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.
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
With some new faces added to the ranks, it fell to the Cambs IInd team to kick off the ICC season this year, with a home match against Staffs IIIrds in the newly designated 'Division 5 Central'. The IInd team are the very grateful recipients of the hard labours of the IIIrds last year, who won promotion through their Division 5 playoffs, with the higher league placing resulting in the IInd team going up. However, with the vagaries of Badminton England organisation, such promotion has resulted in the team remaining in 'Division 5' because other leagues above have been re-ordered!
There was much anticipation as the team formed and began to warm up, and everyone knew the day was sure to be a good one when the 1-ton tin of homemade tiffin arrived with Katie.
Staffs looked like a young but decent team, and that proved to be the case in the singles. Debutante Paul Heads enjoyed some challenging rallies, but always had the class to be in charge of his game, and won in two straight games, as did Katie Morton - looking more the classy singles player every match. Will Hodkinson and Laurel Bennett both encountered sterner resistance. Laurel played well, but was eventually outrun by a younger opponent, while Will's match was the spectator selection of the round, with a nailbiting first end going to 21-23. Unfortunately, despite giving his all, and winning the middle game, Will was pipped 19-21 in the third.
With the match 2-2 going into the levels then, Cambs II knew that they are going to have to fight for all their points this season. In the mens doubles, Paul and James Wilson - the established pairing - had a harder game against the first Staffs men, but then settled into their groove and beat the second pairing comfortably. Will and Daniel Bates founding the going harder. Although they powered home to win a third end 21-10 against the second pair, they gave the first pair over-generous leads in both games, and failed to reel them back in, and lost in straight sets.
The ladies doubles also reflected a difference in strength between the two Staffs pairs. Both Katie and Jessica Sharman, and Laurel and Louise Tarbit (also a debutante) won in straight games against the Staffs second pair. However, in identikit games, they won the first end, and then lost the second two in hard games against their first.
That left the score 7-5 going into the mixed, and with both victory and the bonus point for Cambs sitting on a knife-edge. James and Louise put their experience together to good use, winning in two - although they conspired to take the second to an impressive 29-27, after having been a long way behind. New pairing Paul and Katie seemed to click well, and rampaged to a 21-4 / 21-7 victory, clearly inspired to get back to the tiffin-tin before anyone else was off court. This left the bonus point down to Daniel and Jess, who despite letting a good lead slip away, were comfortable in winning their game in two ends.
This was a stiff test for a new team, and it's clear that the league will be a challenging one. It's great to get the season off to such a good start though.
The team: Daniel Bates (c), Katie Morton: Hurst Badminton Club / Paul Heads, Louise Tarbit, James Wilson: Ely Victoria Badminton Club / Jessica Sharman: Court Badminton Club / Will Hodgkinson, Laurel Bennett
More information about results of the Cambs II team is available on the Team Page.
As always, County selection has been a very long and difficult process, with many players making strong cases for their inclusion. Please appreciate that the Selection Committee apply a considerable amount of thought to the decision, and that there are only a very limited number of places we can offer. We have tried to be as objective and fair as we can in applying the following selection criteria:
For anyone who is disappointed at not making a team, it is worth noting that in previous seasons there have been more than enough times when players have been required to play up to support higher teams. It is likely that everyone will get their chance to shine at some point.
This season we are submitting three teams: Ist team (Division 3 Central), IInd team (Division 5 Central) and IIIrd team (Division 6 East). More details are available in the 'Senior County Squads' sections.
The targets for this year are for the Ist team to obtain promotion back to what is now Division 2. The IInd team have got a very strong challenge, to do well in their division which includes the Ulster team. The IIIrd team excelled themselves to go through the playoffs last year, and we would hope that they might be able to do the same again this season!
The teams as selected are:
Ist Team
Ladies: Olga Bryant, Jen Hewitt, Sara Mason (c), Natalie Taylor
Men: Min Dabasinskas, Tom Li, Neil Place, Simon Woodhouse
IInd Team
Ladies: Laurel Bennett, Katie Morton, Jessica Sharman, Louise Tarbit
Men: Daniel Bates (c), Paul Heads, Stephen Pickering, James Wilson
IIIrd Team
Ladies: Sharon Chandler, Emma Brewster, Jacquie Dennis, Holly Gayle, Stacy Knoop
Men: Graham Barr, Geoff Green, Aiden Foo, Martin Harvey, Will Hodgkinson, Paul Martell, Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian, Tom Zhang
John Tibbutt (Non-playing Captain)
Squad
(These are players who might be available for selection from time to time, but are not nominated to specific teams)
Kevin Barron, Damien Dugmore, Owen Mugeridge, Joe Pickering, Sam Scharf, Abu Kaher
There is of course the possibility that other players from the County may be asked to play as and when options become available.
The first County match is for the IInd team on 14th October, with the Ist and IIIrd teams playing the week after on 21st October. All three are home matches at CRC.
Have a great season, enjoy your games, and play well!
The Selection Team (Daniel, Neil, Sara and John)
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.
The weekend of badminton kicks off at noon today with the Singles at CRC. Even if you're not playing, why not come along and join us to have a great time supporting and watching Cambridgeshire's badminton community slogging their guts out on court?!
Don't forget too that the mixed starts at 9:30am tomorrow. Again, if you're playing levels why not come early and contribute to the carnival atmosphere?
If you really want to whet your appetite for the weekend of badminton ahead, you can now view or download the draw for the various competitions to be held this weekend (29th/30th September) at CRC.
Check out the Tournaments/Entry Forms page for all the details.
