SEEKING 3RD WIN

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31120, 25 July 1966, Page 16

SEEKING 3RD WIN

Badminton Titles

The most intensive week of competition in the Canterbury badminton season will start today, when the provincial open, B grade and junior championships are played in the Skeilerup Hall. Big entries have been received and, on the evidence of this season's inter-club series, competition should be close. Miss S. Field will be seeking her third successive women’s singles title and she will be a ready favourite. Miss B. Gormack will provide the stiffest opposition and last year’s junior champion. Miss R. Waites, should make her presence felt. The men’s singles titleholder, P. V. Boatwood, has been seeded No. 1 and should be too lively for most of his opponents. The one player who could thwart Boatwood’s bid is Ho Kah Yen, the Malaysian student who beat the champion twice in trial matches earlier in the season.

Boatwood will be prominent in doubles play, too, for he will team with the experienced E. W. Crofts in the men's event and Miss Gormack in the mixed. Ho Kah Yen will be the main stumbling block again, for he has Miss Field as his partner in the mixed doubles and B. E. Wylie, an accomplished doubles player. There will be few combinations in the women’s doubles field who will test the titleholders, Mrs A. Ryan and Miss Gormack. Their excellent understanding has given them an unbeaten run in the interclub matches this season.

The B grade championships will offer few established favourites, particularly in the men’s events. Mrs C. Gregory is a fancied contestant for the women’s singles title, but will have strong competition from Miss S. Dench, the division 111 representative. The championships will be held from Monday to Thursday, with the finals on Saturday.