Ist Team Struggle With Tough Opener

This weekend saw the opening fixtures of the new county season with the first team travelling to play to Norfolk 1. The team has seen many changes this season with several key players leaving the county, however new blood has also arrived and the team welcomes newcomers Kate Balls, junior Jaclyn Lai and university player Peter Galloway.  Having closely missed out on promotion last season the team was confident of another successful season, however Norfolk were unfortunate to be relegated from division 1, and have been greatly strengthened with the addition of several new players.

The opening singles games saw straight sets defeats for Rob Pace and Peter Galloway against very strong opponents. The ladies singles players (undefeated all last season) also found their opponents too strong, with both Olga Bryant and Jaclyn Lai suffering straight sets defeats.

Cambridge were hopeful of better results in the doubles matches, however the first pairing of Jon Carson/Peter Galloway were unable to change Cambridge’s fortunes, losing to the Norfolk first pair then despite taking an end against the second pair, unfortunately again being beaten. Cambridge second pair of John Tibbutt/James Wilson, reunited after a season apart due to injury suffered no better luck, also losing both their games.

Cambridge champions Olga Bryant/Alison Bennett had a close match against an extremely strong Norfolk first pair and were unfortunate not to get a result, however they got Cambridge off the mark with a tight three end win over the second pair. Kate Balls/Jaclyn Lai, playing together for the first time in a competitive match found the Norfolk first pair too strong, but had a very close game against the second pair, unfortunately just missing out on a win.

The mixed doubles also did not go in Cambridge’s favour with pairings of Bryant/Carson and Balls/Pace finding their opponents much too tough. However third pairing of Bennett/Tibbutt won a consolation game with an exceptionally tight win to leave the final score a disappointing 13-2.

Despite the heavy loss several positives came out of the game, with two good wins for Alison Bennett, and good performances from new pairings of Balls/Lai and Carson/Galloway. Norfolk must be strong favourites for promotion back to division 1 and Cambridge are confident of much better results against their other opponents.

Great Start for IInd Team

The first fixture of the season for 2008-2009 started with a nine games to six victory. In the singles, Cambs took three out of the four singles with newly crowned restricted champion James Watkins comfortably beating his opponent 21-17, 21-9.  The second of the three came from Jason Lai who took his in three ends, 10-21, 21-11, 21-18, a superb battling performance indeed. In the ladies singles Liz Salmon won in two ends 21-13, 21-12 with her serve catching out the opponent on more than one occasion. The last ladies singles saw Isabel Gutteridge take on a strong Bedfordshire player who after a battling three ends gave Bedfordshire their only singles point 19-21, 21-15, 16-21.

Having attained a 3-1 advantage at this stage the level doubles begun with new men’s pairings Will Hodgkinson/Dan Bates as well as James Watkins/Neil Place. Watkins and Place successfully took both or their games to add another two to the Cambridgeshire total, with Hodgkinson and Bates adding another point. Not a bad effort considering it was their first time on court together. With some necessary practice together this could be a very fruitful partnership.

Moving onto the ladies doubles the pairings of Amanda Godfrey/Tracey Bichener and Liz Salmon/Sandra Ashcroft both added single victories in three end epics with Godfrey and Bichener unfortunate to take both.

Going into the mixed games Cambridgeshire had already been assured of the victory after Salmon and Ashcroft fought to victory sending the Camb’s squad into a rapturous cheer.  Within the mixed pairs, Place and Salmon took the only victory capping a fine day for both players. The other pairings of Bates/Godfrey and Hodgkinson/Gutteridge both went to three ends but were sadly pipped at the post by their Bedfordshire counter parts.

All in all, considering the new look squad and a newly promoted side a victory away from home was a superb effort by all. With more experience together we expect the new pairings to get even better and predict a successful season. Having just come into the side I personally feel the one thing this team has is a lot of fight and support for each other, which no doubt will only increase as the season progresses. 

County Selections 2008/2009

Once again the county selection for the forthcoming season has taken a long time and has been a difficult process. There are many players with a strong case to be included, but there are only a limited number of places we can offer and we have tried to be as objective and fair as we can.

The selections below are based on many factors, including:

- performance over the summer practices

- results at the restricted tournament

- performance from the previous season

- potential

- availability

- commitment to county/training

- personal development and course plain old talent.

We have lost some players but also gained new ones, so there are some new names and faces here and there. Currently we have two county teams, the first team in div. 2B and the second team in div. 4B. The first team narrowly missed promotion last year so the target for this season is to again push for a high finish. The second team did get promoted last year and their target will be to consolidate that position and ideally achieve a successive promotion. To this end we have decided upon a squad of 29 players (16 men and 13 ladies) of which 11 are reserves. We must nominate four men and four ladies for the first team who then cannot play down in the seconds. We have also decided to allocate one further man who does not have to be nominated, but who will also be a first team pick. As the match dates this year are the same for both the first and second teams, it is highly likely that the reserves will be called upon during the season.

Before we list the teams, although no doubt some of you have already taken a sneak peak, we should mention the restricted. Special mention should go to Olga Bryant for winning a clean sweep again, James Watkins for a fantastic win in the mens singles, Kevin and Sonny for successfully defending their mens title and of course Nick Pratt for winning the mixed for the 8th time in 10 years. We'd also like to welcome newcomers Katie Balls, Will Hodgkinson and Peter Galloway to the county squad, who have all impressed recently with very strong performances.

And so to the teams......

First Team Ladies:

Olga Bryant (nominated)

Alison Bennet (nominated)

Katie Balls (nominated)

Jaclyn Lai (nominated)

First Team Men:

Rob Pace (nominated, captain)

Jon Carson (nominated)

Peter Galloway (nominated)

John Tibbutt (nominated)

James Wilson

Second Team Ladies:

Liz Salmon

Sharon Chandler

Amanda Godfrey

Tracey Hayward

Second Team Men:

James Watkins

Dan Bates

Rob Couch

Will Hodgkinson (captain)

Jason Lai

Reserves

Nick Pratt

Sonny Loy

Neil Place

Stephen Pickering

Joe Pickering

Mariusz Borowiec

Sandra Ashcroft

Isabel Gutteridge

Tracey Bichener

Carolyn Key

Rachel Farrington

The first county matches are on Sunday the 12th October. Further emails regarding training and match arrangements will be sent out shortly. Many thanks, Olga, James and John.

2008 Cambridgeshire Players Tournament

The annual Cambridgeshire Players Tournament was held over the weekend at Littleport Sports Centre. Disappointingly there was a slightly lower entry than the previous year but once again it was excellent to see such a large number of juniors competing.

With the mens singles champion not defending his title the competition was wide open and such was the close standard of entrants that only two of the four seeded players made the semi-finals. Top seed Rob Pace unfortunately picked up an injury in the early rounds but battled through to face tournament veteran Kevin Barron in the last four for the third consecutive year. Pace took the first set before the injury took its toll and Barron gained revenge with a three set victory. In the bottom half of the draw both seeds suffered early defeats and junior James Watkins defeated university player Joe Pickering in straight sets to face club mate Barron in the final. A comfortable victory for Watkins made him the youngest winner of the tournament in recent memory, a great achievement without dropping a single set.

The rather low turn out for ladies singles made Olga Bryant odds on favourite yet another title and this proved accurate as she won all three matches without dropping a set. Junior Jaclyn Lai pushed Bryant closely and took runners up place.

The mens doubles is often the hottest contested event, however things went mostly to form this year with last year’s winners Kevin Barron/Sunny Loy, new pairing of Jon Carson/Peter Galloway, perennial partners Rob Couch/Dan Bates and John Tibbutt/Rob Pace (ignoring advice and playing through injury) making the last four. Barron made his second final of the weekend with a tight three end win over Carson/Galloway who paid the price for several tough matches in a rather top heavy draw. Couch/Bates were unable to reproduce their excellent form which saw them take the tightest of all games in their quarter final and were comfortably beaten by Tibbutt/Pace. The final proved to be a rather disappointing match with Barron/Loy retaining their title relatively easily in straight sets.

Three of last year’s ladies finalists were unable to enter this year, leaving the competition open to newcomers. Olga Bryant combined with Alison Bennett to take her second title of the weekend with a closely fought win over newcomer Katie Balls with Liz Salmon.

The mixed doubles proved to be a two horse race with reigning champions Alison Bennett and John Tibbutt facing pre-tournament favourites Olga Bryant and Nick Pratt in a re-run of last year’s semi final. Their desire to avenge last year’s defeat was obvious and with Bryant was aiming for a clean sweep of all three events and Pratt going for his eighth mixed doubles title in ten years they proved much too strong for their opponents and ran out comfortable winners.

Plate competition winners:

Mens singles: Tom Legerton

Mens doubles: James Wilson/Mariusz Borowiec

Ladies doubles: Melissa Makin/Isabel Gutteridge

Mixed doubles: Lisa Hawes/Neil Place

St Ives Retain Bill Pink Trophy

The final of the South Cambridgeshire Badminton League Bill Pink Inter Club knock-out cup saw St Ives retain the trophy.  They defeated the University side in a closely fought match by 5 games to 4.

Out of the 9 games played, 5 went to three ends.  The University won the singles.  In the mens singles Sam Lees defeated Rob Couch 21-7, 19-21, 21-15.  Then Kat Young beat Sarah Mason 21-18, 19-21, 21-11.

Both mens doubles went to St Ives.  Couch and Daniel Bates beat Rob Pace and Peter Galloway 21-18, 16-21, 21-16.  Bates then teamed up with James Salmon to defeat Pace and Lees 23-21, 21-17.

The ladies doubles were shared.  The St Ives pair of Mason and Faye Gregory lost to Young and Karen Hird 15-21, 21-18, 17-21.  However Gregory and Amanda Godfrey overcame Hird and Fran Powell 22-20, 21-14.

Thus going into the mixed doubles the scores were level at 3 games each.

Pace and Young put the University ahead by defeating Couch and Gregory 21-17, 21-11.  St Ives came back to level the match when Salmon and Godfrey beat Galloway and Powell 21-14, 21-17.  The last game went to three ends before St Ives pair of Bates and Mason after losing the first end defeated Lees and Hird 17-21, 21-19, 21-15.

At the same time to complete a successful day for St Ives in the final of the Mixed Handicap Knock Out Trophy St Ives IV overcame Hawks by 376 points to 325.

For further information, please contact Ken Verney

Ist Team Pipped at the Post

The Cambridgeshire 1st team played the season decider against local rivals Northamptonshire 1st team in division 2 of the Victor Inter County Championship.  The match was a winner takes all, whereby whichever team won the match, wins the league and gain promotion into Division 1.

The match stated well with but Olga Bryant and Kat Young winning their ladies singles in two straight games, but the matches were closer in the mens doubles with both Sunny Lol and Rob Pace winning their 1st ends, but then losing the 2nd and 3rd ends leaving the match all square after the singles.

In the mens doubles, Cambridgeshire have not performed well during the season, and this carried into this match, with both pairing of Nick Pratt/Sam Scharf and Sunny Lol/James Wilson losing all their matches.  However, the ladies double have pulled the county through many a match, and once again the pairing of Olga Bryant/Kat Young won both their matches, and Faye Gregory/Amanda Godfrey winning one of theirs.

This gave Northamptonshire a 7 games to 5 lead going into the mixed.  They soon wrapped up the match and league title, with Cambridgeshire 2nd pairing of Rob Pace/Kat Young losing in two straight games.  Althought, nothing to play for except pride, 3rd Pairing of Nick Pratt/Faye Gregory won their match in 3 ends, but 1st pairing of Olga Bryant/Sam Scharf lost their match in 2.

This gave Northamptonshire a 9 games to 6 win.  Althought disappointed, the county team gained promotion into this division last season, and were looking to avoid relegation, but after winning their first 6 matches found themselves pushing for promotion once again.

County Champions! - IInd Team Win The League

The second team approached the final match of the season with hope and apprehension, knowing that a win was essential for the long desired promotion from the 5th division. The singles started well with all Cambridgeshire players, Jason & Jaclyn Lai, Rob Couch and Alison Bennett securing wins in 2 ends.

The Men's doubles started with slight consternation as Daniel Bates & Rob Couch won their first end of men's 26-24 and narrowly lost the second end to 19. They found form in the third end and won comfortably to 12 then were comfortable throughout their match against the second pair. Neil Place and James Watkins had an easy first match against the second pair winning 6 & 7, but had to work harder against the first pair to win in 2 ends.

The ladies doubles was a bit more mixed with Alison Bennett and Jaclyn Lai playing very well and denying the opponents double figures in most games, the second pair Sandra Ashcroft and Liz Salmon struggled a bit, losing narrowly 22-20 in the third end to the second pair, but rallied round to beat the first pair in 3 ends.

With the match and league decided going into the mixed the Cambridgeshire team were more relaxed! First pair Rob Couch and Alison Bennett won in 3 ends, and the decision to try mixing youth with experience paid off with Daniel Bates and Jaclyn Lai, James Watkins and Liz Salmon both winning in 2 ends.

The second team look forward to the challenges awaiting them next year in division 4 and wish to commiserate the first team on missing promotion so narrowly.