Cambs AGM 19th May 2016

Don't forget that the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association annual general meeting will be held at Comberton Village College from 7.30pm on Thursday 19th May.

The annual meeting of the members of the Cambridgeshire Badminton Association is an opportunity to contribute to the direction of the association. This is a very important year, as the vast majority of the Committee are standing down after very long terms, so there will be a lot of change and new direction.

Anyone involved in badminton in the County is extremely welcome. There is a Facebook event at: https://www.facebook.com/events/1747509015489969/

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

Masters Over 50's Match Reports

Sunday 24/1/16, Home v Norfolk.

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, Wilf Janssen, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor and Carol Salmon.

Mens

Cambs won 3 out of 4 mens rubbers, with Martin and Martyn teaming up to beat the first Norfolk pair in a 3 setter 22-24, 21-14 and 21-16 and a comfortable win against their second pair.   Wilf and John had two close games, beating the firsts 21-18 and 23-21, and lost to the seconds 17 and 19.

Ladies

Angela and Di lost to the first pair but beat the seconds to 12 and 7. 
Helen and Carol couldn't quite convert a three setter but lost 16-21, 21-19, 16-21, could have gone either way!!

Mixed

Martyn Clark and Di Baker played as first mixed and won their gmae to 19 and 15.

Wilf and Helen played second and after a good first end winning 21-19 couldn't quite manage to win losing to 14 and 13 in the second and third ends.

Martin Smith and Angela Sharman went in as thirds winning another three setter 21-16 19-21, 21-17.

This left John Harvey and Carol Salmon with the responsibility of bringing home the win or making it a draw. They came up against a strong third pair and found it hard to get into their stride finally losing to 7 and 15.

This made it a 6-6 draw, with 14 games each. We finally lost out by 2 points 504-506.

It was a very good game played in good spirits which all pairings felt they could/should have won it for us.

An excellent result and turnaround from a 10-2 loss at their end.

Well Played Team.

Sunday 31/1/16, Away v Suffolk

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, Wilf Janssen, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, and Xin Cheng.

Mens

Martin and Martyn lost a close game 17 and 18 to the first pair, but felt it could have gone either way, and beat the seconds to 19 and 18.

Wilf and John narrowly lost to the seconds, 16 and 18. But managed to take an end of the firsts eventually losing 16-21 21-15 15-21.

Ladies

Pairings were Angela and Di  and Helen and Xin. Both pairs suffered a heavy defeat to a strong first ladies pair. And both had a better game against their second pair with Angela and Di managing to take an end off them.

Mixed

We didn't manage to win any mixed rubbers, with only Wilf and Helen as second mixed managing to take an end.

All in all a somewhat disappointing outing where we all feel we could/should have done better. Most if not all of the games played were closer than the scorelines suggest.

Many Thanks Team, especially Wilf for standing in for John Pickering who had to pull out due to illness on Saturday.

Martin Smith
Captain.

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!

O50 Match report and ICC weekend roundup

Over 50's Away v Essex, Sunday 17th January

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, Peter Coleman, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Carol Salmon, Xin Cheng.

We put up a spirited fight against a strong Essex team, but despite some close games were unable to convert any into a win.The final score of a 12-0 home win does not do justice to the games played on the day.

Well done and thanks to the team for their commitment and support. And a special thanks to our "super sub" Peter Coleman.

Round up of the ICC masters weekend for the over 50's team

Team - Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, John Pickering, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng.

Following a late alteration we were pitted against Derbyshire, Notts, Norfolk and Shropshire, playing each team twice over the weekend and each rubber consisting of 2 games thus enabling a draw.

On Saturday we drew 2-2 with Shropshire, lost 3-1 to Norfolk, lost 2-0 to Notts with the other 2 games being a 1-1 draw and lost 3-0 to Derby, again with 1 match drawn.

After some fine food and entertainment on Saturday evening we were back on court "bright" and early, 9.00am on Sunday. We managed another 2-2 draw with Shropshire, bettered our score against Norfolk with a 2-2 draw, equalled our score of a 2-0 loss to Notts, and lost 4-0 to Derby.

Sadly we ended the weekend a close 5th with 3 points. Shropshire pipped us to 4th with 4 points, however we out performed them on rubbers, games and points, but their 1 win gave them the extra point.

All in all a good weekend with some good badminton and entertainment.

Many thanks to the team for their support.

Martin Smith, Captain