Badminton

Hawke's Bay Tribune, Volume XVII, Issue 201, 9 August 1927, Page 6

Badminton

FAST VOLLEYING. POPULAR GAME ABROAD. Badminton, a fast indoor game, has been introduced in Auckland, and is now played regularly at St, Mary’s, Parnell. Capable, of exceptional development, Badminton has captured the fancy of sportsmen in other parts of the Empire, and New Zealand is now the only Dominion where it is not extensively played. The worst part of Badminton is its title, with its series of hard ahd inflexible syllables, promising no prospect of simple abbreviation (states the " Sun”). The name suggest an English origin. Judged accordingly, the game might have a pedigree going back to the Norman conquest. Not so, replies the investigator. England borrowed the game from some of her conquered Asiatics. In some form or other it appears to have been played in India for more years than most records cover, and thus acquirde a heathen flavour. But when English soldiers adopted it, and introduced such refinements as gut racquets ancj feather-tipped shuttles, its conversion was on the way, and the process was completed when the new sport, popularised in England half a century ago, was given the name of the Duke of Norfolk’s country house. AN EXCITING SPORT. Uninitiated males, reared in the coarse atmosphere of football fields, have been known to shudder when the word Badminton is mentioned, and when the revelations go further, disclosing that a shuttlecock is employed, the anguish becomes profound. Such is ignorance! After the first half an hour on a Badminton court, the strong man still shudders, but only because he has discovered that the game may exhaust the stoutest frame, and that the shuttlecock is an object exceptionally difficult to hit. Of course, the word shuttlecock has an effeminate ring, and possibly recalls memories of childhood, but on close acquaintance it develops perplexing features. Neatly built, it has a cork butt, tipped with stiff feathers, and when hit hard flies with great velocity. TRICKS IN THE WIND. Bandminton is usually played indoors, because in a wind the shuttle plays tricks, and the court is 44 feet long by 20 feet wids, a net five feet high across the middle. Light, strong racquets, about the same length as a tennis racquet, but with a smaller head, are used to drive the shuttle to and fro, and the general principles of play resemble those of tennis, position play, hard smashin.?’. and delicate drop shots being commanding factors. The skilled player has at his command a range of difficult but effective shots. Playing close, he tips the " bird" daintily over the net, so that it barely clears the cord, and from the back of the court he lobs dexterously, and smashes heavily, when the answering shot is not .pitched sufficietnly deep.

PIONEERED IN NAPIER. New Zealand has been curiously diffident in its attitude toward a game that is now played extensively everywhere else in the Empire. Instances at random are the 16 clubs active in Launceston, Tasmania, and the huge membership of clubs in Vancouver, British Columbia, where one club alone has 12 courts and a roll of 200. Not until four years ago was the game introduced as a permanency into New Zealand. Previously it had been played spasmodically, or in private homes. Then in 1924, Mr. F. N. Harvey founded a club in Napier. The following year Archdeacon R. Creed Meredith, of Wanganui, started the game there, and last year the first inter-club matches played in New Zealand, were staged at Napier and Wanganui. Archdemon Creed Meredith then proved himself to be the best individual plalyer, with Dr. Harvey next. The Napier ladies, however, swung the scale in their team’s favour, Mrs. A. Hetley, of Napier, being the equal of most of the men players. AUCKLAND’S INTRODUCTION. This winter the game was started seriously in Auckland, largely through the enterprise of Mr. and Mrs. E. Dart, two very capable players, who recently came to New Zealand from Canada. Another club had long been in existence, playing first in the Training College annexe, and in the Y.M.C.A. gymnasiunt, when the annexe was demolished. But not until this winter did it start playing on a properly marked court.

The result now is that Auckland has two clubs, and there are whispers of others, one at North Shore, and another at Orakei.

For the present the exisiting organisations are devoting much time to the improvement of beginners, who are coming on rapidly, one of the salient virtues of Badminton being that the ” rabbit” stage is soon left behind. It is hoped that other clubs will be formed in different parts of New Zealand, and the first Dominion tournament will be staged at Wanganui next month.