Favoured Teams Start Well At National Champs

Tournament favourites Southland and Waikato have started the Wisden Cup inter-provincial badminton competition held at North Harbour in the best possible way with wins in one of the strongest displays of provincial badminton rivalry in years featuring numerous former world stars plus some of the best current locals and those from years past.

Southland beat Auckland 9-7 dominating the singles contests with Kiwi international reps, James Eunson and Joe Wu scoring good wins along with former Olympic medallist Kim Ji Hyun in the women’s singles.

Auckland gained nearly all of their wins from doubles and mixed taking six out of eight matches in the combined matches.

Waikato started their campaign to defend their title with a 10-6 triumph against Waitakere. Melbourne Commonwealth Games singles gold medallist, Tracey Hallam from England won all three of her matches for Waikato beating Danielle Barry in singles, teaming with Susannah Leydon-Davis in doubles to defeat Barry and English player Emily Hollis and then accounting for former world championship and Commonwealth Games medallist Dan Shirley and sister Gabby Aves in the mixed, all in straight games.

Waitakere gained their four of their six wins courtesy of Luke Charlesworth and Shirley in men’s singles as well as Kritteka Gregory and Mary O’Connor in women’s singles.

In one of the key matches of interest, current New Zealand Whyte Trophy team member Oliver Leydon-Davis and German player Tim Dettman for Waikato scored a 25-23 third set win over Shriley and former world top 20 ranked singles player Andrew Smith.

North Harbour had a relatively easy 14-2 victory against Canterbury who are without top singles player Asher Richardson who has broken a bone in his hand.

In the Slazenger Cup which comprises of Auckland(2), North Harbour(2), Bay of Plenty, Otago, Waikato(2) and Wellington North, there is no clear-cut favourite in the Slazenger Cup with most of the teams containing a large number of junior players, although North Harbour does have two ex-internationals in Kerrin Harrison and Chris Blair. Bay of Plenty scored a 10-6 win against Waikato(2). Wellington North were 9-7 winners over North Harbour(2) and Auckland(2) easily beat Otago 12-4.

The tournament runs until the final rounds Saturday 6 August from 9am at the North Harbour Badminton Centre, Forrest Hill.

Results:
Wisden Cup:
First round:
North Harbour 14 Canterbury 2, Southland 9 Auckland 7, Waikato 10 Waitakere 6.
Slazenger Cup:
Bay of Plenty 10 Waikato(2) 6, Wellington North 9 North Harbour(2) 7, Auckland(2) 12 Otago 4.