Cambs' Bates, Bryant and Place at BWF World Championships

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Olga Bryant, BWF World Masters Bronze Medalist XD O40.

As previously featured, Cambridgeshire Badminton Association players Daniel Bates, Olga Bryant and Neil Place were the first Cambs players in recent history to represent England at the BWF World Senior Championships, which was held this year in Ankara, Turkey, on 9-14th September.

Travelling with the generous support of CambsBA, Olga competed in all three disciplines of ladies doubles, singles and mixed doubles in the O40 category, while Daniel and Neil competed in the mens doubles O35.

Olga made good progress in all events.  In the singles she was the unfortunate victim of a tough draw, which meant after winning her first round, she faced the formidable 1st seed (and eventual winner) Gitte Sommer of Denmark to whom she lost in straight sets.  She had a very similar experience in the ladies, playing as a scratch partnership with German Cornelia Ern-Joachim. Having beaten an Indian pair in the first round, they were defeated by a Japanese pair in the second who also went on to win the competition.

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Daniel Bates and Neil Place at the BWF World Masters Championships.

It was in the mixed, and another scratch partnership with Surrey's Paul Mitchell, that Olga found her success.  Seeded 5/8 and with a bye through the first round, she and Mitchell defeated Sweden/Denmark, French and Hungarian pairings with determination and great speed around the court to reach the semi-finals.  Unfortunately, that match was again against Sommer, and her Swedish partner, who proved just too powerful.

Daniel and Neil had the benefit of a dream start.  Following a bye in the first round, their feared clash against the 1st seed pairing in the O35 mens doubles ended in a walkover when one of the Japanese pair did not arrive.

In the third round, they faced a strong Swiss pairing, who already had experience of the venue, but in a marvelous and explosive performance closed out the game in straight sets.

This led to a quarter-final match against a German pairing, which began poorly with an early 12-21 defeat.  However, Neil and Daniel rallied themselves and in a nailbiting finish were pipped 20-22 in the second end. 

The week was a superb festival of badminton for all senior categories.  Congratulations to Daniel, Olga and Neil for their performances. 

There are more photographs of the competition in the photo gallery, and a news article about it on the BWF website news. 

Cambs' John Tibbutt Celebrates Quad Success at World Transplant Games

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John Tibbutt powers home the smash at the World Transplant Games 2013.

Inspiring Cambs Badminton player John Tibbutt, who has overcome ill health through a successful organ transplant has returned victorious from competing in this year’s World Transplant Games in Durban, South Africa.

John took part in the Games nearly 4 years after having a life-saving kidney transplant. 

The 36-year-old, who is currently the Cambs senior IIIrd team captain, competed as a member of Great Britain and Northern Ireland team at the Games, from 28 July to 4 August 2013, competing in badminton and squash.  He secured an incredible four-medal haul, securing gold medals in badminton in singles, doubles and mixed, and a bronze in squash.

Great Britain and Northern Ireland took home 243 medals in total, 114 gold, 74 silver and 55 bronze. The team was also presented with the ‘Best Team Award’. Lynne Holt, Team Manager and Trustee at Transplant Sport said:

“The World Transplant Games is a fantastic opportunity for athletes such as John to share their story and inspire people to sign up to the NHS Organ Donor Register.

Not only were these athletes ambassadors for our country, but they also represented the charity, Transplant Sport, and helped to raise more awareness here in the UK and globally, of the need for more people to sign on to the Organ Donor Register and express their wishes with family and friends.”

John said:

“The world games is a fantastic opportunity to help raise awareness for organ donation and the donor register and to show how transplants really change people’s lives.

Four years ago I couldn’t mow the lawn, never mind do any sort of sport.  Now I can train and play as before.  It gave me my life back."

More than 135 Transplant Sport athletes, including 15 juniors, and many more supporters descended on the Rainbow Nation.

The World Transplant Games, supported by the International Olympic Committee, represents the largest organ donor awareness event in the world, featured a week of 13 sporting events. Team GB and NI joined over 1000 other transplant athletes from 55 countries across the globe.

More than 10,000 people in the UK are currently waiting for a transplant and sadly, three people die waiting every day. But with only 31 per cent of the UK population actually registered as organ donors, more work needs to be done to raise awareness of donation and to urge those on to the donor register to share their wishes with loved ones.

To add your name to the NHS Organ Donor Register call 0300 1232323, text SAVE to 84118 or visit www.organdonation.nhs.uk

Some photographs from the Games are available in the photo gallery. 

Players (Restricted) Tournament Entries Open

Cambridgeshire Badminton Association are pleased to announce that entries for the Cambridgeshire Players (Restricted) Tournament for 2013 are now open for submission.

This keenly anticipated tournament is the official opening of the County season around the Country.  Players from all over Cambridgeshire are encouraged to participate. 

To enter, please complete and submit the form on the Tournaments / Entry Forms page. 

If you are on Facebook at planning on playing the Tournament, then there are two events to register with:

• Singles
• Doubles

Play well everyone, and have a great time! 

CBA Tournaments and Boot Camps

The Cambs Badminton Academy have a number of tournaments before and after the start of the season, and also an opportunity to participate in badminton 'boot camps'.

The CBA Open Tournament for Seniors and Juniors, is on 14/15th September 2013. Seniors' tournament on Saturday 14th and Juniors on Sunday 15th. To be held at CRC Sports Centre, Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge. Entries to be in by 31st August 2013. £8 for singles and £7 for doubles.

Two ability categories for both seniors and juniors: County/League and Social/Club. Singles, doubles and mixed doubles (two competitions per player) for seniors and singles and level doubles for juniors. U11 (combined playing ability), U13, U15 and U17 age groups in juniors. Enter online at either:

http://webcollect.org.uk/cba/category/tournaments

http://be.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/tournament.aspx?id=9FC43C38-F067-47B4-B306-255914491E8D

Cambridgeshire Junior Ladder for all age groups from U11 - U17. Three day long competitions to be held at CRC Sports Centre, Kings Hedges Road, Cambridge. Dates of competitions: 9th November 2013, 7th December 2013 and 18th January 2014. Players are expected to play at all three matches and cost of the ladder is £30 for all three matches.

Online entry http://webcollect.org.uk/cba/event/cambs-2013-14-junior-ladder-entry

CBA Badminton Boot Camps are open to anyone. There are 3 different levels of training camps run over 5 days from 19 - 23rd August, with beginners/young players training for 90 minutes from 2 - 3.30pm each day; intermediate, more experienced young players training for 2 hours a day from 12 - 2pm and high level training for adult and very competent juniors for 3 hours a day from 9am - 12pm. There will be a professional strength and conditioning consultant giving between 30 minutes and an hour of training each day for all levels of ability, shuttle launching machine for accurate practising of shots, footwork drills, agility, balance and co-ordination exercises and much more.

£20 for beginners/young players (7yrs up) for the week

£35 for intermediate players for the week

£50 for higher level players for the week

Free refreshments for all throughout the week.

There will be a match play day at CRC, all day on Saturday 24th August for all those attending the intermediate and high level boot camps and anyone else who plays to a reasonably good - high level. That will run from 9am - 3pm and players are able to stay for as long as they choose throughtout the day. £8 per player however long they choose to stay. Open to all.

Cambs Trio Win England Selection for Ankara

Cambridgeshire players Daniel Bates, Olga Bryant and Neil Place have all been selected to represent England in the Badminton World Federation (BWF) World Senior Championships in Ankara, Turkey, in September.

​Held every two years, the World Senior Championship is the pinnacle event in the badminton Masters tournament calendar, and the best players from every country have been invited to compete. Positions to represent England are highly sought after.

Olga has represented England before, travelling to Sofia in Bulgaria last year where she won a silver medal in the O40 ladies doubles.  In Ankara, she will compete in the O40 ladies singles and doubles competitions.​

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​Olga Bryant representing England

Neil and Daniel have been selected for the first time, after coming runners up in the English National Masters Championships in December, and reaching the semi-finals of the All England Masters in April.  The will be competing in the O35 mens doubles.

Cambridgeshire U19 Junior Restricted Tournament 2013

This years U19 restricted tournament was held at Burwell Sports Centre on 17th March.

All competition was initially played in a round robin format with winners and runners up going through to a knock out format for the final rounds.

Girls Competition

Singles winner - Lily Matthews

Runner up - Gemma McGuire

Doubles Winners - Lily Matthews and Gemma McGuire 

Runners up - Angela Huang and Hannah Divall 

Lily Matthews having lost to Gemma Mcguire in the round robin section of the tournament dug deep and changed her game to win the final 21-18.

In the Girls Doubles final Lily and Gemma put aside their rivalry from the singles and had a convincing win, beating Angela Huang and Hannah Divall 21-9, 21-12.

Boys Competition

Singles Winner - Tom Li

Runner Up - Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian

Doubles Winners - Tom Li and Josh Males

Runners up - Sunny Kong and Tom Zhang 

The Boys Singles Final saw Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian, defender of the title, up against Tom Li. Kaylan had fought through a tough semi against Josh Males (25-23) and this may have taken it’s toll, Tom Li winning 21-19 in a hard fought and entertaining game.

In the Boys Doubles, the round robin format in the early stages of the competition saw some close games, particularly a win for Sunny Kong and Tom Zhang over the defending champions Aidan Foo and Kaylan Sutton-Ziaien of 21-20 (no setting in the round robin). 

This result meant  Aidan and Kaylan met the winners of the other group in the semifinals - Josh Males and Tom Li. The title holders lost this semi (8-21) Tom and Josh proceeding into the final. 

The second semi-final was between Ashley James playing with Ximian Quah, and Sunny with Tom. This was good game but Sunny and Tom were the stronger winning 21-16. 

The final saw Tom and Josh showing their experience and strength winning 21-14 to take the title. 

CRC Overcomes Moisture for Silver Success

The Cambridgeshire Senior Silver Badminton Open Tournament was held at Cambridge Regional College (CRC) on Friday and Saturday.  Over the two days, over one hundred top badminton players from all over the country competed for the honours.

Friday night saw the early rounds of the men's singles competition, which largely followed the seeding.  Cambridgeshire's Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian was beaten in the 1st round by James White (Leicestershire) and Thomas Li was overcome in the 2nd round by 1st seed Richard Wrigley (Worcestershire), while Mindaugas Dabasinskas fell in the quarter finals to a powerful performance by Scott Sankey (Buckinghamshire).

Proceedings began on Saturday morning with the men's singles semi-finals and the women's singles.  in the men's, Wrigley continued his imperious performance to retain his title, beating Basil Tallah (Essex) 21-14, 21-19.  This victory meant he had impressively won the competition having won every game in straight sets.

In the women's singles, there was sadly no Cambridgeshire representation this year.  Unseeded Singaporean Tanapat Pisitpong (Essex) upset the expected order by dominating the draw, and defeating the holder Toni Blake (Buckinghamshire) comfortably - 21-7, 21-13 in the final.

In the mixed doubles, a number of Cambridgeshire pairs were in action.  Sam Scharf and Louise Tarbit, and Mindaugas Dabasinskas and Olga Bryant fell in the first round.  A scratch pairing of Thomas Li and Katie Morton won through to the quarter finals before being edged out in three ends.  Elsewhere in the draw saw clashes between Cambridgeshire players: Neil Place and Hannah Sharman winning a place in the quarter finals by defeating team-mate Sara Mason and partner Peter Frobisher (Oxfordshire).  The surprise of the discipline saw Daniel Bates and Jessica Sharman knocking out the 2nd seeds Nick and Rachel Hodgson (Lancashire), which set up an all-Cambs Quarter final with Simon Woodhouse and Natalie Taylor, who had fought hard for their place, having played two three-end games already.  Woodhouse and Taylor's experience and strength proved too much, and they were the only Cambridgeshire pair to emerge into the semi finals, where they were beaten by the 4th seed pairing of Dean George (Sussex) and Claire Millward (Warwickshire).  George and Millward then went on to secure a comfortable 21-9, 21-12 victory in the final against Lee Clapham (Derbyshire) and Lynne Swan (Essex).

The mens doubles was an extremely full draw.  Cambridgeshire's Neil Place and Simon Woodhouse were beaten 21-17, 21-14 in the first round by Lee Clapham and Andrew Frye (Essex), while Daniel Bates and Sam Scharf reached the second round before being defeated by Daniel Capon (Kent) and Lawrence Nemesothy (Kent).  The competition eventually reached an unfortunate end, with Dean George and Daniel Woodhouse (Middlesex) winning the final at 10-3 in the first game, when Nick Hodgson and Scott Sankey were forced to retire due to injury.

Finally, in the women's doubles Cambs' Olga Bryant playing with Jenny Crump (Hampshire) lost a hard-fought quarter final game against 1st seeds Claire Millward and Caroline Westley, 14-21, 21-19, 18-21.  Natalie Taylor and Hannah Sharman were also beaten in a nail-biting first round three-ender, losing in the end 19-21.  Other Cambs' representatives Jenifer Hewit and Louise Tarbit, and Katie Morton playing with Gayle Lloyd (Guernsey) were also beaten in the 1st round,  However, Sara Mason playing with Mary Le Druillenec (Warwickshire) fought all the way through to the final against Millward and Westley.  However, they were drained from a three-end semi final, and the 1st seeds proved too strong and won 21-12, 21-10.

The tournament was nearly blighted by difficulties with the venue.  The day's play had been progressing well, but a combination of high moisture levels and low ambient temperatures had caused the courts to become slippery.  Tournament officials fought tirelessly to move games between courts as they became unplayable, and the competition eventually spilled over into the second - older - sports hall.  In the end, it was to the great credit of all involved that all events were successfully completed and no-one was injured as a result of the conditions.

The full results and draws can be found at Tournament Software.