BADMINTON TEST

Evening Post, Volume CXXVIII, Issue 35, 10 August 1939, Page 13

BADMINTON TEST

WON BY AUSTRALIA

ROUSSELL IN TOUGH GAME

(Received August 10, 10 a.m.)

MELBOURNE, This Day.

The Badminton Test for the Whyta Trophy between Australia and NewZealand ended last night in a victory for Australia. There was a gallery of 900 spectators.

A feature of the night's play was a match between R. McCabe, the Austra- . lian champion, and E. A. Roussell. McCabe won by his unfailing accuracy. Australia won by 7 rubbers, 16 sets, 317 points to 5 rubbers, 12 sets, 303 points. Results are:—R. Harper (A.) beat G. A. Pearce (N.Z.), 11-15, 15-5, 18-14; Misses I. Hewitt and E. Robert (A.) beat Mrs. C. F. Wren and Miss N. Fleming" (N.Z.), 15-12, 15-11; McCabe (A.) beat Roussell (N.Z.), 15-12, 15-3; B. Tonkin and Miss B. Cuthbertson (A.) beat Spedding and Mrs. Wren (N.Z.), 15-11,15-4; Miss Robert (A.) lost to Miss Fleming (N.Z.), 11-7, 9-12, 3-11; Mrs. , H. Wray and Miss B. Cuthbertson (A.) lost to Mrs. P. Hawksworth and Miss Kerr (N.Z.), 4-15, 2-15.

A CLOSE FIGHT

New Zealand's defeat by 7 rubbers to 5 contrasted notably with the result of the first match for the Whyte Trophy at Wellington last year, when Australia won by 16 to 4. And if P. E. Hawksworth, the New Zealand champion, had been available for the contest it is distinctly possible that New Zealand would have won. Without- him, New Zealand could not use its champion men's doubles team of Hawksworth and Pearce, or its mixed doubles title holders, Hawksworth and Mrs. Hawksworth.

Hawksworth was New Zealand's hope for several matches and it was unfortunate that his illness compelled him to retire. From private advice received in New Zealand, it is learned that his illness is a cyst on the spine. He will be unable to play again this season; but the full extent of the trouble is not yet known. The Test match was the closest of battles. It proved that New Zealand's women are superior to Australia's best. Australia's men, on the, other hand, appear to have greater'speed and power than the best in New Zealand, an influential factor in the mixed doubles, in which New Zealand failed to win a rubber. The heavy defeat of Roussell by the 19-year-old McCabe, the Australian champion, was surprising. Pearce played above his New Zealand form to star as an individual on both nights.—"Shuttle."