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.
Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian took the Kent U17 Silver Circuit Tournament by storm on Saturday. After grinding out a win in his group with two three-enders, Kaylan really his his stride. He beat three other players in comfortable straight-sets victories, before beating Dorset's Michael Higbee in the final 15-7, 15-7.
Congratulations go out to Zaylan for such an impressive result.
For the entire draw, see Tournament Software.
The weekend of the 12th/13th January saw the masters over 40s travel to Coventry for their annual ICC competition. Over recent years the team has shown their strength and narrowly missed promotion to the premier league.
The team for 2013 was Nick Pratt, Rob Couch, Kevin Barron, John Foo, Paul Martell, Sandra Ashcroft, Olga Bryant, Amanda Godfrey and Sharon Chandler.
With the smell of muscle rubs cream and the country gold reserve spent on knee bandages, the masters team kicked off with Staffordshire at 09:30 in the morning.
This proved not to be a good start, losing the mens doubles (Paul/John), the ladies doubles (Sandra/Amanda) and 2nd mixed (Rob/Sharon). The only win coming in the 1st mixed doubles (Olga/Nick). Match result, lost 3-1.
Things improved slightly with the next match against what is normally a very strong Notts team, with wins coming from Sandra/Amanda and 1st mixed pairing of Olga/Nick. Others pairs were Rob/John and Sharon/Paul.
For the final match of the day, super sub Kevin turned up and with a change in the line up resulted in. 4-0 win. Pairings of Kevin/John, Sandra/Olga, Amanda/Rob and Sharon/Paul.
Day 1 ends with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat (7 points)
Day 2 started with a 9am match against Lancashire who won all their matches the previous day. It was clear the Cambs players were feeling the affect of thinking they were teenagers and stayed up for late night team talk and bonding session losing the match 3-1. The only win coming from Kevin/Sharon at 2nd mixed. The other pairings were Nick/John, Sandra/Olga, Amanda/Rob.
With the team starting to wake up, the next match was against the very impressive Leicestershire side who boasted two national champions. This was always going to be a hard match, but after some close games, and some not very close the result was a 4-0 defeat. Pairings off Amanda/Sandra, Paul/Rob, Olga/John and Sharon/Kevin.
The final match was against Northumberland, who had alot of draws during the weekend, so we did not want to ruin it, and finished 2-2. The wins comings from the mixed pairings of Olga/Paul and Sharon/Kevin. The doubles pairings were John/Rob and Amanda/Sandra.
Final results. Played 6. Won 1. Drew 2. Lost 3.
Overall verdict: good time had by all.
It was a busy weekend for Cambs Badminton, as players from the County competed around the Country with much success.
In the junior Inter Counties Championships, both the U13 and U17 squads were in action.
Still finding their feet in the competition, the U13s travelled to Bedfordshire, where they earned an excellent 11-9 victory even though a last-minute withdrawal meant they started the match 4 rubbers down!
Also in the ICC the U17 team travelled to Northants, where they also recorded a sound victory, winning 13-7. The match also saw debutant Klaudia Otoka (Ely Victoria) playing, aged 14.
At the other end of the age spectrum, Cambridgeshire was also represented in the 18th English National Masters Championships in Guildford, Surrey. Olga Bryant competed in all three O40 disciplines (with a 3/4 position in ladies doubles), while Neil Place and Daniel Bates received Silver as runners-up in the O35 mens doubles event, and Neil also came third place in the O35 mixed doubles.
The Cambridgeshire Bronze was held on 10th November 2012. The results were as follows:
Semi finals:
Noura Mohtadi (Bucks) bt Millie Limrick (essex) 21-18
Briony Whitfield (Beds) bt Kezia Lawson (Oxon) 21-11
Final:
Briony Whitfield bt Noura Mohtadi 21-17
Winners: Noura Mohtadi (Bucks) & Briony Whitfield (Beds)
Runners up: Emily Fearnley (Yorks) & Millie Limrick (Essex)
Third place: Emily Clarke (Herts) & Victoria Clayton (Herts)
Semi finals:
Guy Jones (Kent) bt Morrison Ayley (Kent) 23-21
Christopher Adey (Herts) bt Tom Phillips (Bucks) 21-13
Final:
Guy Jones bt Christopher Adey 21-15
Semi finals:
Morrison Ayley (Kent) & Guy Jones (Kent) bt Charlie Hersant (Bucks) & Tom Phillips (Bucks) 22-20
Oliver Stevenson (Leics) & Eugene Stokes (Cambs) bt Christopher Adey (Herts) & Brett Masey (Herts) 21-19
Final:
Morrison Ayley & Guy Jones bt Oliver Stevenson & Eugene Stokes 21-8
For the full draw and further details see BE Tournament Software.
Eve Lauder beat Chanumi Gamage - 21-7
Hannah Duval / Chanumi Gamage beat Eve Lauder / Tiahane World - 21-13 / 21-13
Jordan Huynh beat Eugene Stokes - 21-12
Oliver Stenson / Eugene Stokes beat Adam Walker / Nathan May - 24 - 22
Sunday saw a long, exhausting, gritty day of tournament badminton, with the Cambs Seniors Players (Restricted) tournament stretching everyone involved to their limits.
Mixed: Early in the competition, first seeds Olga Bryant and Mindaugas Dabasinskas signalled their intent with commanding wins over Tom Frearson/Alyson Savill and Paul Heads/Jacquie Dennis. Third seeds Simon Woodhouse and Natalie Taylor also eased themselves into gear with straight-sets wins over Martyn Clark/Dianne Baker and Joe Pickering/Amanda Godfrey. The other half of the draw was more surprising. While fourth seeds Neil Place and Jen Hewitt booked their semi final slot early, the unseeded pair of Sam Scharf and Louise Tarbit were rampaging through the bottom of the table, defeating first Daniel Bates/Jess Sharman, and then overpowering second seeds Sara Mason/James Wilson.
In the semi finals, the seeding finally caught up with Sam and Louise, and Min and Olga triumphed over Simon and Natalie. Both games stretching to three ends. In the final, Min's movement and Olga's control proved too much for Neil and Jen. The first end slipped away 21-4, but they re-grouped and although losing the second end, had made the eventual victors work much harder for their 21-15 win.
In the mixed plate competition, the calm head of Sharon Chandler, and the power of Martin Harvey, proved too much for the rest of the competitors, and they won the final 21-18 against Martyn Clark and Dianne Baker.
Ladies Doubles: With a relatively small draw, the ladies doubles competition was quite compact. First seeds Sara Mason and Natalie Taylor cruised to the finals with two straight-sets victories over Emma Brewster/Angela Sharman, and then Katie Morton/Jess Sharman. Second seeds Olga Bryant/Jen Hewitt took the same route, with similar wins over Dianne Baker/Stacy Knoop and Jacquie Dennis/Holly Gayle.
In the final, Sara and Natalie proved simply too powerful and consistent for the new pairing of Olga and Jen, and they won comfortably 21-11, 21-8.
In the ladies plate competition, Louise Tarbit and Laurel Bennett defeated Alla Akselrod and Dan Tan 21-16.
Mens doubles: This saw a very strong draw, with the County welcoming a number of new or returning players this season, as well as many existing players having improved significantly. Title holders Neil Place and Simon Woodhouse had an extremely long and arduous path to the final, which required them to grind out results against many strong pairs. Nonetheless they survived nail-biting three-enders against Graham Barr/Will Hodgkinson, and again against Daniel Bates/Sam Scharf.
In the other half of the draw, new pairings Paul Heads/James Wilson and Tom Li/Mindaugas Dabasinskas were both working their way up the table, albeit with more comfortable victories. Once the seeds met, Min and Tom proved too powerful, and beat Paul and James 21-17, 21-15.
The final proved to be a superb testament to the days badminton. Powerful and fast, all four players gave everything of themselves on the court. In the end, Simon and Neil finally fell foul of the three-ender. Having stretched every sinew to drive to victory 21-19 in the first, they then found Min and Tom too strong, and the younger pair eventually prevailed 21-11, 21-18.
In the mens doubles plate, there was the unusual occurrence of the final being played twice. Last year's final was never played, so it was completed before the competition began! In an extremely unusual turn of events, Joe and Stephen Pickering ended up winning the same title twice, as they triumphed in the 2011 final against Owen Green/Martin Harvey, and in the 2012 final against Tom Frearson/Geoff Green.
The full results are available in the Tournaments section.
In the Ladies Singles competition, the limited entry resulted in Natalie Taylor and Olga Bryant competing the final at the very start of the day. The game swung wildly, with Natalie taking a commanding first game, while Olga retorted in the second. The third end was a nail-biter, with both players stretching themselves to complete long, powerful rallies. It was only when the score reach 23-21 that a winner emerged, with Natalie holding her nerve to recover the championship.
In the Mens Singles, by the
semi-finals, the only upset to the seeding had been victory by Paul
Heads over Stephen Pickering. In the first semi, Joe Pickering took an
early lead, but as Tom Li built up a head of steam, he won the second
and third ends to go into the final. Having survived a hard quarter,
Paul certainly went into his semi against Mindaugas Dabasinskas warm.
Both players worked hard in a thrilling game, but Min edged the result
in straight - albeit close - games.
In the final, Tom met doubles and training partner Min. It was another good game, but with Tom suffering from cramp and Min easing into top gear, he eventually won comfortably.
In the Mens Plate final, having won through a long plate draw, Owen Mugridge beat Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian to take the trophy.
Detailed results to follow.
