Colchester Junior Level 1 Tournament 23 January

Often children are concerned about playing tournaments - getting started in can be tricky if they are worried that the don't have the experience to go straight into a Circuit, or even a Forza tournament.

Colchester & East Essex Badminton Federation have had the excellent idea of running a 'Level 1' tournament.  Level 1 events are aimed at school or club players with limited competitive experience. Entries will not be accepted from previous winners or pool winners at 2* events or anyone that has played in national age group tournaments (Gold, Silver, Bronze).  Entries are based on school years instead of U13/U15/U17 so children are more likely to be competing with players their own age.

Entries close on Friday 15 January, so if this sounds like a good opportunity for your child to get a taste of competitive play, then please download the entry form.

Festival of Inclusive Badminton Championed by Paralympic Athletes

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On 12th December both Olympic and Paralympic athletes are swapping their world class opponents for disabled beginners and enthusiasts, in order to inspire a new generation to take part in all-inclusive badminton.

Power2Inspire and CADMuS are collaborating to bring the first Festival of Inclusive Badminton to Cambridge. The event – to be held at the University Sports Centre – will bring together disabled athletes of all body types and abilities, whether beginners or not, to try out inclusive badminton. There will be coaching for all standards and the opportunity for people from the community with disabilities to come along and have a go, even if they have never picked up a racket.

And there will be a number of special guests including recently crowned triple gold medallist at the Para-Badminton World Championships Rachel Choong. Members of England’s Para-Badminton squad will also be attending. England Para-Badminton player Daniel Lee is very enthusiastic about the day:

“It’s a great opportunity for disabled and non disabled players to mix together… I have been playing badminton for Team England for 5 years now… and I really encourage disabled people to join in. I have made so many friends through Para-Badminton and still am. Join in! The sport is a life changer.”

So, if you have a disability or impairment and you thought you would never play sport again, maybe watching these amazing stars play high level competitive sport will encourage you to take up the game!

So please feel free to contact Steve Morley – steve.morley@power2inspire.org.uk – if you are interested in attending, taking part, or even taking on one of the stars!

Match Report for Cambs Over 50's away v Herts, Sunday 22/11/15

Team: Martyn Clark, Martin Smith, Wilfried Janssen, Mark Talbot, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng.

Mens doubles

Martyn Clark and Martn Smith, lost a close three ender against Herts 1st pair, 20-22, 21-18, 21-16, but beat their 2nd pair in two ends. 
Wilf and Mark won both of their games beating the 2nds in two ends and winning a tight three ender 23-25 to complete the double.

Ladies Doubles

Angela and Di and Helen and Xin had some good games with Angela and Di taking their 2nd pair to 3 ends. Unfortunately, despite battling hard were unable to convert any games to our advantage.

Mixed Doubles

Martyn and Di fought hard but lost in 2 ends.
Martin and Angela took a comfortable win in 2 ends.
Wilf and Xin had a tough fight with a 3 end win 23-21 14-21 18-21.
Mark and Helen were the last game on and a win from them would give us a draw. However, after a hard fight their scores were 15-21 21-17 25-23.

All in all a very good match in which any of our pairs could have taken us to a draw with 1 more win.

Final score 7-5 to Herts, 16-14 in games, but 548-552 on points.

Thank You and WELL PLAYED TEAM :-)

Martin Smith

Cambs 3 Win 1 Lose 1 In First Day's Fixtures

On Saturday 7th November Cambs3 went off for our first set of matches against Beds2 and Northants3. With all the teams now playing on the same day, any higher teams needing subs meant we would need sub players. We lost Rachel and Bertrand a few weeks in advance to higher call-ups. I then went off to Peterborough to practice with Liz earlier that week to try and get a partnership going and (with a healthy spoonful of irony) then rolled my ankle, so that ruled me out. Then, to really rub that in, Liz and Campbell were called up last minute to higher teams anyway - which left us scrambling a bit. Luckily we could get strong subs in for all but 1 of those spots – I’d run the reserves list dry and had asked at least 8 additional players but I just couldn’t find a last man, so I had to man up and play :) . No resentment directed at our higher teams though, that’s just the way it goes with this new format!

Beds2 were a tough bunch. They finished just below our 2nd team last year so was a bit of an ask for us to beat them. Tom was the only one to win his singles, though Alex had a very close 3ender. Kerry and Jacquie took their ladies, and Mike and I took our men's, but we lost the rest of the games resulting in an 8-3 loss.

The Northants3 game went a little better. They fielded a team with some strong juniors in which was good to see. Kevin also showed up to watch, but we twisted his arm to help bail Mike out of his singles, who was unpracticed having not known he was playing singles until the day before the match heh. All 5 singles games went our way in 2 ends, with some won to single digits! The levels followed suit, as cambs took all 4 games comfortably. Kerry had to play against her partner in the mixed – I don’t know if that made her play better or worse. Regardless, Kerry & Tom played well to win. The combination of straps and painkillers was really helping my ankle to I swapped in to play mixed instead of Thas who hadn’t quite gelled with Jacquie as we’d hoped having never played together before. Jacquie and I reunited our junior county partnership to success and won in 2 ends. Final overall score of 11-0 win!

All in all a really fun day with good games, a really sociable atmosphere, and a friendly team who helped support each other throughout. Massive thanks to all our subs, but particularly Jacquie who filled in at really late notice, won 3 /4 of her rubbers, and put up with me in the mixed :). Roll on December 12th!

(Simon Parker)

Job Opportunity at Top Spin Tennis

Top Spin Tennis is looking for a new staff member to join their Cambridge team. 
 
Can you string? Do you play a racket sport? Are you friendly and hardworking?

Have a look at the advert for more information.

If you are interested, go along to Top Spin Tennis at Hills Road and have a chat with either Karen, Sarah or Daniel.

Over 50’s match reports: Norfolk & Suffolk

1/11/15 Away v Norfolk

Team – Martyn Clark, John Mallabar, Martin Smith, Wilfred Janssen, Angela Sharman, Helen Taylor, Carol Salmon, Xin Cheng.

A hard fought game against a strong Norfolk team resulted in a 10-2 home win to Norfolk.

Men’s doubles: Martyn and John, and Wilf and Martin put up a good fight against two strong Norfolk men’s pairs but were unable to convert some close games into a win.

Ladies doubles: Angela and Helen paired up to win one of their games, narrowly missing out 21-19 against the Norfolk 1st ladies pair. Carol and Xin had a similar game to the men’s pairs, putting up a good fight but were unable to gain an advantage.

Mixed Doubles: Three of the four draws went to 3 ends, but we were only able to convert one of these to a win, well done Wilf and Xin.

Final score was a 10-2 home win to Norfolk. All in all we had some good games but were outplayed on the day.

Well played team.

8/11/15 Home v Suffolk

Team – John Pickering, Wilfred Janssen, John Mallabar, Martin Smith, Angela Sharman, Dianne Baker, Helen Taylor, Xin Cheng.

Mens doubles: John P and Wilf had two 3 enders in their mens, beating the Suffolk 2nd pair and losing 21-17 in the 3rd against the 1st pair. John M and Martin had a close win against the Suffolk 2nds and lost to the 1st pair to 14 and 19.

Ladies Doubles: Both of our ladies pairs had close games against the Suffolk 2nd pair but were outplayed by the 1st pair. Angela and Di beat the 2nd pair and Helen and Xin lost a closely fought battle to 19 and 18.

Mixed Doubles: John P and Helen, John M and Di, Martin and Angela, Wilf and Xin. We all had some close games with Wilf and Xin being the only mixed pair to manage 3 ends.

Final Result was a 9-3 away win to Suffolk. Overall a good match played in good spirits, many thanks to all of the team.

Martin Smith
Captain

Cambs Junior Fun Tournament 14 November 2015

CRC was full of U11, U13 and U15 junior badminton players on Saturday for the Cambridgeshire Fun Tournament, held by Cambridgeshire Badminton Association with the generous support of Cambridgeshire Schools Badminton Association.

Congratulations to everyone who played, as there were many close games which were all played in excellent spirits.

The winners were:

U11

Boys Singles: Adam Wang (RU Achira Waduge) / Girls Singles: Carys Leung (RU Phoebe Meikle)

U13

Boys singles: Wing Lun Lim (RU Manula Dharmawardana) / Girls singles: Ruby Spencer (RU Olivia Chan)

U15

Boys singles: Cameron Foo (RU Harry Zhao) / Girls singles: Sophia Abbott (RU Rachel Owen)

U11

Boys doubles: Adam Wang & Achira Waduge (RU Zai & Oliver Winfield)/ Girls doubles: Sophie Biers & Carys Leung (RU Jasmine & Phoebe)

U13

Boys doubles: Wing Lun Lim & Lewis Edmund (RU Zichen He & Manula Dharmawardana)/ Girls doubles: Sophie Biers & Carys Leung (RU Jasmine & Pheobe Meikle)

U15

Boys doubles: Cameron Foo & Harry Zhao (RU Wing Lun Lim & Alec Davis) / Girls doubles: Rachel Owen & Alice Bates (RU Claudia Bazyk & Olivia Chan)

All the results sheets are available in the Gallery section.