MALAYANS AID BADMINTON

Press, Volume XCVI, Issue 28428, 7 November 1957, Page 17

MALAYANS AID BADMINTON

At the start of the recent badminton season it was predicted that the presence of more Malayan students in the Dominion would considerably strengthen the standard of the game. This prediction, based on a similar state of affairs in Australia, has proved accurate.

The outstanding performance was undoubtedly the winning of the South Island singles title by Lee Tuck Chew. Lee, a school boy aged 16, of Dunedin, is a former Malayan junior champion. Although suffering from a leg injury in the South Island championships, he beat the national champion, A. L. Scott, and in the final, he beat the New Zealand representative, R. Reid.

Subsequently Lee played for Otago in two Wisden Cup matches, and performed with distinction Playing for the Canterbury representative team, A. Ghani has had a successful season. His neardefeat of the national representative, N. R. Thompson, at Invercargill was perhaps his best effort. He won his other interprovincial matches. R. Wong has been playing with distinction for the Auckland side. When New Zealand Universities played Auckland in August, the four male members of the team were all Malayans. They are S. T. Chiam, R. Wong, E. Ooi, and Y. H. Thng. They all won their singles matches against the members of the Auckland provincial team, and Chiam became the first male badminton player ever to be awarded a New Zealand Universities Blue.