THE LURE OF BADMINTON

Sun (Auckland), Volume II, Issue 418, 1 September 1928, Page 26

THE LURE OF BADMINTON

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iENTION among the illinformed that you play Badminton, and they probably will ask whether you also play ping-pong and marbles,

which all goes to show that everyone does not know everything about everything. Furious action, extreme skill and dexterity, and untrammelling costumes are outstanding features of this ancient game, which is now establishing a very decided hold in Auckland, where some five clubs exist, and in Napier, Wanganui and other centres. It. is essentially a game for the young —that is, real Badminton is. It can, of course, have its lethargic and slow-moving exponents as can any other game.

Few people know what the game is like, so let me explain that it is a “cross” between tennis and the game of battledore and shuttlecock. ft is usually played inside to escape deflecting winds, and the court is about 44 feet long, by 20 feet wide, the minimum space above the floor being 25 feet. The court is divided by a net five feet from the floor. The implements are a racquet the same length as a tennis racquet, but otherwise smaller and weighing only a few ounces, and a shuttle, comprised of a cork tip with a dozen or so feathers—a miniature comet. Either singles or doubles are played, the side scoring only the points it makes while serving, a lost point meaning lost service. The shuttle has to be taken on the full always. It does not bounce in any case. The shots are few, but capable of infinite variety. There is the smash from overhead, the volley, ihe drop .shot which is generally played from overhead and drops just over the net, and the short shot, played as a rule, near the net and Just getting over.

A hard-liit shuttel travels at a great pace for not much more than twentyfive feet. This prevents what would be the drive in tennis, as the shuttle is too likely to land over the ba%k line. After the distance mentioned • he shuttle loses pace very quickly. It is almost impossible to stand on one back-line and put a high shot out at the other end. The Badminton drive is therefore more like the tennis lob. The game is so strenuous that in championships three games of 15-up decide the issue, and a couple of rounds in a night are sufficient for most people. Badminton was the rage in the ’SO’s, and there are. in other countries many clubs which continued to the present time when there is a great revival of popularity. It is believed that the game came from India to England centuries ago. Modern Americans do not appear to have mastered the game. A year or two ago when the AllEngland team visited America they

could find no opposition, and Coward, the Canadian champion, was brought into the field, only to lose a match without gaining a point. The difference between the skill of players is immense. It is the opinion of players who have seen the champions of other countries in action that there is no one in New Zealand who would get more than a couple of points from Coward, and yet the All-England players simply wiped the floor with him. New Zealand, of course, has made its start under the worst conditions. The clubs have to take what they can get in the way of halls and lighting, both of which are invariably desperately poor. The Crystal Palace Club in England has twelve courts. The floors are painted 'green, and there Is a huge green canvas drop-curtain at each end of the court. The whole of the courts are lighted by concealed globes—all of which is sufficient to raise the envy of less fortunate players. Apart from the usual petty club differences the game in England and the British colonies has progressed under much the ordered system of most of their undertakings. One turns to America to find the usual romantic j touch. The young bloods of the 5 country introduced the game in the i 'Bo’s. Weddings Postponed Knickerbocker society patronised the Badminton of those days—the Astors, de Peysters, Gallatins, Vanderbilts, Livingstons, Rhinelanders and others—and the club and game (according to an American journalist) continues to retain the old knickerbocker flavour. In the ’Bo’s and the ’9o’s it must have been a sight to see them play it—the girls in their flowing trains and French heels and their tall bonnets, and the men in Prince Albert coats and tight trousers. And you had to he somebody to he a member of the Badmintou Club, 'it was no small social triumph to | enter at that gate. From the begin- \ ning the club was limited to a membership of 200, and there were many seasons when the waiting list was as large as the roster of the membership. One of the curious rules of that day was that married persons were ineligible for election, and many young couples, on the verge of matrimony, were forced to postpone their wedding for months because of their desire to belong to the delightful and exclusive Badminton Club. The stalwarts of the club in the ’SO’s and the ’9o’s, would be startled to look on as the game is played today by the very modern New York girls and boys, with furious enegry. But the interesting thing is that the i game has survived and is coming back into favour. A year or two from now, Badminton may he a bigger craze than it ever was in the days of our fathers and mothe