PLANS FOR BADMINTON

Evening Post, Volume CXXV, Issue 82, 7 April 1938, Page 17

PLANS FOR BADMINTON

BUILDING SCHEME

ASSOCIATION MEETING

The creation of a fund for the building of a special hall for the game and suggestions for the conduct of the inter-club competitions were important topics discussed at the annual meeting of the Wellington Badminton Association last night. Consideration will be given by the new management committee to both points. The president, Mr. .D. O. Whyte, presided over a fair attendance. Opening the discussion on building plans, Mr. Whyte said the association was not in a position to do a great deal, for a draft plan providing for eight courts in a building showed the likely cost at between £9000 and £ 10,000, and the association's accumulated fund was a little over £50. Nevertheless, there were various proposals which it was aimed to push on a good deal this year and he considered that if a fund of up to £1000 could be raised the difficulties would be considerably lessened. The site must be central to be effective. INTER-CLUB COMPETITION Suggestions were made', for a promotion and relegation system in the inter-club competition, with teams winning in the lower grades being automatically promoted to the next highest grade. Mr. Whyte favoured the idea that to give more teams in the top grade a combination of the better players in two clubs should be made for the purposes of entering a single team. ■ The arguments of the various speakers, together with a suggestion from the Buckle Street Club that more interclub matches should be played earlier in the week than Friday, will be discussed by the new committee before the season begins. The association's annual report stated that a membership of 28 clubs, with a playing strength of 891, was reached during the season. It drew attention to the smaller number of entries in the provincial championships and particularly to the poor attendance on the final evening of the tournament. The association had again secured the lease of the Winter Show -courts, though at a slightly higher rental, and there would be a small increase in court fees. t Officers were elected as follows:— Patron, Mr. P. B. Cooke, K.C.; president, Mr. D. O. Whyte; vice-presi-dent, Mr. A. H. Richards; committee, Messrs. R. B. Wheeley, D. A. F. Crombie, G. A. Pearce, W. Jupp, T. P. McLean; secretary-Measurer, Mr. J. Bower Black; hon. auditor, Mr. A. L. McLean. COACHING SCHEME. It was announced that the association intended to run a coaching scheme for beginners and others at the Winter Show stadium on selected nights for three or four weeks after the opening of the season there on April 26. Details of the scheme will be completed by a sub-committee consisting of Messrs. Whyte, Wheeley, Pearce, and Jupp. In view of complaints by Mr. C. Evans-Scott, attention will also be given to the lighting at the Winter Show. At the subsequent management committee meeting Messrs. Whyte and Crombie were appointed a sub-com-mittee to consider arrangements in connection with the Wellington provincial match against the Australians and with the Test match with New Zealand, which will conclude the tour early in July.