennis" by England's Jill Hammersley, published in 1983, in which she mentions that Jonyer started using the antispin bat in the twilight of his career. Here's the quote:

"Istvan Jonyer of Hungary recently changed to a combination bat. This may appear at first sight to be a surprising move for someone like Jonyer, who is one of the top exponents of the powerful topspin game. However, this deceptive bat has given his game a new dimension, a revival even."

She then mentions how Jonyer played a team match in the 1982 European championships, using the combination bat to beat Orlowski and Dvoracek of Czechoslovakia. But then when about to play Pansky, who was good against the combi bat, Jonyer sneakily changed back to a normal bat, which Pansky didn't realize until the game was nearly lost!

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Perth Table Tennis Club

If the book was published in 1983, and Jonyer was using anti in 1982, it was likely he was using it in 1981 at the World Cup. It sure didn't look like it, since he did loop off the backhand, but he could have twiddled. No two color rule at the time so it would have been​ hard to see. He definitely was twiddling in the video above.. mainly visible before he returns serves. And he definitely was using anti - you can see it in some of the serve returns. Also pretty sure he wasn't using Tackiness.. back then it was only available in black. Red Tackiness (and black Sriver) didn't appear until it was necessary, after the two color rule.

All that hair! Everyone had lots of hair back then, except for Jonyer!

Iskandar

None more so than this guy - who was a good chopper (except for his hair):

I think Huging ended up living in Brisbane where (I believe) he is still coaching.

I brought up this topic because I want to ask one question regarding Zhang Li. I watched her (and Hu Yulan) played when I was 11 or 12 years old. The only thing I remember was that she was incredibly quick.

Question: She played inverted or SP? (It looked like inverted in her instructional video.)

The story can't be true. There is no way a player as good as Pansky would not instantly know if a ball was coming off an anti rubber.

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Butterfly Viscaria Black tag
2.2 mm Nexy Karis M on FH and BH

Such sad news. Zhang Li has passed away.

https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Tenni ... h-Zhang-Li