National Supremacy Up For Grabs

The pride of national provincial badminton is on the line in Wellington this week with the staging of the Wisden Cup and the Slazenger Cup.

The Wisden Cup has been held since 1934 and this year the competitions feature the three New Zealand Olympic badminton reps, John Moody, Craig Cooper and Renee Flavell along with a host of other ex and current Kiwi reps as well as the nation’s only world championship medalist, Dan Shirley.

In the top competition, the Wisden Cup, Auckland are the defending champions and again have a solid team . Joining them in the Wisden Cup are Waitakere, Waikato and Canterbury.

Auckland contain players such as Flavell and fellow New Zealand team members Kevin Dennerly-Minturn and Henry Tam. Waikato have Cooper in their side along with Oliver Leydon Davis a player who stood out in the World Junior Championships last year. Also in the team are highly regarded Bjorn Seguin and Vina.

Waitakere have the experienced hands of Shirley and John Moody (another former Commonwealth Games medalist0 to help their team, but lack the depth in the women’s side of their squad. Canterbury will be the team under pressure from the big sides in the North Island.

The Wisden Cup commences on Thursday with the final matches on Saturday at the Wellington Badminton Centre in Hataitai.

At the same venue teams in the Slazenger Cup will be aiming to gain the promotion place up to Wisden Cup.

Associations in Slazenger Cup are Wellington North, North Harbour 1, North Harbour 2, Auckland 2, Bay of Plenty, Otago and Southland. Their play starts in the evening of Tuesday 26 and runs until the finals on Saturday 30 August.

North Harbour 1 look an almost certainty to gain promotion back up to the Wisden Cup as they have Moody in their team along with New Zealand women’s No1 Rachel Hindley, teenage New Zealand team member Jessica Jonggowisastro and Scottish international Alistair Casey.

Wellington North also are rated highly to challenge for the promotion place with the Lee brothers, Stephen and Chris heading the side along with the solid Doug Muir and Jian Dee Chew.

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