Nicola Wilhelmsen.
In many ways, Yvonne Fogarty was always destined for table tennis greatness. She is the daughter of 1948 New Zealand men’s singles champion William “Wild Bill” Fogarty, and the niece of Margaret Fogarty who won the New Zealand women’s singles title in 1939.
Yvonne grew up with a table tennis shed at the bottom of the garden and eight siblings to play against. Now 75, with many national titles of her own, she has no plans to put the bat down anytime soon.
“Table tennis has always been part of our family,” says Yvonne. “We grew up playing together and it has kept us close over the years. No matter where we are, we always find our way back to the table.”
Her earliest memory of the sport is of watching it rather than playing. In 1956, aged four, her dad took her to watch him compete in the New Zealand Championships held in Dunedin’s army drill hall.
She recalls, “I was in the grandstand with a bottle of fizz, probably my first, and I have this memory of sitting there on my own, watching Dad play. Maybe it planted a seed.”
It runs in the family
Bill and his siblings first learned to play on a table in the basement of their rented accommodation during the Depression. When his family bought a Dunedin villa, they converted the shed into a table tennis room. Decades later, Bill talked Yvonne’s mum Audrey into moving into his childhood home. So Yvonne grew up playing in the very same shed her father did.
“If we wanted to spend time with Dad, we knew to find him down in the table tennis room,” smiles Yvonne. “He used to say, ‘Sport will teach you many lessons about life – winning, losing and perseverance.’”
With nine children, the family couldn’t afford to travel to many tournaments, but when they did, people noticed. “There was that sense of, ‘Oh, goodness, the Fogartys have arrived.’ We were a bit of a formidable force,” she laughs.
The big leagues
At 15, Yvonne was selected to play in the New Zealand women’s team for the 1967 World Championships in Stockholm, Sweden, but it would cost £500, a huge sum of money in the ’60s. A committee successfully rallied the community’s support and the funds were raised.
“I suppose I must have captured Dunedin people’s imagination. I was just a local girl from a big family who had a little bit of success,” says Yvonne humbly.
She has represented New Zealand around the globe, three times at the Commonwealth Table Tennis Championships, at multiple international tournaments and been coached in China.
It’s been incredible, and a great joy and privilege to play for my country,” she says.
Continuing the tradition
Her four children caught the bug too. In 2000, sons Michael and Danny played alongside her for Otago at the nationals in Christchurch. And in 2016, they flew to Alicante, Spain, to be her coach and manager at the World Veteran Table Tennis Championships.
“It was a really joyful occasion to have my sons there supporting me at an international tournament,” she says.
Even some of her grandchildren have gone on to play.
“It’s a sport for life and a sport for every generation.”
Adapting to life’s challenges
Competing has become more challenging over the years, in part due to Dupuytren’s contracture, a hand condition that runs in the family and can cause fingers to be permanently bent inward. In 2024, she had surgery to straighten the little finger on her left hand, but it was unsuccessful. However, Yvonne refuses to let it hold her back.
“You just have to modify your game to the reality of your life,” she says.
Following through
In April this year, she competed successfully in the New Zealand Veteran Open Championships, where her brother Kevin and sister Catherine also played. While all nine siblings still play table tennis on occasion, four still play in competitions.
“When we’re playing each other, we are fiercely competitive, but if we’re at the same tournament, we’re right there in each other’s corner supporting the sibling who’s playing.”
Yvonne, Kevin and Catherine also competed in South Korea in June this year at the ITTF World Masters Championships, where Yvonne picked up a bronze medal in the women’s doubles. Next time, she’s eyeing a medal in the singles.
After 70-odd years of playing, table tennis has been a near-constant companion throughout Yvonne’s life, and she still loves it as much as ever.
She enthuses, “In the World Masters, they’ve recently introduced an over-90 category and there were 17 entrants this year. That’s one of my goals, to one day enter in the over-90s.”
To find out more about the Women and Girls Have-A-Go initiative, visit tabletennis.org.nz
