Boatwood beaten in badminton

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 33230, 21 May 1973, Page 5

Boatwood beaten in badminton

The Canterbury club player, L. A. Robinson, made a strong bid for the provincial division one team when he scored a good victory over last year's No. 2 man, P. V. Boatwood, during the fourth round of the A grade badminton competition at Skellerup Hall on Saturday.

Robinson, the top man for the Canterbury division two team last year, sustained his tremendous form this year by beating Boatwood 15-13, 15-8 in the top singles of the North Beach-Can-terbury No, 2 clash. Robinson has given the selectors a lot to think about after having previously beaten the 1971 provincial champion, D. Yoong, in two games and giving last year’s singles title-holder, G. Ellis, a hard game. With the unavailability of last year’s No. 3, W. Edgecumbe, for representative play, Robinson will be competing with Ellis, Boatwood, G. A. Miller and P. Whiting for the four-man division one team.

After four rounds, the teams have begun sorting themselves out. Evenly-matched clubs played each other on Saturday, the results being a win for Knox over University No. 1 by five matches to three, and a win by Lincoln College over Selwyn by the same margin. Knox has gained six championship points after its victory and joined Railway at the top of the ladder, but Railway had the bye on Saturday and has now one game in hand over Knox. North Beach showed its strength by trouncing Canterbury No. 2 by seven matches to one and has now proved its precompetition favouritism by convincingly winning its last two matches. But it dropped its first match against Railway and North Beach’s only chance of winning now is for some other team to upset the present leaders. After losing its first two matches by the narowest of margins, Canterbury No. 1 gained its first two points by easily beating University No. 2 six matches to two. Like Robinson, Selwyn’s Miss T. Mitchell improved her chances for division one selection by beating last vear’s No. 1 woman, Miss J. Miles (Lincoln College) in two games. Playing top for Selwyn, Miss Mitchell has won all her four matches. Miss Mitchell played No. 3 for the division two team last year, but as Miss Miles is unavailable for representative play, the vacant position in the A team should be fought out between the two Selwyn players. North Beach suffered its onlyloss when Robinson beat Boatwood and the singles match was | the ease of the in-form player against the less-prepared Boatwood. who was playing his second singles. Boatwood looked dangerous with his strong, well-directed smashes, but he made too many mistakes against the steady Robinson. Boatwood made a good recovery in the first game, being down 4-10 and closing the gap to I 11-12, but Robinson won the next; three rallies to gain the vital' points. „ , . In the second game Robinson attacked Boatwood’s inconsistent backhand to gain the ascendency and gradually wear down Boatwood. t , The final games, both mens doubles, of the Knox-University No. 1 and the Lincoln CollegeSelwvn clashes were deciding matches. Lincoln College’s Yoong and K. H. Ong lost only five inoints in defeating J. Lang and B. Williams to secure victory for their team. However, Knox’s Edgecumbe land I. Kirkland went through some agonising moments before ' beating K. Crofskey and B. Sanders in three games. After losing •the second game Edgecumbe and i Kirkland worked hard in the 'third game to win. i The University women, Mm A Chambers and Mrs J Langford, continued their good form bywinning their singles and re--1 maining unbeaten in the competition. Surprisingly, University

lost the two mixed doubles matches and let a win slip by. After drawing the singles, Lincoln College was superior in the doubles play and won three of the four matches. Miss Mitchell and Mrs Anderson combined well to beat Miss Miles and Mrs Lean (Lincoln College) in the women’s doubles.

Tire points after four rounds are: Railway and Knox 6, North Beach, Lincoln College, Selwyn and Canterbury No. 24, Canterbury No. 1, University No. 1 2, University No. 2 0.

North Beach 7 matches, Canterbury II 1 match

P. V. Boatwood lost to L. A. Robinson, 13-15, 8-15; P. Whiting beat C. Wasley, 15-10, 15-7; Boatwood and Whiting beat Robinson and Wasley, 18-15, 11-15, 15-3. Miss A. Ross beat Mrs A. K. Smith, 11-0, 11-1; Miss S. Dench beat Mrs S. Fox, 11-10, 11-1; Ross and Dench beat Smith and Fox, 15-2, 15-5. Boatwood and Dench beat Robinson and Smith, 15-11, 15-12; Whiting and Ross beat Wasley and Fox, 15-5, 15-1. Knox 5 matches, University I 3 matches

W'. Edgecumbe beat K. Crofskev, 15-7, 15-3; I. Kirkland beat B. Sanders. 13-15, 15-11, 17-16; Edgecumbe and Kirkland beat Crofskev and Sanders, 6-15, 15-6, 15-6.

Miss G. Mathers lost to Mrs A. Chambers, 6-11, 1-11; Miss E. Stevenson lost to Mrs J. Langford, 4-15, 1-15; Mathers and Stevenson lost to Chambers and Langford, 4-15, 1-15. Edgecumbe and Stevenson beat Crofskey and Chambers, 15-10, 15-17, 15-6; Kirkland and Mathers beat Sanders and Langford, 9-15, 15-9, 15-6. Lincoln College 5 matches, Selwyn 3 matches D. Yoong beat J. Lang, 15-7, 15-7; K. H. Ong beat B. Williams. 10-15, 15-3, 18-13; Yoong and Ong beat Lang and- Williams, 15-2. 15-3. Miss J. Miles lost to Miss T. Mitchell, 6-11, 11-6, 6-11; Mrs K. Lean lost to Mrs B. Anderson, 7-15. 11-15; Miles and Lean lost to Mitchell and Anderson, 7-15, 11-15.

Yoong and Miles beat Lang and Anderson, 15-11, 13-15, 15-9; Ong and Lean beat Williams and Mitchell, 18-17, 15-6. Canterbury I 4 matches. University II 2 matches G. A. Ellis beat A. Lee, 15-5, 15-2; M. Easton beat A. K. Chen, 15-5, 15-7; Ellis and Easton beat Lee and Chen, 15-9, 15-18, 15-6. Miss C. Reay lost to Mrs R. Moran. 8-11, 4-11; Miss R. Smith beat Miss R. Crawford, 11-7, 11-5; Reay and Smith lost to Moran and Crawford. 5-15, 15-12, 12-15. Ellis and Reay beat Lee and Moran, 15-7, 15-0; Easton and Smith beat Chen and Crawford, 15-9. 18-13.