Coach training opportunities nearby in October

Anyone interested in starting their badminton coaching qualifications have a couple of nearby opportunities to undertake their Level 1 coaching badge at the start of this upcoming season.

There are two courses, one in Bury St Edmunds, and one in Peterborough:

Bury St Edmunds Leisure Centre, Beetons Way, Bury St Edmunds, IP33 3TT:

Day 1

15/10/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

Day 2

22/10/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

Day 3

05/11/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

Thomas Deacon Academy, Queen's Gardens, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, PE1 2UW

Day 1

08/10/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

Day 2

09/10/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

Day 3

22/10/2016: 9:30am-4:30pm

After completion of this course you may be entitled to a FREE membership to the Badminton England Coaching Register.
As a member of the BADMINTON England Coaching Register you will enjoy all of the benefits listed below:
 - Civil Liability Insurance inc Employers’ Liability
 - Affiliation to BADMINTON England inc use of “Badminton England Registered Coach” Logo
 - Registered to Coach’ card
 - Access to coach education events
 - Access to Continuing Professional Development (CPD)
 
The course will cost £215 for BE members and £225 for non members
Click Here to book onto the courses or for more details contact coaching@badmintonengland.co.uk

Don't forget, the County will provide a bursary of 25% for Level 1 coaches who can demonstration they will be delivering coaching within the County.

Cambs AGM 19th May 2016

Don't forget that the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association annual general meeting will be held at Comberton Village College from 7.30pm on Thursday 19th May.

The annual meeting of the members of the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association is an opportunity to contribute to the direction of the association. This is a very important year, as the vast majority of the Committee are standing down after very long terms, so there will be a lot of change and new direction.

Anyone involved in badminton in the County is extremely welcome. There is a Facebook event at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1747509015489969/

U15 Victors lift U19 Titles!

Singles Competition

As with the U15 Restricted held earlier in the year entries by the girls was greater than the boys - an unusual situation!

Boys

The boys played in one group of 6 as a round robin and it  produced some tight games with 21-19 and 21-20 appearing in the results (there was not setting at this stage of the competition). At the end of the Round Robin section points are added together to decide who proceeds to the semi finals.There was a clear winner on 105 points, then two boys on the same number of points (102) who were separated for the semi finals places by which one beat the other in the round robin, the forth place had 84 points.

Semi Finals

James Xu (1) v Cameron Foo (3): 21-19
Leo Huang (2) v Julian Owen (4): 21- 10

James (the reigning U15 Champion) went on to play  a mature game by beating Leo in the final and lift his second Restricted Title of the year.

Final

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Leo Huang v James Xu: 15-21

Girls

The girls were in two groups one of 4 and the other of 5. In the girls competition Group 2 was straight forward with two clear winners but Group 1 was a real tight battle for the semi final places with 3 of the five ending on 68 points. One of these had won a single games whereas two had won two. Of those two the victor during the round robin phase proceeds to the semi final.

Semi Finals

Amy Zhang  (winner G1) v Ghazal Seidi (R/Up G2): 21-16
Chanumi Gamage (G2)  v Alice Bates (R/Up G1): 21-9 

In the final, as with the boys, Chanumi (U15 Champion) beat her older opponent to lift the U19 title.

Final

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Chanumi Gamage v Amy Zhang: 21-7

Doubles Competition

Boys

With just 3 boys pairs entered a Round Robin was played and the 2 highest total points scores would play a 3 game final. The highest points system resulted in a pair that had lost both their games to 19 going through to the final ahead of a pair that had beaten them in the round robin.

Final

Leo Huang and James Xu v Cameron Foo and Julian Owen: 21-12, 21-16

Girls

Compared to recent years there was a good entry with 5 girls pairs. After a few close games in the round robin there were 2 clear leaders who played for the U19 title.

Final

Chanumi Gamage and Sophia Abbott v Amy Zhang and Eve Lauder: 19-21

Full scoresheets and photographs of winners and singles runners-up are in the Gallery pages.

Cambs Fun Tournament 27 February

On Saturday 38 competitors met at the One Leisure facility in St Ives to compete in the Cambs Schools Badminton Fun Tournament.

There were many good games across the three age categories.  The winners were as follows:

u/11 boys: Singles Winner Zai Spencer, runner up James Aspinal
u/11 boys: doubles winners Joe Shears and James Aspinal
 
u/11 girls: singles winner Nandana Rambukumar, runner up Carys Leung
u/11 girls: doubles winners Carys Leung and Nandana Rambukumar
 
U/13 boys: singles winner Wing Lun Lim, runner up Jeremy Yuan
u/13 boys: doubles winners Wing Lun Lim, Archira Waduge
 
u/13 girls: singles winner Ruby Spencer
u/13 girls: doubles – no entries
 
u/15 boys: singles winner Zak Aldous, runner up Wing Lun Lim
u/15 girls: singles winner Sophia Abbot, runner up Alice Bates
 
u/15 boys: doubles winners Wing Lun Lim and Archira Waduge
u/15 girls: doubles winners Sophia Abbott and Alice Bates

Full results sheets will be available shortly.

Well done to everyone who entered, and many thanks to Sandra Dennis for organising and running the event.

Badminton England's National Schools Championships Regional Round: 3 March

The East level 4 Regional round of Badminton England's National Schools Championships is taking place on Thursday 3rd March at The University of Cambridge Sports Centre.

The National Schools Championships is England's largest schools participation event with over 35,000 students representing more than 1,500 schools during the championships, culminating in the National Finals Weekend at the National Badminton Centre. However, we are continually looking at ways we can improve and increase the prestige of the National Schools Championships and one of the things we are looking to do is increase the prestige of the Regional Rounds as they are the last round before the National Finals Weekend.

We believe it would be great for the students playing at the Regional Rounds to see as many people as possible present from the local badminton community and it would be great if you are able to attend your Regional Round.

If you have any further questions about the National Schools Championships in general, please do not hesitate to contact me on 01908 268400 or via NationalSchoolsChampionships@badmintonengland.co.uk

Matt Hammond, Badminton England

Masters Over 50's Match Reports

Sunday 24/1/16, Home v Norfolk.

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, Wilf Janssen, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor and Carol Salmon.

Mens

Cambs won 3 out of 4 mens rubbers, with Martin and Martyn teaming up to beat the first Norfolk pair in a 3 setter 22-24, 21-14 and 21-16 and a comfortable win against their second pair.   Wilf and John had two close games, beating the firsts 21-18 and 23-21, and lost to the seconds 17 and 19.

Ladies

Angela and Di lost to the first pair but beat the seconds to 12 and 7. 
Helen and Carol couldn't quite convert a three setter but lost 16-21, 21-19, 16-21, could have gone either way!!

Mixed

Martyn Clark and Di Baker played as first mixed and won their gmae to 19 and 15.

Wilf and Helen played second and after a good first end winning 21-19 couldn't quite manage to win losing to 14 and 13 in the second and third ends.

Martin Smith and Angela Sharman went in as thirds winning another three setter 21-16 19-21, 21-17.

This left John Harvey and Carol Salmon with the responsibility of bringing home the win or making it a draw. They came up against a strong third pair and found it hard to get into their stride finally losing to 7 and 15.

This made it a 6-6 draw, with 14 games each. We finally lost out by 2 points 504-506.

It was a very good game played in good spirits which all pairings felt they could/should have won it for us.

An excellent result and turnaround from a 10-2 loss at their end.

Well Played Team.

Sunday 31/1/16, Away v Suffolk

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, Wilf Janssen, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, and Xin Cheng.

Mens

Martin and Martyn lost a close game 17 and 18 to the first pair, but felt it could have gone either way, and beat the seconds to 19 and 18.

Wilf and John narrowly lost to the seconds, 16 and 18. But managed to take an end of the firsts eventually losing 16-21 21-15 15-21.

Ladies

Pairings were Angela and Di  and Helen and Xin. Both pairs suffered a heavy defeat to a strong first ladies pair. And both had a better game against their second pair with Angela and Di managing to take an end off them.

Mixed

We didn't manage to win any mixed rubbers, with only Wilf and Helen as second mixed managing to take an end.

All in all a somewhat disappointing outing where we all feel we could/should have done better. Most if not all of the games played were closer than the scorelines suggest.

Many Thanks Team, especially Wilf for standing in for John Pickering who had to pull out due to illness on Saturday.

Martin Smith
Captain.

Cambs 3 win 1 lose 2 in difficult, but very fun final weekend!

Hey folks, Simon Parker here reporting for Cambs3's last weekend! So much to tell, but will try to keep it as brief as possible! Campbell stolen by the 2s and Rachel unable to play, Mike and Alison subbed in.

Lost 6-5 to northants2
Lost the first 6 games (all the singles and 1 mens), won the next 5. Lots of close ends but we were well beaten in the singles. 10-minute highly embarrassing score row in the middle of Me and Mike's men's (are we 19-16 up or 19-18 up?) Eventually settled on 19-17 and then won the last two points anyway rendering the whole thing completely pointless. Cringe. Good win for Ruth & Alison in the ladies in 3 close ends.

Lost 9-2 to Suffolk2
Very comfortably beaten in all of the singles except mine against their 3rd man which I managed to scrape. Lost all the rest except me and Mikes doubles which we won in three; won 21-10 in the last after a great piece of advice from Mike which really deconstructed them as a pair. Liz & Mike very nearly took their mixed but lost 21-18 in the 3rd - pretty good for a pair who had never played together before!

NOW THE FUN BEGINS

So the 2nds had TWO injuries on Saturday, which meant they took Alex and Tom (the only two players not staying overnight in Oakham!) for the Sunday. I then spent about 2 hours on the phone to various reserve men to see if anyone would make the trip. My first 10-15 players couldn't make it SLASH couldn't drive and weren't up for taking the train. I eventually managed to recruit Martin Crossley and Chris Parker to take the train up and play - I swear to god I'm not just being "that guy" and asking my brother/clubmate, I genuinely did ask everyone on the reserve list plus a few others!!!

Fresh from that stress, the remaining 7 of us went out for dinner and drinks, which was actually really good fun :)

On the Sunday, Martin and Chris managed to miss their stop (ahhhh!). Meaning Liz had to sit around for about an hour until they arrived in Peterborough to pick them up (THANKS LIZ!). Everyone was late. Negotiations with the opposition ensued but they were graceful, thankfully.

Won 6-5 Against Lincs2
Once again, we lost all of our singles (partly because all 3 of our normal singles men were taken by the bloody 2nd team at this point hehe) except Alison who took hers in two very tidy ends. We then won almost all of the remaining fixtures, including Chris & Bertie's mens and Martin/Kerry's Mixed. Alison and Ruth unfortunately struggled against a strong 2nd pair, but in the best viewed game of the season, Kerry and Mike won the very final game 28-26 sealing the win to rapturous applause and many-a high five!

A really fun season in the end and a really good atmosphere within the team throughout the weekend. I'm sad it's over now! Thanks to everyone that played for us over the season :)