BADMINTON

Otago Daily Times, Issue 22372, 20 September 1934, Page 4

BADMINTON

' By, Shuttle. The invitatign'B admin ton tournament, organised to provide a benefit fund; Tor the coach (MmT. Brooks), who has beeh,; incapacitated'through illness, .‘Was a particularly successful fixture,'and the com-: mittec responsible for . its 'organisation; are to be sincerely complimented on the! success of their efforts, while the various! clubs and the individual players deserve' the warmest..ibariks for the generous and!; enthusiastic Planner in which they sup-? ported the effort. Although singles;, events werp dispensed with, the inclusion of a' B Grade in the handicap; matches mgre than made up for their absence, and the! committee had to apply ? itself' to the disposal of the’ Targe number. of matches.'with unremitting attcri-, tiori in order to bring the tournament, to .; finality within the scheduled period. As!, it was, the last match of the tournament wag placed at a very late hour on Saturday evening, but it was To the committee's credit that the tournament did;' not extend into another night's play, as. might quite easily have been the : case had not a careful watch been kept on the players and the courts, and every opportunity been taken-to send all available players but to dispose of their matches. One of the ■ principal features : of the tournament was the accurate handicapping, the work of Mr C. H. Chapman, which resulted in a remarkable crop ?! of matches won by one or two points. In this respgct the efficiency of the regulation chart fom the purpose’ of computing ■ relative handicaps was also very clearly demonstrated, and the result was that 1 the handicap events provided some of; the most exciting and closely-contested !j battles of the tournament. , :j .The concluding games in tbe Open. Men’s Doubles produced some particu- j larly hard contests. Chapman and' Abbott, who had narrowly defeated Longbottom and Moore. 15—11, 18—13, in the , second round, eliminated Hawks- : worth and Anderson in the third set of an exceedingly close game in the first of the semi-finals. Chapman and Abbott ■ caught their opponents out of position on several : occasions' in the first set,which they won 15 —8, but Hawksworth and Anderson'' evened matters in the j second set with a win by 15 —7, Hawksworth scoring with some fine smashes after the other players had been lured! out of position. . The deciding set wris the closest of the match, the pairs being - very evenly matched. Hawksworth and j Anderson combined splendidly, but j Chapman succeeded in recovering some j apparently impossible shots, and ■ used j several tricky .net strokes which kept his opponents continually on the run. The set went to Chapman arid Abbott 15—10. ■

In the other semi-final Dickinson, and Laidlaw, always a formidable combination, beat Ban-on and Swallow 15 —3, 15 —8, after haying previously disposed of Hart and Elliott in the second round by 15 —6, ‘ 16—2, their steadiness and complete knowledge of each other’s play making, them very nearly invulnerable to attack. : . The -final provided one of the grimmest struggles of the series, both sets of players playing scientific badrriinton that was a delight to watch. Dickinson and .Laidlaw Took the first set rather easily b'o. far as the points (15-—- 4) were concerned, although these gave very little indication of the real character of the game. The second set was won by Chapman and ’Abbott,, who played splendidly, making the most of their, opponnents’ mistakes, 1 and placing and. smashing with unerring accuracy, to take the set 15—11. Dickinson arid Laidlaw struck their best form in the final set, but their opponents also played a very accurate and scientific game,'and the set resolved itself into... a series of brilliant rallies, all the players executing some remarkably Tine shots. Dickinson:, and Laidlaw, Tjriwever, Had a slight advantage in combination and took The set 15—11, and The’.match. The ’ Open Mixed Doubles.' provided a fine series of .matches, 1 the winners being Hawksworth anti Miss Bolwell, who played splendid badminton throughout the event. In the semi-final these players had a fairly hard battle with Abbott' and Miss Kerr,'who also showed good combination, the former players winning 15—10, : 15—6. Chapman and Mrs ’ Ferguson, who had worked up a .good system of combined play, defeated Swan, and Mrs Lorimer 15—8j.T5rT8;‘‘ in ThY’Other 'seirii-fiu'al, but could not make much impression on their opponents in the final. Hawksworth was smashing with deadly accuracy, and although Chapman achieved some remarkable returns, arid used some closely angled shots at the net to harrass his opponents, he and his partner eventually, went down to Hawksworth and Misg Bolwell 15 —4, 15—7.

. The Open ,Ladies’ Doubles resulted- in a well-merited win for Miss Kerr and, Mrs Dickinson. In the semi-final these phayeris defeated Misses Walker" .aijfl Foster, who had given a good account of themselves in earlier matches, by: a good margin of ' 15—4,' 15—5,_ the other semi-final being won by Miss Bolwell and Mrs Ferguson, who beat. Misses Hay and GallaWay 15 —11, 15 —8, after a hard game. The final provided a severe test of stamina and combination, there being very little to choose_ between the two sets of players. Miss Kerr, however, played a brilliant game,, and ■’ was ably supported by Mi’s Dickinson, who defended the back line in good style, and these players eventually won 15 —10, 15— 12. • , The handicap events, as stated previously, provided extremely interesting games.. In-the A Grade section Hawksworth ami Miss Bolwell, who were owing 12, won -the Mixed Doubles final-from Walker and-Miss Lane (rec 8) by-! tlio" narrow margin of 21—20, while Misses Hay and Gallaway (rec 7) beat Misses Walker and Foster (rec 8) by 21—15 in the final of the Ladies’ Doubles. The Men’s Doubles were won by Dickinson and Laidlaw (owe 10), who beat MTnneg and Macdonald (rec 13) 21 —17. In the B Grade section ? the final of the Mixed Doubles was won by Green and Miss W. Fowell (rec 4), who defeated Ferguson and Miss Sharp (rec 4) 21—17, and the final of the Ladies’ Doubles resulted in a win for Misses B. and W. Fowell (rec 10), who beat Misses Sharp and Weitzel (rec 12) by 21 —8. The final of the Men’s Doubles resulted in a close contest between Green and Stevens (ecr) and Smith and Woods (rec 2), the former winning by, 21—19. _ As an effective conclusion to the badminton seasbri the tournament .was a complete success, and the fact that the proceeds were in the vicinity of £2O showed that The members of the various clubs were in complete sympathy with’ the object of the fixture.