Badminton

Badminton competitors got off to a good start at the tournament, winning in the first morning's play against Waikato. All sets were won with sizeable margins. Victoria won 16 games gaining 360 points to Waikato's 0. Teams played well, but opposition was to become increasingly stiffer. Playing Auckland, the team was beaten 11 games to five and although Victoria fought hard over most of the sets, the ability of Auckland began to tell. On Tuesday a disappointing defeat was in store. The Victoria team drew with Canterbury 8-8, Canterbury winning on the countback.

On Wednesday Lincoln, fielding a non-eligible team containing only two students, also claimed a victory against the home side. In many ways the competitions were disappointing, especially in the women's division.

Congratulations to Lim Ee Chiat for making the NZU team, after some excellent playing. This year's tournament, if nothing else, showed the need for greater competition, experience and skilled coaching.

Basketball

For the duration of the tournament Victoria was struggling, Playing good basketball, often against superior teams, the team managed to pull through with its honour intact and two members destined for the NZU team.

Against Auckland, a relatively strong team. Victoria lost 52-39. The defeat was due to the inability of the team to settle down in the first half, as evidenced by the rapid narrowing of the gap between scores after half time.

On Tuesday Lincoln was easily defeated 121-41 in a fast game where Victoria was quite literally "king of the court". Massey proved tougher to beat, the final score being 61-48 to Victoria.

Otago and Canterbury, the reputed top teams of the competition, proved their ability in many aspects outclassing the Victoria team with speedy and constructive passing. The Otago game was the closest, Victoria being beaten by the narrow margin of 60-55.

Kevin Elliot and Hugh Mainwaring both made the New Zealand Universities team. Although no phenomenal results can be boasted about, the Victoria team as a unit showed promise especially in view of the fact some members are relatively young and will continue in the future to contribute towards Victoria basketball.

Golf

Victoria finished a disappointing second to Auckland last tournament. There is no doubt that local knowledge plays an important part in these tournaments but not to the extent of the thirty odd strokes by which we were beaten. The team as a whole failed to concentrate enough to bring off the top money. Brian Stewart showed promise with his last two rounds, but the only team member who achieved anything noteworthy was Rodney Barltrop. After an indifferent first three rounds he found himself three strokes off the pace in the individual stroke play. With a blistering 71, two under par, he saved the champion spot by a stroke from P. Garner (Ak). Barltrop also reached the semifinals of the match play.

Judo

Victoria travelled to Auckland, with not a little apprehension. The teams entered in the restricted Kyu and the open events were relatively inexperienced, with some members having the minimum of judo experience.

In view of this all performed well and the tough competition afforded by higher graded and more experienced teams was well met by the Victoria fighters. Dave Mitchell and Peter Cleghorn in the restricted Kyu both performed well against skilled competitors who had obviously had the benefit of experience.

In the open, which was won by Canterbury. Victoria fielded yellow belts against brown belts and did surprisingly well. Although Victoria was at a disadvantage in this respect the experience gained was worth the discomfort.

Mention should be made of Dave Felkart a recently graded yellow belt with six months' judo experience behind him, who extended the previous NZU champion Murray Mathewson (a brown belt) to a draw in the open event. In the individual events he went on to beat another brown belt who later in the evening was to come second in the NZU championships.

These wins speak well for the coach and mainstay of the Victoria Judo Club, Peter Hannah, whose efforts now will be the foundation of a strong club in the future.

Small-bore Rifles

Victoria this year gained a third place in the teams events behind Auckland (second) and Canterbury (first). (One cannot help but notice the strange absence of our country friends from Massey and Lincoln). Team members seemed pleased generally with the way the shooting had been organised and with their individual scores. Roger Girdlestone, a member of last year's .303 NZU rifle team, shot the highest score of 587.36 out of a possible 660. Roger Smith shot second highest with 584.35.

Final total scores were:

Canterbury ... 2371.170

Auckland ... 2344.145

Victoria ... 2324.130

Most members, as in other sports, had a trying time keeping fit and well over the three days of competitions but were safe from social interference due to the distance between their venue and the Queen city. It was darkly mumbled by a few shooters that the Blues standard was too high but overall the team were pleased with the results and planned for better things in the future.

Drinking

It was a quiet Thursday afternoon, Tournament had all but spent itself, yet still people waited for that mystical climax after which people could say "it's all over."

This climax was that time-honoured competition, the Drinking Horn. For this notable event, Auckland organisation excelled itself with free grog by the jugful, an entertaining sporting event to relax and watch and a grandstand close enough for spectators to watch every grovelling, gruesome detail of what (in the Sports Editor's opinion) must be one of the most sustaining sports in the world.

Technical details became lost as the afternoon progressed and for this I make no apology. Results and clear reporting were abandoned in the heat of the moment.

Perhaps the closest competition of the day was the teams relay event.

Generally speaking it was a fluid competition: the drinking team, observed in many practices, excelled themselves on the day. Apparently the times for the teams event were Wellington 5.9 seconds and Auckland 6.2, but spillage (and there was quite a bit) gave the victory to Auckland. Sloppy, unpractised drinking were the chief reasons.

Ian Barwick and John Nees both were awarded NZU drinking Blues for their fine efforts. Here special mention must go to John Nees whose courage in trying to drink the yard (two jugs) in less than 13 seconds is to be applauded . . . with reservations of course. The work of Ian Barwick, coach of the team, should be recognised . . . and probably was.

The drinkers were: Ian Barwick, John Nees, Roger Girdlestone, John Haynes, Bob Burt, Peter Barwick and Rick Carlyon.

• Other Results Page 12