2012 London to London

The cover for the 1948
World Championships
Programme
Photo: ETTA Archives
Vana winning all three of his matches
in two straight games and Andreadis
beating Amouretti and Haguenauer.
The only unsuccessful Czech player was
Laszlo Stipek; he lost to both Bordrez
and Haguenauer.
There were two groups in the Corbillon
Cup competition and these were won by
England and Hungary; as in the men’s
team competition, both were unbeaten
in their groups, Hungary losing only one
game in its seven matches. In the final
England, who had first won this event in
Paris in the previous year, beat Hungary
three-one, Vera Thomas losing the only
match to Gisi Farkas.
London, the Home of Table Tennis
The Swaythling Cup competition was
played in four groups, which were won
by the U.S.A., Czechoslovakia, France
and Austria, each of them being unbeaten
in their own group. In the first semifinal
between the U.S.A. and Czechoslovakia
Richard Miles, who had not lost
a game in the group, was beaten by
both Ivan Andreadis and Bohumil Vana.
Czechoslovakia won the match 5-2, their
only defeats being sustained by Frantisek
Tokar, who lost easily to both Miles
and Garrett Nash.
In the other semi-final France beat Austria
even more decisively, with Guy Amouretti
and Michel Haguenauer each winning
twice and Maurice Bordrez once,
Austria’s only success being Herbert
Just’s defeat of Bordrez. The final was
won five-two by Czechoslovakia, with
It must have been particularly frustrating
for Hungary that England’s success
was due mainly to the efforts of a former
Hungarian player, Dora Beregi. She
had married an Englishman, John Trevanney
and acquired British nationality;
she won both of her singles matches
two-nil and, in partnership with Vera
Thomas, the doubles.
The first quarter of the men’s singles
included two players who, like Dora
Beregi, had acquired British nationality.
One was Victor Barna, who had won
14 individual world titles between 1930
and 1935 and who had six times been
a member of the successful Hungarian
Swaythling Cup team; the other was
Richard Bergmann, twice a winner of
the World men’s singles. He had played
in the winning Austrian men’s team at
the 1936 World Championships. In their
quarter-finals, Bergmann beat Just but
Barna lost to Andreadis.
The third quarter-final between Miles
and Vana was one of the most spectacular
matches of the tournament, with
both players attacking throughout. Un-
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