First weekend of Senior County Matches 2024-25 season

Last Saturday saw the first weekend of the Senior County Champs matches, with Cambridgeshire having four teams taking part this season.

Cambs 1 and Cambs 2 are both in Division 2 central this season, and started off with a head to head match. Despite close scorelines within the match, the overall score was 10-1 in favour of the first team. Cambs 1 then faced Norfolk in the afternoon, coming out on top with a 9-2 win. Cambs 2 went on to play Lincs 1 in the afternoon match and finished with a scoreline in their favour of 8-3.

Cambs 1

Back row: Natalie Taylor, Amber Ngo, Alison Meijers, Zoe Foote (C) & Gem Leiw.
Front row: Abu Kaher, Finlay Smith, Chris Lim, Charlie Wakefield.

Not pictured: Manobhiram Vaddi

Cambs 2

Back row: Michaela Anthony, Helen Yan, Ben Gardner, Matt Harris, Sara Moore, Polly Thisdell.
Front row: Scott Carter, Campbell Wilson (C), Frank Xie & Martin Crossley.

Cambs 3 are in Division 3 Central, and their first match saw them face Norfolk 2, where they were successful with a 7-4 win. For the afternoon match, they took on Bedfordshire 2s, and improved on their morning match score, finishing with an 8-3 win.

Cambs 3

Back row: Luke Bennett, Ollie Norris (C), Simon Parker, Alex Wilson, Josh Males.
Front row: David Nuzzo, Steph French, Adele Woodhams, Hannah Robertshaw & Amelia Martell.

Our newly introduced Cambs 4 team are in Division 4 Central, starting off their entry in the SCC with a 9-2 win against Northamptonshire 3s. Their afternoon match also saw them face a team from Norfolk, this time the Norfolk 3s. Unfortunately the team came out the wrong side of a 6-5 scoreline, with it coming down to the final rubber which went Norfolk's way 21-19 in the third end, but a great start for our new team!

Cambs 4.

Pictured: Aidan Ip, Rosie Kern, Hannah Catton, Jack Curtis, Chris Parker (C) & Yafei Wang.
Not pictured: Damien Dugmore, Thomas Wade, Olivia Wilkins.

The current standings after the first weekend are:

- 1st Team - 1st in Division 2

- 2nd Team - 7th in Division 2 (but only 3 rubbers behind 2nd place!)

- 3rd Team - 3rd in Division 3

- 4th Team - 4th in Division 4

A fantastic first set of matches for Cambridgeshire, with the next set on Saturday 18th January. Good luck to everyone for the remainder of the season!

All results can be found on Tournament Software: https://be.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/league?id=95C93C22-E60E-4CE1-A179-CE8180AD9484

Cambridgeshire Senior Restricted Tournament 2024

After over 100 matches, the Cambridgeshire Senior Restricted tournament for 2024 concluded on Sunday 29th October. Over 75 players took part across the five events, a record number of entries for the county, with the tournament having the fifth highest number of entries for all county restricted tournaments nationally.

It was fantastic to see the quality and depth of players available this year, particularly the amount of junior players being competitive with some of our top county players.

The full results can be found here.

The winners and runners-up for each event are as follows:
Open Singles - Oscar Keys (winner), Maurice Frijns (runner-up)
Women’s Singles - Alison Meijers (winner), Polly Thisdell (runner-up)
Mixed Doubles - Chris Lim & Alison Meijers (winners), Campbell Wilson & Zoe Foote (runners-up)
Open Doubles - Abu Kaher & Chris Tustian (winners), Chris Lim & Matthew Harris (runners-up)
Women’s Doubles - Amber Ngo & Zoe Foote (winners), Sara Cunnington & Alison Meijers (runners-up)

Thank you to everyone who took part. Congratulations to all the winners and finalists, and a huge thank you to our Tournament Organiser, Zoe Foote, as well as Louise Short for your support on the day.

Campbell Wilson
Chairman
Cambridgeshire Badminton

2024 Senior European Championships

The 2024 Senior European Championships took place from 25th - 31st August in Heusden-Zolder, Belgium. We were proud to have 8 players representing Cambridgeshire.

• Daniel Bates

• Olga Chernysheva

• Martin Crossley

• Alison Meijers

• Sara Moore

• John Pickering

• Neil Place

• Natalie Taylor

For three of our Cambridgeshire players, they were making their international debut - Alison, Martin and Sara.

We were delighted that Olga brought home a bronze medal in the Womens Doubles 50+ category with partner Tracey Hutchinson from Surrey.

A big congratulations to all players. The full results can be found on Tournament Software.

Amelia Martell awarded Eric Raynor Trophy

The County annual AGM sees the award of the Eric Raynor Trophy.  This award is made annually to the 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 can be nominated to the committee by the county’s coaches.

The Eric Raynor Trophy for 2023-24 was awarded to Amelia Martell with the following citation:

Amelia has been a committed and integral member of the County junior squad this year. She has regularly attended county training and has represented the county in all of the U19 Shires league matches this year. 

Amelia has demonstrated a real commitment to improve and has made great progress this year; with success at competitive levels. 

She has won and placed in several Bronze and Silver U17 BE tournaments. At the beginning of the year she joined Ely club and has enjoyed playing in both their levels and mixed teams. Recently she represented the East of England Colleges regional team at the AOC national colleges event at Nottingham University and contributed to the team's overall finishing position of 4th out of 9. 

Amelia has completed her Level 1 Foundation coaching award and is looking forward to helping out with junior coaching sessions, where she has already contributed by leading warmups and helping with younger players. 

Amelia always conducts herself with excellent sportsmanship and an irrepressible smile, and is a great role model for her younger peers. She is a deserved winner of the trophy this year.

Senior County Championships Weekend 3 Round Up

Saturday 23rd and Sunday 24th March 2024 saw all three senior county teams in action. The 1st team took on Warwicks 2, Yorkshire 2 and Glasgow in Retford, Cambs 2 played Warwicks 4, Worcester 3 and Shropshire 1 in Oakham and Cambs 3 were in Peterborough, playing Essex 4s and Lincs 2s.

Cambs 1 played in Divsion 1 North and had two close 6-5 losses on Saturday against Warwicks 2 and Yorkshire 2, and were met with tough opponents Glasgow on Sunday, who went into the match as top of the league, which resulted in a 10-1 loss. Unfortunately, the 1st team lost out of remaining in the division by 2 points and so will be relegated to Division 2 for next season, hopefully returning to Div 1 again for the 2025/26 season.

Pictured on the back row left to right: Chris Tustian, Finlay Smith, Oscar Keys, Campbell Wilson, Ben Gardner and Chris Lim.

Pictured on the front row left to right: Zoe Foote, Natalie Taylor, Sara Cunnington and Amber Ngo.

Cambs 1 vs Warwicks 2.

Cambs 1 vs Yorkshire 2.

Cambs 1 vs Glasgow.

Cambs 2, playing in Division 3 Central, displayed real strength on Saturday, only dropping 1 rubber. They beat Warwicks 4, 10-1 and followed up with an 11-0 win against Worcestershire 3s. They rounded off the weekend with a 9-2 win over Shropshire on Sunday. This meant they won an impressive 30 out of a possible 33 rubbers across the weekend. Cambs 2 finished top of the league and will be promoted to Division 2 next season!

Pictured on the back row left to right: Maurice Frijns, Alex Wilson, Martin Crossley, Simon Parker and Scott Carter.

Pictured on the front row left to right: Steph Potten, Sara Moore, Helen Yan and Briony Whitfield.

Cambs 2 vs Warwicks 4.

Cambs 2 vs Worcs 3.

Cambs 2 vs Shropshire.

Cambs 3, in Division 4 Central, started their morning with an 7-4 win against Essex 4 and continued their winning ways with a 9-2 win against Lincs 2.

Cambs 3 topped the league table for Division 4 Central and will be promoted to Division 3 next season!

Pictured on the back row from left to right: Luke Bennett, Sam Shepherd, David Nuzzo, Damien Dugmore and Jack Curtis.
Pictured on the front row from left to right: Adeline Henderyckx, Nicole Wong, Gem Liew and Polly Thisdell.

Cambs 3 vs Essex 4.

Cambs 3 vs Lincs 2.

A big congratulations to all players who represented Cambridgeshire this season!

Senior County Championships Weekend 2 Round Up

Saturday 20th January 2024 saw all three senior county teams in action. The 1st team took on Notts 2 and Derby 1 in Leicester, Cambs 2 played Beds 2 and Worcester 2 in Rutland and Cambs 3 were on home turf at Swavesey, playing Lincs 2 and Northants 3.

Cambs 1 played in Divsion 1 North and took a great 6-5 win against Notts 2, followed by an 8-3 loss to a strong Derby side.

Pictured left to right: Chris Tustian, Oscar Keys, Finlay Smith, Chris Lim, Campbell Wilson, Zoe Foote, Alison Meijers, Amber Ngo, Ben Gardner, Natalie Taylor and Sara Cunnington.

Cambs 1 vs Notts 2.

Cambs 1 vs Derby 1.

Cambs 2, playing in Division 3 Central, started off their day with a 6-5 win against Bedfordshire 2s, followed by a 7-4 defeat to Worcestershire 2s, leaving them 2 points behind Worcestershire in the division.

Second team players: Michael Duncan, Alex Wilson, Simon Parker, Martin Crossley, Scott Carter, Helen Yan, Briony Whitfield, Sara Moore and Steph Potten.

Cambs 2 vs Beds 2.

Cambs 2 vs Worcs 2.

Cambs 3, in Division 4 Central, started their morning with an 8-3 win against Lincs 2, the current leaders of the division going into the day, and continued their winning ways with a 10-1 win against Northants 3.

Back Row from left to right: Sylvia Ma, Polly Thisdell, Becky Donaldson, Gem Liew, Adeline Henderyckx.
Front Row from left to right: Damien Dugmore, David Nuzzo, Sam Shepherd, Harry Chan and Luke Bennett.

Cambs 3 vs Lincs 2.

Cambs 3 vs Northants 3.

A big congratulations to all players who represented Cambridgeshire as part of the second day of matches in the Senior County Championships. Cambs 3 will next be in action on 10th Feb and Cambs 1 and Cambs 2 will next play on 23rd March.

New ladies only Shuttle Hints Badminton Club

First session for a new ladies only badminton club this Thursday 7th September, 8-10pm at Trumpington Sport Centre.

Contact StacyKnoop7@gmail.com for more information.