Australia take badminton's Whyte Trophy

New Zealand lost 4-1 to Australia in badminton's Whyte Trophy in North Harbour last night.

Australia started the transtasman bi-annual teams competition strongly by winning the men's doubles as Oliver Leydon-Davis and Kevin Dennerly-Minturn appeared defensive against their attacking opponents and were beaten in straight games by Australian Olympian Glenn Warfe and Raymond Tam.

The next match featured Southland's Anna Rankin in the women's singles.

In a contest which lasted 42 minutes Rankin battled hard and looked like taking the first game but was eventually beaten 24-22 21-17 by Tara Pilven.

New Zealand's Joe Wu easily won the men's singles over Ashwant Gobinathan in straight games to keep the home team in the hunt.

However the women's doubles pairing of Kritteka Gregory (Waitakere) and Waikato's Amanda Brown lost to Gronya Sommervill and Jacqueline Guan 15-21 12-21 to secure Australia the overall victory and a 19-17 head-to-head lead overall dating back to the first match in 1938.

In the dead mixed doubles the brother and sister pair of Oliver and Susannah Leydon-Davis lost a hard-fought match 21-19 21-19 to Ross Smith and Renuga Veeran.

The win meant Australia were able to retain the Whyte Trophy after previously winning in Ballarat in 2011 also by a scoreline of 4-1.

All players will now take part in the Auckland International running from today until Sunday.

Results (New Zealand names first):
Men's doubles: Oliver Leydon-Davis/Kevin Dennerly-Minturn lost to Glenn Warfe/Raymond Tam 18-21 11-21
Women's singles: Anna Rankin lost to Tara Pilven 22-24 17-21
Men's singles: Joe Wu beat Ashwant Gobinathan 21-17 21-12
Women's doubles: Kritteka Gregory/Amanda Brown lost to Gronya Sommerville/Jacqueline Guan 15-21 12-21
Mixed doubles: Oliver Leydon-Davis/Susannah lost to Ross Smith/Renuga Veeran 19-21 19-21.