NEWS for 2011-12 Season
WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS - WEMBLEY EXPERIENCE!
August 2011 - 17 Cambs Badminton Academy junior players had the once in a lifetime opportunity to be involved with one of the biggest major international badminton tournaments in the world, next to the Olympics, when they volunteered to sweat mop at the BWF Yonex World Championships at Wembley Arena from 8-14th August.
Coach, Helen Critchell, had been trying to get this opportunity for Academy members for many months and was delighted when Badminton England gave in to the pressure to let us bring our juniors along. Throughout the week Helen drove around 1700 miles in a minibus, kindly donated for the week by Anglia Ruskin University, to get the sweat-moppers backwards and forwards to London and it was worth every mile. The junior players were so enthralled with so many things - from being involved behind the scenes at a major event, to rubbing shoulders (and sweat) of the best badminton players in the world, to sitting courtside to watch the best badminton, to getting to rummage bins to collect discarded, broken rackets that had been thrown away by the top players!
These experiences are both thoroughly inspirational and enjoyable but they are also vital to the development of young players in both their understanding of the game and getting familiar with the bug for volunteering. Helping to officiate at major badminton championships is essential to the player pathway and we encourage this sort of involvement, as well as Young Officials getting more experience as line judges etc.
As a result of talking to many other officials at the event the Academy has now been invited to take Young Officials to line judge at the Yonex US Open in California next July. Our juniors were exemplary in the performance of their job and they received high praise indeed from the organisers. Here's hoping that we get the opportunity to sweat mop at the Olympics! Well done all!
ACADEMY SUCCESSES AT THE YEHLEX BIRMINGHAM BONAZA, NIA!
July 16th & 17th 2011: The Academy saw yet more successes at the Birmingham Bonanza at the impressive National Indoor Arena, Birmingham, last
weekend. Not only did the Academy have twelve players - both adult and junior - playing in the Bonanza,
we also supplied Badminton England with three volunteers to help them run the event! Helen Critchell, Lauren Galton and
Rachel Hoath spent a fabulous weekend with the Badminton England team, organising and running the event, being put up
in a hotel in Birmingham and having a really enjoyable few days. Helen was the Badminton England Child Welfare Officer
for the weekend and thankfully didn't have to make use of that title!
The players all had success, with all of them winning games and some of them winning their groups and then going on to win their categories. We saw some incredible badminton played in very daunting surroundings - it's not easy playing in the National Indoor Arena with 100s of people all around you either watching your games or playing on the 27 courts in the hall!
The U16 boys Social Category singles was won by Aaron May, 14.
The U16 boys League Category singles saw Michael Duncan as runner up.
The U16 boys League Category doubles was amalgamated with the Social Category due to shortage of entries and was won by Michael
Duncan and Nikita Bryant. Unfortunately for our Social Category entrants, Aaron May and Adam Walker, they were up against league
category opponents but they did win games!
The Family (male) category doubles saw Michael Duncan and his dad Alf as runners up.
And the Academy's new member from Worcestershire, Anne Corbett, won the ladies League Category singles competition, beating an
ex Scottish National player!!
Anne and her mixed doubles partner from the Academy, David Shepherd got through to the quarter finals of the league category,
adults mixed doubles, and missed the semis by a couple of points.
All in all, a fantastic weekend that was thoroughly enjoyed by everyone.
DAVID SHEPHERD AT THE OLYMPICS
July 2011: 18 year old David Shepherd, of the Cambs Badminton Academy, has been selected to be a badminton line judge at
the 2012 Olympics following his proven track record at other major international badminton tournaments over the last couple
of years. As a Young Official David has achieved something that no other Young Official across all sports has achieved to
date and this has made him incredibly proud! "It was a great surprise and honour when I was asked if I would line judge at
the Olympics and I suppose it is still sinking in!" says David. "As much as I would love to be playing in the Olympics it
really is exciting being an official because you are right on the edge of fantastic games played by the world´s greatest
players. If more young players became interested in officiating they too would find out how inspiring it can be."
David started his officiating career in April 2009 when he took the opportunity to officiate as a volunteer, when he had just turned 16, at the Center Parcs National Schools Badminton Championships. He then went on to learn about line judging at the UK School Games in Cardiff where he was noticed by Abby Kumar, of Badminton Line Judges Association of England, who asked David to apply to line judge at the Yonex All England Open Championships at the Birmingham National Indoor Arena in March 2010.
So, while he was still just 16 years old, David joined the team of highly experienced line judges to officiate at this very prestigious, international event and learned how to keep his cool on centre court in front of millions of TV viewers worldwide, whilst having a call questioned rather vociferously by Danish player Peter Gade! The call was correct and David has, since, gone from strength to strength impressing the Line Judges Association with his commitment and ability.
David is also a committed young player himself and trains for about 25 hours a week and is determined, one day, to play for the national squad!
David is now the Young Officials Co-ordinator for Badminton England in Cambridgeshire and manages young officials at major junior and adult badminton events. If any junior is interested in pursuing a career in officiating please contact him on david@.
GLOUCESTERSHIRE INTERNATIONAL TOURNAMENT
02/03 July 2011: Academy players, David Shepherd and Nishil Dabhi, entered their first adult International Tournament together
as a doubles pair on 2nd and 3rd July at Gloucestershire University. They entered the tournament in C Class, as they are not
currently graded, only to find that with insufficient entries into that class they were moved up into B class! B class players
normally rank in the top 200 players in the country!
As a doubles pairing, David and Nish played fantastic quality badminton and impressed the organisers with their passion and fight, even provoking one comment from someone that they wished their own players had the same passion to win as our boys did! As a result of their performance, they got through to the quarter final stage of the tournament, playing matches that were worthy of the finals. Due to the way the tournament was organised they needed to win two quarter finals matches to get through to the semis. They won one match convincingly and then lost the second by just two points - 19/21. Considering this was the first time the two had played together in a high level badminton competition they should be exceedingly pleased with their performance.
Nish played singles as well as the doubles and played exceptionally well and won his way to the finals! He played Andy Muir,
ranked in the 50s in this country, in the finals - losing in a very tightly fought game played to three ends. It was an
awesome match and impressed many people!
Unfortunately, David Shepherd was supposed to be playing mixed doubles with Anne Corbett, a grade 2 (silver) player from Worcestershire but an ankle injury forced them to retire from that competition. Anne went on to win the ladies doubles and got through to the finals of the singles. Anne will be accompanying our older Academy players on all our international tournament trips in the future! Hopefully, the excellent results achieved in their first International Tournament will be the starting point for a brilliant international career!
