Cambridgeshire Silver President's Preview

Cambridgeshire Badminton President Ken Verney previews the Cambridgeshire Senior Silver Badminton Open Tournament which starts this evening:

The Cambridgeshire Senior Tournament in the Badminton England Silver Circuit will be held at the Cambridge Regional College Sports Hall on Friday and Saturday 25 and 26 January.  Over 100 players will be competing over the two days.

The men's singles is the first event commencing at 6pm on Friday.  Richard Wrigley (Worcestershire) will be defending the title he won last year.  He is top seed and is scheduled to meet Chris Gilbert (Middlesex) in the final.  This would be a repeat of last year's final.  Cambridgeshire interest will center on the performance of County player Mindaugas Dabasinskas, and the promising 16 year-old Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian.  Also the other youngster 17 year-old Thomas Li, who has already established himself as a regular member of the Cambridgeshire County Ist Team.

Play on Saturday commences at 9am with the Women's singles.  Toni Blake (Bucks) the present holder is top seed.

The men's doubles has all the signs of being a very open contest.  The Cambridgshire pair of Neil Place and Simon Woodhouse could well feature in the closing stages.  The holders Dean George and Chris Tonks will not be defending their title.

Last year Claire Millward took the women's doubles title with Kelly Holdway.  This year she is partnered by fellow Warwickshire player Catherine Grant and they are top seeds.  In the final, they could well meet the Bucks pair of Toni Blake and Bethany Jeffs, last year's losing finalists.

Out of the 20 pairs in the mixed doubles there are five Cambridgeshire pairs with all the County Ist Team players featuring.  The top seeds are James and Bernie Babbington of Yorkshire, who lost in the final last year.  Their strongest opposition could come from Dean George (Sussex) and Claire Millward who went out in the semi-final last year.

Spectators are welcome and there is no admission charge.

Cambs Senior Silver This Weekend

Don't forget that CRC (Cambridge Regional College) on King's Hedges Road plays host this weekend to the Cambridgeshire Senior Silver Badminton Open Tournament.

Play starts at the following times:

• Men’s Singles Friday @ 6:00pm
• Women’s Singles Saturday @ 9:30am
• Mixed Doubles Saturday @ 11:00am
• Men’s & Women’s Doubles Saturday @ 2:00pm

Spectators are welcome, so if you want to see some top quality national badminton players, come along!

You can keep track of the draw at http://bit.ly/csilver

All the best to everyone representing the County this weekend!

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Entries for U19 Restricted Open

The entry form for the Cambs U19 Junior Restricted Tournament to be held at Burwell on Sunday 17th March is now available to view, print or download from the Tournaments / Entry Forms section.

All the best to all the players entering!

Playing for Laughs - Masters O50s at Coventry

This year, the Over 50s played their annual Masters ICC weekend on 12th/13th January at Coventry Sports Centre, the same venue as the Over 40s, which made a welcome change as we were able to support each other. 

Our team for this year was Angela Sharman, Di Baker, Xin Cheng, Helen Taylor (making her County Over 50s debut), Martin Smith, Martyn Clark, John Harvey, and John Pickering, and we were pleased to note that there was only one knee support in evidence among us, unlike our younger colleagues who appeared to be sponsored by Neoprene Ltd!

Our first match kicked off at 11.30 against Derbyshire, unfortunately the late start time was the only leisurely aspect of it. Derbyshire won the match 3-1, beating Angela and Di in the ladies doubles, Martin and Martyn in mens doubles, and Helen and John P in the 1st mixed. Well done to Xin and John H, who took a very close 2nd mixed 21-19, 23-21.

Next up were Leicestershire, and we showed remarkable consistency by again winning the 2nd mixed and nothing else, This time the honours went to Di and Martyn, while the losing pairs were Helen/Xin, JP/JH, and Angela/Martin.

We finished Day 1 with our match against Cumbria, this time being on the wrong end of a 4-0 defeat. Despite that scoreline, the individual games were the closest of the day, with our losing game scores being 18, 12, 16, 17, 19, 19, 17 and 20. Pairs were Di/Angela, Martyn/JH, Helen/JP, and Xin/Martin.

And so we retired to the hotel for the evening's dinner and disco. All the tables had a plentiful supply of party poppers, balloons, and pea shooters with polystyrene ball ammunition, so everyone could target whichever opponents (or indeed, team mates) they wanted to. Shot of the night was by Over 40s captain Nick Pratt, who managed to land his long distance shot straight into JP's shirt pocket. After that came the disco, our team showing their younger counterparts the way forward by taking to the dance floor early and staying there for the duration, leaving the 40s to relax in the bar area.

Day 2 got off to a dismal, frosty and foggy start - or so our Over 40s colleagues told us later, our first game of the day being at 12.00 so it was bright and sunny by the time we surfaced. First up was Nottinghamshire, who again consigned us to a 4-0 defeat, our pairings were Helen/Xin, JP/Martin, Martyn/Di, and JH/Angela.

Our final match of the day was against Shropshire, and turned out to be our most enjoyable game of the weekend. Alright, we still lost 3-1, but we had some really competitive close games, so much so that we overran our time slot. Kings of the castle this time were Martin and Di, while the dirty rascals were Angela/Helen, JP/Martyn, and JH/Xin.

So, our final result for the weekend was: Played - 5, Lost - 5, Laughs - well into the 100s, and a brilliant debut by Helen, who fitted straight in like she'd been with us for years and not just 2 days. Player of the weekend, on results achieved, was Di, with 2 victories in Mixed games.

Match report by John Pickering.

Sutton-Ziaian Takes U17 Silver Title

Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian took the Kent U17 Silver Circuit Tournament by storm on Saturday.  After grinding out a win in his group with two three-enders, Kaylan really his his stride.  He beat three other players in comfortable straight-sets victories, before beating Dorset's Michael Higbee in the final 15-7, 15-7.

Congratulations go out to Zaylan for such an impressive result.

For the entire draw, see Tournament Software.

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Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian Triumphs in Kent

O40s Sent to Coventry (A Good Time Had By All!)

The weekend of the 12th/13th January saw the masters over 40s travel to Coventry for their annual ICC competition. Over recent years the team has shown their strength and narrowly missed promotion to the premier league.

The team for 2013 was Nick Pratt, Rob Couch, Kevin Barron, John Foo, Paul Martell, Sandra Ashcroft, Olga Bryant, Amanda Godfrey and Sharon Chandler.

With the smell of muscle rubs cream and the country gold reserve spent on knee bandages, the masters team kicked off with Staffordshire at 09:30 in the morning.

This proved not to be a good start, losing the mens doubles (Paul/John), the ladies doubles (Sandra/Amanda) and 2nd mixed (Rob/Sharon). The only win coming in the 1st mixed doubles (Olga/Nick). Match result, lost 3-1.

Things improved slightly with the next match against what is normally a very strong Notts team, with wins coming from Sandra/Amanda and 1st mixed pairing of Olga/Nick. Others pairs were Rob/John and Sharon/Paul.

For the final match of the day, super sub Kevin turned up and with a change in the line up resulted in. 4-0 win. Pairings of Kevin/John, Sandra/Olga, Amanda/Rob and Sharon/Paul.

Day 1 ends with 1 win, 1 draw and 1 defeat (7 points)

Day 2 started with a 9am match against Lancashire who won all their matches the previous day. It was clear the Cambs players were feeling the affect of thinking they were teenagers and stayed up for late night team talk and bonding session losing the match 3-1. The only win coming from Kevin/Sharon at 2nd mixed. The other pairings were Nick/John, Sandra/Olga, Amanda/Rob.

With the team starting to wake up, the next match was against the very impressive Leicestershire side who boasted two national champions. This was always going to be a hard match, but after some close games, and some not very close the result was a 4-0 defeat. Pairings off Amanda/Sandra, Paul/Rob, Olga/John and Sharon/Kevin.

The final match was against Northumberland, who had alot of draws during the weekend, so we did not want to ruin it, and finished 2-2. The wins comings from the mixed pairings of Olga/Paul and Sharon/Kevin. The doubles pairings were John/Rob and Amanda/Sandra.

Final results. Played 6. Won 1. Drew 2. Lost 3.

Overall verdict: good time had by all.

Cambs Badminton Sees Successful Weekend

It was a busy weekend for Cambs Badminton, as players from the County competed around the Country with much success.

In the junior Inter Counties Championships, both the U13 and U17 squads were in action.  

Still finding their feet in the competition, the U13s travelled to Bedfordshire, where they earned an excellent 11-9 victory even though a last-minute withdrawal meant they started the match 4 rubbers down!

Also in the ICC the U17 team travelled to Northants, where they also recorded a sound victory, winning 13-7.  The match also saw debutant Klaudia Otoka (Ely Victoria) playing, aged 14.

At the other end of the age spectrum, Cambridgeshire was also represented in the 18th English National Masters Championships in Guildford, Surrey.  Olga Bryant competed in all three O40 disciplines (with a 3/4 position in ladies doubles), while Neil Place and Daniel Bates received Silver as runners-up in the O35 mens doubles event, and Neil also came third place in the O35 mixed doubles.

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Daniel Bates and Neil Place win silver at 18th English National Masters.