Are there enough tournaments?

[daveyk]

i can barely find any tournaments to play in. i have looked at badminton england calender and hampshire's calender and can't see many tournaments i can actually play in.i realise i am not ranked or anything but am i actually going to have a chance to play for some ranking points? at the moment i am hoping to play the under 19s circuit in sussex if i even get accepted and then play in all the under 18 circuit tournaments if i get accepted into them. but what if i don't? i have no chance of getting any points. any suggestions?

[vatovey]

Morning Dave,

Maybe its worth speaking to Badminton England about the possibility of re-jigging the tournament structure in England.

I know from personal experience, whenever I go to English Satellites that I find the standard quite high considering its meant for only league and county players - the problem is that the term 'county' in england encompases the players playing county in the lowest division to the guys/girls in Prem A&B, as you know yourself, there is a massive difference in the level of play between these two sets of 'county' players.

What I would like to see is a more tiered approach towards the tournaments, ie: for Orbital tournaments, only players with no ranking up to 400 in the rankings can enter these, Satellite - players from 399 to 200 can enter these tournaments, Challenger - for players ranked 199 to 25 can enter, and 25 to 1 can play in Grand Slams, players can play UP, but not down (the above number are just as examples btw). In the past I have regularly found that players ranked in the top 20 in england will play in a Satellite ??, why ??, it is for the 'easy' money... or lack of structure, or possibly the massive weighting towards the number of Satellite tournaments compared to every other series of tournaments ?, maybe a new tournament grading system is needed to allow ALL players to play in tournaments where other players will be around the same level as themselves, instead of a top XX player vs a top 400 player as in Satellites, where it is humiliating for the top 400 player, and boring for the top XX player. I have also known players who have played in Challenger (and maybe Elite) and then a few weeks later play in an Orbital.

[andy_69911]

I agree there are definitely not enough tournaments, and you are also right that players who are highly ranked tend to still play in lower tournaments, generally due to the fact they are local I think, and that they have a reputation in that area.

There should be a whole load more orbital tournaments across the entire country. Im interested in finding out how one could organise a tournament and get it as part of the orbital circuit. Im captain at my University Club, in central london, we play in BUSA leagues, and there is a lot of players of a good standard (usually foreign students who do not play in BE events, and hence have no rankings. Meaning they cant enter higher circuit tournaments, but thats another issue). The thing is that if large clubs rather than associated counties were able to host orbital tournaments, it would increase the range for people to have access to, and set a level from which people can then work their way into harder satellite or challenger tournaments.

One final thing is why are they no tournaments in CENTRAL London? Lots of people play in London, yet they are all outskirts from counties like Middlesex and Essex. Maybe the City of London should be recognised as a county association in its own right, I don't know.

Your views on these issues are most welcome.

[vatovey]

Hi Andy,

Funny you should mention running Orbital tournaments, I am actually going to be running one this season, its the Sue Noake Mid-Glam Open, on April 12th, the venue is being re-booked at the moment due to problems with my original venue, but can let you know when its all done if you or anyone else is interested.

Speak to Darren Parks at the BE, I think you have to register by maybe May/June prior to the season you want to run your tournament, AND provide a minimum prize money of £300, in the Mid-Glam Open I am looking at providing £500 upwards :)

Cheers, Vaughn.

[andy_69911]

Hey Vaughn

That's really cool, I saw that event on the calender, didn't think I remembered if from the previous year (bit far for my liking I'm afraid though). Thing did you have to register it through your local county first before going to BE? The thing is if it went that way of it, even though our uni in bang in the middle of central london, we still come under Middlesex county. They already have one Orbital tournament so dont know how keen they would be for a second.

To bo honest with the 20 or so satellites there are currently (i whatever figure exactly), there should be double that of orbitals, do you not think?

Cheers

[vatovey]

Hi Andy,

I have run the tournament previously, but as part of the Welsh Senior Series, this season it is part of both the Welsh Senior Series AND Orbital Series - am hoping it will attract players from boths sets of series.

Yes - I believe you would have to clear it with your county first, I didn't have to because at the time of organising the Mid-Glam Open there wasn't a Mid-Glam County committee (but now there is), as I said in my previous post, speak to Darren Parks or one of his team at BE, am sure they can give you the rules/regs about running more than one tourn from a County.

I think the weighting of the tournaments at present is to much in favour of Satellites, from a personal perspective, I would like to see the weighting more evenly distributed, ie: 12-15 Orbitals, 12-15 Satellites, 8-10 Challengers, and 5-7 Elites, that should give BOTH the higher and lower standard players plenty of events to enter, and hopefully would take away the need for top ranked players playing in events which are for medium-low standard, as there would be enough events for the better players to play in anyways.

Cheers, Vaughn.

[pompey]

There need to be far more entry level tournaments. It is possible to be the best player at good club and still be off the pace when it comes to satellites. I think it alienates a lot of potentially good players who want to improve but are not overly keen on spending their weekend travelling to a tournamnent only to be spanked in the first round by a top 20 player. Not everyone progresses steadily through the junior to senior county route where the gap may seem quite small in that case.

[David69]

There should be a whole load more orbital tournaments across the entire country. Im interested in finding out how one could organise a tournament and get it as part of the orbital circuit. Im captain at my University Club, in central london, we play in BUSA leagues, and there is a lot of players of a good standard (usually foreign students who do not play in BE events, and hence have no rankings. Meaning they cant enter higher circuit tournaments, but thats another issue). The thing is that if large clubs rather than associated counties were able to host orbital tournaments, it would increase the range for people to have access to, and set a level from which people can then work their way into harder satellite or challenger tournaments.

I guess Orbital's will always have to be county connected. Are there not more Orbitals this year? I can't see clubs having the time, venues or inclination to be organising tournaments the size of an Orbital.

One final thing is why are they no tournaments in CENTRAL London? Lots of people play in London, yet they are all outskirts from counties like Middlesex and Essex. Maybe the City of London should be recognised as a county association in its own right, I don't know.

The guys at Tower Hamlets and associated clubs run 3 or 4 mens doubles tournaments a year in the Bow/Shoreditch area. The likes of Joel Gayle and Danny Plant from Essex often play and I believe James Anderson played in a pre-season one this year. The standard is excellent.

I get the impression you don't want to travel? I guess the challengers are almost impossible to get into without a ranking but have you tried entering other opens? Herts? Norfolk? Suffolk? Wilts? Devon? Cambridge? The other Orbitals? With respect :)

If you're interested in any of the TH related tournaments in East London, PC me on here and I'll get you contact details.

[daveyk]

somebody couldn't let me know what the difference in standard between orbital and satellite is could they? i'm supposed to be playing a couple in 2008

[andy_69911]

Daveyk:

From the saterllites and orbitals I have played in I would say there is a bit of a jump. Top county players always tend to enter their local saterllite, but probably would bother with the orbtial, as you dont get many ranking points from them. However the average standard is probably not much different. It just means in an orbital you're less likely get drawn against some awesome player and get trashed 1st round. Also orbitals have less entries so you usually have a group stage 1st, not a straight knock out. Therefore you're going to definitely get more games.

David69:

I think there are a few more orbtials this year, but not nearly enough. In terms of our uni club being able to host an orbital it is quite feisable. We play at somerstown, walking distance from kings cross and euston, with 6 courts. Our uni club has over 200 members so we used to catering for a lot of people.

Its good know that tower hamlets host tournaments, and I agree it must be a good standard (I play matches against them in the middlesex league). I guess its just the fact its not a ranking tournament. The point I was trying to make is that it is suprising that there is not a single BE circuit tournament in central london! I would be interested in playing some TH tournaments, especially as I actually live by Tower Hill :) so if you could give me the details that would be great.

I have no problems travelling, especially being a student I live in London and Dorset, so ive already played Cornwall, Dorset, Oxford saterllites this yr. But being closer would always be handy :)

Cheers

Andy

[David69]

Andy, are you entering the Middx Orbital? Entry forms now up on the Middx website.

[andy_69911]

Dave, Yes of course :), middlesex is about as local as I can get. I saw the entries are up. Will wait till im back in London in the new year though, as usually quite a few people from my uni enter, and we send off a whole load of entries together. Means I don't have to pay personally anyway (handy as a student).