Commonwealth Games Badminton Players Warm Up In The Waikato

Top class badminton is in the Waikato over the next week with the region
hosting the Lion Foundation New Zealand Championships and the prestigious
Wisden and Slazenger Cups.

Nearly all of the New Zealand Commonwealth Games team will be in action with
bragging rights on offer for those who take the individual titles and then
provincial rivalry comes to the fore with the Wisden and Slazenger
competitions.

The New Zealand Champs commence this evening (Friday 6 August) and run
through until the finals on Sunday afternoon. While the Wisden and Slazenger
Cups inter-association division one and two tournaments start on Tuesday
with finals being held on Saturday 14 August, all held at the Waikato
Badminton Centre at Lugton Park, Hamilton.

The home region, Waikato are dominant in the seedings with three of the four
top men's singles players under the Waikato banner, although Southland's
James Eunson is the top seed. Auckland's Clare Chapple is the women's top
ranked player in singles.

Key in the women's doubles are the Commonwealth Games pair of Donna
Haliday(Auckland) and Danielle Barry(Waitakere) are not the top seeds,
despite their world top-50 ranking. As a result of Haliday not playing
enough domestic tournaments the pair are unseeded, however in a round-robin
format this should not be an issue for them to still take the title from
either the Chapple sisters, Clare and Emma from Auckland or the Waikato pair
of Amanda Brown and Susannah Leydon-Davis amongst others.

Haliday and Henry Tam, the best hope in Delhi are the mixed top pairing.

The Wisden and Slazenger Cups have a number of international players turning
up in the strangest places, including former world No7, Tracey Hallam from
England for the Waikato team who are probably the favourites, despite
looking for their first ever tournament win.

They have an international flavour to their side with former national coach
TJ Weistre being Dutch. Bjorn Seguin under an American flag, but trying to
be eligible for New Zealand. Doriana Rivera Aliaga is Peruvian and that's
without delving too far into the background of the rest of the side which
includes Commonwealth Games team member Joe Wu and Oliver Leydon Davis as
well.

The other five teams making up the Wisden Cup are North Harbour featuring
Scotland No1 Alistair Casey and former Kiwi No1's John Moody and Rachel
Hindley. Auckland No1 team has a strong line up in doubles and mixed with
Henry Tam and Donna Haliday from the Commonwealth Games team as well as
former national coach Li Feng. The Auckland second team is the likely side
to be demoted to Slazenger Cup.

Waitakere are the defending champions and have named former world top ranked
mixed and doubles player Dan Shirley and former Kiwi No1 Nick Hall to have
plenty of depth in the men's singles while Southland have Commonwealth Games
team member James Eunson along side powerful Maoni Huhe. The Southland
women's side have Commonwealth Games team member Anna Rankin listed, however
she will have to get over a foot injury to be a substantial force for her
side.

The Slazenger Cup teams are Wellington North, Waikato 2, North Harbour 2,
Canterbury, Bay of Plenty and Otago.
Lion Foundation NZ Championship seedings are:
Men's Singles: 1 - James Eunson (Sth), 2- Joe Wu (WKO), 3 - Michael Fowke
(WKO), 4 - TJ Weistra (WKO)
Women's Singles: 1 - Clare Chapple (AK), 2 - Amanda Brown (WKO)
Men's Doubles: 1 - Oliver Leydon-Davis (WKO)/Henry Tam (AK), 2 - Brock
Matheson (NH)/James Paterson (WKO)
Women's Doubles: 1 - Clare Chapple/Emma Chapple (AK), 2 - Amanda
Brown/Susannah Leydon-Davis (WKO)
Mixed Doubles: 1 - Henry Tam/Donna Haliday (AK), 2 - Joe Wu (WKO)/Danielle
Barry (WTK)
Commonwealth Games Team - with Associations and Ages:
Men:
James Eunson - Southland, 20
Oliver Leyden-Davis - Waikato, 20
Henry Tam - Auckland, 22
Joe Wu - Waikato, 24
Women:
Danielle Barry - Waitakere, 21
Michelle Chan - Auckland, 23
Donna Haliday - Auckland, 29
Anna Rankin - Southland, 20

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