Badminton manager pleased

Press, 27 February 1984, Page 36

Badminton manager pleased

NZPA Hong Kong Although Indonesia and China; as expected, won the Thomas and Über Cups qualifying rounds, the New Zealand badminton squad put up a reasonable performance over-all, said the team’s manager, Jeff Robson, in Hong Kong, yesterday. The men’s team finished second, reaching the finals of the Thomas Cup Asian zone series after beating the second seeded Hong Kong.

Hong Kong had come through after beating strong Australian and Singapore teams, said Mr Robson. New Zealand went down to the seven times Thomas Cup champion, Indonesia, on Saturday. As in its previous encounter, New Zealand failed to win a set. “But it’s very hard to even win a point off Indonesia,” said Mr Robson. A former All England champion, Liem Swie King, took eight and nine minutes respectively to crush the

New Zealand No. 1, Graeme Robson, 15-5, 15-1. Playing an all-out attacking game, Liem alternated short serves with deep and powerful smashes for which Robson had no answer. However, the world champion, Icuk Sugiarto, met strong resistance from Phillip Horne, who held him to 11-11 in the first set before going down, 11-15. But Horne rarely figured in the second set, losing 2-15. Although Indonesia’s third

singles player, Hadianto, lost to an Australian, Trevor James, the previous night, he showed no lack of confidence in disposing of New Zealand’s Jacob van Seim. While the New Zealanders were able to field better resistance in the doubles it was by then academic. Robson and Horne put on a spirited display against Christian Hadinata and Bobby Ertanto, losing, 10-15, 7-15, while Kartono and Rudy Heriyanto beat van Seim and Stephen Lobb,

15-6, 15-5. Mr Robson said he was especially pleased with the performance of the women’s squad taking part in the parallel Über Cup qualify-, ing games. Although handicapped by the loss of a key player, Allison Sinton, the New Zealanders finished third over-all out of four teams. New Zealand had beaten Australia and lost very narrowly to the secondplaced Hong Kong, he said.