Hello all, Please pardon me if there are existing threads to this topic. As a Badminton fan, I'm equally interested on both current Badminton affairs as well as the past. Needles to say, it always gives me great pleasure to learn more about historical Badminton. For example, Thomas Cup: the stories on how Malaya captured the first 3 Thomas Cup, the Asian and European player profiles at that time, the different single and double games played, playing styles, strategies, most memorable moment and etc the rise of Indonesian players in the 1950's and hence winning the 4th Thomas Cup in 1958 from Malaya team 1967 Thomas Cup, which was won by Malaysia, Badminton fans at that time must have some very unforgettable stories and theories to tell Badminton in the 1940's, 1950's, 1960's in each era, we see the appearance of different players. During those time, we can be sure of hearing legendary names such as Wong Peng Soon, Dr David Freeman, Eddy Choong, J�rn Skaarup, Erland Kops, Ferry Sonneville, Rudy Hartono, Tan Joe Hock, Tang Xian Fu, Hou Jia Chang and to name a few (mind you, the list goes on and on) If you can share any stories, experiences, memories, archived newspaper articles of these precious moments with us, that would be highly appreciated. Thanks for reading and Happy Holidays.
For a start search youtube for the player and tournament in question. Supplement it in Wiki. You can also carry on the discussion in youtube comments section. Search player's name here and you will find a lot of threads. Hartono tells his lifestory on youtube, in a few months time there will be a documentary from Ina outlining his life's work. You can find a lot about Wong Peng Soon in the Singapore Museum site. Other Ina badminton players are fully described in an Indonesian site covering their national legends, I cant remember the name, probably Ina posters can tell you. As for Denmark players there is a Danish site devoted to past Denmark players ,just google. BWF also has some info in their Hall of Fame. If you still want more details,just narrow down your question a bit at a time.
There is already tons of info on this site about Freeman,Tang Xian Hu and Hou Jia Chang, just search the players section. There are no better articles then the detailed sypnosis of each Thomas Cup and All-england tournament in wiki..
http://www.bulutangkis.com/mod.php?mod=userpage&menu=15&page_id=39 Search this site and translate articles. Ask the ina fans here how to read on line the book"sejarah bulutangkis Indonesia".
Quoted from Bbn: Anyone looking for old footages can go to the IBF licensee IMG at www.twiarchive.com
http://coombs.anu.edu.au/SpecialProj/ASAA/biennial-conference/2004/Brown-C-ASAA2004.pdf History of Indonesian badminton.
TWI no longer holds the licence,transfered to IEC. Pre 2000 videos of TWI have been given to British Film Institute.
1988 Thomas Cup semi-includes nice description of Misbun (from Malaysian Insider): When we beat the King in 88 MAY 6 — By the time Razif and Jalani Sidek stepped into court, the Indonesians were expectedly flustered. They should have really been in their bus heading back to their hotel. But this Wednesday was to be different, even for Malaysia. The tie was still alive and Indonesia might still lose this semi-final. That 1988 Thomas Cup match would end up defining the place of modern Malaysian badminton. Badminton was throughout the 60s and 70s a sport played by many in which the Indonesians win eventually. There was a blip in 1967 but even then Malaysia needed the governing power of the International Badminton Federation and not the flick of a racquet to win in Jakarta’s Senayan after crowd trouble forced a walkover. Malaysia had won the first three Thomas Cups (1949, 1952 and 1955), but our triumphs came when the Indonesians were not competing. We beat the Danish, the USA and then the Danish again to those titles. When the Indonesians entered the contest, they won and kept winning. In 1982 the Chinese joined the party, and it effectively became a duopoly. China and Indonesia going into the 1988 championships were top dogs sharing all major honours and the Thomas Cups. The rest were just also-rans. There was the excitement when the Sidek brothers as teenagers won the 1982 All-England doubles title. But the banning of their unique S-style service ended their summer of joy. They always stayed in the elite top four global partnerships but were rarely the dominant pair. Misbun Sidek, the oldest of the boys from Banting, was at the tail-end of a bizarre and mixed career. There were the Mohawk hair-cuts, the trainings in isolation and amazing shot-play mixed with extraordinary collapses. You never know what you would get with Misbun. So with Misbun as captain and as first singles of the 1988 national squad, you know you will be surprised, good or bad. Solid but limited Foo Kok Keong would fill in at second and at third young Rashid Sidek. Being outclassed by China at the group stage, Malaysia as group runner-up was expected to be cannon-fodder to the Indonesians despite playing at home. Since 1984, the Thomas Cup ties were best of five matches rather than the old nine-match format. But the three singles matches are played first before the two doubles. So the match started at 7pm. Misbun was behind quickly to Icuk Sugiarto, the former world champion. And when Misbun squared things up in the second set and got ready for the rubber set, RTM decided in their infinite wisdom that it was time for the 8pm news. But few were surprised that Icuk ended that set quickly enough and put the Indonesians on their way to their expected victory. Video feed resumed for the second match, but it was not great dinner time viewing as Foo capitulated to Eddy Kurniawan quickly. Kurniawan relied on better court reading and played short points. The Indonesian managed a two-in-one; he made it 2-0 and doused any momentum built from first singles. It was getting too painful to watch and I was gravitating to the Dunhill “blockbuster” film on the third channel (“The Deep” with Nick Nolte, so appropriate for the night). An air of inevitability was kicking in. Malaysia has never really beaten Indonesia in the Thomas Cup and coming next was Rashid Sidek’s chance to suffer at the hands of current World Junior Champion Ardy Wiranata. I gave Rashid the benefit of doubt, even if it crushes me. We’ll return to Rashid on court, but pardon me for my off-court excursion to explain the national sports psyche in that period to know how people felt and what we expected then. In the 1980s many of Malaysia’s sports were in decline. The prime minister’s indifference to sports did not help. The failure to develop structured and widespread sports training and domestic competition in schools especially when Malaysia had a sports culture was criminal to say the least. Our competitors were getting better and better and we were stuck in our amateur think to sports. But to the casual sports reader, only the results matter not the means to the results. And the slipping results just made people cynical of what our national teams can achieve. No sport had full stadiums for its national teams anymore. Losing was not only accepted but expected. And in that climate, Rashid entered the fray. Three years before, Rashid won the Asian junior title, but in the intervening years he was just blowing hot and cold. Perhaps Rashid was not aware of the script, because he dispatched Wiranata after two tough sets. Malaysia now 1-2 behind. Suddenly the buzz was all over the stadium. A nation turned its lonely eyes to the Sidek brothers. There was expectation. Malaysians were quite behind China and Indonesia in smashing. The Sideks were probably the most successful but least smashing partnership in the history of badminton. Watching them is not for the faint hearted, but entertain they do. For them, playing was to tire the other guys out by retrieving all the smashes that came their way. It was that insane. No coach would train a doubles combination to play like that, but that was the only way the Sideks knew how to play. Eddy Hartono and Rudy Gunawan also played the only way anyone played the Sideks, they stormed them. The three sets played according to the same tune until the very end till the tiniest of margins gave the Sideks victory. 2-2 now. At this point, people were being wakened up from their sleep everywhere in the country. Phones were ringing, and the news was Malaysia was one match away from beating the Indonesians finally. It did not matter that the second team was a new and quite untested partnership. It did not matter that they were facing the great Liem Swee King and latest partner Bobby Ertanto. Liem was more known as King, and his jumping smashes were legendary, the “King Smash.” Because by the time they played it was already past midnight and like in any marathon after a point you let the momentum carry you. Malaysia offered singles veteran Ong Beng Teong partnering a new player, Cheah Soon Kit. And Cheah shocked everyone with his smashing abilities. His smashes were not drives disguised as smashes. The match itself must rank as one of the most amazing matches played in a Thomas Cup. Caught up in the atmosphere, the Malaysians somehow convinced themselves that they could play as well as their opponents. The endearing moment of the match, one which all the papers immortalised in their pages: At the tail end of a long rally, Liem dove to the right to retrieve a smash, and Cheah smashes the return to the other half of the court, which Ertanto dives and fails to meet. Both Indonesians sprawled on the court. Cameras flashing. The rubber goes the way of the Malaysian pair, and we’ve come back from the dead to beat the King-led Indonesian badminton team. Malaysia lost the final, but they made the next two final and won the Thomas Cup at our third straight tilt in 1992. But on that night in 1988, we beat the King. * The Thomas Cup Final Series begins in KL on May 8. Buy a ticket, you might just witness magic. Check out http://www.bam.org.my/ for information * The views expressed here are the personal opinion of the columnist. Previous: Memories of water — Part 2
