A109 Light Utility Helicopter flight with mayor Gisborne City from the air in November 2023.
BADMINTON
Eastland had two losses in inter-association veterans’ Division 3 badminton at Papakura on Saturday.
They lost 8-1 to Waitakere (4) and 8-1 to Hawke’s Bay.
The Eastland veterans team members were Alan Ledger, Ron Prebble, Linda White, Annabel Riwaka and Ruth Ledger from the Patutahi club, and loan players Wayne Feck and Tony Bloomfield from Hawke’s Bay, and Mary Petrie from Counties-Manukau.
Against Waitakere (4), Feck and Bloomfield lost their match in two games.
In the next men’s pairs match, Feck and Prebble took the first game 22-20, but Waitakere fought back and took the second 21-15. The Eastland pairing were not to be denied, though, and won the third game 21-19.
Prebble then combined with Ledger and they lost in two games.
The women’s doubles were dominated by Waitakere. Ledger and White were the only pairing to reach double figures.
After the doubles, Waitakere led 5-1.
In the mixed doubles, the matches were more even. All but two went to three games.
Bloomfield and Petrie lost their first game 21-6 and fought back in the second to win 23-21. A change of tactics helped the opposition win the third game 21-10.
Ledger and Riwaka played well but couldn’t match the opposition, and lost in two games.
In the final match, Prebble and White won the first game 24-22, but the opposition dominated the second. The third game was close but Eastland lost 21-15.
In the second tie of the day, Hawke’s Bay dominated the men’s and women’s doubles. All of these matches lasted just two games.
The top pairing of White and Riwaka had the closest match. They lost their first game 21-9. In the second, they changed tactics as the score see-sawed, but Hawke’s Bay eventually took the game 24-22.
At the end of the doubles, Eastland were 6-0 down.
In the mixed doubles, first up were loan players Bloomfield and Petrie, who lost in two games.
Ledger and Riwaka lost their first game 21-11. They came back in the second, but Hawke’s Bay still won 21-17.
Top pairing Prebble and White fought back well to win the first game 26-24. Hawke’s Bay changed tactics and won the second 21-9. In the third game, both sides let fault serves and basic mistakes ruin the flow of the game. Neither pairing could dominate, but Prebble and White eventually took the third game 21-19.
Eastland’s next ties will be in Gisborne on July 16.
Eastland 1 Waitakere (4) 8
Doubles, men: Ron Prebble/Alan Ledger lost to Robert Gillespie/Kim Fuller 14-21 13-21; Prebble/Wayne Feck defeated Fuller/Rod Wilkinson 21-19 15-21 21-19; Feck/Tony Bloomfield lost to Gillespie/John Sanson 11-21 12-21.
Women: Linda White/Annabelle Riwaka lost to Melanie Sunderland/Noeline Oldfield 9-21 9-21; Ruth Ledger/Mary Petrie lost to Shona Wilkinson/Sue Gibson 8-21 5-21; Ledger/White lost to Sunderland/Gibson 15-21 13-21.
Mixed doubles: Prebble/White lost to Fuller/Wilkinson 24-22 7-21 15-21; Ledger/ lost to Gillespie/Oldfield 11-21 17-21; Bloomfield/Petrie lost to Sanson/Gibson 6-21 23-21 10-21.
Eastland 1 Hawke’s Bay 8
Doubles, men: Prebble/Bloomfield lost to Stan Codlin/Peter Lo 8-21 14-21; Ledger/Feck lost to Codlin/Steven Gee 10-21 5-21; Bloomfield/Feck lost to Gee/Lo 11-21 15-21.
Women: White/Riwaka lost to Tania Keesing/Sue Williams 9-21 24-22; Riwaka/Ledger lost to Williams/Marg Leatherland 10-21 7-21; Ledger/Petrie lost to Leatherland/Keesing 11-21 10-21.
Mixed doubles: Prebble/White def Codlin/Williams 26-24 9-21 21-19; Ledger/Riwaka lost to Lo/Leatherland 11-21 17-21; Bloomfield/Petrie lost to Gee/Keesing 9-21 9-21.,TENNIS
LONDON — Top seed Andy Murray struggled to a 7-6 (8) 7-6 (1) victory over Nicolas Mahut of France to begin the defence of his title at the Queen’s Club on Tuesday.
Second seed Stan Wawrinka lost to Spanish left-hander Fernando Verdasco 6-2 7-6 (3) but there were victories for fifth seed Croat Marin Cilic, who rallied to beat Spain’s Feliciano Lopez 4-6 6-3 6-4, and sixth seed Roberto Bautista Agut of Spain, who outlasted American Sam Querrey 7-6 (2) 6-7 (4) 7-6 (1).
Third-seeded Canadian Milos Raonic — watched by John McEnroe, who is coaching him during the grass-court season — lost the first set to Australian Nick Kyrgios in a tiebreaker but took the second 6-4 before the match was suspended due to darkness.
Murray fought off a set point before securing the opening set on his third set point, and then held off a further challenge when Mahut served for the second set at 5-3.
Wawrinka is working with 1996 Wimbledon champion Richard Krajicek during the grass-court season, and their partnership got off to a rocky start as Verdasco broke serve in the opening game and took control of the set with a second break.
In a match that was delayed by rain, the second set went with serve until Verdasco clinched victory in the tiebreaker.
“Grass court, it’s always a challenging surface for my game,” Wawrinka said.
“I need quite a lot of practice to play my best game. Today Fernando was playing well, was playing aggressive. When the grass is quite fast, you need to be the aggressive player.” — AP