County Restricted Tournaments

[Jonathan Phillips]

How popular have the county restricted tournaments been this year? Fully subscribed or lacking in numbers?

For as long as I can remember these tournaments have been a strong part of the badminton calendar. Typically being one of the first events of the year there was always a buzz in the air.

Recently the atmosphere has started to disappear with numbers well down.

This weekend the Hampshire restricted struggled to bring the numbers in - the ladies doubles particularly poor with only 7 pairs in the knockout section and 2 pairs in the handicapped tournament.

Is this typical of the rest of the country at the moment? If, not what is being done at ground level to increase attendance?

[Eddie0110]

Essex did not hold a restricted tournament this weekend. After several seasons of dissappointing entries and financial loss Essex have decided to look for another date later on in the season when it is hoped that clubs and players are more willing to enter.

[chrisroe]

Jonathan,

I was going to start a thread with exactly the same question! Warwickshire's restricted tournament had suffered decline, reaching a low point last year with a total of 19 entries in 5 events. This year we had 38, (MS-8, LS-1, MD-11, LD-6, XD-13). Atmosphere was much better and some excellent games.

Better entry, but still not that good - if you are a player out there and thought about entering your county restricted but did not post and tell us what we can do to attract you to play in these tournaments!

Cheers,
Chris.

[Geof]

Back in old old days you would not be selected for your county unless you entered the restricted. It was the main opportunity for the selectors to monitor the improvement of the juniors and any new pairings?
I think it is very sad to see this decline.

[gjsims]

Down in Sussex we had 14 MD, 16 MxD (I think), 12 MS, 5 LD and 0 LS. This is the second year in a row we have not held a LS event. On the positive side it meant that we played a 3/15 format instead of 2/15 no setting as has been the case before. This favoured the older types like me, or would have done if I hadn't fallen over and twisted my f****** ankle. Hope to be fit for Oxford so see you there CR.

[gjsims]

And Geoff, it would be nice to see all the county players turning out for the restricted but it is just not practical anymore as the population is more mobile than when the game was young. Many players continue to be loyal to their 'home' county which is great but the mileage is too much. Maybe if the Premier games were held at home venues people would change their loyalties when they moved, but with weekends away it does not matter much where you live. If the county teams were picked simply by the restricted then the number of teams playing would have to reduce and less people wouldhave the opportunity to experience county badminton. It would be good to encourage more 'good club' players to play the restricted events but maybe people don't want to play an event they have no chance of winning. I don't know the answer, but a change is needed, the sport is shrinkng around us.

[Debbie]

Sorry to read about your ankle Jamie. I'm playing for a new club this season so perhaps we'll meet at one of the matches as long as you're fit again. We had a good turnout for our restricted although our numbers were slightly down on last year. Ladies is always disappointing. We only had 5 then down to 4 because of injury. 6 ladies pairs in the doubles but were unable to play the final because of another injury!! The men's entries were good. 19 singles and 23 doubles pairs and 13 in the mixed. I hope all the players had a good weekend, I enjoyed watching! There was a reunion party at the club on the Saturday evening, so many familiar but older faces brought some extra spectators and atmosphere-catching up on life after playing or simlpy being involved with county badminton.
We also had some players with many years experience giving the younger hopefuls some valuable lessons.

[Martin Dew-Hattens]

It seems clear to me that the only way to regenerate interest in competitive badminton is to merge some of the clubs and try to fund a purpose built hall owned by the club. A wimbledon, wycombe or Redbridge type.

This is how is works in Denmark and the clubs are over subscribed.

Have to admit though that Denmark is heading for problems soon. The association has put som much time and effort in the best players that the "next" group have been left to there own devices. I am told that the Danish junior results are not that good. The Danish junior will give some ideas on current trends.

Nevertheless - Danish club life is good and strong. Lots of activity which could be repeated in England.

[NeilNicholls]

At the Staffordshire Restricted, I don't know about the doubles, but there were 13 in the MS and 4 in the LS

[southernmonkey]

Big problem at the moment is Martin that the BAOE cannot control its players.
Most of the top players wont play there Restricted because they dont have to which then weakens the hole thing.
Thers the first big English event at wimbledon this year and most of the big names apparantlly have to play it but i bet most dont,Colin will evade it and the BAOE will do nothing like they always do.O no actually they will still keep funding them though.

The restricted when i used to play had atleast 30 players in each of the mens draw+ a qualify draw to start and all the best internationals used to play it and try to beat each other.

Nowadays the Coaches at the BAOE are not that botherd whether these players play them so there is no pressure on them.
If the BAOE value there counties then it should be another tournament that they have to play in order to get there lottery money because clearly the players are playing the matches they have to to get there doe and ditching anything else.

[dlp]

I think a big problem with the resticted entry is the date. Many players don't start club nights until the second week of September, by which time the closing date may have passed. Put with this the high proportion of students who now make up county teams who don't return to the uni until last week of Sept and a lot of players miss entering.

[gjsims]

Not a bad idea, really SM. It really comes down to what the BAofE feel about the county system, doesn't it? They have the power to make players play in events and county matches if they want to, but they don't seem to want to at the moment. If their funding required them to turn out for their county and play in the restricted then that is what the players would do, I am particularly thinking about the lower ranked players who are not regular internationals.

I don't know how many people read Cracknell's article in the Telegraph some weeks back but he stated that if national tennis was run as well as national badminton there would be no problems in the game, we know better. The two sports appear to be at opposite ends of the continuum: badminton has excellent support for top level players but very little help or guidance for grass roots badminton from its governing body; tennis has poor top level support but a thriving club and tournament scene and properly qualified coaches. Which is best, well that depends if you want a bronze medal at a big event once every ten years (no disrespect, that was an excellent result) or a game that enough people play to support it continued existence.

I think Martin is probably correct, and this links into the thread on club organisation. If we had a hierarchy of leagues, or a pyramid system, or a national league (there, said it again!) like every successful sport then things might be different. As it is we rely on ever decreasing numbers of highly dedicated people on a local level to keep the game going without recompense.

It will be nice to play against you again Debbie, just don't bring in Matt as a ringer again!

[southernmonkey]

Thanks JS,
however i and Martin did agree that we have a perfectly good county scene to work on,lets get the support from the BAOE on this and make the top players play and we will achieve that goal before moving onto other good ideas like you have said.
In Denmark the top players play for there clubs and support there clubs as much as possible,now either they are more respectful of the institute where they learned or they love the game enough to play every chance they get.
This clearly doesnt happen in this country.

[stinky]

I find that County Restricted tournaments are run by the most pathetic of mutha's.

They do NOT encourage former world class players to play in their tournaments. Infact are very negative toward them fullstop. Surely such big names would increase popularity of their tournaments and increase revenue?!

Does anyone else find similar hostility?

[bevisj]

As a reasonable club player, I suspect that the County Restricted Tournament would actually be suitable for me.

Although I have played (and occasionally won) a number of district open and restricted tournaments, I always avoided the County Restricted on the basis that:

- It was a 'County' tournament and therefore only for 'County' players. Hampshire's elitist approach does little to welcome those not as blessed as the County squad.
- It is far too early in the season and therefore it is difficult to prepare or even find a partner.

My thoughts on how to improve entry:

- Give people better notice or move it to later in the season
- Make the County selectors attend. This would give the opportunity for those not blessed with playing at the right club or knowing the right people (another dig at Hampshire) to be seen potentially with the opportunity to join the County squad
- Provide better feedback through the press (or just the county newsletter) to improve the profile of the tournament


Just some thoughts.

[tango]

for my sins, i took part in the kent restricted last year and was completely overwhelmed by the amount of players there were. in ladies singles alone, there were no less than 16 entries!

[PeteG]

My home county Shropshire have moved their restricted to later in the season, the reason being that more people are able to enter. The problem is that our restricted is in April now, so quite a lot of time after the season has finished.
In fairness, it makes it easier for people such as myself who have study/travel issues, what with being away at university. Although it does come near to the busiest part of the year, it does also fit quite well into holiday time from lectures.
There is also the opportunity to build up a partnership with a player before entering the restricted, even though I am predominantly a singles player.
On the down side, it means that any players who have improved over the Summer prior to the season don't have the opportunity to prove their point and make headway.
In fairness this has been put paid to by this year's county 2nd team captain using some of the matches to trial the younger players, which I think was brilliant as it gave several of them a chance to experience senior match play without trying to prove their worth against a 1st team, player in a bad restricted draw.
There is also the problem that having a restricted so late in the year means that a lot of player's enthusiasm may have waned by then as matches finished a long time previous. Some players are even winding down for the end of the season and may not have played competitively for a while.
My final point, is that should anyone show any promise in the restricted it has little bearing on the teams, as it is at the end of the season and far too early to select effectively for the following season. It does highlight some of the improvements players may have made during the season however.