Australia Beats New Zealand In Whyte Trophy Badminton

New Zealand has been beaten by Australia 4-1 in badminton’s Whyte Trophy trans-Tasman bi-annual teams competition.

Played at North Harbour  Australia started strongly by winning the men’s doubles as Oliver Leydon-Davis and Kevin Dennerly-Minturn appeared defensive against their attacking opponents and were beaten in straight games by Australian Olympian Glenn Warfe and Raymond Tam.

The next match featured Southland’s Anna Rankin in the women’s singles. In a contest which lasted 42 minutes Rankin battled hard and looked like taking the first game but was eventually beaten 24-22 21-17 by Tara Pilven.

New Zealand’s Joe Wu easily won the men’s singles over Ashwant Gobinathan in straight games to keep the home team in the hunt. However the women’s doubles pairing of Kritteka Gregory (Waitakere) and Waikato’s Amanda Brown lost to Gronya Sommervill andJacqueline Guan 15-21 12-21 to secure Australia the overall victory and a 19-17 head-to-head lead overall dating back to the first match in 1938.

In the dead mixed doubles the brother and sister pair of Oliver and Susannah Leydon-Davis lost a hard-fought match 21-19 21-19 to Ross Smith and Renuga Veeran.

The win meant Australia were able to retain the Whyte Trophy after previously winning in Ballarat in 2011 also by a scoreline of 4-1.

All players now take part in the Fernbaby Auckland International running through Thursday until the finals on Sunday.

Whyte Trophy, North Harbour
Results (New Zealand names first):
Men’s doubles: Oliver Leydon-Davis/Kevin Dennerly-Minturn lt Glenn Warfe/Raymond Tam 18-21 11-21,
Women’s singles: Anna Rankin  lt Tara Pilven 22-24 17-21,
Men’s singles: Joe Wu bt Ashwant Gobinathan 21-17 21-12,
Women’s doubles: Kritteka Gregory/Amanda Brown lt Gronya Sommerville/Jacqueline Guan 15-21 12-21,
Mixed doubles: Oliver Leydon-Davis/Susannah lt Ross Smith/Renuga Veeran 19-21 19-21.