Torrisholme BC

Badminton re-commences this year on 31st August for the first of 2 consecutive Sunday afternoon team selection sessions at Salt Ayre from 2.30pm until 4.30pm. The Monday selection and club nights start on the first of September from 7-10.

Note that the Sunday sessions are free to members, but are to be used for team selection.

That’s gonna hurt…

Matches start W/C 22nd September, so we’ve 3 weeks of Monday nights to prepare before club nights revert to 1 court 8-10. I’ve put the initial dates in the club calendar (see also this entry and the google calendar button in the side-bar) and I’ll add details of the matches once I get sight of the new handbook.

The fee structure is unchanged from last year, and can be seen in full on the welcome page.

A quick heads up on some important dates for September:

• Club Nights re-start on the 3rd, 7pm – 10pm;
• Afternoon Selection & Match Practice – Sundays 9th and 16th September;
• Matches start W/C 24th September.

This gives us 3 whole club nights for selection and practice before the matches start again. We have also booked 2 afternoon sessions on the 9th and 16th September, purely for selection and match practice. These will take place at Salt Ayre, where we have 2 courts for 2 hours between 2.30 & 4.30.

This season, club night will be restricted to 1 court 8-10 on Monday nights at the college when matches are on.

All dates and events will be updated to the club calendar as they become known.

Just find out this evening that the ‘A’ team home match against Sunnyside ‘B’ next week has been re-arranged for the following Monday (19th February), This also has the effect of changing the club night next week. There will now be a club night on Monday evening (12th Feb) 8pm – 10pm.

Hope to see you there.

For information, the ‘A’ team lost their cup match this last week to Ripley ‘A’ by 30 points. The handicap was 68 points in Ripley’s favour. The excitement as we opened the envelope at the end of the night was almost too much to stand.

As a quick reminder to all club members, the annual subs (GBP70, but see the ‘welcome’ page for exceptions) must be paid in full by 31/10/2006 for you to qualify to receive the 5 free-club-night vouchers.

Our treasurer, Lorraine, is making a list, and checking it twice, trying to find… well, you know the rest.

Seriously, if you haven’t paid in full, no vouchers. It’s a £15 saving, think about that!

Normal service resumes this week, with all three teams having league matches.

• ‘A’ Team Garstang ‘B’, Away, Friday. Garstang Leisure Centre. 8 p.m.
• ‘B’ Team Kirby Lonsdale ‘D’, Home.
• ‘C’ Team Brookhouse ‘C’, Away, Tuesday. Victoria Institute, Caton, 7 p.m.

This means there will be a club night at the College this week, from 8 p.m. Sounds like quite a few people are going down, especially with the ‘A’ teams match not being until Friday night. Should be good.

The club committee are meeting this Thursday night, so if anyone has anything they want to raise at this level, please contact Cynthia Dickinson or Stuart Allan, or email Stuart at this address.

There will be 2 courts from 8:30 to 9:30, and a single court from 9:30 to 10:30 on Thursday night at Salt Ayre.

A reminder that this week there will be NO activity at the College this Monday night, as far as TBC are concerned. There are NO home matches, and we have cancelled the hall entirely, so NO club night either. With there being no home match, it’s just too costly to keep the booking on the off chance that 3 or 4 people want to come to club night.

There will, however, be the Thursday club night at Salt Ayre, 8.30 – 10.30, so everyone’s welcome to that…

…except the ‘A’ team, who are away to Sunnyside ‘C’ on Thursday night (LRGS, 7pm) – Note that this is a change to the published arrangements.
The ‘B’ have no match this week (so will be itching, no doubt, to go to club night to keep their skills sharply honed).
The ‘C’ team are away on Monday night to Moor Hospital ‘B’ (Morecambe High school, 7.30pm PROMPT).

That’s your lot.

Just a quick catch-up this evening to give details of next weeks matches, up-coming club nights and a brief heads-up about the Xmas meal. I’m not going to go into detail about recent results, mainly because I can’t – I’ve been a bit out of touch with the all the teams results since the events detailed in the last post – and you’re better off visiting the league’s results page, which is actually bang up to date as I write this. All I do know is that all of the teams are going along rather nicely, actually, but the ‘A’ team had a bit of a hiccup at Garstang ‘C’ last week, going down 10 – 8. Um. If any team captains (or any other members come to that) want to be able to post results and match reports directly to the site simply register a username and I’ll give you privileges to write posts!

Next weeks matches are:

• ‘A’ Team – Home, Bolton-Le-Sands ‘A’
• ‘B’ Team - Away, Garstang ‘D’, Tuesday 8pm (Garstang Leisure Centre).
• ‘C’ Team – Home, Bolton-Le-Sands ‘D’

Bolton-Le-Sands ‘D’!? Sheesh, how big is the catchment area for Bolton-Le-Sands badminton club!?

This means there will be a club night on Thursday night at Salt Ayre, 8.30 – 10.30, but no club night courts available on Monday night. Speaking of club nights, one deviation from the expected pattern, and NOT as advertised on the recent flyer handed out by Cynthia, is that there will NOT be a club night on Monday 21st November. Check back here nearer the time to see if there’s going to be a club night on the Thursday that week (I suspect there might be). I’ll put up the complete list of club nights on a separate page shortly (check the side bar for the link –>).

We have now booked the Xmas meal. We have 24 places booked at The Gatehouse on Friday 2nd December. Cost is £20 per head (this is exactly the same as the cost for the Xmas meal at the Gatehouse in 2003). Further details, like the menu and stuff, will be posted shortly. In the meantime, get your £5 deposit to one of the Social Committee (James Illingworth or Stuart Allan), and check out the pictures from the last time we were there back at the old website…

Members – There will be a club night tonight, 8.30 – 10.30 at Salt Ayre.

For those who qualify, the free club night vouchers should be available tonight, assuming my printer doesn’t pack up, and I can get down there. If you don’t know what this means, please refer to the minutes of the AGM which were certainly delivered into your clutches way back before the start of the season…

The A team lost their home match against Garstang B on Monday night, 11 – 7. Quite a respectable score against a strong club, I think, and it was a fun match. Worryingly, they weren’t at full strength, it would seem, with 2 regulars missing. Hmmm.

The C team had a good win against Brookhouse C, 14 – 4. We’re rattling along nicely there, although it’s too early to get excited, I suppose.

The B team played last night, and I haven’t news of that yet. I’ll post later tonight if I can find anything out at the club night. Also, watch this space for details on the recent committee meeting and the plans for this years Christmas meal.

Lightning quick post tonight, because a) I haven’t much time, b) I haven’t much to say, and c) nobody reads this anyway…

Results this week are mixed – the A team lost on Monday, to Salt Ayre, at Salt Ayre, 12- 6. This is a poor result, and I’m not going to go into the reasons right now, suffice it to say it was a frustrating match and I’ll bet beer to crisps we can flip that result (or better) at our place. The ‘B’ team, on the other hand, are flying, taking down Hest Bank ‘D’ 17 – 1, no doubt partly because of some inspired pairing decisions from the selection committee (Pam).

The C team rested this week.

Once again, there will be NO club night this Thursday (13/10/5), because everyone had their fill on Monday at either matches or club night, and the committee are meeting that evening too, so many of the club night stalwarts are otherwise engaged in club business, looking out for your future…

Next weeks matches are A and C at home to Garstang B and Brookhouse C (so no club night then, either, watch this space for news on next Thursday for a club night), and the B team are away to Kirkby Lonsdale D, Wednesday night, 19.30, Queen Elizabeth School.

Good wins at home for the ‘C’ and ‘A’ team on Monday night, both teams chalking up 14 points against Storeys ‘D’ and Overton ‘B’ respectively.

After moaning about the light at the University in the last post, I have to say it isn’t that much better at our place – one side of the hall definitely offers some advantage over the other. It’s difficult to say what the problem or difference is really, but it certainly affected most of the results, with the stronger performance from each pair coming from one particular end in all the cases I saw. Maybe it’s a little brighter, or something. Whatever it is, it just throws your timing slightly. Anyone else have the same problem, or notice the same effect? Or is it a case of the bad player blaming his sports centre?

The ‘B’ team play tonight (looking at the time, they will have finished, actually) against Storeys ‘C’, so I’ll post that result as soon as I know it.

Please note: There will be no club night this Thursday at Salt Ayre. Next club night will be next Monday (10/10/5) at the college.

For anyone trying to find out about club night, there is one tonight.

Salt Ayre 8.30 – 10.30.

Keep checking back here for more club night information. Particularly with these ad-hoc Thursday night sessions, we’ll be using the web site as a vital channel, as some times the news may be rather last minute.

I’ll post some more info about Monday night club nights in light of the demise of the ‘D’ team when I can confirm what’s going on. The likelihood is that fewer home matches mean there’ll be more courts available on a Monday night, and more regularly, but having said that, the costs may mean we need to cancel some of these courts. Check back here often. If you think we should do whatever it takes to try and keep those courts, let your opinion be known – add a comment to this post, or drop us an email

Well, unusually, the first club night of the season wasn’t all that well attended. I suspect that this is a combination of the end of the holiday season (I know at least 3 people were on holiday this week) and the fact that Thursday nights are always poorly supported.

Selection will begin in earnest on Monday night. The stark and unfortunate truth is that we’re going to really struggle to field 3 teams, let alone 4 this season. It doesn’t take many to drop out to leave a team woefully short, and, as usual, it’s the ladies we’re hurting for. We have something like 8 listed at the moment, and they’re not all definite. That means we can’t field a ‘C’ team if it stays like that. Even with another 2 ladies, we still can’t comfortably play that 3rd team – one reserve!? This is bad. It’s particularly bad because it means that we’d only have team places for 6 gents, and we have 10-12 men wanting to play competitively.

So, what will happen? Would that mean that 4-6 gents will leave to play elsewhere, or, possibly worse, just leave and give up the game? This would be perfectly understandable to me – if you want to play matches, and there’s no place for you at a club, what does it have for you? Worse still, the evil spectre of the rotation system is likely to crop up – surely the worst of all worlds…

And if those extra players leave, and we’re left with only enough members to cover 2 teams, it’s surely only a matter of time (next year, the year after – this year?) that 1 or 2 leave for other reasons, work, family, injury, or whatever, and we’re left with only 1 team, and the process starts again, the extras leave for pastures new that can offer them a game…

Members: Bring ladies! If you are a lady and you haven’t committed to coming down, let us know asap!

Non-members: Bring ladies! Send ladies!

Are you a lady looking to play competitive badminton this season in the Lancaster and Morecambe area? Get in touch, we’ve got teams entered in divisions 2, 4 & 5. Whether we get to play those division 5 teams could be down to you.

email us. Quick!

Here’s that Team Selection Notice in full. This should be winging its way to you right now on paper, if you haven’t already received it.

One thing I forgot to mention in the document which went out with the minutes of the AGM (i.e. the stuff below) was the teams we have – this might have been useful considering one of the questions we ask you.

• ‘A’ Team Division 2
• ‘B’ Team Division 4
• ‘C’ Team Division 5
• ‘D’ Team Division 5

A new season is nearly upon us once more, and the selection committee are keen that it should start on a firmer footing, selection wise, than recent seasons. A meeting was held in the selection committee’s corporate boardroom (main bar, The Dog And Partridge, Bare) and an action plan drawn up. Allow me to remind you of the first in the list of selector’s duties, as mandated by the club at the AGM:

• Arrange pre-season trials to select the players, pairings and captains for each team. Allow time for pairs to practice before the start of match fixtures.

The season starts W/C 26th September. We have arranged the following dates for selection and pre-season team practice:

• Thursday 1st September. 8pm – 10pm, Lancaster And Morecambe College.
• Monday 5th September. 8pm – 10pm, Lancaster And Morecambe College.
• Monday 12th September. 8pm – 10pm, Lancaster And Morecambe College.
• Monday 19th September. 8pm – 10pm, Lancaster And Morecambe College.

On each of these dates we have 4 courts available. Of these, 2 courts will be set aside for exclusive use by the committee for selection purposes and team practice. Selector’s will be at liberty to organise, extend, cut-short, re-play and cancel games on these courts as they see fit. Co-operation of all players presenting themselves for selection is required (on any court), and co-operation of all others would be greatly appreciated.

A further request this season: We intend to operate an OPT-IN policy as regards team selection – we will only select you for a team if you explicitly tell us you wish to be selected. In the past, the assumption has been that all members are available for selection, and this has caused problems. If you do not tell us you wish to be considered for selection, you will not be selected! This does not affect your right to change your mind later – selection will be on going – but do try and help us out here…

Grievances: We believe that the selection process should allow for feedback from all areas, including the individual team members. If you have a problem with any aspect of the selection, whether it be that the team you’ve been selected for is too-high/too-low, or you don’t feel comfortable with your partner, or you’d prefer to play more mixed/doubles, whatever, come and talk to us. We can’t promise to change our decision, our primary concern is the success of the teams, but we can take any concerns into consideration. We can’t even do that if we don’t know about them.

This season, your selectors are James Illingworth, Pam Clemmet and Brian Forrest.

If you wish to be selected, you must respond with the following information before the first date shown above:

• Which team do you feel you should be playing in. (optional)
• Whether you believe your stronger game is mixed or doubles. (optional)
• Willingness/eagerness to be a team captain (or not). (optional)
• Which of the 4 nights above you will NOT be available for. We will assume attendance at all if you list none.

Email: selection (::at::) torrisholme-badminton.co.uk
Text: 07770 664909
Phone: 01524 831140
Mail: James Illingworth. 5 Hardlands Avenue, MORECAMBE. LA4 6NT.

Or contact any of the selection committee, or the club secretary, Cynthia Dickinson.

Or, for you web users, leave your details in the comments for this post!

Remember:

1. We are operating an opt-in policy. If you do not respond you will not be selected.
2. If you do not attend selection evenings, you will not be selected.
3. Having said that, selection is not set in stone at the start of the season.
4. Matches start week commencing 26th September (courts booked 7pm – 10pm, 4 courts after 8pm).
5. Club nights will be Thursday nights, 8.30pm – 10.30pm, at Salt Ayre, from 29th September.
6. We are operating an opt-in policy. If you do not respond you will not be selected.
7. www.torrisholme-badminton.co.uk