IIIrds Kick Off with Thriller

The Cambs Senior IIIrd team kicked off the season with a roller-coaster ride away match against Middlesex IV.

With the match coming so early in the season, there was a rush to populate the team and a number of faces were new to the County, which owes a debt of gratitude to a high number of debutantes who turned out. 

Middlesex IV fielded a strong team, and after hard-fought games, all the singles were lost, even though every single one had a game which ended in 18 or 19 points.  Particularly impressive were Gemma McGuire and Yoong-Eun Kwon - both playing their first senior County singles matches.

It was in the level doubles where the rubber really hit the road, with some of the toughest battles being contested.  All four mens doubles games went to a third game decider.  Skipper Paul Martell and County returnee James Watkins beat the Middlesex first pair, but lost to the second including a 25-27 defeat in the second end.  Geoff Green and University debutante Ben Aldred overcame the second pair, but were agonisingly pipped at the end against the first in an epic 29-30 final end!

The ladies also fought hard.  Yoong-Eun teamed with another debutante and junior Klaudia Otoka, and won one game, but sadly lost their second in the third end. Gemma partnered the final debutante - Hurst's Leticia Mendez - but they found the Middlesex ladies too strong. 

Finally in the mixed, Ben and Yoong-Eun demonstrated Cambs' usual strength in the discipline, and secured a comfortable win in straight sets.  The scratch partnerships of Paul & Leticia and James and Klaudia however were overcome. 

So the final score was a 4-11 loss, but the team can be proud of an epic performance, having never competed together before. 

The team:  Geoff Green, James Watkins, Yoong-Eun Kwon, Gemma McGuire, Ben Aldred, Paul Martell, Klaudia Otoka (j), Leticia Mendez.

More information about results of the Cambs III team is available on the Team Page.

U11 & U13 Fun Badminton Tournament Entries Open

Applications are now open for the Cambridgeshire U11 & U13 Fun Badminton Tournament, to be held on Saturday 23rd November at Burwell Sports Centre, Buntings Path, Burwell. 

Any juniors keen on trying competitive badminton (even if you are a beginner), or wanting to get more experience of tournament play, are extremely welcome.

If you are a coach with children U11 and U13, please do encourage them to participate. 

You can download the entry form from the Tournaments Page. 

Cambs U15 Restricted Tournament Entries Open

 Applications are now open for the Cambridgeshire U15 Restricted Tournament, to be held on Sunday 27th October at Burwell Sports Centre, Buntings Path, Burwell. 

Any juniors keen on showing their development along their performance pathways should enter.  If you are a coach with children U15, please do encourage them to participate. 

You can download the entry form from the Tournaments Page. 

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.

New Affiliation Fees for 2013-14

Cambridgeshire Badminton Association has posted details of the affiliation fees for the upcoming 2013-14 season, as agreed at the annual AGM.

The structure of affiliation fees has changed this year for junior members, so junior clubs and anyone with junior players should review the new arrangements.

You can find the affiliation fees on the About Us page. 

Laurie Finch

After a brief battle with cancer, Head Coach of Cambridgeshire Schools Badminton Association (CSBA) Laurie Finch died peacefully in his sleep last night.​

​Laurie will be remembered by countless players in the County and beyond as a tireless advocate for the sport who has coached for nearly forty years and inspired several generations of players.

​Laurie Finch, CSBA

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.