Service Rule Enquiry

[pinkduck]

I seem to recall a badminton feature shown on BBC2 (in UK) about a championship-level rule change to disallow clipping the net on service, due to players capable of repeatedly toppling the shuttle unpredictably over the net by feathers touching the tape.

Could someone provide me with further information about this, such as where, when and how? I haven't been able to find any reference to it online, though I think it happened sometime in the 1980s. I believe the service grip/position rule changed as a result to avoid the type of serves that exploited this.

[Neil Nicholls]

Sounds more like the S-Serve than the shuttle hitting the net.

Try a search for S-Serve or Sidek Serve.
This was when the shuttle was initially hit on the feathers during serve and the shuttle would then fly unpredictably. Service rules were changed because of this (to say that the cork had to be the first part of the shuttle that is struck on service).

[pinkduck]

Ah, that's it Thanks for nudging my memory towards correctness!