If you’re lucky, you might see an old Black Cock or two in action in Queenstown over the weekend.
Yes, you read that right.
Badminton New Zealand’s (BNZ) bringing the masters nationals to the resort for the first time — play starts today — with a total of 130 players, aged from 35 to 75, from across the country.
Some of the players, who’ll be competing in singles, doubles and mixed doubles, are former members of NZ’s national team, dubbed the ‘Black Cocks’.
BNZ event organiser Jonathon Stone says, in terms of pedigree, the biggest name taking the court will be former England rep Tracey Hallam, 47, who won bronze in the women’s singles at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998, silver in England in 2002, as well as gold in the mixed teams event, and gold in Melbourne in 2006.
Hallam’s now involved in high-level coaching and, according to Stone, ‘‘keeps winning in age groups far younger than she should be’’.
‘‘She’s got plenty of class, she’ll be the biggest name there in terms of pedigree.’’
There’ll also be ‘‘a handful’’ of Queenstowners in action, including Jay Errington and Ome Allington.
The organisation’s had Queenstown on its list as a host for the tournament for a long time, Stone says, particularly because the masters
is just as much about socialising as it is playing badminton.
‘‘They enjoy getting away, so with that particular event we do try and move it around to nice parts of the country where we get the players to come and stay for a few days before or after and have a mini-break alongside the tournament.
‘‘We do take a few liberties in taking [the masters] to multi-sport venues and making it work so that we can go into some of these different towns and cities.’’
He says he loves the event because it shows ‘‘the whole spectrum’’ the organisation caters to, from juniors to players in their twilight years
who are still ‘‘loving it’’.
‘‘It’s really quite special.’’
Stone says anyone can come and watch the tournament for free — singles run from noon till about 5.30pm today, with doubles from 8am till about 6.30pm tomorrow and mixed from 8am till 6pm Saturday.
‘‘The players might not know what to do if there’s a crowd watching them, but they might rise to the occasion,’’ he laughs.
