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

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

U13s Victorious in First Friendly Match

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Cambs' new U13 team

A new Cambs U13 team travelled to Northamptonshire on Sunday to play a friendly match against the Northants juniors.

With no Cambs U13 team in the Shires County League this season, or for the last few years, it was a momentous occasion for this group of players to get on the road and experience inter-County badminton.

In a superb result, the Cambs juniors secured a 12-8 victory.  With several players in the squad who still qualify as U11s, it was a very promising result from the team.

A team photograph, and the full match results sheet, is available in the Gallery section.

Thanks so much to new team managers Sue and Anil, and to the Northants squad for such a warm welcome.

Congratulations players!!  Hopefully this is the first taste of success leading to many future wins!

Upcoming Cambridgeshire Junior Tournaments

A number of competitive opportunities are available for junior players in and around Cambridgeshire in the New Year.

6 February sees the Suffolk U15 Bronze, which is a national circuit tournament for strong County players.  The Luton U15 Bronze follows closely behind on 13 February.

For U13s, the Essex U13 Bronze is on 21 February

On 21st February the U15 County Restricted will be held at Burwell Sports Centre from 1pm.  This is a tournament to determine the strongest County players in a specific age category.

On 27th February another Fun Tournament for U11, U13 and U15 age groups will be held at the One Leisure indoor centre in St Ives, from 9am.  The Fun Tournaments are aimed at ensuring enjoyment for players of any standard to get an experience of competitive play.

Entry forms for the local tournaments are available to download from the Tournament Entry Forms page.