The 2 extremes of badminton in 5 days

Posted 16:09 07 April 2010 in Why I'm here!

Last Saturday I played at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes against the Scottish National Champions. oh how the Wednesday night was different when I played in our club’s mens team.

 

We have several men at the club, but only one mixed team and thus only 3 of the 10 or so men could play. We started the mens team a few years ago and the mixed team men would only play when others weren’t available. I was the last reserve, but called in for this match as others were unavailable.

The first time I played for this team, I had just returned from a county weekend at Premier A and toed the line to return the first serve of the night, the bloke opposite obviously wasn’t used to this in Winchester Mens Division 3 and capitulated he only got his serve over after many goes later and I had moved right back.

I was warned that although we were in the top division now a few years later, the opposition weren’t going to be like the Saturday at Premier B. Also the opposition played in a village hall……with one court….they had however turned over some of the divisions top teams, so were a threat to our title aspirations.

 

The match was at 7pm, there was a detailed plan over where we were all driving to so that we could share lifts. I got to my friend Jimmy’s for half 5, then Keith met us there, driving us to Pete’s in Winchester for . Pete then drove us to Four Marks, about 15 miles from Winchester towards Alton. I did advise that I’d had a sort of dinner at lunchtime at work, but wanted something more to eat, was there a newsagents or petrol station we could stop at. The others advised that the opposition always put on a good spread of food at these matches because they can go on really late. The best plan was to be done by 11, more likely 12…..then drive home…gonna be a late one!

 

Pete (the only guy who’d played there before) said there was a petrol station up the road, as we were early did I want to go there. The thought of definitely getting something to eat was a high priority, so as we were pulling in he pointed out the fish and chips shop….surely I couldn’t….then again, I was hungry, it was a local league match and we might not be finished today, but tomorrow morning!

I got a sausage and a portion of small chips, Jimmy also got some chips and we jumped back in the car, to go round the corner to the hall.

When we walked in the hall I was still eating my chips…..the opposition must have thought they had nothing to worry about with this fat b@st@rd!

There was a parquet flooring with one court drawn out, they then rolled out the mat….a mat that looked to have come from the 1970 Olympics or something, they advised they roll it out for the “good” games…..we were privileged. After playing in Milton Keynes with their new Gerfloor, this was quite nice, much better than sliding around on the wooden parquet.

 

The you looked up……the ceiling can’t have been more than 14/16 foot, it was peaked so in the middle it was higher, but on the sides, it was low….very low!

The opposition laid out seating on the stage at one end, we had a lovely field scene behind us, which at least added colour as the other 3 walls were painted white, fortunately with red curtains regularly spaced at the windows. It was a nice village hall, but not really a badminton venue!

The fun continued, two of the opposition got the shuttles out…..Badminton England funded Yehlex NEW MAGNUMS!!! Oh no….they’re awful, this is going to be a long, long night!

 

I was playing at 3, with Geoff (who had the lucky pleasure of being the oldest member of the team), our first pair started knocking up, continually hitting the roof, the opposition were in full flow of their driving game practice…..excellent, they’re used to playing in this hall!

 

Having finished my chips, I went for an exploration of the village hall, wondering behind the screen and investigating the hall. There were many rooms, lots of storage area, a massive kitchen, some toilets – no showers! It was massive, but the main hall was tiny….very strange.

 

The first pair, won….in 3 sets, the time was then ….match started about , with knock up and then first 3 sets. The second pair went on and won, time .

So my first game started about quarter to 9….quarter to 9…that’s crazy….especially as its only the first game! One of the guys from the first pair had gone off after his first game to play football, then he was coming back……they knew it was going to be a long night……he could do two sports at the same time!

We won our game in three sets, I don’t think the opposition were expecting someone who could drive it back, the biggest problem was lifting….you could lift without hitting the roof but it was a short lift, or you could lift high and hit the roof, or you could go for length, keep it low and the shuttles went out the back of the court.

We finished our game about , over 2 hours gone and we were a third of the way through the match. Our first pair went on and played their second pair, they won in two sets, during which the member of the first pair who had stayed and not gone to football, decide to pull out having pulled his calf in the first game. He said “if it was going to be a close match he’d stay, but as we looked like winning, he was pulling out and we could finish earlier”.

 

We did, we finished by ….bonus, if the other guy had played it would have definitely been 12, if anymore of the games had gone to 3 sets it could have been later.

On returning home, it was an enjoyable evening, it was a surreal experience playing in a LOW one court hall, the opposition were very friendly, the team were successful and still dreaming of winning the league….a possibility depending on last 2 games. But the night was late and very tiring for a Wednesday night. Might try and duck the match next season….although the sausage and chips were nice.

 

A couple of pictures of the hall…..