Cambridgeshire Juniors Meet Travelling Chinese Squad

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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.

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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.

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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.

Harry Zhao Awarded Eric Raynor Trophy at County AGM

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Marijn Prins receives IInd team colours

There was an excellent turnout for the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association AGM yesterday, where the business of the association was discussed at Comberton Village College.

Representatives of many clubs from across the County met together, as County colours were awarded to those players who had sufficiently represented the County for the first time this year.

IInd team colours were awarded to Marijn Prins, Haixi Yan, and Sutharshanan (Shan) Sundrapandi, IIIrd team colours were awarded to Thomas Frearson, and Masters colours were awarded to Lucy Matthews.

The AGM also saw the award of the Eric Raynor Trophy.  This award is made annually to a junior player who has been voted as having contributed most to the County this season - who has made excellent progress in the sport, enjoyed competitive success, and is considered to have set a good example both on and off court.  Players are nominated to the Committee from coaches across the County.

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Harry Zhao awarded the Eric Raynor Trophy

This season, the Eric Raynor Trophy was awarded to Harry Zhao.  Harry's performances this season have been excellent - seeing him win both categories of the U15 restricted, the doubles of the Junior Bronze tournament, and crowning the season by also winning the U19 restricted.  Those nominating Harry also remarked on his excellent attitude, and his constant smile, and his award was extremely well deserved.

Cambs Enters Three U15 Teams

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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.

Cambridgeshire Badminton Association AGM 21 May: Save the Date!

The Annual General Meeting of the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association will be held at Comberton Village College on the evening of 21st May.

Documents will be circulated for the meeting, and available on this site shortly.

Light refreshments and nibbles will be available at the meeting!

It is vital to the ongoing operation of County Badminton that members of the Association attend the meeting, and also consider where they might be able to assist in providing some time to get involved.  Over the next 18 months, the Committee will most likely be losing the Chair, Treasurer and Tournament Secretary as people step down from roles they have fulfilled for many years.  The Committee needs an injection of new people support badminton in the County for the future.

The more people who step forward, the easier each of the jobs that people take on will be.

Harry Zhao Enjoys Cambridgeshire U19 Restricted Victories

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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.

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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.

Cambs O50s v Leicestershire

Team: Angela Sharman, Di Baker, Xin Cheng, Sandra Dennis, John Pickering, John Harvey, Martyn Clark, Martin Smith.

Mens - Martyn and Martin won the only mens game, but John and John had a very close 3 ender against a strong Leics 1st pair, loosing out 21-19 in the third end.

Ladies - Many thanks to Sandra Dennis for standing-in at the 11th hour, due to an injury to Helen Taylor. Angela and Sandra were 14-10 up when Angela had to retire with an injury to her knee/calf. Hence we had to concede their two ladies games. Di and Xin managed to win one of their games 22-20 and 21-18.

Mixed - Due to Angela's injury we conceded the 2nd mixed game. All of the remaining games unfortunately slipped away from us, with John H and Xin managing a 3 ender.

Final result a 10-2 loss, having had to concede 3 rubbers. Many games were closer than the scoreline suggests.

Report by Martin Smith.

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.