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The Journey of a Circuit Badminton Player
by Chris Evans
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What a 6 months. I finished playing in April at the last county weekend.
Then went to
For work I had to travel to
Have become a selector for Hampshire – there’s a five man (well one woman) selection committee and I have joined it…….Which means I’m joint second team manager and involved in all senior county selection.
This season has started out of no where, can’t believe it is now September and now less than 16 weeks till Christmas.
First tournament of the season was the Kent Satellite, or Silver event as Badminton England have been working very hard over the summer coming up with new names for things……and then they reuse the Junior names….damn they’re good!
Satnav said it was only 2 hours to Gillingham, to what the website (http://www.medway.gov.uk/london2012/55326/55593.htm) says…..it’s a purpose built badminton centre, with four courts (that means the tournament is gonna take a long time) and is where one of the Premier B county weekends are this season.
Fortunately the satnav was right, no problem in travelling up.
Got to the hall and it is a 12 court multi-purpose hall, roasting hot, no ventilation and the curtains that separated the 3 rows of 4 courts, weren’t pulled across.
If you played on an end court, you were trying to pick the shuttle out against a backdrop of your opponent’s side and 2 further courts behind them.
I was playing with Adam at men’s and a young singles player from Hampshire in the mixed – Josie Lattimer.
Mixed was first, Josie and I came through our first game 21-11, 21-10, then in the second round we played a young England prospect in Helena Lewcynzska and her partner David Wenn. We lost in three sets, disappointed that we lost, but an excellent effort in our first tournament together. We have played some club matches together, but no tournaments.
The men’s was a good run, we had a decent quarter, even seeded – which was totally unexpected. Every season I turn up wondering, whether the next generation was going to come through and the time will come when I won’t be able to turn up to tournaments with a target of winning it.
We came through our first two games in usual Adam and Chris, slow start take it easy style. We won our Quarter finals and were through to the second day.
So it was a case of driving home and coming back the next day, fortunately it was quicker going home late in the evening. On the Saturday I was joined by the wife, probably feeling that now we’re married there’s no escape from badminton….so she’d better come and support. It was good to have her up supporting at the first tournament of the season.
The venue wasn’t very good for supporters….the seating was hard, the hall was ridiculously hot, the canteen was awful and the viewing of games on the far side was difficult…..especially if you forget your glasses!
So Sunday she stayed at home to enjoy some of the weekend.
In the Men’s semi we had to play two full time Irish players – Scott Burnside and Conor Hickman. There was a small contingent over from
The curtains were now pulled across so no trouble viewing the shuttle. The lads were sharp, much sharper than us, I’d played twice in the 2 weeks leading up to the tournament. We lost the first set narrowly to 19, disappointing but not the end of the world, we came back in the second to take it playing our way 21-12….getting on the attack and keeping it.
The third set was tight all the way, every point was critical…..a really good example of how interesting, exciting and fun the “new” Rally point scoring system is.
Unfortunately, from trying too hard to win points and making errors and them having a greater level of consistency when it was tight, they took the set to 17 to progress to the final.
Adam and I were disappointed to have lost so close, but pleased to still be able to compete at this level. Proving that when we are on form we can pose many good full timers a challenge.
The Irish lads lost the final to un-seeded Tonks and George. Dean was still ranked in the top 10 and Chris was ranked around the same area as me, so no idea why they weren’t seeded, but they beat the Irish lads in 2 sets in the final 21-15, 21-14.
The 2 weeks between Kent and Herts I was off from work on hols, went away for a few days in
So no fitter for the Herts – playing men’s with Adam (seeded 7th in the 64 draw) and mixed with Jenny Buckley.
Mixed was first so Jenny and I played our first game….winning in two tight sets scraping both in setting 23-21, 24-22. We weren’t firing, but we were ok, and enough to get through the first round.
The next round was against two talented youngsters, I’d seen the lad before (Aaron Cheng) play doubles, so knew he was useful and had heard the girl was good.
We lost the first set to 16, we played awful, they played better and it was over. We got our game going a bit better in the second set, but still making loads of errors, we were behind, but managed to come back and scrape the second set to 16.
The third we were behind all the way to 18-19, then 19-20 down, we got back to 20 all and although we had a chance to win, but I left a drive and it landed inside the backline, we lost 26-24…killer. But based on the number of errors and our performance in the first set….it was amazing we had got that close.
The youngsters went on and won their next game, beating the number two seeds, but lost in the round after that.
A little wait for the men’s, including a trip to a ridiculously busy Tesco’s…..does everyone in Hatfield do their shopping on Sunday’s?
First round of the men’s was awful, my pulled muscle was causing some discomfort, so with ridiculously slow, awful Ashaway shuttles, I was struggling to smash from the back. We won 21-17, 22-20….it was an ugly game, that during the second set I wished I was at home……Made so bad, by the dreadful shuttles. Ashaway’s clothing, shoes and rackets always look like the last seasons Yonex designs, they’re string is good…..but their shuttles are awful…….and the worst thing…..they sponsor tournaments with shuttles!
At the desk we were told that our next round opponents had pulled out, we were due to play the same two Irish lads we’d lost to at
Joel and Victor won their games, including beating Eddie Chow and his partner….ex-World top 5 men’s doubles – Yee Guan
We started well, knowing how good our opponents were, especially at defending – the slow hall also going to help them and not us, but our game was working well, the game was tight all the way up through the teens it went to setting. Joel playing a winner for them to take the first 23-21.
Very disappointing, but at least we knew we were up to speed.
The second set continued on from the first…tight and good quality traditional men’s doubles. They got a little lead around the mid point of the set and we couldn’t quite get back on even terms, always getting to within a point, but losing the next. We lost the second set 21-16.
We were pleased with this performance, knowing that although we hadn’t done much summer training, we were still able to compete with full time players.
This season could be a painful one, as my body creaks and moans with every passing day. This is now my tenth season playing Open tournaments….so no wonder it doesn’t like me.
Its 3 weeks until the Restricted, so some training and better eating…..county club starts up again, so I will be hitting twice a week now which is good.
Herts Results - http://www.tournamentsoftware.com/sport/draws.aspx?id=666F2439-4043-437B-9629-F1AEFEF4E800
