News

Welcome to the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association (Cambs BA), a County association affiliated to Badminton England.

Cambridgeshire Badminton Association is dedicated to the development and promotion of badminton throughout the whole of Cambridgeshire.  The county consists of around 30 affiliated clubs as well as hosting Junior, Senior and Masters teams playing in the Inter-County Championships.

This web site is designed to enable Cambridgeshire Badminton Association to promote badminton through providing news and information on local, County and national badminton. Please visit this web site regularly to keep abreast of all the latest developments.

Cambs Badminton Association Jun Tournament 21 April 2018

Players at the Fun Tournament on Saturday

On Saturday 21 April Cambridgeshire Badminton Association and Cambridgeshire Schools Badminton Association held a Junior Fun Tournament at the One Leisure Centre in St Ives.

Children in the U11, U13 and U15 categories from around the County competed in a fun competition designed to give less-experienced players a taste of competitive badminton.

The winners were as follows:

  • Under 11 boys singles: Nikita Larin
  • Under 11 girls singles: Poppy Gracey
  • Under 11 boys doubles: Ted Stephenson & Nikita
  • Under 13 boys singles: Joe Shears
  • Under 13 girls singles: Calina Sdrobis
  • Under 13 boys doubles: Joes Shears & Zihong He
  • Under 13 girls doubles: Calina & Hannah Cook
  • Under 15 boys singles: Ryan Hodges
  • Under 15 boys doubles: Robbie Melton & Mayur Gangi

Photographs of the winners are available on the Gallery pages.

Many congratulations to everyone who played in such an excellent atmosphere, and thanks to Sandra and the team from CSBA for running the day.  Keep an eye out for more tournament like this around the County over the next year.

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

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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.

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

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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.

Female only badminton / Junior junior coaching sessions

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THIS ARTICLE IS FROM 2017 AND NO-LONGER VALID

Aspire Badminton Club is looking at setting up a female-only badminton coaching session.  Based at the new Trumpington Community College, they would like anyone interested to contact them at girls@aspire2.club

Download the poster for more information.

Aspire is also starting a new Saturday session from 30 September.  Saturdays will now have sessions at 1.30-2.30pm and 2.30-3.30pm.  For more information see http://www.aspire2.club/ or email Head Coach Philip at aspire.bc@virginmedia.com

Aspire Badminton Club launching in Cambridge

Great news: there is a new badminton club in Cambridge!  

The Aspire Badminton Club will be kicking off at Netherhall Sports Centre on 3rd February 2017, and run from 6-10pm.  There are a couple of hours of junior coaching earlier in the evening, and then an adult club 8-10pm.

The club is a friendly, inclusive club, which can also support players who are deaf/hard of hearing, or have any kind of disability, visual impairment, learning difficulty, special needs or autism.

For more information, see their website at www.aspire2.club

First junior squad practice session for 2016-17

There was an excellent turnout for Cambridgeshire Badminton's first junior squad practice session of the season, with 17 young people playing for three hours at Burwell. This regular monthly session links coaches and senior County team members with their junior counterparts, and the children get rigorous singles, level and mixed doubles practice.

The session today at Burwell was very busy, and full of effort and laughter! Many thanks to Daniel Bates, James Wilson and Simon Parker for supervising and advising the players.

Squad practice sessions are invitation-only. However, the sessions do also provide an opportunity for players who are new to the County, who haven't been involved previously, or who have improved, to demonstrate their ability and be considered for the junior County teams. If you are a coach or a parent and you believe you have a child who is strong enough to compete, please contact badminton@bates.net to arrange for them to come to a session.

Start of season newsletter

With the start of the season rapidly approaching, a newsletter from the new County Committee was sent to the secretary of each affiliated club, asking them to pass it on to all of their members playing badminton in the County.

The message contained important information about major changes to the County Committee, and information about junior, senior and masters badminton in the County.  If you didn't get the letter then feel free to nudge your secretary to pass such information along!  In the mean time, the message is below:

Dear Club Secretary,

Please see below some updates about Cambridgeshire Badminton Association for the upcoming season.  I would be grateful if you could circulate this to your members so that they can keep up-to-date about badminton in the County.

AGM

Apologies for the delay in you receiving this information, but ahead of the new season I wanted to let you know that following the Cambridgeshire AGM this year it was agreed to raise the county affiliation fees as follows:

Senior: £2.80
Junior: £0.75
Associated Seniors: £2.00

At the AGM, the majority of the long-standing committee members stood down, after dedicating a very significant period of service.  The leaving members had served on the committee for a breathtaking combined 111+ years of work supporting the sport, and club members!

The County Committee is therefore now as follows:

Chairman/Publicity Officer: Daniel Bates
Secretary: Louise Place
Treasurer: Graham Barr
Registration Secretary: Campbell Wilson
Match Secretary/ South Cambs League Rep: Simon Parker
Tournament Secretary: Neil Place
Coaching Coordinator: James Wilson
Masters Coordinator: Nick Pratt

General Committee Members: Sahan Gamage, Ruth LeFevre, Geoff McCall, Damian Saunders.

Please remember the Association is run by volunteers and we need your support to keep Badminton going in the County. If you can help out with anything or have constructive comments please let us know.

COUNTY RESTRICTED

For those that are interested the annual County Restricted Tournament will be held on the weekend of 1st and 2nd October at Swavesey Village College:

Singles: Saturday 1st October 9am-3pm
Level and Mixed Doubles: Sunday 2nd October 9am-6pm

Anyone wishing to be considered for a County team should certainly make the effort to enter, as this is the best chance to pit your abilities against the most players from around the County. Entries will open within the next couple of weeks (announced on the website and Facebook) and will be via Tournament Software as per last year. 

We are also looking for volunteers to help with running the tournament, even if it's just for an hour or two. Please speak to myself or Neil (neilplace101@gmail.com) if you can help.
Please pass these details on to any of your club members who may be interested.  

MASTERS TEAMS

The county is also running Over 45s and Over 50s teams this year and are hoping to have an Over 40s team next year. If you are in either of these age groups (or approaching soon) and would like to get involved please contact Nick Pratt (nick.pratt68@gmail.com).

JUNIORS

We are also very excited that the County is fielding two junior teams this season, for the first time in several years.  Cambridgeshire will have an U18 and U16 team, and the teams will participate in regular squad practice sessions.  If you have juniors who you think are strong enough to try out for a team, please send in their details so that they can be invited.

COACHING

The Association has a long-standing commitment to coaching and development within the County.  If you are interested in taking your coaching badges, the County offers bursaries to help with the cost for anyone who can demonstrate they will be coaching in the area.  Please contact me for more information.

To keep up-to-date with other badminton news in the County, please do check the website at www.cambridgeshirebadminton.org and ‘like’ the Facebook page (search for “Cambs Badminton”).

Wishing you all an enjoyable and successful season!

Any comments or queries, please let me know.

Kind Regards,

Louise Place
Hon. Secretary
Cambridgeshire County Badminton