Jiangsu Team's Vancouver Visit

chen jin is not here but still, i think there is a big player at the fourth row, the third girl from the left, if i am not wrong she is Wang Lin

 

Jiangsu Team Visit: Vancouver Racquets Club

Wednesday night, it was Vancouver Racquets Club (VRC)’s turn to host the Jiangsu Team. VRC is one of of the few establised clubs to have facilities specifically built for badminton. Not a multi-purpose gym nor converted warehouse.

For those not familiar with VRC’s layout, it’s six courts side-by-side, stretching from the entrance to the far end, numbered one through six. There’s a glassed-off viewing area on the second floor above court one, and the exhibition matches took place at the two far court, court five and court six.

Why am I explaining this? Well, everything was structured so that only people that donated five dollars and up would be allowed courtside access, and the free-loaders would have the viewing area on the second floor, four courts away.

Like RichmondPro, the format of the games stayed the same:

1. Two Women’s Singles
2. Two Men’s Singles
3. One Women’s Doubles
4. Two Men’s Doubles
5. Two Mixed Dobles

For the BC (British Columbia) Team, the lineup remained the same as in RichmondPro, except:

Men’s Doubles 2: Chris Lee & Kyle Holoboff (Chris replaced Derrick Ng)

Can’t say for Mixed Doubles because I missed these games the previous night.

The Jiangsu Team did a mix-and-match and separated their doubles pair, and inter-mingled their Singles player into the mix. Here:

Men’s Single 1: SinglesShort (same)
Men’s Single 2: SpringyShort (changed)
Men’s Doubles 1: DoublesRightHanded and SpringyTall (changed)
Men’s Doubles 2: DoublesLeftHanded and SinglesTall (changed)
Women’s Single 1: CurvyLady (same)
Women’s Single 2: GraciousSmileLady (changed)
Women’s Double: CurvyLady and SinglesLady (changed)
Mixed Double 1: SpringyShort and SinglesLady
Mixed Double 2: DoublesLeftHanded and GraciousSmileLady


Pre-Game
So now, the players have had a few days to famliarize themselves with each other, BC Team and Jiangsu Team, and in the warm-ups, the BC Team guys were sparring with the Jiangsu Team girls, smiling and joking around. Wonder why the BC Team girls weren’t fraternizing with the Jiangsu Team guys in the same fashion?

But that’s a lesson in sociology.


Women’s Singles
Alice Man and Sarah Kong, I think lost both games to CurvyLady and GraciousSmileLady, no surprises. Same gameplay, outcome as previous night at RichmondPro.


Men’s Singles
In most badminton tournaments, exhibitions, I would guess that the majority of spectators are waiting for the Men’s Doubles as the most exciting and thrilling spectacle. Let me tell you, all the drama this night was in the Men’s Singles 1. But first:

Mens Singles 2: Tim Ma vs SinglesShort. Report? Who cares, as most people there were watching …

Men’s Singles 1: Richard Liang vs SpringyShort. Let me set this up correctly so you’ll understand the environment.

All the other BC Team players and Jiangsu Team players are at the courts early, stretching, sparring, warming up. Richard Liang was in his street clothes and didn’t really get an opportunity to warm up adequately. Another way of looking at it is that he didn’t bother getting there early enough to prepare. Whatever.

So while the VRC director, coaches, representatives, were giving short speeches and everyone else was sitting quietly and politely, there’s Richard on the court at full stretch, left leg first, then right leg, then this, then that.

Now this is my personal opinion and observation. Richard Liang has a peculiar attitude and demeanor on court, during games. Bored look, lackadaisical stance, checks out to see if the “crowd” or whoever, witnessed a shot or winner that he’d just executed. I think show-boating is the word I’m looking for. Again this is my OPINION. Yes he can out-smash me, and give me a big, fat, twenty-one zero without even trying. I think, attention-seeker is another phrase I hear being tossed around.

Nothing wrong with that, as a lot of sports figures get a thrill out of attention-seeking, Roddick or Nadal comes to mind, in championship tennis.

Okay, now it’s set up.

Mens Singles 1 on court six, right next to where I’m sitting. SpringyShort has a bravado attitude, puts down his drink in a cup right where the BC Team is sitting courtside. His side of the court. Then he steps on the court and decides he wants to start. Lawrence, the umpire tells him Richard Liang needs to warm-up a bit, and to have a couple of warm-up rallies.

SpringyShort shrugs his shoulders and (I imagine) says, “fine, whatever.”

Then Richard puts up some easy lobs, or clears to limber up. SpringyShort has other ideas. After a couple of return lobs, proceeds to sharp drop it to the front corners, then low-push to the back, forcing Richard into game-time movement.

I don’t think Richard appreciated that, and decides maybe it’s a one-off thing. Except SpringyShort started doing it over and over and over again. I imagine Richard must have got a little frustrated with that because he ended the warm-up and started to test the tube of shuttles to be used for the game.

Apparently SpringyShort has other ideas again, as he caught almost all the shuttles in mid-air and tossed them to the umpires chair. Some of them he just hit to the chair. By this time Richard’s glaring at SpringShort with a sort of “WTF are you doing?” kind of look.

I’m loving it.

Everyone sitting around me were murmuring and pointing.

I’m still loving it. SpringyShort had a little aloofness about the whole thing and walks around with PLENTY of arrogance. Wait, that’s negative. With plenty of self-confidence in himself, like he could win this game no problem.

I’m telling Growler (brother) sitting next to me, that SpringyShort is playing psychological mind-games with Richard Liang, and I couldn’t wait for the game to start. Now either Richard’s going to smoke this guy off the court, or SpringyShort was going to do this the whole night, so you can imagine my anticipation. I hoped my analysis was correct.

I wasn’t disappointed. Richard serves long and deep. SpringyShort steps almost two feet behind the back line, jumps up and power-smashes the shuttle so hard, I thought the goose from which the shuttle-feathers was plucked, actually bounced-up in the goose-graveyard somewhere in China.

Richard Liang had no answer to SpringyShort, as SpringyShort moved around the court at super-human speed.

Any sharp pushes attempted by Richard, SpringShort’s footwork and speed got him behind the shot quick enough to be smashed. And any strategy Richard put out to get SpringyShort to cover the diagonal, SpringyShort had the quickness to either smash down from the back, or get the shuttle above the net at the front.

SpringyShort even feigned a yawn!

I’M LOVING IT!!!

At various time when he was going to pull away, the Jiangsu instructions must have activated in his brain, and he would wait for Richard to pull up even in the score before continuing on the massacre.

At this point I’m actually feeling sorry for Richard, as this is NOT the sort of exhibition attention-seekers are looking for.

I mentioned again to Growler that it’s just SpringyShort’s initial energy burst that he can do this, and after six points or so, he’ll settle down to a regular single’s game rhythm, slow, methodical, very few smashes.

Or so I thought. At some point when SpringShort had something like fifteen points, and Richard was trailing, Richard somehow was gaining point by point, and I told Growler, “SEE!”

SpringyShort looked a little mellow now, and called time-out and took a sip from his cup and motioned “I’m tired” or something to the BC Team sitting on his side of the court.

Remember the goose-graveyard? Well now the goose had a second wake-up call, as SpringyShort re-energized and smoked Richard for rest of the set.

I felt really sad at the end of the match, like when a good movie ends, because that was the match of the NIGHT!


Women’s Double
SinglesLady and CurvyLady made short work, defeating Melody and Phyllis handily. Same gameplay, strategy as in the RichmondPro exhibition.


Men’s Double
Men’s Double 1: Toby Ng and Alvin Lau versus DoublesRightHanded and SpringyTall. Again SpringyTall is a double-player-in-training, and made unforced errors and bad judgement shots that gave away cheap points.

Toby and Alvin split a set between the Jiangsu Team players. I personally would’ve like the same team (DoublesLeftHanded and DoublesRightHanded) to have played this game.

Same strategy, gameplay as the previous night, but with more errors on SpringyTall. DoublesRightHanded is a joy to watch because he’s the rock on that doubles team.

DoublesLeftHanded is the rock on the other team.

Chris Lee and Kyle Holoboff versus DoublesLeftHanded and SinglesTall. Same deal as RichmondPro, only substitute Derrick Ng for Chris Lee. Poor Chris. And the fellow sitting next to me commented that the Jiangsu Team hardly broke sweat.

Mixed Double
Pair 1: Derrick Ng and Charmain versus DoublesLeftHanded and GracefulSmileLady
Pair 2: Toby Ng and Crystal versus SpringyShort and SinglesLady

How to analyse this? Okay the positives. Derrick and Charmain work well together and cover loose spot and out-of-position situation by rotating seamlessly.

I think madbad said it best, that these matches are won on the strengths of the lady players.

The BC Team lady players are not on par with the Jiangsu Team Lady players. What is severely lacking on the BC Team side is their inability to get themselves out of trouble when taken out of position. More definitively, the lady players absolutely have to be able to receive smashes from the likes of Toby or Alvin. Never mind if on the run, but if feet are planted, must have the ability block or hit a good quality return to retain or regain the front-back formation.

Both ladies did not have this ability, with predictable results.

Badrad’s going to kill me next time I see him. Wait, the whole badrad clan is going to kill me. Not to mention the badelbow clan.

Same disclaimer apply.

 

Ah...i see..

..gotcha-thx for confirming that ...yah, no wonder he looks so familiar in that pic-time flies doesn't it...the title of the post mentions it, but i was rather "skeptical" plus i didn't know CJ was part of that team & visited Vancouver...
*Btw, wood_22_chuck, after watching the current batch of players perform, of course not @ 100%, from all those players, who do you think has the potential, within say 1-2 yrs time frame, to be on the CHN's main squad..

 

Geat report, Wood_22_Chuck.

I missed them on Tuesday and Wednesday.

 

Great report again Dave.

Re. Singles 1, I'm of the belief you have to have that killer attitude (self-confidence as you call it) to be the best. Lin Dan and Taufik carry themselves that way. So, are we witnessing the emergence of another star player from the Chinese badminton factory? Very rare do we see such demonstrative types.

Also, I wonder if Richard Liang inadvertantly (sp?) jolted his opponent into action with his lacadaisical and uninterested air. Perhaps he thought Richard was trying to show him up. In either case, it sounded like the you got to see the real goods this guy possesses. As you rightly pointed out in the RichmondPro report, these guys weren't really trying.

 

Who do I think, within 1 to 2 years time frame? None. These guys have passed the optimum age for development.

-dave

 

You should be a reporter dave!!!

 

So Dave when do you want me to put in that order for a bullet proof vest?

 

wood_22_chuck...

Fantastic and entertaining writeup...

Was at the RmdPro game, yeah...I think both side are not going all out. But, different class anyway. In the singles between R Liang & Singleshort..the chinese player was a bit miffed, bad line calls and umpire losing track of score. Yeah, the Singlestall play was so fluid...Doubles, you call it. Would have love to see them go all out...
One thing that stand out, the chinese players have the kind of confidence in their skills, that no shots are non-returnable/retriveable. Even if the shuttle is like just on the floor, as long as they can slip the racquet in-between, just a flick of the wrist the shuttle is saved. And also, so many times their racquet is there before the shuttles, the option of shots to return....


Too bad didn't get a chance to chat with you.

 

Here's a better visual.

 

You were there? How come I didn't see you? I agree that the CHN team were trolling in 2nd gear most of the time but as wood_22_chuck said, they were probably under instructions to make a match of it. See you Sunday?

 

This is late, but again, very funnee write-up wood_22_chuck!

Couple of nit-picky things, tho... Sarah and Alice actually split their matches with the ladies from Jiangsu. And you mixed up the listing for singles; should have been:

Men's Singles 1: SpringyShort vs. Richard Liang
Men's Singles 2: SinglesShort vs. Tim Ma

Then it all makes sense...

Did anyone catch the 1st and last exhibition matches? Would be good if reports could be posted for those, too. I'm especially interested in how the very first one went, before both teams had seen the other play.

Madbad alluded to the BC team not doing as well at Douglas College in another post? Details?

Dave and I went to play at VRC last night, with a couple of guys that we'd made an appointment with. Guess what? The whole Jiangsu team showed up, too! Seems a certain group had arranged to play some friendly games with them, including Sun Jun! Should have brought the camera, but then we didn't know they were going to be there. :crying:

-j

 

Toby and Alvin will also be carrying the BC flag into the openning ceremonies of the Canada winter games at the end of this month.....please goto Clearone thread.....A big Boost for Badminton..... thread for detail news release.....they were also on Fairchild evening News that night.......

 

How did Timeless and Speed78 swung a seat at the group picture? And wood_22_chuck, great write-up on both sets. Yeah, both the Badrad and Badelbow famillies will tie you to the net and take turns bouncing shuttles off your head

 

Shopping list:
Bulletproof vest from Nephrus - check.
Bouncing shuttles of my head. Hmm. Add on shock helmet.

-dave

 

PAY-to-play?? Ah! That explains the complicated-looking rotation scheme we saw one of them carrying around; we knew it was to make sure everyone there got a chance to play with the players. I guess now it makes sense.