Canty wins first badminton round

Press, 23 July 1987, Page 6

Canty wins first badminton round

Canterbury pulled out all the stops in its first round of the Wisden Cup badminton tournament at the Skellerup Hall last evening to beat Waitemata, 10 games to eight. It took the team five hours to play the 16 matches with five games going to three sets. Canterbury won four of the eight singles matches and with the strength of players such as Prasanna Gulasekharem, took the lead to seven games to five with only the mixed doubles to play. Even though the players were tired, Canterbury’s stamina outlasted the northern side’s and the home team

won three of the four matches, all in straight sets. In the other matches, Auckland I beat Auckland 11, 13-3 and North Shore demolished the recently promoted Hutt Valley side, 15-1. Canterbury now goes into the second round of the tournament knowing it will have little trouble steering clear of a promotion-relega-tion match with the winner of the lower-graded Slazenger Cup. Canterbury will meet North Shore at 2 p.m. today. In the same round Auckland I will play Waitemata and Auckland II will play Hutt Valley.