New Zealand Division One League - The Wisden Cup

Discussion in 'General Forum' started by adelina76, Aug 20, 2002.

  1. adelina76

    adelina76 Regular Member

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    Hi all, I know I have been really quiet..few reasons for this, but the biggest of them all, being I'm currently in North Harbour, near Auckland for the Wisden Cup competition. Quick update:

    There are 6 teams in this Division One league. Canterbury, being the weakest of 6, unsurprisingly is seeded sixth. The top seed is Waitekere (heaps of national players in there), followed by North Harbour, then Auckland, then Wellington North (who boast of having the service of an ex-South Korean national player in there, who beat Mia Audina in the Sydney Olympics en route to her quarterfinals), followed by Southland, then Canterbury.

    The ties are played at 5:30 every day at the North Harbour badminton hall. (Boyboy and whoever else who are nearby, come and say hi to me!!) So far, we've played Auckland, who we lost 15-1. I am playing no.3 ladies singles and no.2 ladies doubles. Hehe, got my arse kicked last night in singles, 7-4,7-2,7-1 to the national development squad player Michelle Chan. As the score reflects, hehe, she warmed up! Damn her! *mutter* Anyway..I did okie...the pace is sooooo much different to your local inter-club games..obviously. In the doubles, we played against an ex-national player and Michelle and got 7-0,7-4,7-1. Despite the score, we did give them a run for their money after we kind adjusted to the missile shuttles flying at us everytime we lift the shuttle..*shudder*.

    Tonight, we're playing North Harbour, followed by Wellington North and then on the last day, against Southland. Needless to say, we need to beat one of them to ensure we don't get relegated down to Division One Slazenger Cup. Our best chances, based on the seeding is against Southland. In our last pre-Wisden meeting, Canterbury lost to Southland 7-9 (best of 16 games..4 mens singles, 4 ladies singles, 2 mens doubles, 2 ladies doubles and 4 mix doubles). So hopefully, we'll turn the tables on them. Will try to keep you guys posted daily...depending on whether I can find an internet cafe nearby.

    Hope you guys are all well and ciao for now! :)

    Adelina, the overwhelmed kiwicheek!
     
  2. Winex West Can

    Winex West Can Regular Member

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    Adelina, thanks for the update.

    I'm surprised that you guys are still using the 7 points system as I thought that the 15/11 points system was supposed to take effect this month (August).

    Good luck with Southland
     
  3. cooler

    cooler Regular Member

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    Win or lose, i think it is an unforgetable experience to get to play with high caliber players. Good luck against the Southland:)
     
  4. Slanter

    Slanter Regular Member

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    Sounds like it could go to the wire. In this sort of situation every game counts. Losing badly to another team but still managing to get just one game is a result if your closest rival does not manage to do the same. Often it is points against other teams that decides the overall standings rather than the match against your rivals. Best of luck!
     
  5. adelina76

    adelina76 Regular Member

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    Update so far...

    Well, played against the 2nd seed, North Harbour which have all these national players or ex-nationals..anyway, left our head spinning after our 16-0 loss. No shame in it though, we knew that we weren't going to get far against them. Some of the matches were even surprisingly close. What I was really appreciative was that none of the more fancy players from NH gave us a really bad hiding and at the same time, none of them humour us by playing way below their standards, so overall, it was quite fun! I had the opportunity to play against a Women's Doubles Commonwealth Games silver medalit, Sarah Ranussen-Petersen and boy did I get my arse sorrily kicked, but still had fun! :) The mix was a closer affair against Sarah, where we lost 2-7,3-7,5-7. She was being very nice though..although I did manage to hit this jumping smash from the baseline that got her on her chest and she smiled at me and complimented me! I could have died and gone to heaven! *giggles* :) Yes, she was surprised..and so was I! :p

    All I can tell you guys is boy..are the pace soooo differently FAST!!! Most of the time, I don't even have time to blink and was simply concentrating damn hard just to return the shuttles back on their side of the court :p Also, we were playing on the official International Yonex badminton court surface..i.e the rubber mat ones..man talking about a whole new world! Needless to say, I'm still trying to come to grips at playing at such high level! :p

    OH, and in case you're wondering, singles weren't that flash either, I lost 0-7,1-7,1-7 :p *sigh* Oh well..looking forward to the last 3..should be closer fight against Waitekere (the women not so strong), North Wellington and Southland :p

    Adelina
     
  6. adelina76

    adelina76 Regular Member

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    Matches against Waitekere..

    More update guys..

    We played the top seeds yesterday, Waitekere and I posted my first singles win! *hops around* It was an amazing feat too..sorry if I sound like I"m boasting a bit, but I can't help it..it was a great win..I beat the NZ Under-16 no.1 girl! Okie, so she's about 15..but she was playing awesome! And I was playing out of my skin! It's like one of those days when everything just gone right for you..you know what I mean? All my clears were deep and very close to the back corners. I also managed to do nice drops and steep smashes. The score was 7-3,7-2,7-5. I'm soo happy! :)
    In the doubles, I didn't play..was rested for today's big match against North Wellington (*shudders thinking about the South Korean lady*). I played in the mix though..was also elated even though we lost..because we played against the Australian no.1 guy and a NZ reserve team squad member (the girl) and we managed to win a set off them! So that was good given that we were playing them as sacrificial lambs..led to slaughter by our coach..hehe :p It's all about strategy I tell u! :)

    Overall, Canterbury lost 5-11 to them but we had a few great wins so that's boosted the everyone's spirit to play better. We might even cause an upset! Will see!

    A
     
  7. Kiwiplayer

    Kiwiplayer Regular Member

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    Gudday,

    Gosh, Wgtn North 1 in Wisden - Amazing how much things can change when you disappear for a few years. I remember when I played for them about 13 years ago (showing my age), they were struggling to keep a 3rd div team. Goes to show how well an association can do when there are people willing to spend a lot of time and hard work to help improve things.

    Now that I'm in the UK, I've come to appreciate how lucky we were in NZ with the whole Interprovincial competition setup. It seems a lot better organised than here, even with the vastly greater player base. I actually have people here at work who play baddy - when I was back in NZ, no-one knew anything about badminton. In fact, the standard of the players in NZ is amazingly high given how few people play.

    Adelina76 - Did you play for Canterbury 1 around 5-6 years ago?
     
  8. adelina76

    adelina76 Regular Member

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    Last Update :)

    Hi hi all,

    Okie..sorry I kinda disappeared with my updates for the last few matches, only because we were concentrating hard and I didn't have time to log on to post :(

    Okie..basically, after Waitekere, we had two more teams to play, North Wellington and Southland.

    We did surprisingly well against NW, despite them having the South Korean, Kim Ji-Hyun. She of course kicked everyone's arses in singles, doubles and mix (she plays straight doubles when playing mix with her partner!) But despite that, we manage to win 6 matches, making the overall score 10-6 to North Wellington.

    The next day..Saturday, we played Southland. This was the do-or-die match for us in order to remain in the top tier of Division One. Southland, who was also without a win at that point was as desperate as we were. It was a battle of elimination! The loser of the match would have to be relegated to the second Division One tier (called the Slazenger Cup). We tried our best..unfortunately, Southland beat us quite convincingly, 13-3 and we unfortunately are now relegated to Slazenger Cup for next year *sigh* Oh well..but in all honesty, that's where Canterbury truly belongs in terms of its standard of play.

    All in all, I had a good time..but what I've learned is that I still have lots to learn and to improve upon. This summer I will have to work damn hard, need to improve on my skills :(

    As for your question kiwiplayer, nope..I wasn't playing for Canterbury 5 or 6 years ago. I started playing for their Division 3 team like in 1998 I think :) and then Division 2 for 2000 and 2001 and this is my first year at Division 1. Just in case you might remember some of the players, here are their names:

    Div 1:
    Mark Revis
    Owen Flower
    Aelfred Wong
    Carey Windleburn
    Nigel Roy
    Joe Wu

    Jo Morrish
    Fiona Pizzey
    Adelina Ong
    Susan Cochram
    Debbie Mundy

    Coach: Pete Mundy Manager: Valda Adams

    Division 2:

    Dunno if you remember any of the younger players..but the slightly more 'veteran' ones are:

    Richard Bramley, Nick Leeming, Mike Porter, Andy Keller, Lindsay ****, Christina Robb.
     
  9. Winex West Can

    Winex West Can Regular Member

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    Thanks for the update Adelina. Great stuff!

    Tough luck on the results but bottom line is that you enjoyed the games regardless of the outcome.
     
  10. Kiwiplayer

    Kiwiplayer Regular Member

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    I'm also glad to hear news from home - thanks for the updates Adelina. It is a shame about Canterbury being relegated, but these things happen, and it sounds like you did well personally, so that's always nice. The main thing is to have fun, and reading your posts, it seems you did.

    Yes, I remember Mark Revis and Owen Flower - both good players. Mark looks more like a rugby player and Owen is one of those awkward lefties! Apart from your coach and manager, I don't think I'm familiar with anyone else.

    All this talk about Div makes me want to dust off the old racquets...
     

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