Cambridgeshire Juniors Meet Travelling Chinese Squad

View fullsize

On 6th and 7th August, seventeen of the County's junior badminton players met with a travelling contingent of Chinese players, lead by one of the world's top coaches Qinghua Song.

The visit, organised by the Chinese Students & Scholar Association in Cambridge (CSSA) in conjunction with Daniel Bates, a junior coach based in Cambridge, comprised a fun play session on Thursday afternoon, followed by competitive matches on Friday evening.

View fullsize

Coach Song is a former coach of the Chinese National badminton team, having coached the 2004 and 2008 Olympic Ladies Singles badminton champion Zhang Ning and also the 2008 Olympic champions Du Jing and Yu Lang.  Now coaching at a Beijing club, she was accompanied by sixteen of her junior players and coaches on a week's visit to Cambridgeshire to form new badminton relationships, share her experience, and to facilitate competition between players from China and Cambridgeshire.

The local players aged 12-16 and coming from clubs in Cambridge, Littleport and Little Shelford enjoyed playing with and learning from the Chinese squad.  The standard was obviously high, and there were many strong and exciting games.  The competition evening also saw members of the Cambridge University Badminton Club in attendance.

View fullsize

All players of both teams were awarded certificates signed by Ken Verney (President of Cambridgeshire Badminton Association) and Gan Xu (Sports Director of the Chinese Students & Scholar Association in Cambridge) as well as custom medals to recognise their efforts in the exchange programme, and the British players were given gifts of cards bearing the signature of Lin Dan, the Chinese Olympic and World gold medallist.

Cambridgeshire coach and England Masters player Daniel Bates said: "We are very grateful to Coach Song and her players for visiting Cambridgeshire and spending their time with us.  All the players involved have had a really great time playing together and learning so much from each other".

While in Cambridge, the Chinese players also enjoyed spending time touring the City, and also spent a day in London.

Cambs Enters Three U15 Teams

View fullsize

Cambs U15 Teams

Six of Cambridgeshire's junior players travelled to UEA Norwich today to compete in the annual Eastern Region Single Sex tournament.

The tournament brought together teams from many surrounding counties, and had entries in U13, U15 and U17 categories.  Teams comprised of two players, who each played a singles and a doubles together in a match.

Cambridgeshire's entries were all in the U15 category, although many players were younger.  In the Boys' competition, Cameron Foo and Peter Du started slowly again a strong Norfolk A team. Having settled into their game, they went on to win comfortably against Bedfordshire B, followed by a nailbiting match against Herts B - winning 21-16, 21-18, 21-20.

That led them to a 3/4 place play-off against Suffolk, which was another extremely hard-fought match.  Although the final score was a 3-0 loss, Cameron and Peter could hold their heads high after fighting bravely, and scoring 19-21, 20-21, 17-21.

In the girls' competition, Sophia Abbott and Ghazal Seidi played as Cambs A, while Alice Bates and Rachel Owen played as Cambs B.

Both pairs had excellent group matches, with the girls fighting hard but also enjoying their games.  Sophie and Ghazal won through to the 5/6 play-off, which they won confidently against Hertfordshire B 21-18, 21-12, 21-8.

Alice and Rachel entered the 7/8 play-off, against Suffolk B.  Rachel's confidence grew as she won her singles 21-15, but in a point-for-point doubles with Alice, Cambs lost 18-21.  That left the match and final position riding on Alice's singles, which went neck and neck to the changeover, but then she picked up the pace and won 21-14.

The entire tournament was played in excellent spirits, and all the Cambs players had a fun time.  Many thanks to the parents who helped out on the day: Paul Abbott, and David and Roxane Owen.

Harry Zhao Enjoys Cambridgeshire U19 Restricted Victories

View fullsize

Harry Zhao: U19 Singles Winner

Whilst a sad lack of entries in the girls event meant the competition was not played, there were a healthy crop of boys contesting the Cambridgeshire U19 Restricted at Burwell Sports Centre this afternoon.

Split into two round-robin groups, Group B was won by Jordan Huynh with a 100% success rate, and the runner up Cameron Foo only lost to Jordan (21-15). Group A turned into an extremely close competition: while Harry Zhao came top by winning all his matches, it transpired that Jacob Oberholzer and Jake Alsop ended the competition on identical points scores.  This resulted in Jake going through on the head-to-head result (21-16).

In the semi-finals, Jordan slipped into top gear and beat Jake 21-8, while Harry beat his doubles partner Cameron 21-14.

In the final it was Harry who seemed to have the energy and consistency to take the match, seizing runs of points throughout the match and eventually winning 21-13.

Moving onto the doubles, after a round-robin group of five pairs, it was Harry and Cameron on top with a 100% win record who faced the scratch pairing of Jacob Oberholzer and Jake Alsop.

View fullsize

Cameron Foo and Harry Zhao: U19 Doubles Winners

The final was a gripping, and startling contrasting game of two ends.  Jacob and Jake shocked Harry, Cameron and the onlooking crowd by storming out to a 11-3 lead at the changeover.  However, with careful serving and using their experience and consistency, Harry and Cameron fought back, putting together an impressive run of 14 points to reach 17-11, and eventually win 21-12.

Congratulations to Harry, Cameron, and all the other boys who played the competition.  There were some excellent games, and the competition was played out in good spirits all around.

For more pictures, including the scoresheets, please see the gallery pages.

FORZA Futures Junior 1* Badminton Tournament: Cambourne

Boys and girls’ singles and doubles in age groups: Yrs 5/6, Yr 7, Yrs 8/9 and Yrs 10/11

The Cambs Badminton Academy, in association with Forza, is holding a tournament aimed at school level badminton players. This tournament is aimed at players who are yet to represent their county and have limited experience of competitive play.

Tournament Details:

Date: 19th April, 2015, start time: 12pm, finish time: approximately 6.30pm

Venue: Cambourne Village College, Sheepfold Lane, Cambourne, Cambridgeshire, CB23 3PH.

Tournament Secretary: Helen Critchell, email here, Tel: 0774 898 4536

Forza Futures 1* Entry Form

Why take part?

Badminton Junior Tournaments offer a fun environment that will give children the opportunity to experience competitive play without the worry of meeting County/England level players. These tournaments will allow players to represent their school/club and for the winners of the competition to go forward to a National Final on Saturday 13th June 2015.

For more information, please take a look at the Cambs Academy website.

Over 50's ICC Weekend Report

View fullsize

The Cambs over 50s attended the BE ICC weekend tournament on 10/11th January at Lilleshall Hall, Telford.

We played 6 matches over the two days, but after some excellent badminton and some very close games came away with 3 x 4-0 and 2 x 3-1 losses and 1x 2-2 draw (for which we are claiming the moral victory by 7 points!! ) Although it sounds like a bit of a whooping 2 of the 4-0 losses had 2 sets which went to 3 ends and so could have gone either way.

The team seem to have acquired a new mascot "Swanney", in the form of a balloon modelled Swan!! He/she came out to play at the dinner on Saturday night and was the subject of much fun !!!!! More so for some of the team........He, with a little help had some of the opposing team threatening to join us having seen the attention he was attracting (I will leave this to your imagination).

I think I am safe in saying a very good time was had by all, with some very good badminton too.

Team: Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng, John Harvey, John Pickering, Martyn Clark, Martin Smith (c)

Report by Martin Smith

Cambs Senior Silver This Weekend

View fullsize

Don't forget that CRC (Cambridge Regional College) on King's Hedges Road plays host on Friday 23rd and Saturday 24th January to the 48th Cambridgeshire Senior Silver Badminton Open Tournament.

Play starts at the following times:

• Men’s Singles Friday @ 6:00pm (Semi Finals Saturday 10:30am)
• Women’s Singles Saturday @ 9:30am
• Mixed Doubles Saturday @ 11:30am
• Men’s & Women’s Doubles Saturday @ 3pm
• Women's Doubles Saturday @ 4pm

Spectators are welcome, so if you want to see some top quality national badminton players, come along - the quality of the draw is very high!

You can keep track of the draw at http://bit.ly/csilver2015

All the best to everyone representing the County at the tournament!

Masters County Challenge O45 2015 Report

Saturday

View fullsize

Back row (left to right) Peter Colerman, Nick Pratt, Kevin Barron and John Foo

Front row (left to right) Sharon Chandler. Sandra Ashcroft, Lucy Matthews and Olga Bryant

It was with great trepidation, anticipation and excitement that the Over 45 team of Olga Bryant, Sharon Chandler, Lucy Matthews, Kevin Barron, Peter Coleman, John Foo, Nick Pratt and Captain Sandra Ashcroft (who had the onus task of trying to keep them all in line) headed off to Lilleshall for the annual Master games. They were in Group 1A containing Derbyshire, Leicestershire, Nottinghamshire, Shropshire, Warwickshire and Wiltshire and would play one match against each other county consisting of 1 Ladies, 1 Mens and 2 Mixed doubles.

Out first match was against Leicestershire and following a long journey of some 3 hours it was always going to be tough, a very nervous debutant Lucy Matthews played in the ladies with Sandra Ashcroft it didn’t take them long to work out their partnership and narrowly lost 21-15 21-17,  but this hopefully meant positive things for the weekend, next it was the turn of Peter Coleman and Kevin Barron who won 21-14 21-17,

Score  1 all going into the Mixed Cambridgeshire strength normally Olga Bryant paired up with her partner of old Nick Pratt at number 1 mixed and cruised at 21-7 21-13 followed by Sharon Chandler and John Foo who closed the match out in favour of Cambridgeshire 21-16 21-16.

Match score 3-1.

With a sit out of 3 hours this gave the team time to talk tactics and team selection HA HA!!  or grab 40 winks.  Team spirit was high going into the next match against Shropshire 

• Ladies Doubles                  -    Lucy and Sandra              lost    15-21  15-21
• Mens Doubles                  -   Nick and John                   won   21-8    21-14
• Mixed 1 Doubles              -    Olga and Peter                 won    21-9    21-9
• Mixed 2 Doubles              -    Sharon and Kevin            won    21-17  21-4                         

Match Score 3-1

Final Match of Saturday with much relieve of the team was against their old enemies Nottinghamshire

• Ladies Doubles                  -    Lucy and Sandra              lost    15-21  13-21
• Mens Doubles                  -   Peter and John                 won   21-14  21-19
• Mixed 1 Doubles              -    Olga and Nick                    lost     17-21  13-21
• Mixed 2 Doubles              -    Sharon and Kevin            won    21-17  17-21 and 21-13 

Match Score 2-2

Undefeated Day one, time to party and hopefully for Captain Sandra to prevent too bigger hangovers for a

10 O`Clock start on Sunday. Hic  Hic                                                                                   

Sunday

First match of the day was going to be against Warwickshire who had partied hard the night before,  with  Cambridgeshire hangovers prevented and muscles kept warm dancing the team were positive and up for the challenge

• Ladies Doubles                 -    Lucy and Sandra              lost     8-21   11-21
• Mens Doubles                  -   Nick and John                  lost    19-21   18-21
• Mixed 1 Doubles              -    Olga and Peter                 won   21-10  21-17
• Mixed 2 Doubles              -    Sharon and Kevin            won   21-12  21-14

Match Score 2-2

Second match against so far an undefeated team of Wiltshire and an unknown commodity for Cambridgeshire

• Ladies Doubles                  -    Lucy and Sandra              lost    13-21  12-21

This was followed by a outstanding performance and the match of the tournament by John and Nick

• Mens Doubles                  -   Nick and John                  won    18-12 21-19 and 21-13

This left it to the Mixed pairings to bring the result home, unfortunately this did not start well with Peter rubbing deep heat where beers cannot reach, giving the Cambs Over 50s ladies looking down from the balcony a sight not fit for sore eyes and playing against an injured opponent proved too much hence

• Mixed 1 Doubles              -    Olga and Peter                 lost    18-21  21-10 and 16-21    

Match score 2-2

But the pairing with 100% records to this date kept Cambridgeshire in the race

Mixed 2 Doubles              -    Sharon and Kevin            won   21-17  21-15

With one match to go Cambridgeshire remained undefeated with both Sharon and Kevin on 100%, so the pressure was on, so following a team talk it was decided to swap pairings around against Derbyshire

• Ladies Doubles                  -    Olga and Sandra             won   21-10  21-12
• Mens Doubles                  -    Peter  and John              won   21-6    19-21 and  21-19
• Mixed 1 Doubles              -    Sharon and Nick              won   21-14  14-21 and  21-12
• Mixed 2 Doubles              -    Lucy and Kevin                 won  21-16  21-11

Match score 4-0

Final positions

• Warwickshire: 10 points
• Nottinghamshire: 10 points
• Cambridgeshire: 9 points
• Wiltshire: 7 points

Followed by Derbyshire, Leicestershire and Shropshire

It was a great weekend of quality badminton, team undefeated  with a tremendous team spirit commented on by the organiser and here`s looking forward to 2016.

Many thanks team