23/24 October 2004 Anyone going to this ? I've only just realised the Closing Date is 27th September. The tournament was in March last time I played. AndyMcG, when did it change?
Yes I will be going/playing in this. Its about a 2 minute drive from my house so there's no excuse really. To answer the question it has now moved twice. It was originally run in December a couple of times and it got a poor entry as it clashed with another satellite. Then last season they tried moving it to March and it got a poor entry again. So they're trying it in October this season. Unfortunately I think it clashes with the Oxford satellite, so that might have some effect on the entries. The North East Challenger has also moved this year from January to December to try and get more entries.
not yet - there does seem to have been a much better entry this year than in any previous year. I saw the list of people entered yesterday. Your name was on the list Neil you will be glad to know.
You got a start time yet Neil? I got mine through email from the referee as I know him quite well. I'm on at 10:30. The entries are MS - 24 LS - 8 MD - 15 pairs LD - 7 pairs MX - 11 pairs Its not an amazing entry, but its better than we've had before. It compares favourably with the Harrogate tournament last month.
I'm away from home on a training course, so I dunno. I have a badminton match tonight though, so I'll be popping home.
Out in the first round, 11 and 7. My only consolation was that the guy who beat me was beating a 3/4 seed when I left. Any results Andy? (poor Andy drew the 1st seed for his first match)
Got a kicking from James Allinson in the singles as you know Neil, then I lost to the top seeds in the mens doubles in the quarters (James Allinson again ), and lost in the quarters of the mixed as well in 3 ends. The guy you lost to Neil got to the semis of the singles. He got one more point than me against Allinson! Final results were: MS - Alex Marritt beat James Allinson (something like 12 and 7) LS - not sure, this was played on the Saturday and I missed it! It was between Helen Davies and Jane Shuller I think. MD - Marritt/Allinson beat Swan/Lightbown (17-16 in the 3rd end!) LD - Rule/Gray beat Wright/Thompson (7 and 11 I think) MX - Fagan/Thompson beat Marritt/Bannister (6 and 8 or something similar) Much better tournament compared to previous years, apart from some unfair draws! :crying:
Mr Allison and Mr Marritt are currently ranked 21st and 23rd in the UK. I don't want it to sound like sour grapes but what are those guys doing playing in a satellite tournament? Surely that's what the Challenger series is for. I'd like to go in for a few Satellite tournaments myself, but when I read about Dill's experience at the Dutchy of Cornwall and Neil and Andy's at this one It makes me wonder. As a fairly ordinary club / league player I wouldn't expect to win the thing, but it would be nice to think I might get at least a couple of games. Skates
there aren't many Challenger tournaments so I expect they need to enter Satellites to get the ranking up to be able to enter Challengers. And they might go out in the early rounds of the Challenger if the players ranked 1-20 enter. Not enough events count towards ranking really. At least there is the experiment going in on in Northumberland (and somewhere else) which ranks all league matches (and new tournaments). It would probably be better if County matches counted towards rankings also.
Skates I agree completely, something must be done to restrict the entry to satellite tournaments for people who are highly ranked. The problem seems to be that there aren't enough challengers/elite tournaments for people like that to be able to sustain their ranking. So they play in satellites. Northumberland is probably one of the safer satellites for this! - I would guess some of the bigger ones down south will have better players in them. For example Herts had Rajiv Ouseph, Staffs had Alan Clarkson, Gert Kunka, Matt Hanson etc. Last season in Northumberland Anthony Clark played doubles! (Something to do with needing to play in a certain number of domestic tournaments). While saying that I've played in quite a few satellites now, and that's the first time I've been drawn against the top seed in the first round of any event. So I guess it was probably about time! I think the trick is to go on court to see what you can learn from them. Its not often you get to be up close with top players so it is a good experience as well.
Was writing my reply as Neil was replying himself Kent is the other place running a player grading trial I think. If our system is rolled out across all counties then it will be possible to gain ranking points from county matches. I believe this is one of the goals of the BAofE. You can read about our ranking system here (shameless plug ) http://www.northumberlandbadminton.org/rankings/rankings_page.html
The reply above is spot on, I think it takes 10 tournaments to make the most of the ranking situation, if your top 10 count then the problems are that there are only 2 elites and about 8-10 Challengers. If you play bad in one then you have to go down a step and that happens to be Sats. I don't think limiting the places to higher ranking players as they are after the points and arguably they will need to get them given the setup at the moment. Perhaps the bonanza setup we have in Scotland with about 5-6 taking place per year and they are open to social players and there is also a league and tournament player section so you can start in the social and take it from there. Needless to say I have never won a singles or doubles in the social let alone the league and tournament where some of the Scots who are ranked play but there are no ranking points on offer so there is no attraction for the hardcore to enter to boost their ranking and generally there are no complaints except sleepers entering the social to win and should have been in the other section. Might be worth promoting in England instead of one huge one in August which is out of season. Why don't you give it a try Skates? There are a few people who come up from England to play even in the social side so it might be worth it. I think the one this weekend is the last to be held on a single day and the next one in January will be split over 2 days.
Sounds like fun. We could do with more like this down here. I might well take you up this. January you say. Where can I get more info. Maybe I'll see if Sunny and a few more of the LIBA cronies are up for it. All the best Skates
When a bonanza is on you usually get a little leaflet informing you where the next one is and you take it from there, because I have done a few they send a form to me each time they have one so I don't need to bother. You can try here but it is still listed as "no venue" at the moment here or the best thing to do is check out for new additions and they will upload an application form and anounce where it is being held. here II My money is on you enjoying yourself !!
