Vale Dorli Shipp

TTA Hall of Fame Member Dorli Shipp passed away on 21 September 2022, aged 98 years.

Dorli, born in Vienna, fled Austria with her parents and brother as World War II was approaching. Following a long boat trip to Australia, Dorli and her family arrived in Sydney, Australia, in 1938. Dorli was 14 years old at the time.

Dorli commenced playing table tennis after school and later began playing with the Maccabean Table Tennis Club and the Hakoah Sports Club, playing alongside, and sometimes against, her brother, George Shipp. In 1946 Dorli was playing tournaments in NSW such as the Metropolitan Open Championships where she won the Ladies’ Open Singles. This was just the beginning; many more titles were to follow.

In 1947, Dorli competed in both the NSW Open and the Victorian Open Championships. The NSW Open became her first State title; in Victoria she had to settle for being runner-up.

In 1948, Dorli competed in the both the Open and Women’s Open Singles of the NSW Championships. She won several matches in the Open Singles, before being knocked out by the eventual runner-up, Neville Dunn, losing 21-19 in the fifth game, and won the Women’s Singles title for the second successive year. At the Victorian Open, Dorli exacted revenge on Feleice White, who had beaten her in 1947, and took out the Victorian title for the first time.

With two State titles under her belt for 1948, Dorli then went on to also take out the first postwar Australian Women’s Singles title held in Melbourne at Wirth’s Olympia and was subsequently ranked Number 1 woman in Australia for 1948 in what was Australia’s very first ranking list.

If 1948 was a good year, 1952 wasn’t too bad either. Dorli won the NSW, Victorian and Queensland Women’s Singles Championships, as well as the National Teams Championship and the Victorian Women’s Doubles Championship … all in the one year!

In 1954, Dorli received the Magen David Adom award as Outstanding Jewish Sportswoman of the year, and in 1957, Dorli represented Australia in the Maccabiah Games held in Israel. Dorli was eliminated from the Singles in a late round match, but achieved success in the Mixed Doubles, teaming up with Barney Peters of Victoria. They won the title defeating Israel’s Simcha Finkelstein and India’s Miss June Hillel, 13-21, 22-20, 22-20, in the final.

Over a 12-year period, Dorli racked up 4 National Singles titles, 6 National Teams titles and 10 State titles. Dorli retired from competitive table tennis following her marriage in 1959.

Dorli’s daughters, Ellie and Susy, commented “Mum always enjoyed talking to her family and friends about her Australian table tennis days being a champion in the 1940s and ’50s, and recognised for her outstanding contributions to table tennis as an athlete. The friends she made during this time were valuable to her throughout her life and spoke often about the places she travelled while playing.

“As her granddaughter Annie read out her table tennis achievements to her just prior to her death, she thoroughly enjoyed listening to the past history of her playing years and at being inducted into the TTA Hall of Fame in 1996. She was excited that the names of NSW Women’s Open Singles titleholders have been inscribed on the Dorli Shipp Shield since 1994.

“It was a significant part of her wonderful long life.”

Rest in peace Dorli, and thank you for your significant contribution to Australian table tennis.

To view Dorli’s TTA Hall of Fame bio, please click here.