Players mixed and matched for relay

A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.

The first round of Badminton Eastland's first two-week relay tournament was held at the Badminton Centre on Wednesday night.

Organisers were delighted with the enthusiasm of the 20 players who took part. Top masters and super veterans mixed with junior, club and BIZminton players.

Eastland's masters team will play the first round of their interprovincial ties in Bay of Plenty on August 1 and the super veterans will host teams in Gisborne on August 15, so it was a good opportunity for team members to practise their skills in a competitive environment after lockdown.

A relay tournament is a team event in which players enter as individuals and are assigned to teams chosen to be of equal overall ability. They include players from different levels and of different abilities.

Teams compete in ties made up of short matches that begin at the score of the preceding match. As the matches are completed, the winning score is progressively increased until the winner of the final match is the winner of the tie.

In Eastland's version of the relay format, the players were divided into four teams of eight combinations — men's, women's and mixed doubles.

Match 1 on each court was first to 31. Match 2 began at the Match 1 score and continued until 62. Match 3 then began from the score of Match 2 and continued until 93. This continued until the final match, concluding at 124.

The matches were all close. Starting the event, Gabe Perano and Linda White defeated Victoria West and Donna Lugtig 31-30 in a contest that could have gone either way.

In Round 3, Ron Prebble and Stella Perano started at 62 with their opponents Hamish Ledger and Corey Lugtig at 36. Hamish and Corey battled but after winning 53 points they couldn't overtake Ron and Stella, who won 31 points and reached the 93 mark first.

The biggest issue was remembering the score.

Court 1: Gabe Perano/Linda White def Victoria West/Donna Lugtig 31-30; G Perano/Adrianne McLeod lost to Ross Hannam/V West 54-62; Dave Colbert/White lost to Justin Kent/D Lugtig 92-93; McLeod/Amy McNay def Hannam/Iain West 123-116.

Court 2: Colbert/McLeod def Kent/Hannam 31-24; McNay/White def D Lugtig/I West 62-49; G Perano/McNay def V and I West 93-68; Colbert/G Perano def Kent/V West 123-92.

Court 3: Debbie Brown/Stella Perano def Corey Lugtig/Makuini Winiata 31-21; Alan Ledger/Brown def Kanamik Khan/Winiata 62-36; Ron Prebble/S Perano def H Ledger/C Lugtig 93-89; A Ledger/Dane Berry def K Khan/Ruth Ledger 124-121.

Court 4: Prebble/A Ledger lost to H Ledger/Khan 23-31; S Perano/Berry lost to C Lugtig/R Ledger 56-62; Brown/Berry def Winiata/Khan 93-77; Prebble/Brown def H Ledger/Winiata 124-106.

Final results: Alert 1 defeated Alert 2, 246 points to 208pts; Alert 3 defeated Alert 4, 248pts to 227pts.