This is taken from the Sydney Morning Herald - www.smh.com.au Bad blood in badminton A match official talks to Geoffrey Bellingham after the New Zealander received a red card for abusing Australian player Stuart Brehaut. Photo: Iain McGregor Australia has won through to its first Commonwealth Games badminton semi-final in eight years, beating New Zealand in controversial circumstances today. Men's doubles pairs Ashley Brehaut and Travis Denney beat Geoffrey Bellingham and Craig Cooper in a three-game thriller. The duo took out the match after Bellingham was given a red card for swearing, after accusing Brehaut of cheating. At 19-19 in the third game, Bellingham yelled: "You're a f***ing cheat Brehaut", and the umpire awarded Australia a point. Bellingham later said he believed Brehaut's drive serve was illegal. The Aussies went on to win the next point to secure their place in the semi-final. The match had earlier been disrupted when a technical glitch caused the lighting to pulsate. The Kiwis won the first game 22-20 before the Australians took the second 21-16. Australia last made it into a badminton semi-final at the Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games in 1998.At that point, the third and fourth-placed teams were both awarded a bro nze medal and did not have to play-off. This is the first time the lower teams have had to play for bronze. Brehaut said he learnt to do a "drive" serve while training in Malaysia and there was nothing illegal about it. He said he knew Bellingham found it difficult to return and it was stupid for him to react in that way. "If I'm cheating well then the umpire will call it, so as far as I'm concerned it's in the laws, we just try and push those boundaries," he said. "You're in the Commonwealth Games, you've got everyone here, a lot of families and he comes up and says, ... I believe the words were: 'You're a f***ing cheat Brehaut'. "But if he wants to do that, that's up to him. I'm not going to go down to his level." "I'm not going to start anything like that. It's just a joke." "It was a stupid thing by him." Bellingham said he regretted making the comments but stuck by his cheating allegation. "In badminton you have got to keep the racquet below the waist (and he didn't)," he said afterwards. "He won five points in a row and that's just cheating." "Unfortunately you are not allowed to call him a cheat, which is what I didn't realise." Australian coach Claus Poulsen said he knew the Kiwis had struggled with Brehaut's serve in the past. "We talked about (it and decided) just use the serve because as long as they don't call it a fault, it's a fantastic serve, the drive serve," he said. Poulsen said this was an important win, as it would help raise the profile of the sport in Australia. "It's all their work, it's fantastic," he said. AAP
March 24, 2006 - 3:39PM SMH http://www.smh.com.au/news/sport/bad-blood-in-badminton/2006/03/24/1143083969419.html FOX http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,18586980-23209,00.html?from=rss Foul language mars victory By Charisse Ede March 24, 2006 AUSTRALIA won through to its first Commonwealth Games badminton semi-final in eight years today, but the victory over New Zealand was marred by "dodgy" serves and foul language. FOX http://foxsports.news.com.au/story/0,8659,18586943-23210,00.html?from=rss Bad light delays badminton finals March 24, 2006 A LIGHTING problem has delayed the badminton quarter finals at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games. The lights at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre began pulsating about 12.25pm (AEDT), halting play on all three courts. The Australian men's pair of Ashley Brehaut and Travis Denney were part-way through their match against New Zealand's Craig Cooper and Geoffrey Bellingham at the time. The problem was partly rectified within 10 minutes, enabling play to resume on two courts, including the Australia-New Zealand match. But part of the lighting on court three remained off for 20 minutes, causing a significant delay in the women's singles quarter final between Scotland's Susan Hughes and Fan Frances Liu of Singapore.
OH! i was just gona start a topic about craig cooper's(bellingham's partner) serve that i saw in that match...it looks like he served from his chest!!lol seriously his waist cnt be that high up...and now...they complain bout aussies serve...anyone watched that game?
It's like a low serve to the back of the court, but it's a lot flatter and just goes over the net but it's hit with the same force. Basically aim for the opponents face and hope they don't hit it back.
Because all Australians are such good sports right? Seriously, you guys really will jump at any chance to point out our every mistake won't you? If not, why post this? *sigh*
There were a few high servers during the games, where the service judges did not intervene. A guy in the Kiwi mixed doubles team (can't remember his name) raised his racquet a little higher than allowable. His service action was to start at the waist (legal hight) and before striking the shuttle he leant back - raising his racquet (illegal hight).
I've noticed a lack of service faults being called, at the same time the umpires seem keen to get involved when they shouldn't, stopping players changing shuttles even when both players want to!
I think they are on some tight budget on shuttle and with the bird flu cases shuttle are becoming expensive. Supply less demand high price high...talking about econs.
Yeah! I noticed that in the game between John Moody and Anup Sridhar (sorry not sure of spelling). They must have asked about five times before finally getting a new shuttle... At which point the crowd erupted .
Well, that's part of the new scoring package, isn't it? No breaks until 11, and the umpire decides if a shuttle is to be changed. The purpose being of course to keep playing continuous, and shuttle changing was abused as a way of gaining some extra time to catch your breath. A shuttle change break takes the same amount of time now as before, or possibly longer since the umpires tend to want to have their say, but in the 21x3 matches I've sseen there are now much fewer shuttle changes than under 15x3.
Sometimes you can have a shuttle which isn't right even though the feathers are apparantly intact, the umpire can't necessarliy see if the shuttle is ok. If both players feel the shuttle isn't good they should be able to change. I don't think that "extra" shuttle changing to gain time was often a big issue under the old system. The umpire still had the last say on whether to change. I also noticed an umpire told a player they couldn't have the court wiped and told the player to just tread on the pool of moisture! A good umpire is one you don't notice or remember!
But when both players want a change, I'm pretty sure it's not just a case of needing a small extra break. Couldn't agree more.
i'm quite curious to see how the serve was done before making any comments. can anyone who recorded it post it somewhere please?
But as a sportmen foul language should not be used during a competition some more it's international tournament.
I agree. If a player has served the same serve a number of times and the umpir hasn't called a fault then it sounds more like sour grapes to me. You can feel a bit foolish if you can't even return a serve and I imagine the New Zealand player was probably angry with himself. I know that when I receive one of these low drive serves and I hit it into the net I feel quite annoyed. It's a bit like being aced in tennis only as a badminton players I'm not used to not being able to return a serve.
reply A drive serve isn't that hard to do, and it's only effective if the receiver isn't expecting it. If he is ready for it, then he'll simply drive it back at you twice as fast, and you're hit at point blank range. That's why it's not used very much. You'll see some amateur players who do a high drive serve, and it comes at you almost like a smash! But that certainly isn't possible for competitive matches with officials. I haven't seen this match. Didn't the Kiwi player complain to the umpire first or ask for the referee? I'm surprised a professional player would just blurt out something like that at such a crucial stage of a match. I'd be furious if I was his partner. The chance to get to the semis just two points away and he does that? Very silly.