I'm not sure if they are up to Grand Slam standards yet, but I think they are definitely some of the best players you are likely to play in a satellite. I thought that satellite tournaments were open to everyone as they are the lowest level of ranking tournament. How on earth are you meant to improve your ranking if you can't get into the tournament? I have a form for the Staffs tournament and was interested, but I see that the tournament starts at 2pm on a Friday afternoon. How am I meant to get there for that time? Or is this time to try and dissuade non-Birmingham Uni people from entering? I bet it has a high entry of Birmingham students and they all get good seedings as well!
interesting thought, i've not recieved my entry form just yet, i work weekends tho and firday afternoons are quite convenient for me, buti imagine a lot of people will be at uni or working - how does mr eddy expect to get a reasonable entry - especially since it starts on friday afternoon. i think he may be very dissapponted in the turn out. I agree tho that satellites are supposed to be open to all so that people can improve their standard, i have no idea what mr eddy hope to achieve by putting people off entering Do some satellite tournaments get very large entries? or are they all like the northumberland one? Neil
whoops hehe, just looking at the results for the recent grand slam at Ribby Hall, Allinson entered.. got a bye to the last 16 and then lost to the 4th seed. well at least he's human Neil
I think most of the satellites down in the south east of England can get quite large entries. It was quite a big entry in Suffolk earlier this year and they struggled to get through all the matches. Northumberland was poorly promoted, is a long way for a lot of people to travel and it clashes with Wiltshire I think.
Been a while but it is soon to be back into the action at the Berkshire Open. Just playing mixed at this one, need to play well as I am protecting points and a bad performance or a crappy draw will cost me ranking points. I should be high enough by now but needless to say www.baofe.co.uk has not been usefully updated since the points were done at the end of October!
Well it was the staffordshire open today adn tomorrow - did anybody go - what was the standard like? Dave Eddy from Staffs was being very picky about who he was allowing to enter so i wondered if any of you guys made it. I didn't go as i've got uni exams next week (bloody final year) Hope to hear from you guy soon Cheers Neil
I didn't bother entering. I was going to go to watch but I'm househunting now and can't find the time. I'd be interested to know what the field was like. I was in the Devon next week but I've had to pull out because I can't get the day off work now (gotta go to Poland).
Yep Chris is in form this season, especially in the mixed. He is bein a bit of a tart though, never the same partner twice. I can see him ending up with a brilliant individual record in the Challengers and Satellites and not getting into the finals! I am not even going to mention my own dismal performance in the Berkshire but the field was stronger than last year in the mens and mixed. I am beginning to feel the end of season approaching even though it is way off. Too much pre-season training often has this effect on me. Will probably play the Guernsey and leave it at that this season. Want to play mixed in the Nationals in 2004 so will chill for a while and sort out technical aspects of my game before starting again at the Herts Open.
Yep it has got beyond pathetic now. No events after October have been added! I hope that the event organisers have access to an updated version of the rankings because otherwise they will be basing entry decisions on out of date positions. I have played 3 events since then and want to get a place in the Nottingham Open who can get a bit fussy at times. Does anyone know about this? One of the reasons for the BAofE's crapness is cost. As I understand it they do not own their own webspace. This means that they have to pay each time they want to update anything other than the News section. But this is not to any extent a defence of the BAofE but, IMO, another example of their incompetence. February is a quiet month for Satellites and Challengers so time to assess how well the season has gone so far mad: crap! ) analyse what could be improved ( movement, attack, defence, tactics ) and train hard o er...of course) .
To say the BAofE site is crap is an understatement - i bet they are being ripped off. The site i run for Blackpool and District badminton is a lot better, i understand it is smaller but the content on the BAofE site isn't massive, They just need to set up their own webserver(not really difficult) and then it would be dirt cheap(free if they already have a connection) Anyway - back to the right topic - just checked the next one (not including Suffolf since thats this weekend coming up) The next one is Lancashire at the beginning of March - typical my home turf and i'm injured - i very much doubt i'll be fit for that. AAAAAArrrrgh. Neil
wahey Hi guys, baofe finally updated their site - and i've got my first ranking points - as you can imagine i'm dead chuffed to have ranking - equal 213 in the country wonder if they'll keep it up to date now that it's all a new look See ya Neil
Went to the Suffolk Open last weekend and played very badly! Lost in first round of both singles and doubles. The singles was of a higher standard than most satellites I've been at, but the doubles wasn't too great. In the MS Daniel Plant beat a guy from Belgium in 3 ends in the final - both finalists from last year lost in the second round! That might be my last tournament of the year, as I can't play in Lancashire. I might still play at the Hull one though.
well I'm still lurking from time to time but I seem to have rather a hectic life at the moment. Thanks for asking. Might be going to Hull, but the probem is I'm having difficulty getting quality badminton up here. Am having to do other things instead, like go out and party a lot (!) My fitness and badminton is umm... slipping somewhat. Erm, but on the plus side my social life has somewhat improved.
You mean Yorkshire scene is not high enough standard for you? Or the badminton social life isn't what it could be.................?
