First and third pairs of Glyn and Nigel, and the new pairing of Allan and (young) Rob winning all three, and Len and (old/er) Rob collecting two out of three.

Hopefully the start of a winning run that might quieten the crowing of the C team who we are all delighted to read, seem to have started their season reasonably well.

Huw and Sarah won all 3 games, Darius and Sian won their 3 but a sour taste was left after the unsporting behaviour by one man from the opposition who refused to play them. The other players from the PD team were extremely embarrassed with his attitude and could not apologise enough.

Myself and Alan brought up the rear with 1 win but the games were so close it could easily have been 3. We look forward to the return match on Thursday and wonder whether ‘Mr Unsporting’ will show his face?

First of all I hope you have all had a good start to the season, the first 2 Welsh Satellite Series tournaments of the year have proved very successful with approximately 80+ participants competing. Hopefully all tournaments in the series will also benefit with a successful entry.

Welsh International 2008
27-30th November 2008 at the WIS, Cardiff.

• Thursday 27th - Qualifying from 9am
• Friday 28th - Main Draw from 9am
• Saturday 29th - Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals from 10am
• Sunday 30th - Finals from 11am

This season the International has seen an excellent entry with over 364 entries. Players have come from all over the world, including Germany, New Zealand, India, Canada, Denmark all in all we have 24 Countries competing. There are many of the world’s top 50 players competing so it should prove to be a great sporting spectacle.

However in order for us to put on an excellent tournament we desperately need some help in the way of volunteers either helping out on any of the days (e.g. driving players from playing venue to tournament hotel, controlling doors, helping with the general running of the tournament or more importantly line judging. We need approximately 30 line judges each day from Friday 28th - Sunday 30th. Volunteers will receive a free Yonex t-shirt and £10 per full day completed. You will also have the best seats in the house where you can watch some of the best players in the world compete and of course entry to the event will be free. If you are able to help out in anyway please contact James in the office.

Tickets are available from the office at Welsh Badminton, simply give us a ring on 02920 497225 or drop us an email and we’ll be happy to send some out to you. All affiliated badminton clubs within Wales are entitled to a free allocation of 10 tickets per day. Alternatively you can purchase tickets at the following price:-

• Thursday 27th (Qualifying) - Free
• Friday 28th (Main Draw) - £3 WBU affiliated / £5 non
• Saturday 29th (Quarter-Finals and Semi-Finals) - £5 WBU affiliated / £7.50 non
• Sunday 30th (Finals) - £5 WBU affiliated / £7.50 non

Wales to take on New Zealand in an International Friendly match on Wednesday 26th November 2008. This match is due to start at 6pm at Sophia Gardens Cardiff, entry is FREE. The match will consist of 5 rubbers with the following being played: - Men’s Singles, Ladies Singles, Men’s Doubles, Ladies Doubles and Mixed Doubles. Come down and get behind your Country and the Welsh players to cheer them on to victory.

James Phillips

Welsh Badminton
Phone: 02920 497225

Another victory for the men’s C team, but it was far closer than the 8-1 scoreline against Reardon Smith B suggests.

While Huw and Matt made it look easy at first pair with straight-game wins, Simon and Nathan (suffering from pre-wedding nerves - it’s this Saturday!) were less convincing, coming back from 20-16 down in the third to snatch a win agaist the first pair and finally going unbeaten on the night.

The true C stars were Danny and Paul, having two marathon sessions, winning both before succumbing to the first pair.

Overall a good night. No pressure on the Bs!

Thanks to Glyn and Huw for standing in for the dynamic duo Martin and Darius who were off gallavanting at another tournament :)

Final score 9-0.

Vale C got off to a good start with 1st pair Huw & Sarah taking their 2 games against Vale B 1sts & 2nds. However they couldn’t pull off the treble as I think Martin had a bit of a point to prove!

Next 6 games also went to the Bs resulting in a 7–2 victory for the B team.

A nice early finish so that Helen could get home to watch the Liverpool game (that was never a penalty!), and bring on the cup game on the 25th (that’s badminton not football by the way!)

Many thanks to Sarah H for stepping in last minute for Cath.

Blood - Alison managed to cut the inside of her mouth with her racquet!
Sweat - from everyone except Jordan who never seems to work up a sweat no matter how hard she tries!
No tears - as all three Vale pairs managed to take a game each!!

With the captain playing elsewhere (so she says - not sure we believe her - just think she was scared of getting hammered by Penarth) - Al & Helen C were promoted to first pair.  Sal & Sarah were at 2 with Jordan & Jayne at 3.   Thanks to super sub Jayne for filling in for Helen S.

Final score 6-3 to Penarth.

In the pub by 9.45pm - can’t be bad :)

Update: download the menu

Glyn (in half-term relaxed mode) & Helen went to 3 with the 1st pair again, and at 13 - 18 down in the 3rd thought it was all over ~ but they dug in their heels and pulled off a 21 - 18 win! Unfortunately, it had had its effect, and they were “pants” against the 2nd pairing and lost in 2. Luckily they got their act back together against the 3rds.

Sally & Len battled out a win over the 2nd pair, but all went a bit Pete Tong against the 3rds, losing in 3. And an easy victory against the 1st pair (we wont mention they gave us a bye due to injury).

3rd pairing of Chris & Martin (3rd pairing?) kept their cool in the intense heat (the hall was 10 deg hotter than Helen’s apartment in Spain in the middle of summer!) flying through all of their games in 2.

Good news was we didn’t need any hot recreation assistants ~ but maybe a referee should be on hand for Len & Sallys next encounter!

Thanx to Nate for filling in for Martin ~  who had County Match commitments.

Bring on the return leg ~ Reardon Smith away Tuesday. 3rd game in 6 days ~ will the cracks start to show?  Can we make sure that there are some hot (male) recreation assistants on duty just in case please.

Like the weather, the venue was also dark and dismal, which gave 1st pair ~ Glyn & Helen their excuse for a shaky start! They manged to up the anti though and took all 3 of their games. New pairing for the nite Sal & Martin, (pampered on the journey up,) breezed through all 3 of their games.
Makeshift pairing of Len & Jayne ( filling in for Capt Chris ) did really well picking up 2, and only just missing out taking the 3rd against Ystrad 1st pair.

A well deserved 8 - 1 win, in the pub by 8.30 pm, and Sally & Martin were treated to a fast return journey via Helen Airways ! Result !

http://www.valebadminton.co.uk/played-up/

Please can the team captains keep me informed so that the list is kept up to date. Thanks :)