It was a day at Badminton Hall when the players did not hear the applause. When the umpires never called out a score. And the telephone was never used.
Most of those taking part in the sports convention last weekend live in this silent world constantly. A few can hear murmurs of noise, but the majority know the world only as a large, colourful mime.
Yet no observer could have mistaken the enjoyment the spectators at the badminton expressed in their conversation, using signs and movements of their arms, hands and lips.
Nor the encouragement they gave the teams, as the umpire turned over score cards to mark points won or lost, or pointed for a change of service.
Outstanding for the Auckland team in the New Zealand Deaf Amateur Sports Association’s annual tournament last weekend were 19-year-olds Kevin Pivac and Jonathon Anton.
Both won eight games in the gruelling, nine-game badminton competition, lasting all Saturday.
By sign language, with John Hunt, the association secretary assisting, they were able to explain how they had started in sport.
Kevin was encouraged to play Rugby while at the School for the Deaf, and had his first game when he was 10.
He has been an Auckland seventh grade representative, and was this season in the Waitemata Rugby club fourth grade, playing either wing or second five-eighth.
If Kevin cannot hear, what happens when the referee blows his whistle?
Observant
“When I see that the other players stop moving, I know something has happened and the referee has probably halted play,” he says.
And what if Kevin is running with the ball away from the play, and the referee blows the whistle behind him?
“Sometimes even players with good ears don’t hear the referee,” says the Henderson apprentice panelbeater with a grin.
Jonathon Anton, taking the example from his father’s keenness, began to play tennis when he was nine years old.
Won the lot
He also belongs to the Eden Roskill badminton club, and has progressed so well there in the last three years that he was picked for the interclub team which recently played in Whangarei. Jonathon won all his games.
An apprentice printer, Jonathon says it was not so difficult to learn to play in a club with hearing people, because the players were very helpful and looked after him.
Both boys play badminton regularly at the Deaf Welfare Centre.
Deaf from birth, both boys have adapted themselves to their disability and lead normal lives as do most deaf people.
In fact, in the decibel-loud world of 1969, deafness can even have positive advantages.
