Badminton England Senior Silver Circuit returns to Cambridgeshire

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Cambs' Min Dabasinskas is congratulated by Daniel Bates

The Cambridgeshire Badminton Association welcomed the return of the Badminton England Senior Silver Circuit at the weekend, holding the 49th Cambridgeshire Senior Silver Tournament all day on Saturday at the Cambridge Regional College.

The Silver Circuit is the second tier of national competition, and attracts top County players from around the Country.  This tournament was a welcome return for the County, which has not hosted the event since 2015.

Every discipline was hard fought, with excellent games throughout the day.  It was in the Mens singles where Cambridgeshire enjoyed the greatest success, with the County's Min Dabasinskas winning the final against England junior Ethan Rose with a nail-biting 23-21 second game.

In Womens singles Suffolk's Katie Scott took the honours.  In the Mens Doubles James Scott and Daniel Hooper (also of Suffolk) were victors in a three-end final against Daniel Leers and Daniel Brown (Herts and Northants).  Katie and James then teamed up to take the Mixed Doubles final.

Finally, after playing a round-robin format, Emma Hooper and Natalia Mitchell (Nottingshamshire and Oxfordshire respectively) won the Womens Doubles competition, after winning all of their games.

Cambs' other notable result was Neil Place and Daniel Bates, who narrowly missed out 18-21, 20-22 in the semi-final of the Mens Doubles.

Complete results of all the events are available on Tournament Software.

Many congratulations to everyone who played so well during the day, and to the worthy winners.  We hope to be able to run this, and several other circuit tournaments regularly.

Photographs of all the winners are available on the Gallery pages.

Cambs hosting National Schools Championships on 8th March - Helpers needed

On Thursday 8th March the Cambs' Coaching Coordinator Philip Gray is helping to run the National Schools Championships here in Cambridge.

The winners of each tournament will go to Regional Finals on the 19th and 20th March.

There are two tournaments on 8th March in Cambridge: 

• 10am-1pm for KS3&4 boys
• 1.30-4pm for KS3&4 girls

The competition is at the Cambridge University Sports Centre (https://www.sport.cam.ac.uk/about-us/find-us).  If any players or supporters of badminton in Cambridge were available for part of the time to help out that would be extremely helpful. 

Basically people are needed to keep an eye on the games, in particular keeping score and helping with the rules. Also with making sure the right children go to the right courts etc.

Do drop Philip an email (coaching@cambridgeshirebadminton.org) if you can help even if it’s just an hour or two.

Cambs' Olga Chernysheva wins World silver medal

Cambridgeshire's own Olga Chernysheva travelled recently to Cochin in India as part of the team representing England in the BWF World Senior Championships.

The BWF World Senior Championships are held every two years and the Championships is a prestigious individual event for players. The winners of each category is awarded a gold medal and crowned World Senior Champion in their particular age category. The runner-up gets a silver medal while the third place winner gets a bronze medal.

This year, the championships were held on 11–17 September in Cochin Kerala, India.

After a week of competition, playing with her Russian partner Olga Kuznetsova, Olga faced another mixed-country pair of Louise Culyer (England) and Dorte Steenberg (Denmark) in the final of the O40 women's doubles.  After a hard match, the two Olga's succumbed 21-12, 21-14, and were awarded an amazing silver medal.

Everyone from Cambs Badminton wishes Olga many congratulations on this achievement!!

You can see the full results on the BWF website.

2017/18 Senior County Teams Selected

Hi Everybody

Well now the dust from the restricted and tirals has settled, the selection committee has sat down over a few meetings and done the difficult job of trying to select teams. We have done this on a number of criteria:

• County performances from previous seasons;
• Results at the restricted;
• Results in other competitive events (leagues and tournaments);
• Potential for improvement;
• Availability;
• Discipline strength (given the format of the current county Competition);
• Commitment to the county.

We have been exceptionally lucky to be able to field some very strong teams this year and are hoping that we can fight for promotion in all 3 divisions.

Dates for your diary:

• 11th November: county match;
• 25th November: county teams social;
• 27th January: county match;
• 24th/25th March: county matches.

Below are the players selected for each county team this season. Please be aware that 1 man can now play in all 3 disciplines in a single match and so some players may play all 3, whilst others may only play 1.

Ist Team

• 2017/18 Ladies: Jenny Crump, Sara Cunnington, Hannah Sharman, Nat Taylor (C)
• 2017/18 Men: Andrew Kidger, Min Dabasinskas, Joe Pickering Sam Scharf, Martin Crossley

IInd Team

• 2017/18 Ladies: Olga Chernysheva, Alison Reed, Alison Meijers, Adele Woodhams, Jess Sharman
• 2017/18 Men: Dan Bates (c), Stephen Pickering, Neil Place, Simon Parker, Chris Tustian, 

IIIrd Team

• 2017/18 Ladies: Kerry Kellett (c), Chanumi Gamage, Steph Jong, Vicky Norris, Hannah Robertshaw
• 2017/18 Men: Jack Curtis, Chris Clarke, Michael Duncan, Mike Parker, Alex Wilson

Reserves 

Ruth le Fevre, Jude Ashman, Liz salmon, James wilson, Abu Kaher, Sanjeev Balasuthenthirarajan, Bertrand Bonnet-Badillé

Reserves are also pulled from a wide variety of players and may change over the season.

Congratulations to all that made it, and best of luck with the season!

The Selection Committee

Badminton England Members Forum: 9 October

Calling all badminton players... If you want to hear what Badminton England are up to, you are all invited to a members forum in Cambridge on 9 Oct 7pm-9.30pm, at the Gonville Hotel, Cambridge (with Jim Mann (Board Director) / Adrian Christy (Chief Executive).

"Whether you are a player, coach, volunteer, official, parent of our younger players club member or a fan of badminton, we would love to see you at one of our Member and Fan Forums."

The Forums aim to:

• Develop and maintain an open, honest and constructive dialogue between members / players / fans / volunteers and the leadership at Badminton England
• Develop a better understanding of issues in badminton that affect you, whether they be locally or nationally
• Provide an opportunity for Badminton England to better inform members / players / fans / volunteers
• Provide an opportunity for Badminton England to discuss new ideas and test our thinking
• To develop a meaningful, and regular, communication channel with you

For more information: https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/news.asp?itemid=9850&itemTitle=Your+invitation+to+join+a+Member+and+Fan+Forum&section=13&sectionTitle=NEWS&year=&month=&newsprofilecode=

TO BOOK A PLACE: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/October17Forums

Badminton England seeks to attract 1,000 more women and girls into coaching by 2021

Following Badminton England’s recently published commitment to improving diversity, this initiative addresses the gender imbalance and lack of women and girls playing the sport at a recreational level and the depth of talent along our performance pathway. Badminton England also hopes this initiative will increase the number of female role models within coaching with the aim to attract, retain and develop more women and girls in badminton from an earlier age. 

Currently women make up 35% of UKCC Level 1 learners, 32% of UKCC Level 2 learners and 29% of UKCC Level 3 learners, whilst overall accounting for 30% of all accredited badminton coaches. Whilst these figures are above the UK average figure of 17%, this initiative will further increase the percentage of women and girls qualifying through our coach education system and working with players of all ages and abilities across the country.

Central to the new initiative will be:

• Bursaries to support women pursuing their coaching qualifications at grassroots level
• A programme to identify, support and nurture female coaches to support and position female coaches throughout our talent pathway
• Developing female coaches to be ‘performance ready’ to join our national coaching team
• Identifying and supporting women coaches to deliver Women and Girls Academies and develop their coaching skills
• A review of our coach education delivery, ensuring an improved coach education provision and learning experience for women
• A mentorship scheme to support women coaches across the sport

More information will be released in due course however as we start to shape this initiative, Badminton England is keen to hear from female coaches who are willing to share their experiences; what has worked well for you and what can be improved.

Badminton England would also be interested to hear from women who are thinking of becoming a coach or improving their coaching knowledge and experience. Whether your interest is at grass roots level or working within our talent pathway, we would love to hear from you so please contact coaching@badmintonengland.co.uk.

Local coaching courses

We are delighted that there will be two coaching courses in the Cambs region in the near future.

Level 1

Venue: One Leisure Huntingdon, St Peters Rd, Huntingdon PE29 7DA
Dates: 13/01/2018, 14/01/2018 & 20/01/2018
Price: £225 / £215 for BE members
Booking Link
Booking Deadline:  15/12/2017

Level 2

Venue: One Leisure Huntingdon, St Peters Rd, Huntingdon PE29 7DA
Dates: 10/03/2018, 11/03/2018, 14/04/2018 & 12/05/2018
Price: £380 / £370 for BE members / £355 for registered coach
Booking Link
Booking Deadline: 09/02/2018

Don't forget that Cambridgeshire Badminton Association will offer bursaries to coaches who can demonstrate that they will be coaching in the area.