1967 Thomas Cup

The 1967 Thomas Cup was the 7th tournament of Thomas Cup, the most important men's badminton team competition in the world. The inter-zone matches and Challenge Round finale were held in Jakarta, Indonesia.

Malaysia won its fourth title after beating Indonesia in the Challenge Round under unusual circumstances. With Malaysia leading Indonesia 4 matches to 3 in the best of nine series, play was suspended during the eighth match due to unruly crowd behavior (see Challenge Round below).

This contest was noteworthy for other reasons as well: the old met the new. Indonesia's Rudy Hartono, not yet 18, burst onto the scene as did other new stars such as Denmark's Svend Andersen (Pri) and Japan's Ippei Kojima. It was the last Thomas Cup, and a sad exit, for Hartono's teammate Ferry Sonneville who was more than twice Hartono's age. It was also the last time Erland Kops played in the inter-zone matches and the last inter-zone appearance for other veterans such as Malaysia's Teh Kew San and the USA's Jim Poole. [Pat Davis, The "Guinness Book of Badminton" (Enfield, Middlesex, England: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1983) 123, 124.]

Intra-zone summary

The competition initially involved 23 nations, though two of these, East Germany and Thailand (a major men's badminton power at that time) declined to play their opening ties (sets of matches). The draw was made up of four zones; Asian, European, American, and Australasian; with the winners of each zone then competing for the right to play defending champion Indonesia in the Challenge Round.

A powerful Malaysian team coasted through the Asian zone by beating India and then Pakistan, both with the loss of one match (8-1). The European zone provided the largest number of closely fought ties. In one zone semifinal Sweden nearly upset perennial zone winner Denmark, losing the last two matches to go down 4 matches to 5. South Africa upset England 6 to 3 in the other semifinal, but was no match for Denmark (1-8) in the final. In the final of the American zone the USA narrowly defeated Canada 5 to 4. Japan easily defeated New Zealand (9-0) and Australia (9-0) in the Australasian zone to reserve its place in the inter-zone competition [Herbert Scheele ed., The "International Badminton Federation Handbook for 1971" (Canterbury, Kent, England: J. A. Jennings Ltd., 1971) 78.] [Pat Davis. The "Guinness Book of Badminton" (Enfield, Middlesex, England: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1983) 123.] .

Teams

5 teams from 4 regions took part in the Inter-Zone ties. As defending champion, Indonesia skipped the Final Round and played directly in the Challenge Round.

;Australasian Zone
*bd|JPN
*"bd|INA"

;Asian Zone
*bd|MAS

;European Zone
*bd|DEN

;Panamerican Zone
*bd|USA

Inter-zone playoffs

The first inter-zone tie in Jakarta pitted Denmark against Malaysia. "On paper" they were the two strongest teams in the tournament with recent major event champions such as Erland Kops, Henning Borch, and Svend Andersen (Pri) for Denmark, and Tan Aik Huang, Ng Boon Bee, and Tan Yee Khan for Malaysia. With wins by Kops in singles and Andersen and Per Walsoe in doubles, Denmark was able to stay even (2–2) on the first night of play. On the second night, however, a familiar pattern recurred for the tropically-challenged Danes as they wilted in the heat to drop all five matches. In the other semifinal Japan's tiny but "jet-propelled" Ippei Kojima won all four of his matches to trump a crowd-pleasing performance by 35 year old Jim Poole and lead his team to a 7–2 victory over the USA.

The inter-zone final between Malaysia and Japan was less suspenseful than the 6–3 final score might indicate. Though two of the first five matches were very close Malaysia won all of them to clinch the contest early. The powerful doubles team of Boon Bee and Yee Khan remained undefeated in the series while Masao Akiyama performed well in defeat for Japan

First round

References

External links

* [http://www.internationalbadminton.org/tc_1966-67.html Thomas Cup (1966-67) Results] at "Badminton World Federation"
* [http://tangkis.tripod.com/thomas/final67.htm Smash: 1966-67 Thomas Cup - Challenge Round]