Robertson and Emms - not European champs

[scsiscan]

What happened ?

The only excuse I can find is on the BAof E website which sayes

"We were playing at about 60 per cent our usual level. Our bodies are tired"

Emms could do it in the doubles so whats wrong with our intrepid hero?

Quite frankly thats not acceptable. A professional should be prepared its as simple as that.

Maybe in the future they will concentrate more on the badminton and a little less on the media.

England won the ladies doubles but I don't think I have ever seen so low a medal tally before now.

First Ian Wright looses the commonwealth games then the European team event and now the lowest medal tally I can ever remember. Not what you would call a good start. For his sake and Englands I hope things change soon.

[biggy]

actually ian wright didn't lose the european team event as 2 years ago england came 4th and this year they came 3rd, improvement if i'm not mistaken.

don't think it was media that nathan and gail have concentrated on, they have a had a tough schedule and obviously nathan isn't as fit as gail. this needs improbving but you are being far too critical.

they came back from australia, few days rest and a bit of training then off again to another major champs with team and individual events, must be tough.

[flea]

Agree biggy, if anything it goes to show how much Gail has improved as a player over the last year or so.

[scsiscan]

Well if Wright didn't loose it then who did? Is he not the manager of the England team? Just like football he must take the blame for bad team results.

Just looked at the results

http://www.eurobadminton.org/file_download.aspx?id=281

We have to go all the way back to 1984 since England last won the Team event. Why did England win it then and can't even get into the final now?

Come on now - can't we do better than that?


actually ian wright didn't lose the european team event as 2 years ago england came 4th and this year they came 3rd, improvement if i'm not mistaken.

don't think it was media that nathan and gail have concentrated on, they have a had a tough schedule and obviously nathan isn't as fit as gail. this needs improbving but you are being far too critical.

they came back from australia, few days rest and a bit of training then off again to another major champs with team and individual events, must be tough.

[Markymark]

I think England are stronger in world terms in events than they were in the 80s, certainly in mixed and ladies' doubles.

England were unlucky not to get to the final and could have beaten Denmark. Don't think we should be too harsh on the team managers and coaches.

[scsiscan]

Unfortunatly vague terms such as "unlucky" and "I think" do not win medals. Its the actual results which count and we simply are not achieving a quota which reflects the amount of lottery money being used to chase them.



I think England are stronger in world terms in events than they were in the 80s, certainly in mixed and ladies' doubles.

England were unlucky not to get to the final and could have beaten Denmark. Don't think we should be too harsh on the team managers and coaches.

[rhombus]

Dear MarkyMark,

A very touchy subject comparing players of the 1980's with today's players. However you can look at single events like the All England Championships which I think is still one of the major events on the calender and which players hold dear. Looking at Mixed and Ladies doubles we had pretty good records in the 1980's
For example mixed doubles winners 1980 and 1981 Tredgett/Perry, 1982 and 1984 Dew/ Gilks, 1985 Gilliland/Perry. That's domination of an event through nearly 5 years and with different winners.
Since then Ponting/Wright in 94, Archer/Goode in 99 and Emms/Robertson in 2005.
Ladies doubles winners Gilks/Perry in 1980 and Perry/Webster in 1981, since then no home winners of the AE.

So in world terms we are no where near where we were in the 1980's in any events. Emms/Robertson are world number one's, but cannot get through to the Quarters of the European championships. Tiredness is blamed but with the new scoring system, games in general are alot shorter than they used to be with the 3x15 format.

[danbelcher]

but I don't think the chinese or koreans were playing until start of the 80's....