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* July 2005 *
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••• A report on EUG (2nd - 3rd) •••
By Danielle

The Eastern University Games (EUG) are held every year in July and are attended by universities in New South Wales and Queensland. Many different sports, including badminton, participate in the Games which are a qualifier for universities who wish to attend the Australian University Games (AUG) held in September each year. This year the Eastern University Games (EUG) were due to be held in Tamworth. However, due to inadequate facilities in Tamworth, EUG badminton was hosted by the University of New South Wales in Sydney. On the 2^nd and 3^rd of July five men and five women from the University of Wollongong Badminton Club represented the University at the Games.

This year 6 universities took part in EUG badminton, including the University of Sydney (USyd), University of New South Wales (UNSW), University of Technology Sydney (UTS), University of Wollongong (UOW), Macquarie University (MQU) and the University of Newcastle (UN), though UN had only a men’s team. Over the last few years UNSW, whose players have often been members of the NSW state team, has dominated EUG badminton, though UTS and MQU have been strong competitors also.

Members of the UOW team had been training under the supervision of Ignatius Gan, for three months prior to the event. This involved training all players in both singles and doubles, as well as improving their general fitness. At the EUG, teams play three singles and 2 doubles matches against each participating University but there is no mixed doubles event.

Unfortunately, this year the UOW team did not have great success at the Games. The UOW women’s team, lead by Danielle Durland, failed to win against any of the four universities they played against, though they fought hard and often only lost by a narrow margin. The UOW men’s team, lead by Kevin Wong, had more success however and beat the Newcastle men’s team 4 games to 1, but were defeated by the other 4 universities they played. Over all, EUG badminton was won by UNSW this year.

Both the men’s and women’s teams from Wollongong University still qualified for the Australian University Games this year. However, given the obvious strength of the opposition, it has been decided that the Club will not be entering AUG (held in Brisbane) this year. All players who represented the University should be congratulated though (Kevin, Andy, Ken, Glen, Endy, Pearl, Twiggy, Danielle, Wendy & Lynsia) on their commitment to training and competing in the Games. Special thanks also to Iggy Gan for giving up his time and energy to train the UOW team, and to UOW Club president, Wilford Lie, for driving the team up and back on both days of the competition.

Having won the Australian Uni Games badminton many years ago, the University of Wollongong hopes to send a team to compete in the Uni Games next year, and maybe one day we’ll win back the title. The Uni Games have always been an important part of the sporting and cultural life of Australian Universities and we can only hope that the proposed Voluntary Student Unionism legislation will not mean the death of this event for future generations of university students.

Danielle Murphy Durland

EUG Team Manager