In New Zealand the earliest badminton matches were played probably by people who had learned the game in England or India. The history of regular play can be traced from the formation, about 1900, of the Auckland Badminton Club. After a few seasons, however, this went into recess and the game was not played regularly until towards the end of the First World War when a club was formed at Auckland Teachers' Training College. In 1921 a young people's social club in Nelson included badminton among its activities and, shortly afterwards, badminton clubs were organised in Wanganui and Napier and it was these two clubs which arranged the first badminton matches. Meanwhile, the game had revived in Auckland and by the mid-1920s a rapidly expanding group of clubs had taken shape. Under these circumstances, the clubs of Wanganui, Napier, and Auckland combined to form the New Zealand Badminton Association which held the first New Zealand Badminton Championship Tournament at Wanganui in 1927.