New Coaching Courses in the Eastern Region

There are new Level 1 and Level 2 coaching courses available in or near Cambridgeshire in the upcoming months:

UKCC L1 Coaching Course: Suffolk New College Sports Centre, Ipswich. IP4 1LT. Dates: 9th June, 10th June and 1st July.

UKCC L2 Coaching Course: Bushfields Leisure Centre, Orton Centre, Peterborough. PE2 5RQ. Dates: 30th June, 1st July, 12th August, 2nd September.

To register for these courses or to find out other dates of courses in the Region / across the country, please go to:

http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/text.asp?section=1050§ionTitle=Find+a+Course

Application forms and payment to be sent to the Coaching Team, BADMINTON England, National Badminton Centre, Milton Keynes, MK8 9LA or coaching@badmintonengland.co.uk.

Cambridgeshire Badminton Association AGM

Thursday is the County AGM. It is at 7.30pm at Comberton Village College. Come to the sports centre and it will be signposted. Come along - hear what the committee have been up to and have your say. This is the meeting which determines the direction of the County - Junior development, senior leagues and County squads, and anything else relating to badminton.  The more people who participate, the more will get done and more people will feel represented.

Cambs U11s Taste Friendly Victory

Despite not fielding a Shires team in the age category this season, Cambridgeshire fielded an U11 team for a friendly match against Northants (away) on Sunday 29th April. In an outstanding display of commitment, good nature and ability, Cambs won an absolutely corking overall 49-5 victory against the home team!

The match was won so quickly and so convincingly (25-2) that the home team asked Cambs players to replay the whole match again (to use the courts that had been booked) which was won 24-3, thus giving the overall score of 49-5! Only singles and level doubles were played in this match. Few games went to three ends and many games were won in single figures.

The team was made up of players as young as 8yrs old (Callum Stokes) right up to his brother Eugene who is ranked 15 in the country in the U11 age group. The other team members were Cameron Foo, Harry Zhao, Peter Du, Alexander Harding, Hannah Lin, Megan Johnson, Rachel Owen, Chanumi Gamage and Sophia Abbott.

The future of junior badminton in Cambs is looking very hopeful indeed with this sort of start to our youngsters' badminton careers. Well done all those players who took part!

U17s Represent Cambs at ICT Nottingham

The Badminton England U17 Inter Counties Tournament (ICT) was held in Nottingham over 4 days commencing on Thursday 12 April.

Teams from 40 Counties competed, with 10 players in each team.  Cambridgeshire were represented by Molly Carter, Jessica Sharman, Gemma McGuire, Emma May, Laura Pickard, Aidan Foo, Thomas Li, Tom Zhang, Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian and Sunny Kong.  Over the four days each team played a total of 10 matches.

On the first day the initial match for Cambridgeshire was against Warwickshire - the top seeds.  As anticipated, the match went in favour of Warwickshire 10-0.  The second match against Avon ended at 5 games each, but Avon won on count-back.  The final match on the first day was against Derbyshire, who ran out easy winners 9-1.

Friday was more successful.  The day started with a close match against Somerset and resulted in a Cambridgeshire victory 6-4.  Two defeats followed, with Berkshire winning 6-4, whilst Cumbria were the victors 7-3.  The final match of the day gave Cambridgeshire a convincing win over Wiltshire by 8-2.

On Saturday Cambridgeshire had a victory and a defeat.  Durham were defeated 6-4 whilst Cambridgeshire lost to Kent 6-4. On Sunday, the final day, Cambridgeshire finished with a flourish, defeating Northumberland 7-3.

Overall, Cambridgeshire won 4 matches out of 10, ending in 30th position as compared with 27th in 2011.

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The Cambs U17 ICT 2012 Squad

Cambs Compete at 17-21 ICC for First Time

For the first time Cambridgeshire entered a team into the ICC 17-21 competition. The team consisted of 6 men (Matt Price, Josh Males, Campbell Wilson, David Shepherd, Sam Pickup and Samir Sattar) and 5 women (Jessica James, Hannah Sharman, Rachel Farrington, Carolyn Key and Beth Parrish) with many of them not ever having played at county level and certainly not in an inter county environment. It was excellent experience for the players and they played very well together considering they weren't accustomed to playing with each other.

Despite the fact that the whole ethos of the competition is the transition from junior to senior badminton, with the emphasis on progressing young players rather than highly experienced ones, there was an impressive array of U19 and older England players participating at the championships! There were many teams with players that bore the legend ENGLAND on their backs.

However, Cambs held their own very well indeed and were just points off drawing with strong Warwickshire in their group and losing 1-5 after some 3 end-er, hard fought battles. Cambs then drew with Bedfordshire, who put forward England player Darren Adamson and his brother so drawing was quite an achievement. However, because Beds did slightly better against Warwickshire than Cambs did, we came bottom of the group. Unfortunately, we approached Cornwall next with the delusion that they were easy prey. They were very strong in this competition and again, Cambs missed drawing with them by a couple of points and lost 2-4.

Subsequent play-offs against Kent (with very strong players such as James Au) and Wiltshire saw 3-3 draws with Cambridgeshire.

All Cambs players gave their best performances for this competition and can hold their heads high as none of their opponents could have felt they had easy wins. Many ties went to three ends with setting. The team finished in 20th position but possibly a bit more experience in this level of competition could see improvements next year. A great weekend’s badminton!

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The Cambs 17-21 ICC 2012 Squad

Sharman and Sutton-Ziaian Lead the Pack: Cambs U19 Restricted Results

At the Under 19 Cambridgeshire Junior Restricted Tournament, there were double successes for Kaylan Sutton-Ziaian and Hannah Sharman.

Last year, Kaylan won the Under 15 Boys singles and doubles.  Having now moved up to the Under 19 level, he repeated last year's success.  In the final of the singles he defeated Josh Males, a regular senior County player, 21-12.  Up to the half-way stage the match was evenly contested, but then Kaylan charged to the win with controlled placement forcing his opponent into errors.  In his semi-final, Kaylan had beaten James Yow 21-11, whilst Josh got the better of Campbell Wilson by 26-24.

In the Boys doubles, Kaylan continued his successful partnership of last year with Aidan Foo.  They beat Josh Males and Campbell Wilson in a tight final game 21-19.

In the girls events, it was plain sailing for Hannah Sharman.  In the singles she overwhelmed Gemma McGuire to the tune of 21-6.  Hannah then partnered Jessica James to defeat Rachel Hoath and Robynne George 21-9 in the girls doubles.

Lincolnshire heartbreak for Cambs II

There was heartbreak again for the Cambridgeshire senior IInd team on Sunday, when they were pipped to the Badminton England Inter Counties Championship (ICC) Division 5D playoff spot by a single game. To add insult to injury, the Lincolnshire team were led by England International prospect Harley Towler - the same player who two years previously almost to the day had won the games in the match which condemned the IInd team to relegation from Division 4.

Going into the game on Sunday, Cambs II and Lincs I were tied at the top of the table, level on both points, and games for and against. It was apparent from the outset that it was going to be a tough match, as Lincs had supplemented their squad with two other strong players: Rodger Annis and Chloe Sidwell. In the singles, Tom Li (j) battled manfully against Towler, but was beaten in straight games, as was Mindaugas Dabasinskas despite mounting a spirited second end which he lost 24-22. Molly Carter (j) also suffered her first singles defeat of the season in straight games against Sidwell, so it was only Katie Morton who took points, with a confident straight sets 21-14, 21-7 victory.

Cambridgeshire went into the doubles resolved to turn the tide of the game, and while the ladies prevailed, the men found the going much harder. Captain Daniel Bates and James Wilson went into the game against Towler and Annis hoping to begin the fight back. After a thrilling first end which they won 27-25, they were unable to maintain their momentum, and lost in three. Molly and Liz Salmon were also enjoying a marathon match, mirroring the men by losing their first game 25-27, but then taking the rubber. In the other doubles, Tom and Paul Martell lost in straight games 21-12, 21-15, while Katie and Jessica Sharman (j) won 21-14, 21-19.

The reverse doubles saw very similar results, with both men's pairs losing in straight games, while the ladies both won, despite a mid-game dip by Liz and Molly.

That left the score 7-5 to Lincs going into the mixed, and with Towler ranked 19 in the country at mixed, the need to win all three seemed a stretch too far for the Cambs team. James and Katie, and Tom and Molly showed Cambs' traditional mixed class, by winning in straight games 21-19, 21-15 and 21-17, 21-15 respectively. Daniel and Jess started with a concerted effort to cut Towler out of the game, but found that this only served to confuse their strategy, and they lost 21-2. In the second game, they resolved to play for pride and took a more creditable 21-12, but with that result the match - and the playoff hope - was lost.

For the first time in years, the Cambs IInd team has enjoyed a season where the squad has been settled, and high hopes of a playoff spot were only dashed by sharing the group with a very strong County Ist team. With the Cambs Ist team looking likely to be relegated from Division IB this year, the only ray of light for the season is now likely to be the IIIrd team, who have won their Division 5 group and head into the playoffs at the end of April.

The team:
Daniel Bates (c), Paul Martell, Katie Morton: Hurst Badminton Club
Thomas Li: Pearl Badminton Club
Molly Carter, Liz Salmon, Mindaugas Dabasinskas: St Ives Badminton Club
James Wilson: Ely Victoria Badminton Club
Jessica Sharman: Court Badminton Club

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