Jenny Wallwork is retiring at 26

[Cheung]

I think she means no money invested as in, less big sponsors are attracted to badminton because it remains a team sport not independent stars. She is trying to say players remaining within their country set up is hurting the commercial side of badminton.

She would never train in Scotland or Ireland. Although if she came to Scotland she could be the partner that Bankier needs.

I see. She is not the first to say that.

Purely speculating but if she ever paired up with Jwala Gutta, that would indeed be an interesting and fiery combination full of personality!

[craigandy]

And what if your company rules mean that you can't compete with other companies?
I'd leave if that were the case; I don't want to live frustrated by my work, and nor should she need to. Simple as that.

So just give up and be frustrated in life instead of work. Even when you claim that is the only company you can work for and you love the job passionately. I don't think so.

[SolsticeOfLight]

I'd find an other job that suits my needs.
I don't think Jenny will be lazing around at home for 60 years until she dies ...

[demolidor]

I'd find an other job that suits my needs.
I don't think Jenny will be lazing around at home for 60 years until she dies ...

She will have to spoon-feed Nathan in 10 years so not likely she can laze around the next 60 ...

[craigandy]

I'd find an other job that suits my needs.
I don't think Jenny will be lazing around at home for 60 years until she dies ...

Eh? Her needs were she wanted to become the best she could at badminton in the best partnership and she claimed Badminton England were not making that happen for her. What job is going to fill that need. That's why she is quitting after all, lets not forget the point.

[SolsticeOfLight]

It's not like she only has one need ... Just like the rest of us who balance out different aspects of our lives.

[ChubbyCheshire]

Got this via Jenny's FB page - the trouble is the longer and more public the dispute continues the more likely a point of no return will be hit, and that will be sad for all parties, with badminton as whole the loser.

http://www.twitlonger.com/show/l65n9i

Although the comment that a Bankier/Wallwork partnership would get no threat from MK, is probably true today, the way Smith/White are developing that may not stay the same.

[j4ckie]

Andrew Smith is probably best example at the moment and he is currently ranked second in England

Probably more due to lack of real competition - there seems to be few dedicated British MS players. An example: Ben Beckman, who competed as MS player in the Thomas Cup (and thus can't be ranked too low in England), struggles in Germany's 2nd division, playing MS1 and MS2, having a slightly positive statistic. Carl Baxter, who was the 2nd ranked a few years ago (2010/2011, I think), has a 50-50 win-loss in the 1st....
On the other hand, Kenneth Jonassen has a 100% record so far. (as do Rajiv Ouseph and Marc Zwiebler [in MS])
I think other than Denmark, European countries suffer from a lack of depth in their National teams. Most have 1, maybe 2 players/pairings in each discipline that can be considered a threat to their Asian competitors, but have no real back-up.

Concerning Wallwork, I suspect both sides are at fault. After all Robertson was well-known to abuse his status as BE's most accomplished player to get his way (resulting in Blair leaving the team, for example), it's not too far-fetched to think maybe his girlfriend had a slightly wrong estimation of what she could reasonably expect/demand as well....although I don't want to point fingers here, after all the whole affair is way too unclear for any outsider to judge properly.

[craigandy]

It's not like she only has one need ... Just like the rest of us who balance out different aspects of our lives.

All great sport people are dedicated to the cause. They are elite sportspeople not like the "rest of us", it's all about sacrifice. Maybe she like you didn't get that, which is fair enough, not easy.

[ChubbyCheshire]

Probably more due to lack of real competition - there seems to be few dedicated British MS players. An example: Ben Beckman, who competed as MS player in the Thomas Cup (and thus can't be ranked too low in England), struggles in Germany's 2nd division, playing MS1 and MS2, having a slightly positive statistic. Carl Baxter, who was the 2nd ranked a few years ago (2010/2011, I think), has a 50-50 win-loss in the 1st....
On the other hand, Kenneth Jonassen has a 100% record so far. (as do Rajiv Ouseph and Marc Zwiebler [in MS])
I think other than Denmark, European countries suffer from a lack of depth in their National teams. Most have 1, maybe 2 players/pairings in each discipline that can be considered a threat to their Asian competitors, but have no real back-up.

Concerning Wallwork, I suspect both sides are at fault. After all Robertson was well-known to abuse his status as BE's most accomplished player to get his way (resulting in Blair leaving the team, for example), it's not too far-fetched to think maybe his girlfriend had a slightly wrong estimation of what she could reasonably expect/demand as well....although I don't want to point fingers here, after all the whole affair is way too unclear for any outsider to judge properly.

Yes England is very weak at singles, at the recent Nationals the 2nd seeded player (Andrew Smith didn't play) was beaten by the now retired Carl Baxter, who is way behing Ouseph...who let's face it is way behind the World class players. Women's singles is also struggling with no 1 seed Liz Cann often not getting past qualifying.

However, we were doing better at doubles - but this dispute not going to help. As you say it is difficult to say who is at fault without details, but it is not only Jenny who has complained recently so it does make you wonder.

[craigandy]

Tweet by Chris Adcock on the situation.

It seems like at the minute a lot of people and ex-players are wanting to have there say about the current system/players at the National Centre. Here are a few points or comments that I would like say about them having read them all carefully and fairly.

Firstly, to the people who are criticising the level of the players at Milton Keynes I feel that it is completely unfair. We currently have one of the youngest squads in the badminton world, with only two players over the age of 26 and most players under the age of 25, and I would without a doubt say that many of these players have the capabilities of performing to a world class level and winning medals in the future. Of course this will not be easy but together with hard work and working along side each other and the top level coaches and system/management that we have in place right now can be done. This will obviously take time. If you look at Denmark right now, one of the leading badminton nations in the world many of there performing and medal players are near the age or over the age of 30. I fully believe that we are on track to do similar.

Of course the ideal situation, would be for all these young players to have older/more experienced players to look up to/ learn from however this hasn't been the case as there is a generation missing from about the age of 27-34. There were many talented players in that age bracket that spring to mind, and in my opinion the reason why we have this "missing generation" is down to the bad management of those players at the time and the short amount of access they had with the performing medal players at the time, which I myself experienced. This bad management of these players and system over the last 5-6 years is the failure that our current system is still trying to recover from, and in my opinion is doing good job.

I also believe that of course some people are happy to say negative comments and i understand that everyone will have an opinion, however i don't understand how they think they are helping. If this is a sport that they love as much as I would think and as much as i do, their criticism should be at the very least constructive and if they felt so strongly about their feelings should be willing to help the situation by helping these young players achieve in any way they can and not just sit back and then take every opportunity they can to slate the program.

I have been at the National Centre 5 years now and since I have been at Milton Keynes I can honestly say that the atmosphere between players, the team work ethic, the system, and the coaches have never been stronger. The more experienced players are more than happy and to spend time/train and help the less experienced players and already only this week we have seen the result of this.

In conclusion I would like to say that badminton as a sport gets more competitive around the world every year, and is 100% a higher level and harder to perform at and tougher to win medals at than ever before, obviously not taking anything away from all our great success in the past. However I would ask for us all not to live in that past and look at helping the future performance of our Nation. We have a very young squad that needs time to develop and blossom. We have the system, the players, the staff and the backing of UK sport and Sport England so all I would ask of you guys is to give all the players a little time to get to where we all want the sport in our country to get to and then hopefully in a few years down the line we can be celebrating the kind of success that Denmark had at the 2012 Olympic Games in London.

Regards
Chris Adcock

[LD rules!]

I'm so confused, from the English players perspective, who's on who's side?!

[craigandy]

I'm so confused, from the English players perspective, who's on who's side?!

Andy Ellis also in support of BE and one of his tweets - Some people have massive opinions of them selves and its laughable!! #jogon

Dunno about you but i feel Chris Adcock seems like the kind of guy that would really struggle to lie. So I believe what he writes. Along with the fact that even though it was clear who's side he was on, it was still a "diplomatic" well written piece pointing out flaws in his supporting side. My estimation of him went up times 10 after reading it.

Raj, Gabby, M. Ellis seem to be in support of BE as well after retweets of Adcocks tweet and nothing more.

[ChubbyCheshire]

Of course they may have been "encouraged" to do so by BE !

[ChubbyCheshire]

This has gone very quiet - does this mean they are talking behind the scenes or that's that ?!

I see Jenny (and Nathan) are down for Team Europe in Axiata Cup

[LD rules!]

This has gone very quiet - does this mean they are talking behind the scenes or that's that ?!

I see Jenny (and Nathan) are down for Team Europe in Axiata Cup

Badminton England have paid forum members for their silence. It's the type of thing they'd do

[ChubbyCheshire]

Lol - but Jenny has also gone quiet - not seen any recent posts on her facebook page - I don't know about twitter, I've not joined the ranks of twits yet !