Skelt to make amends?

Press, 16 July 1986, Page 40

Skelt to make amends?

By

DAVID LEGGAT

For the second time in three years, Nigel Skelt is top seed in the men’s singles for the Canterbury badminton championships, at the Skellerup Hall this week-end. However, the moustachioed Southlander will be hoping for a-better run this year than he had back in 1984. Then, he met the Waitemata player, Chris Tapper, who had been seeded only fourth, in the semi-finals. Tapper was too strong that day, winning, 15-3, 615, 15-8, on his way to his first Canterbury singles title.

Skelt, who shared the New Zealand mixed doubles title with Alison Wilson, of Auckland, in 1979 and 1980, has been out of the national rankings for several years. Nevertheless, he will be keen to make amends for 1984.

Prasanna Gulasekharam will be defending the title he won for the first time last year from the No. 2 seed position. Gulasekharam transferred to Auckland the day after beating Shane Tetai, formerly of Canterbury but now based in Auckland, 18-15, 2-15, 15-10, in last year’s final. He still plays representative badminton for Canterbury

and will be eager to make his mark in his home province.

A new name will be inscribed on the women’s open singles trophy. Julie Still, who is ranked equal sixth in New Zealand, is the top seed. An Aucklander, who studies in Otago but plays representative badminton for Canterbury, she was the beaten finalist last year, going down, 8-11, 2-11, to Jane Clarke. » : A member of the New Zealand Über Cup team which competed in Vancouver early this year, Still will receive her toughest opposition from the Auckland player, Bronwen Roberts. Ranked eighth in the country, Roberts was a trialist for the Über Cup team but missed out when the training squad of eight was reduced to the team of five.

Skelt will have his eyes set on three titles. He is top seed in both the men’s doubles, with Gulasekharam, and the mixed doubles, with Paula Thorpe. Her season has been disrupted by injury. She was forced to pull out of the Wisden Cup team

and indeed the player who took her place for the national teams’ tournament, Terri Perry, has been seeded ahead of Thorpe in the singles.

Perhaps the most intriguing of the sections is the men's doubles. The second seeds are the Railway inter-club combination, Mark Waldin and Geoff Miller, while Air New Zealand’s pairing, Andrew Duckmanton and Graham Sercombe, are placed third. Both have suffered just one defeat in the 15 rounds of inter-club play this winter, and those

were to each other in the first and third rounds..©! the competition. Back oh April 12, Duckmanton and Sercombe triumphed in a long battle, 17-15, 12-15, 15-3; the evergreen Miller was missing in the second round when the Air New SSTVR:®® Barry, the former Wellington representative, partnering Waldin; but in last week’s inter-club round, Waldin and Miller achieved a relatively comfortable victory, 15-7, 15-8.

The first session of the championships will be on Friday evening, with the finals on Saturday evening. The seedings are.— Men’s singles: N. Skelt (Southland) I, P. Gulasekharam 2, M. Waldin 3, G. Sercombe 4. Doubles: Gulasekharam and Skelt li Waldin and G. Miller 2, Sercombe and A. Duckmanton 3, T. Campbell and D. Rae (Southland) 4. Women's singles: J. Still 1, B. Roberts (Auckland) 2, T. Perry 3, P. Thorpe 4. Doubles: Still and M. Williams 1, Roberts and G. Barns 2. Mixed doubles: Skelt and Thorpe 1, Gulasekharam and Roberts 2, Miller andd Perry 3, Sercombe and Williams 4.