Latest News - 2006 Archive

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  12 December 2006

New Flooring A Great Success

The 2 and 3 Court Halls at Chilwell Olympia Sports Centre have recently been completely resurfaced using Gerflor flooring.

"The previous flooring was uplifted after ten months due to too many players falling over and injuring themselves," he explained. "We needed a flooring that would withstand constant wear and tear from our badminton players."

"Having been recommended for its high performance, Taraflex Performance Plus from Gerflor was specified and met all the requirements in terms of longevity, safety and visual appeal".

"Because Gerflor offered to become sponsors of the Nottingham Badminton Association, the company was able to incorporate their logo onto the flooring which adds very distinctive appeal."

"A new double density foam backing combined with the new D-Max surface, makes Taraflex Performance Plus the highest performance vinyl sports flooring on the market."

"We are delighted with the result and as far as aesthetics is concerned, the colour of the flooring and the addition of the Gerflor logo enhances the appearance of the courts."

 5 December 2006

Notts Pair Take Runners-Up Spot

Nottinghamshire's Colin Abbott and Bill Houghton played in the Veteran’s English National Championships held at Milton Keynes on 2nd/3rd December, hoping to win the over 65 Mens doubles for the third year in succession.  This was not to be, however they were creditable runners up to their old rivals Harry Shadwick (Cumbria) and Michael Coley (Surrey), who this season have come up into the over 65’s.

Keith Wallace and Victor York (Essex) were 4th in the same age group.

In the over 60’s Mixed doubles, Ken Tantum and Val Richmond were second in their group, while Christine Richardson and Ian Brothers (Kent) were 3rd in their group.  Only the winners of each group playing in the final.

Christine and Barbara Dootson (Lancs.) were 3rd in the over 60’s Ladies doubles.

Robert Dumelow and Jenny Abbott won three out of their four matches in their over 55 Mixed doubles group.  They needed to win all four matches to go through to the final.

Robert and Geoff Williams (Lancs.) came 3rd in the over 55 Mens doubles.

 28 November 2006 

Nathan Takes East Midlands Title

 20 November 2006 

It's A Double Win For Dave

 5 November 2006

Clark and Kellogg Triumph In Denmark Open

Nottinghamshire's Anthony Clark and his partner Donna Kellogg made up for their world championship disappointment six weeks ago when they won the Denmark Open in a cliffhanger of a mixed doubles final in Aarhus this afternoon.

The world silver medallists beat Denmark's Thomas Laybourn and Kamilla Juhl 14-21 21-14 22-20 in a thrilling final.

In doing so they avenged team-mates and world champions Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms' shock semi-final defeat yesterday by Laybourn and Juhl.

The victory also made up for Kellogg's women's doubles disappointment at the start of finals day when she and Emms, the European champions, surprisingly lost 22-20 21-10 to Poland's Kamilla Augustyn and Nadiezda Kostiuczyk.

The England squad next tackle the Dutch Open in Den Bosch, starting Tuesday.

 5 November 2006

Notts Vets Take Home The Medals

Notts Veterans were again in the medals, this time at the Northumberland Challenge Veterans Badminton Tournament, held at The Louisa Centre, Stanley.

Robert Dumelow won the O/55’s Mixed doubles with Jenny Abbott and was runner up in the Men’s O/55 doubles playing with Dave Maxted (Northumberland).

Jenny Abbott and Jean Smith (Lancashire) were runners up in the O/55 Ladies doubles.

Ken Tantum and Val Richmond won the O/60’s Mixed doubles, while Henryk Radziwonik and Beryl Goodall (Northants) were runners-up.  

Ken Tantum and Henryk Radziwonik were runners up in the O/60’s Mens doubles

 28 October 2006

Val Takes Top Honours

Top honors go to Notts Over 60’s player Val Richmond who won both the Ladies  doubles, partnered by Beryl Goodall (England/Northampton) and the Mixed doubles with Ken Tantum (Notts), in the Cumbria Classic Veteran Badminton Tournament held in Carlisle over the weekend of  7th/8th October 2006.

Robert Dumelow partnered by Geoff Williams (Lancashire) was runner up in the Over 55

Mens doubles and lost in the final of the Mixed doubles with Jenny Abbott (Notts).

Christine Richardson playing with Muriel Burgess (Northumberland) was runner up in the Ladies Over 60’s and, playing down an age group, reached the semi finals of the over 55 Mixed with John Gardner (England/Essex).  

A successful weekend for the five Notts Veteran’s players.

3 October 2006

Notts Development Day

Elaine Spray Badminton Development Officer from Nottinghamshire & Emma Groome from Sports Coach UK have joined forces to organise “Badminton Development Days” in the County.

In order to make this project possible, we applied to Nottinghamshire County Council CIF for funding and successfully obtained £650 to run the courses.

The first event took place on Sunday 2nd October 2006 and everyone attending wondered how the day would unfold.

They need'nt have worried as the aim of the seminar was to bring together all Level 1 coaches of all ages in Nottinghamshire and help them improve their communication and coaching skills.  This would enable them to move on to Level 2 with more knowledge and confidence.

The agenda for the day was packed full of interesting ideas and the main topic was "WHAT IS QUALITY COACHING?” This was delivered by Becky Karver also from Sports Coach UK Berkshire.

This was a practical workshop that focused on what makes a “good “session and “the related role of the coach”. This was designed to help understand the coaching skills that are required to deliver a good quality session, to identify and describe good coaching practice, and finally reflect and improve on existing coaching skills.

In the afternoon we covered Badminton FUNdamentals, which again was a practical session delivered by one of the County’s Netwall Coaches, Gordon Fearn, who is promoting badminton in Nottinghamshire to all Primary & Junior schools throughout the County alongside Martin Tilling. Lots of different footwork ideas and warm up skills were introduced to make coaching fun as well as a learning skill.

Both workshops were great fun and included new ideas for games.

Everyone who attended this day thoroughly enjoyed themselves and will be looking forward to the second Development Day that will take place in late February or early March 2007.  This day will also be extended to the rest of the Level 1’s in the county.

Special thanks go to all those people who turned out on a wet Sunday morning and gave their support to this excellent informative day.

Elaine Spray
BDO Nottinghamshire

25 September 2006

Nathan And Gail On Top Of The World

They made up for last year's world championship misery by winning the mixed doubles in Madrid.

But to do so the Commonwealth gold and Olympic silver medallists had to beat their close friends, Nottingham's Anthony Clark and Derby's Donna Kellogg 21-15, 21-12.

"It was a strange match," said Robertson, who had to pull out on the eve of the 2005 championships with torn ankle ligaments when he and Emms were clear favourites.

"Although I said there was no one I would rather play in the final, in a way it would have been better playing an Asian pair. Donna and Anthony are our friends. It was a difficult match.

"We know each other's styles inside out. But we have not lost to an English pair in in six years and we didn't want the first time to be in a world final.

"It was so strange - you never want to beat friends in a final - but it's so good for England."

Robertson added: "We now have Commonwealth gold and we are world champions. We will carry on for another two years and we'll definitely go for gold in Beijing."

Clark said: "Realistically, going into the tournament we would have taken the silver medal.

"They were very sharp on the first three points of each rally. If we had been facing an Asian pair it would have been a different story. We kept saying to each other 'let's try something different' but nothing worked for us."

Clark had to settle for second best in the men's doubles as well as he and Robert Blair lost to China's Fu Haifeng and Cai Yun 21-9 21-13. But he can still be proud of two silvers from England's best world championships for 23 years.

China finished with four golds, including a 1-2-3 in the men's singles. England finished second in the medal table.

Article courtesy of Nottingham Evening Post

6 September 2006

Adcock & Mills Selected For England

Notts players Chris Adcock and Peter Mills have been selected for the World Junior Under 19 Championships to be played at Incheon City South Korea from 2nd to 11th November 2006.

Only 4 men and 5 women were selected to travel with the England squad and Notts have two men in the team.

Stewart Hague, the President of Nottinghamshire Badminton Association, sent his congratulations to Chris and Peter and added that he thought their selection was “absolutely brilliant and a great credit to the County and all involved.”

Chris from Ravenshead and Peter who lives in Southwell, earlier this year became the first Nottinghamshire pair to win the Notts Open Men’s Doubles title since the war.

The players selected for the tournament are:-

Boys:
Chris Adcock
Marcus Ellis
Victor Liew (Wildcard)
Peter Mills

Girls:
Mariana Agathangelou
Michelle Cheung
Sarah Walker (Wildcard)
Samantha Ward
Gabrielle White

16 June 2006

Under 13's Take League Title

Notts Under-13s have taken the National Shires League title for the first time. They beat Cambridgeshire, Lincolnshire, Leicestershire, Norfolk and Suffolk to qualify for the national finals.

They beat Essex 9-1 to set up a semi-final clash with favourites, Buckinghamshire, which they won 7-3, then beat old rivals Yorkshire 7-3.

Notts Squad: Dale Godfrey, Karan Maini, Kurran Sachdeva, Ben Aldred, Fergus Lynam, Piya Sachdeva, Ellie Travers, Bethany Howard, Nicola Stacey, Anushka Sachdeva.

27 May 2006

Decision Deferred On New Scoring

Following this weeks’ County AGM, Nottinghamshire badminton clubs have decided to defer a decision on adopting a new scoring system until next year.

The new system, known as Rally Point Scoring, has been approved by the International Badminton Federation and has already been used in many top class matches – including the recent Commonwealth Games.

Intended to speed-up the games, players now score points at the end of each rally, rather than just on service. Also, matches are now played to 21 points rather than the previous 15.

A decision on the adoption of the new system will made at the 2007 Nottinghamshire Badminton Association AGM.

22 May 2006

A Golden End to the Season

Christopher Adcock (Age 17) from Ravenshead, and a pupil of the Colonel Frank Seely School in Calverton returned from the U17 Six Nations Championships in Sweden last weekend with two individual Gold medals.  This tournament is effectively the U17 European Championships and pitches together the very best players from the six best badminton nations across the continent.  

Christopher won the doubles event with his England partner, Marcus Ellis from Yorkshire beating the German number Ones in the Final and he also won a Gold Medal in the Mixed again, once again with his England partner Gabi White.  They won the Final relatively comfortably beating the number one pair from Sweden.

To top a remarkable achievement, England won the team event for the first time in twenty seven years (since Denmark joined the Championship) with Christopher winning the deciding rubber to defeat Denmark in the Final 5-4.

2005/2006 has been a very exciting season for Chris – he  won his first full senior international cap and also won all three U17 national titles shortly before Easter.  Christopher is now planning an intense period of summer training and is looking forward to representing England at the U19 World Junior Championships in Korea in October 2006.  

Nottinghamshire Badminton Association Senior Coach, Peter Herrity said “We are delighted at the success that Chris has achieved during his junior career and his recent achievements at the U17 Six Nations Event is the culmination of many years of effort and commitment.  We are looking forward to see how Chris progresses during the next few years as he starts to compete at senior international level.  We are all very proud of him”

14 May 2006

Serena Takes East Midlands Title

Serena Midha, who plays for Sherwood Foresters Junior Badminton Club, has won the East Midlands Under 11 Girls Singles title.  She will now represent the East Midlands at the National U11 Finals to be held at the National Badminton Centre on 4th June 2006.

14 May 2006

Great Effort From Notts U14's

Notts U14's came 6th in the recent York U14 Team Event. Their initial group could not have been tougher, with each team containing at least one England international.  In two close matches they lost to Cheshire and Surrey, before going down 6-1 against the eventual winners, Yorkshire I.

In their second group they beat Yorkshire II 7-0 and finished with a 5-2 win against Leicestershire.

This was a very good effort by a young team - the youngest team taking part - with 8 of the 12 players being U13's or younger.

9 May 2006

Ellie Selected For England

Nottinghamshire’s Ellie Travers has been named in the England U13  Badminton squad that will compete in the 2006 Globus Cup in Germany next month. This is Ellie’s first England selection.

9 May 2006

Gold For English U17's

The English U17 Team secured a further four Gold medals at the Under 17 Six Nations, held recently in Sweden.  Four out of the five individual disciplines were won by England team members.  This took the medal haul for the weekend to a hugely impressive 5 Golds.

Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire) and Marcus Ellis (Yorkshire) won the Boy's Doubles title without dropping a single game in the Individual or Team events.

Chris and Marcus won the final 15-4 and 15-10 against a German partnership of Sebastian Rduch (who won the Boy's Singles) and Josche Zurvonne.

Saving the best until last, Chris Adcock and Gabrielle White continued the theme of 'Double champions'  by winning the mixed doubles together, adding to their men's and women's doubles titles respectively.

Chris and Gaby won the final 15-5, 15-6 against Morten Estrup and Ann Skelbaek from Denmark.

English winners:

Girl's Singles
Michelle Cheung (Buckinghamshire)

Boy's Doubles
Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire)/ Marcus Ellis (Yorkshire)

Girl's Doubles
Gabrielle White (Yorkshire)  / Samantha Ward (Surrey)

Mixed Doubles
Chris Adcock (Nottinghamshire) / Gabrielle White (Yorkshire)

24 April 2006

Notts Veterans Come Close

Last weekend the O/65's played in the League Finals at Hatfield. Only three weeks ago they won the I.C.C. Finals and were hoping to complete the double as they did last year.  

On the Saturday they had the harder of the semi finals, beating a good Surrey side 6-3, winning 3 Ladies, 1 Mens and 2 Mixed, whilst Cumbria were defeating Wiltshire, the weakest of the four, by 8-1.

The following day they played the final against Cumbria without the services of our No.1 Man, Colin Abbott, due to the temporary deterioration in his eye sight following a recent injury, which meant we were at a considerable disadvantage but rearranged the team with 2 replacements in his place.

We eventually lost a hard fought match 5-4, winning 2 ladies, 1 Mens and 1 Mixed.  Without Colin a definite MORAL VICTORY, but regrettably this did not bring home again the Kay Brindle Trophy.

The players on Saturday were:
Colin Abbott, Stewart Robey, Bill Houghton, Barbara Henley, Joan Morley & Pam Wallace.

For the final on the Sunday:
Stewart Robey, Bill Houghton, Peter Morley, Keith Wallace, Barbara Henley, Joan Morley & Pam Wallace.

3 April 2006

Notts Promotion Hat-trick

Nottinghamshire’s County teams completed a memorable season with three out of the four teams gaining promotion.

Notts 1st completed their season with a 12-3 win at Bedford to maintain their 100% record and regain promotion to the Inter County Championship Premier Division.

Notts 2nd won 6 out of 8 matches to finish top of ICC Division 2B, while Notts 3rd completed the promotion hat-trick with an 11-4 victory over Staffs 3rd at Rugeley LC and obtained the 3 points guaranteeing their first-ever appearance in ICC Regional Div 2, next year.

Notts 4th team won 3 out of their 8 matches and maintain their place in Regional Div 4.

3 April 2006

Notts Under 13's Silver Success

Just days after England's badminton stars (including Nottinghamshire's Nathan Robertson) won medals at the Commonwealth Games, Notts Under 13 Badminton Team brought back silver medals from the final round of the Annual Team Challenge competition in Luton.

Following the team's success in earlier rounds, they faced tough competition from the top twelve counties in England.

Despite initial disappointment against eventual winners Buckinghamshire in their first match, they persevered to win all their other matches on the day, finishing with a narrow points victory over Yorkshire after a nail biting series of close games.

The Under 13 team members were - Anushka Sachdeva, Beth Howard, Ellie Travers, Nicola Stacey, Piya Sachdeva, Ben Aldred, Dale Godfrey, Jack Adcock, Karan Maini and Kurren Sachdeva.

The County Under 13's next major date is in late May when they will contest the Shires League finals, having already finished top of their six-county group.

3 April 2006

Notts Veterans Take Top Honours

26 March 2006

Adcock & Mills Win At Notts Open

This weekend Chris Adcock and Peter Mills became the first Nottinghamshire pair to win the Nottinghamshire Open Men’s Doubles title since the war. It was a fitting result for Nottinghamshire Badminton as Mrs Pat Wadsworth presented a new Memorial Trophy in memory of her late husband John, former President of Nottinghamshire Badminton Association and referee of the tournament for over 40 years.

Other local success was for Shaun Round, reaching the semi-final of the mens singles and Peter Mills reaching the semi-final of the mixed doubles with his partner Jessica White (Yorks).

The tournament was attended by over 100 entries, including the full England Under 19 squad, using the event as a training session for the upcoming 6 Nations Tournament, and some excellent close fought matches took place over the two days.

The tournament winners were:
Mens Singles: Andrew Ellis (Yo) beat Alan Clarkson (La)
Womens Singles: Michelle Cheung (Bu) beat Sarah Renton (Nd)
Mens Doubles: Chris Adcock & Peter Mills (Nm) beat Alan Clarkson & Alex Hird (La)
Womens Doubles: Hayley Connor (Sy) & Sarah Bok (Yo) beat Mariana Agathangelou (Jy) & Michelle Cheung (Bu)
Mixed Doubles: Andrew Ellis (Yo) and Mariana Agathangelou (Jy) beat Alan Clarkson (La) & Gill Dabek (Ch)

26 March 2006

England Net Badminton Gold Double

England were celebrating a brace of badminton gold medals on the last day of action at the Commonwealth Games.

Nottinghamshire's Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms were too strong for New Zealand's Daniel Shirley and Sara Runesten Petersen as they won the mixed doubles title 21-17 21-10.

Earlier, Tracey Hallam claimed the women's singles gold after beating Malaysia's Mew Choo Wong 21-12 21-15.

The victory added to her 1998 bronze in Kuala Lumpur and her silver in Manchester four years ago.

Robertson and Emms trailed 4-1 in their first game and only led for the first time at 9-8, but eventually edged away to take the opener 21-17.

The Olympic silver medallists were quicker out of the blocks in the second game and a run of nine points put them in a commanding position.

The Kiwis had no answer to Robertson's power and Emms' touch at the net and Robertson sealed the gold medal with a thunderous smash to take the game 21-10.

Emms, who also took bronze in the women's doubles, said: "There was a lot of pressure on us as the number one seeds - everyone expected us to win easily.

"It was just a real relief to do it and we're delighted after missing out on the gold in Manchester four years ago."

Robertson added: "I wanted that win so badly and I'm happy that we've both fulfilled our potential and ambitions to get the gold."

Emms and Kellogg, the second seeds, beat India's Trupti Murgunde and Saina Nehwal 21-14 21-9.

Clark and Blair were 21-6 21-14 victors over Australia's Travis Denney and Ashley Brehaut.

Article courtesy of the BBC Website

21 March 2006

Adcock Grabs National Title

Chris Adcock has bounced back from an horrific broken leg to claim three national badminton titles at U17 level.

And the 16-year-old from Ravenshead has warned his rivals to watch out because his year-long absence from the sport following his triple break in a freak on-court accident has made him hungrier than ever.

Adcock took the men's doubles, mixed doubles and singles title at the national championships in Hatfield to set two new national records.

Remarkably, it was the first singles competition he had contested since breaking his leg in autumn 2004.

But Adcock is now the first English Junior to win all three titles in the same year at three different age groups. He has now done it at U-13, U-15 and U-17.

And the teenager, who is studying for A-levels at Colonel Frank Seeley School in Calverton, has now set the record for the most junior national titles won by one player - a staggering 14.

Adcock said: "It was awesome to be honest and I went in and played my first singles competition since the injury so it was great to win all three.

"When I came back from the injury I was more hungry and I went a year without playing and it did my head in.

"I saw people I knew I was better than winning tournaments and it made me want to come back and beat them.

"I wanted to come back and put them in their place and stamp my authority back on the game.

"A lot of people have patches where they get a bit bored but after a long period out it makes me appreciate it more and I am always up for training and tournaments."

Now he has a big year ahead of him with the under-19 European Championships in Milton Keynes next month followed by the under-17 Euro Championships in Stockholm a few weeks later.

But his big test will come in October at the World Junior Championships in October when he takes on the best in the world.

"I have got some big tournaments this year and the worlds in Korea in the under-19s and to get a medal there would be great," said Adcock.

"The Beijing Olympics may be too soon but I am aiming for 2012 in London."

Fellow Notts badminton player Nathan Robertson put the sport on the map with his silver in the mixed doubles with Gail Emms at the 2004 Olympics. And Adcock wants to eventually take over his crown as the top player in England.

He said: "I know Nathan Robertson and I see him a few times and have been out for meals with him.

"I have spoken to him and he is still enjoying all the attention the Olympics brought to him and he still gets recognised in the street.

"He will still be there at the 2008 Olympics but I want to take over from him and take over the mantle and do well."

Adcock, who turns 17 next month, is having to combine the first year of his A-levels with a vigorous training schedule.

But he says it is worth it and once he finishes he plans to go full-time in the sport to achieve his goals.

He said: "It is tough combining my A-levels and training but I manage it and have found a way of dealing with it.

"But I train three times a week at the Institute of Sport at Sheffield and once at Holme Pierrepont at the least and I am always playing in tournaments.

"Once I finish my studies I am hoping to go full time at Sheffield at the Institute of Sport to help make my goal of the 2012 Olympics."

By Stevie Roden - Nottingham Evening Post Tuesday - 21st March 2006

21 March 2006

Bright Future For Notts

Over the years Nottinghamshire has been a strong county for badminton. With foresight in 1961, the county started to raise money from various projects to build their own sports hall at Chilwell Olympia. In 1972 this project was completed, and the venue over the years has given the county a good source of income to support the county at all levels, from grass roots to juniors, seniors to veterans.

In 2005, the sports hall underwent a complete refurbishment thanks to funding from the Community Club Development Programme and Nottinghamshire County Council who made this possible.

One of the main ambitions is to see, wherever possible, every school in the county playing our sport.

Nottinghamshire has nine Specialist School Partnerships, and at present are working with all the Development Managers to deliver "Taster Sessions" in both primary and senior schools and where possible to start new after school clubs.

This year will see the third Nottinghamshire Youth Games taking place in July. This is one of the most successful events in the county for juniors. An average of 250 new grassroots players have trials to compete in the games -squad training is given a month before to improve play for the finals in July.

Nottinghamshire County Council Sports Development Unit, along with the Nottinghamshire Badminton Association and the governing bodies of squash and table tennis has employed two multiskilled coaches to target 7-9 year olds to learn rackets skills.

The Nottinghamshire Coaches Association is pro-active in keeping their members up to date with the latest developments in coaching.

A "Development Day" where Level 1 and 2 coaches have access to the latest BADMINTON England coaching techniques is organised every year.

Nottinghamshire badminton is mainly run by volunteers. These people play an important role in all of our clubs. Juniors, seniors, vets, county seniors, juniors, and officials - all benefit from their talents. There are many more roles that these dedicated volunteers carry out and without these people, Nottinghamshire would not be in such a strong and healthy position.

In 2005/6, Nottinghamshire veterans have gone from strength to strength. Colin Abbott and Bill Houghton won the over 65 men's doubles at the English Nationals again, for the second time in the last two years.

Christine Richards and Cyril Martin won last years "All England" over 65 Mixed Doubles. Jenny Abbott won the over 55 Scottish International ladies singles, and along with her Mixed Doubles partner Robert Dumelow have won various other European Tournaments. Currently the over 65 team are the Yehlex champions and league finalists, proving that the county have dedicated and strong players of all ages. In today's society it is important that all clubs should have a Club Mark accreditation.

All the registered junior clubs in Nottinghamshire are working hard to try and achieve this. It is essential that young people can go to a club and play badminton in a safe, friendly environment where all coaches are CRB checked and the club has a Child Protection Policy. Nottinghamshire Badminton Association has eight Club Mark Silver awards to date with more to come, making Nottinghamshire the top county for these awards.

Disability is very high on our agenda. Graham Atkin and I work alongside the Notts County Council Disability Unit to promote our sport in specials schools and learning centres around the county. This is proving very popular. Recently we acquired funding of £500 to buy equipment for the Shepherd special school. Rushcliffe Borough Council is running a six week Badminton APOC course, this will give anyone with a disability an opportunity to attend these sessions on a drop in basis to have fun and try their skills. In January 2006 the new Nottinghamshire Wheelchair BC was formed. At present this is being piloted by a few volunteers and the NBA along with the Lord's Taveners have kindly given sponsorship to fund five special wheelchairs.

Other funding has been applied for, in order to secure the clubs future. When the club is officially launched in March we hope to run four 'road shows' in different parts of the county to promote it further. Macclesfield WBC will be happy, as they will have another club to compete against!

Leicestershire and Nottinghamshire arranged a "Wheelchair Fun Day" to invite anyone disabled or able bodied to come and play the game in a wheelchair. (This needed plenty of manoeuvring skills). We invited along the only club in England from Macclesfield to demonstrate how the game should be played! 25 people turned out on the day to have a go and it was a great fun.

With the recent coverage of National and International badminton, Nottinghamshire is proud to say that England's No.1 Nathan Robertson started playing in Nottinghamshire. This must say something for the County. NBA county coaches have produced some of England's top players, including Anthony Clarke, David Lindley, Ruth Coleman, and Alison Pulford to name but a few.

Anthony Clarke is now in the top 10 World Rankings in the Mixed Event with other high quality international players in the Top 10 of the National Rankings - namely David Lindley, Robert Adcock and Neil White.

At county squad level, the first, second and thirds are currently top of their divisions and are all optimistic about promotion. Getting the first team back into Premier B at the first attempt remains the priority.

Overall it has been a good season so far for Nott's Badminton and with the youngsters coming through the future looks positive.

"Watch out 2012 Olympics - Nottinghamshire players are looking to take Gold for England"

Elaine Spray - Badminton Development Officer
Badminton Magazine - March 2006

12 March 2006

Success For Notts Veterans

Members of Nottinghamshire Veterans County Badminton team showed their strength with successes in two recent national tournaments.

In the West of England Masters Tournament held at Bath University, Notts Robert Dumelow partnered by Graham Billinghurst (England/Sussex) took the O/55's Mens Doubles title.

While in the Lancashire Seniors Championships, Robert, partnered by Notts Jenny Abbott, were runners-up in the O/50's Mixed doubles, losing in the final to John Gardner (England/Essex) & Sue Ely (England/Yorks.)

Jenny Abbott and Maureen Rimmer (England/Lancs.) followed their recent win in the Scottish International Veterans Tournament, by taking the O/55 Ladies doubles title.

Barbara Henley partnered Lancashire's Pat Boylett to win the O/65's Ladies doubles, while Christine Richardson and Ray Murphy (Lancs.) were runners up in the O/60's Mixed doubles.

17 February 2006

Meet Robertson And Emms In Nottingham

Though they are in training to go for Gold at  the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne in March, Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms are finding time to visit the Oxfam Book and Music shop in Goosegate Nottingham on Tuesday 21st February at 1.00 pm.

Nathan and Gail will be only too happy to sign autographs and pose for photos while in the Goosegate shop. It is hoped that many of their fans will turn up to see them and wish them well in their quest for Gold at the Commonwealth Games.

Olympic Silver Medallists and current World Number One in mixed badminton, they have kindly agreed to front a nationwide Oxfam campaign on a sport theme.

Nathan and Gail will also feature in a poster campaign throughout the network of 100 Oxfam Bookshops. The aim is to draw attention to the quality of books available in the Oxfam Bookshops and encourage people to donate books on sport, health, exercise and lifestyle that Oxfam can turn into revenue to make a real difference to peoples’ lives.

Nathan, born and raised in Cotgrave, is one of Nottingham’s foremost Sports’ Personalities and he is keen to appear in his local shop.

This year Nathan and Gail have won tournaments from Denmark to the Far East, as well as winning the English National Title and were runners up in the All England Open - a title they took in 2005. The achievements of our  top pair in the world and reigning European champions have encouraged many youngsters to take up badminton.  

Despite their success and busy lifestyle they are keen to support Oxfam in its mission to help people overcome poverty and suffering.

16 February 2006

New Wheelchair Club Launched

Nottingham’s Ellis Guilford Sports Centre was recently the focus of a new wheelchair badminton club launch - only the 2nd club of its kind in England.

Elaine Spray, Nottinghamshire Badminton Association’s Development Officer, who has worked tirelessly to open this club, said “wheelchair users of any age or ability, disabled and able bodied people are welcome to come along and try this new sport.”

“There will be many people in the Nottinghamshire area who would welcome the opportunity to try something different, meet new people and have a great deal of fun. Age is no barrier for this sport. The first few sessions are free for you to try wheelchair badminton.”

"We have managed to secure five specialist sports wheelchairs funded by the Lord Taveners which will arrive soon. This will allow us to offer people who use 'day chairs' to experience this very sociable sport for themselves. We also have fully qualified coaches on hand."

Last October, Nottinghamshire & Leicestershire came together to organise an 'Open Day' event for wheelchair badminton. It was a great success with wheelchair users and able bodied people of all ages having a great time.

There was a varied mix of people from all parts of the country. A wheelchair badminton squad from Macclesfield demonstrated how the game should be played.

This fun day identified the need for more wheelchair badminton clubs in the Midlands as Macclesfield Wheelchair Badminton Club is currently the only one in England. They desperately need more clubs in England to challenge.

Nottinghamshire has taken this initiative and the new club has now been formed at the Ellis Guilford Sports College a new facility at Basford, Nottingham. This superb venue has only been open to the public a few weeks.

The club is on Friday evenings between 7.00 pm and 9.00 pm at the Ellis Guilford Sports College.  You'll be sure of a very warm welcome!

See also Nottinghamshire Wheelchair Badminton Club

Photograph and Article Courtesy of Andy Zadora.
For the latest news on disability sport and disability issues, visit Andy's website - www.sport-on-wheels.com.

5 February 2006

Local Stars Shine Again

Olympic hopefuls Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms retained the Mixed Doubles crown when they beat second seeds Anthony Clark (Notts) and Donna Kellogg (Derby) 15-2 15-3 in 37 minutes. Robertson said: "I'm pretty happy with our performance. I was expecting a tougher game so I was surprised at the score."

Emms won her 5th and Kellogg her 4th doubles title when 2004 champions Ella Tripp (Cheshire) and Joanne Nicholas (Lancs) were forced to give them a walkover. Tripp was unwell and not fit to play.

Men's Singles 1st rd: Neil White (Notts) bt Paul Butler (Hants) 15-3 15-2, Chris Adcock (Notts) bt Stephen Parks (Hants) 15-2 15-10.

Men's doubles 1st rd: Robert Adcock (Notts) & Edward Foster (Yorks) bt Matt Hanson & Adam Smith (Avon) 15-5 15-10, 15-4 15-9, Chris Adcock & Peter Mills (Notts) bt Darren Kerrins & Andrew Norris (Beds) 15-10 15-11.
2nd rd: Robert Blair (Leics) & Anthony Clark (Notts) bt Alan Clarkson & Nick Hodgson 15-7 15-7, Matthew Honey (Surrey) & Robin Middleton (Yorks) bt Adcock & Foster 15-9 15-12, Adcock & Mills bt James Boxall (Derby) & Steven Higgins (Yorks) w/o, Simon Archer (Worcs) & David Lindley (Notts) bt Justin Andrews & Steve Hulbert 15-1 15-2.

Men's Doubles Final: Robert Blair (Leics) & Anthony Clark (Notts) bt Simon Archer (Worcs) & David Lindley (Notts) 15-7 15-4.

Women's Doubles 1st round: Gail Emms (Herts) & Donna Kellogg (Derby) bt Katie Comras (Herts) & Sarah Walker (Essex) 15-4 15-0.

Women's Doubles Final: Gail Emms (Herts) & Donna Kellogg (Derby) bt Ella Tripp (Cheshire) & Joanne Nicholas (Lancs) walkover.

Mixed Doubles 1st rd: David Lindley (Notts) & Suzanne Rayappan (Herts) bt Robin Middleton & Sarah Bok (Yorks) 3-15 15-5 15-1, Chris Adcock (Notts) & Kirsten Read (Sussex) bt Marcus Ellis (Yorks) & Sam Ward (Surrey) 15-10 15-13.

5 February 2006

Jenny Takes Title

In January four Notts players took part in the Scottish International Veterans Tournament in Largs.

Nottinghamshire’s Jenny Abbott partnered by Maureen Rimmer (England & Lancashire) won the Ladies O/55 Doubles, beating England's number one pairing of Eileen Carley and Sue Ely (Yorkshire) in the final.

In the O60’s Mixed Doubles, Nottinghamshire’s Ken Tantum and Christine Richardson were runners up, losing to Harry Shadwick (England/Cumbria) and Beryl Goodall (England/Northants.).

In the group competition, local players Robert Dumelow and Jenny Abbott beat two Scottish pairs, but lost to 2nd seeds John Gardner (England/Essex) and Sue Whittaker (England/Lancs.).

 13 January 2006

Stars Of The Future

Great news for two of Nottinghamshire’s talented juniors.

Alison Pulford of Carlton Forum and Sherwood Foresters Junior Badminton Club has been selected for her first International event, the Under 17's Home Countries Quadrangular which takes place at the National Badminton Academy in Glasgow from Friday 13th to Sunday 15th January.

While Sherwood Foresters Junior and St Giles BC player, Ellie Travers (Under 12) has been taken onto the World Futures programme.

 10 January 2006

Notts Pair Retain Title

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