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

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.

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

Match Report for Cambs Over 50's away v Herts, Sunday 22/11/15

Team: Martyn Clark, Martin Smith, Wilfried Janssen, Mark Talbot, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng.

Mens doubles

Martyn Clark and Martn Smith, lost a close three ender against Herts 1st pair, 20-22, 21-18, 21-16, but beat their 2nd pair in two ends. 
Wilf and Mark won both of their games beating the 2nds in two ends and winning a tight three ender 23-25 to complete the double.

Ladies Doubles

Angela and Di and Helen and Xin had some good games with Angela and Di taking their 2nd pair to 3 ends. Unfortunately, despite battling hard were unable to convert any games to our advantage.

Mixed Doubles

Martyn and Di fought hard but lost in 2 ends.
Martin and Angela took a comfortable win in 2 ends.
Wilf and Xin had a tough fight with a 3 end win 23-21 14-21 18-21.
Mark and Helen were the last game on and a win from them would give us a draw. However, after a hard fight their scores were 15-21 21-17 25-23.

All in all a very good match in which any of our pairs could have taken us to a draw with 1 more win.

Final score 7-5 to Herts, 16-14 in games, but 548-552 on points.

Thank You and WELL PLAYED TEAM :-)

Martin Smith

Over 50’s match reports: Norfolk & Suffolk

1/11/15 Away v Norfolk

Team – Martyn Clark, John Mallabar, Martin Smith, Wilfred Janssen, Angela Sharman, Helen Taylor, Carol Salmon, Xin Cheng.

A hard fought game against a strong Norfolk team resulted in a 10-2 home win to Norfolk.

Men’s doubles: Martyn and John, and Wilf and Martin put up a good fight against two strong Norfolk men’s pairs but were unable to convert some close games into a win.

Ladies doubles: Angela and Helen paired up to win one of their games, narrowly missing out 21-19 against the Norfolk 1st ladies pair. Carol and Xin had a similar game to the men’s pairs, putting up a good fight but were unable to gain an advantage.

Mixed Doubles: Three of the four draws went to 3 ends, but we were only able to convert one of these to a win, well done Wilf and Xin.

Final score was a 10-2 home win to Norfolk. All in all we had some good games but were outplayed on the day.

Well played team.

8/11/15 Home v Suffolk

Team – John Pickering, Wilfred Janssen, John Mallabar, Martin Smith, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng.

Mens doubles: John P and Wilf had two 3 enders in their mens, beating the Suffolk 2nd pair and losing 21-17 in the 3rd against the 1st pair. John M and Martin had a close win against the Suffolk 2nds and lost to the 1st pair to 14 and 19.

Ladies Doubles: Both of our ladies pairs had close games against the Suffolk 2nd pair but were outplayed by the 1st pair. Angela and Di beat the 2nd pair and Helen and Xin lost a closely fought battle to 19 and 18.

Mixed Doubles: John P and Helen, John M and Di, Martin and Angela, Wilf and Xin. We all had some close games with Wilf and Xin being the only mixed pair to manage 3 ends.

Final Result was a 9-3 away win to Suffolk. Overall a good match played in good spirits, many thanks to all of the team.

Martin Smith
Captain

Over 50's home v Essex Match Report

Team - Martin Smith, Wilfred Janssen, John Pickering, John Harvey, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Carol Salmon, Xin Cheng.

All games were played in good spirit, with the team giving it their best shot in what was always going to be a tough fixture with Essex, who had already beaten Herts 12-0.

We gave our all but the result was unfortunately a 12-0 defeat to strong Essex team. I think it is safe to say we all had some good games, but were beaten by the stronger team on the day.

Many thanks to the team.

Martin Smith.

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.