The 1955 Thomas Cup competition is an international team tournament for supremacy in men's badminton (its female counterpart is the Uber Cup). Beginning in 1948–49, it was held every three years until 1982 and has been held every two years thereafter. Twenty-one national teams officially entered the third Thomas Cup series in 1954-1955 but two of these, Belgium and Burma, defaulted their opening ties (team matches). Four qualifying zones were established: Asia, Australasia, Europe and Pan America. Winners from each zone played-off in Singapore in late May and early June for the right to play Malaya which, as defending champion, was exempt until it met a challenger in a conclusive challenge round tie. For a more detailed description of the Thomas Cup format see Wikipedia's general article on the Thomas Cup.
| Tournament details | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Dates | 24 May – 5 June 1955 | ||
| Edition | 3rd | ||
| Level | International | ||
| Nations | 5 | ||
| Venue | Singapore Badminton Stadium | ||
| Location | Singapore | ||
| |||
Qualification
edit| Means of qualification | Date | Venue | Slot | Qualified teams |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1952 Thomas Cup | 24 May – 1 June 1952 | Singapore | 1 |  Malaya
|
| Asian Zone | 27 June 1954 – 9 April 1955 | Bangkok Bombay Colombo Hong Kong Karachi |
1 |  India
|
| American Zone | 12 – 13 March 1955 | Winnipeg | 1 |  United States
|
| European Zone | 14 November 1954 – 3 April 1955 | Bonn Cardiff Dublin Dunfermline Le Havre Malmö Stoke-on-Trent |
1 |  Denmark
|
| Australasian Zone | 5 – 6 May 1955 | Melbourne | 1 |  Australia
|
| Total | 5 | |||
As it had in the 1951-1952 series, India won the Asian zone, its toughest competition coming in its opening contest against an improving Thailand 6–3 . In Europe Denmark, now boasting nineteen-year-old prodigy Finn Kobbero, beat three opponents with the loss of only one individual match. In the Pan American zone the USA lost 4 of 5 singles matches to Canada but won the tie by sweeping the doubles. In the Australasian zone J. E. Robson's singles victories were not enough to keep his New Zealand team from falling to Australia 2–7.
Squads
editKnockout stage
editThe following teams, shown by region, qualified for the 1955 Thomas Cup. Defending champion and host Malaya automatically qualified to defend the title it had won three years previously.
Bracket
edit| First round | Second round | Challenge round | ||||||||
| Malaya | ||||||||||
| Bye | ||||||||||
| Malaya | ||||||||||
| Bye | ||||||||||
| 4 June 1955 – Singapore | ||||||||||
| Malaya | 8 | |||||||||
| 24 May 1955 – Singapore | ||||||||||
| Denmark | 1 | |||||||||
| United States | 3 | |||||||||
| 31 May 1955 – Singapore | ||||||||||
| India | 6 | |||||||||
| India | 3 | |||||||||
| 27 May 1955 – Singapore | ||||||||||
| Denmark | 6 | |||||||||
| Australia | 0 | |||||||||
| Denmark | 9 | |||||||||
First round
editSecond round
editFinal
edit
| 1955 Thomas Cup winner |
|---|
 Malaya Third title |
References
edit- tangkis.tripod.com
- Mike's Badminton Populorum Archived 2016-03-30 at the Wayback Machine
- Herbert Scheele ed., The International Badminton Federation Handbook for 1967 (Canterbury, Kent, England: J. A. Jennings Ltd., 1967) 69–73.
- Pat Davis, The Guinness Book of Badminton (Enfield, Middlesex, England: Guinness Superlatives Ltd., 1983) 121.