Tournament Badminton

The standard of badminton at Victoria has had a rather mixed history, with the exception of 1980 when the Victoria Badminton Club could only field D grade interclub teams. Consequently the club evolved as a social experiment, rather than a completitive enterprise.

Gradually however, the club has attracted a small nucleus of dedicated and talented players. At present, it fields three strong interclub teams, two of which are in contention to take top honours in their respective grades.

But even given the meritoratic rise of competitive badminton at Victoria, we will be quite hard put to restrain the indigenous competence of the Auckland and Canty sides. However the VBC hopes to field as strong a team as possible for tourney.

Massey, Lincoln and Waikato are likely to find the going a little tough. Dark horses Canty and Otago usually manage to slip in some top South Island representatives and on that score alone must command respect.

There are no prizes for guessing that Auckland will probably be top seed for the coming tourney. The supremity of Auckland provincial badminton is evidenced by their Wisden Cup domination and the fact that Auckland boasts the four top women in the country - Toni Whittaker, Alison Sinton, Karen Phillips and Katrin Blair. Two of the top four men in the country are also Aucklanders - Robson and Miles.

The venue for the badminton will be our own Recreation Centre, so full centre facilities should be available. The general organisation for tourney badminton will be dealt with by Victoria club committee members. They will organise the draw, the seedings, arrange the local rep match, and generally seek to ensure the smooth running of the whole event.

Numerous hops, sports dinners, and the ball should ensure that all are kept happy -long after the scheduled sporting events are finished.

1981 has been a busy year nationally for badminton. Preparation for the Commonwealth Games has been aided by the grand prix events that build up to the nationals in Auckland in September.