NZ takes on Australia in Sword Fight test match

February 2, 2014

NZ takes on Australia in Sword Fight test match
(Feb 14/15 Sydney, Australia))

The Cricket World Cup may be on in Auckland in February but in the same month New Zealand’s National Kendo team will be battling it out with the Australian team in a series of three Trans-Tasman test matches.

These test matches are a lead up to the 16th World Kendo Championships held only every three years. This May the Worlds are in Tokyo Japan so a Trans-Tasman match serves not only to provide some Australasian competition, but is also a vital warm up for these teams to take on the rest of the world.

Kendo, or Japanese fencing, requires practitioners to wear approximately eight kilos of armour while fighting with long bamboo swords that mimic the fighting styles of early Samurai.

The Trans-Tasman Kendo competition will take place at the University of Technology, Sydney on February 14 and 15th. Fifteen top female and male Kendoka from NZ will travel to Australia. In the World competition in Italy three years ago the NZ team reached the top eight in the world, outclassing the Australian men. The NZ women’s team also topped the Australian women’s team to reach the top 16 female teams in the world.

“At our last Trans-Tasman three years ago, we were beaten in both female and male divisions but as our World effort showed, the competition was very crucial for our spirit and competitive knowledge, we used it to best effect,” said NZ team coach Alex Bennett.

The Trans-Tasman test series will involve three male and three female team matches of 5 players. A winning team will score the most wins in the matches or the most points. If they are equal after five individual team matches the teams choose their best player for a one point ‘kill’ match. The overall winner will be awarded the Trans-Tasman Plastron.

Bennett, himself is something of a legend. He holds a Phd from Kyoto University in Japanese history focussing on Japanese Bushido (Way of the Warrior), another PHd in Kendo History from Canterbury University and is the first person in NZ to reach 7th level black belt. He has represented NZ in seven previous World competitions and is optimistic about New Zealand’s chances. “We topped the Ozzies at the last worlds and we have three of our male players training in Europe and Japan, I think we will give them a good run,” he says.

Members of the NZ Team for Australia
From Canterbury – Blake Bennett, David Wong (training Japan), Ramon Palmer, Akiyo Yamaguchi-Ellin
From Nelson – Azusa Kaneda (female),
From Wellington – Walter McCahon (training in Europe), Cyntheia Lim (Australia)
From Hamilton – Jordan Te Wharau, Clem Guo (Australia)
From Auckland – Rina and Yoshie Igarashi (daughter and mother combo)
Walt Kim, Nicolas Robertson, Lucia Ju, Naoko Goto-Stephenson (female)

Officials
Team Coach Alex Bennett (Christchurch but living in Kyoto, Japan)
Women’s Coach Sue Lytollis (Wellington/Hutt)
Assistant Coach - Alan Stephenson (Auckland)
Team Manager - Bruce Middleton (Invercargill)

ENDS

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