Torrisholme BC

The new season is just around the corner and the minutes from the AGM are going out. Along with the minutes comes a note from the revered chairman of the club. I reproduce it for you here in full.

Shuttles

Selection

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Social

Committee Meetings

Just a quick post – pictures from the xmas meal are available to view here and there’s a teaser below…

Matches start again next week believe it or not! I’ve updated the club diary at Google Calender with dates until the end of the season. The only ones which may not be on are cup matches and I’ll add those when I find them out myself. Anyone making use of that calendar, by the way?

Whilst you’re on the internet, why not check the league standings at the league website?

I have booked the club xmas meal at The Borough once again. Last year’s event there was enjoyed by everyone and the food, central location and decent enough beer make it a good choice I feel; but maybe we’ll ring the changes next year.

Another mid-week one, too, early December. I hope that the choice of day will mean fewer clashes with all the other work, family and mates’ xmas events with which folk are inundated at this time of the year and allow more of us to get out at the same time with no excuses! – so it’s 4th December and the meal is booked for 8pm.

The Xmas brochure is available here (pdf), but I’ve put the highlights below for you. Ain’t I nice. It’s £20.

I’ve booked for 18 and the usual ‘rules’ apply: First come, first served; £10 deposit per seat required to secure it and required asap in any case; club members and partners (sexual, not badminton) get priority and if there are any places left I’ll open it up to ‘friends of the club’. Balance can be settled on the night – I’ll collect what’s left before the meal.

I’d like to get the final list, deposits and food choices together by Monday 24th November, so that’s the cut-off.

Starters

• roasted parsnip, honey and wholegrain mustard from hawkshead relish company soup
• port of Lancaster smoked salmon, prawn and avocado salad served with a caper & citrus dressing
• locally sourced game terrine served with homemade cranberry and orange chutney
• smoked applewood cheese and caramelised onion tart served with mixed salad leaves and balsamic drizzle

Main

• locally reared roast turkey served with apricot and thyme stuffing, pigs in blankets and a port and redcurrant gravy
• baked herb crusted portobello mushrooms topped with melted goats cheese and served with butternut squash mash and winter leaf salad
• pot roast Cumbrian fell bred beef served with a red wine jus, root vegetables, button onions & creamy mash potatoes
• baked salmon fillet from Fleetwood served with horseradish infused creamed leeks and topped with a watercress and bacon salad

Dessert

• traditional Christmas pudding served with homemade brandy sauce
• auntie em’s chocolate torte served with vanilla infused crème anglais
• almond crème brulee served with homemade shortbread biscuits
• winter spiced fruit salad served with vanilla ice cream from cool cow at new holly farm

I’ve finally managed to post the fixtures through til the last match of 2008 to the club calendar.

Find it here or look in the sidebar somewhere (the agenda view is pretty good) ====>

Don’t forget you can subscribe to it through Google Calendar, too; use the button at the foot of the sidebar.

League matches start this week, and the selectors have posted the initial team picks. It’s been a very tough job this year with the influx of new Gentlemen members, so thanks to Rod and Hazel for their hard work and for putting themselves in the line of fire again!

Remember, selection is continuous and changes to these line-ups will be made as the weeks go by. Nobody’s position is safe and there are opportunities for movement up as well as down and for reconfiguration of pairings, too.

The addition of one or two new faces in the club gives us much greater strength in depth in the teams this year, so I would expect the ‘C’ and the ‘B’ team in particular to be really pushing for promotion and for the ‘A’ team to be aiming to improve it’s final placing of 5th out of 10 in the second division last year, with 3rd spot being a real possibility. The strengthening in the club also gives the ‘D’ team a real opportunity to pick up some good wins and have a shot at the cup.

Good luck!

‘A’ Team

‘B’ Team

‘C’ Team

‘D’ Team

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.

Following a pre-AGM committee meeting, the club Annual General Meeting has been called for Monday 2nd June (the date is in the club diary).
All members are welcome and encouraged to attend. The meeting will once again be generously hosted by Dave and Janette at their home.

For everyone who went to the meal at The Borough, and for everyone else, there are some piccies available for your viewing pleasure at Flickr.

The Christmas meal for 2007 has been booked. In a departure from previous years, we’ve booked a midweek meal. This was partly because the weekends were not available at the place we’ve chosen, but also we thought this might allow more people who might have bookings at weekends in December to come to our event!

Anyway, the date is the 13th of December, that’s a Thursday night, and the place is The Borough, in Lancaster. We booked for 16 places, and the cost will be £20 per head. Places will be allocated on a first come first served basis, and we will require a 10 pound deposit by the beginning of December.

The Borough does excellent food and is well regarded locally. They have an excellent website, and the Christmas menu is available from there. In addition, we will be circulating fliers with details of the evening and the menu at club night. Also, I’ve put the date in the club diary. Note that that week is cup week, but we’ve worked around all the matches so that’s all right!

Hope you can make it!

I have now added all of the known fixtures for the season to the club calendar. The link is also available permanently in the side-bar. Note that there are a number of available views; the default is monthly, but try the others, too – I find the agenda view very useful for viewing these matches.

The calendar is provided by Google, so you can easily subscribe to the information or add it to your own GCal, if you wish. You can do this very easily by clicking on the ‘Google Calendar’ button available at the foot of the side-bar, or by clicking here.

BBC SPORT | Other Sport… | Badminton | Badminton on the BBC
World Badminton Championships

Saturday 18 August

• 0700-1400, BBCi
• 1300-1410, BBC ONE

Sunday 19 August

• 0700-1400, BBCi
• 1400-1530, BBC TWO

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.

The 2007 Badminton League Golf day has been announced. I copy the entire content of the note I received below. We don’t have the application form mentioned, but if anyone wants to play we can send details in a letter to Ian Gardner. Let us know.

Lancaster Morecambe & District Badminton League Golf Tournament 2007

This event is to be played at Heysham Golf Club on Wednesday, 27th June, commencing at 2.00 p.m.

It is open to Players and Officials, both past and present, who have played in the Badminton League.

The cost is £25 which includes 18 Holes of Golf, a bar-type Meal afterwards and Prizes.

To win a prize, Players must have a current Handicap, although Social Golfers are welcome to attend and play in the Event.

The maximum handicap will be 21 for Men, 28 for Women and will be 7/8* of Handicap. The event will be Better Ball Stableford and teams can be of any combination. Those wishing to play as a four-ball should provide details of the other pair.

A golfing event has been run for the last 3 years with limited numbers. I would like to think that this year we can get a substantial number of players both past and present to play to create a good social occasion afterwards as well.

Can I ask that any Secretaries who do not play golf pass this to a golfing member of your club to see how many people would be interested?

Attached is an application form and it would be appreciated if these could be returned (with deposit of £10) by the 31st May in order that I can let the Golf Club have details of approximate numbers.

Kind Regards,

Ian Gardner

Hot off the presses, the final standings have just been published here.

No great surprises, and, as far as our teams go, no promotions or demotions. Here are our teams and final positions.

• ‘A’ team – Division 2, 7 of 10
• ‘B’ team – Division 3, 7 of 9
• ‘C’ team, Division 4, 4 of 9
• ‘D’ team, Division 5, 5 of 8

Well done everybody!

So, we’re going to be asked to vote on using the new point per rally scoring system at the league AGM this year. From the League website:

THE RALLY POINTS SCORING SYSTEM
The new Rally Points Scoring System, adopted by Badminton England some 12 months ago is now used in all events run by Badminton England, this includes County Tournaments, County Matches and Junior Events. From next season the Inter-town League will play to this format.
The time has now come for our League to make the decision whether to ‘go with the flow’ so to speak and adopt the system for play from next season.
A demonstration of the new format will be held at the new Sports Hall at RIPLEY SCHOOL, Ashton Road, Lancaster, on Thursday, 5th April, 2007, commencing at 7.30pm. This will show how the new scoring system works, together with serving positions on court. A notification has been sent to all Club Secretaries about the evening, but all of you please come along and see for yourself.
The matter will be an Agenda item at the A.G.M. in June, where it will be discussed and voted upon.
Details of the new scoring system can be found on the Badminton England web-site – badmintonengland.co.uk and go the Events page, right hand column.

Personally, I don’t think it’s a good idea to take a format which was specifically developed so that international-standard play would be more palatable to a TV audience and then try to apply it to local league standard players (a sixty-second interval at 11 points? What, really?). Keeping track of the position of players looks difficult (an assumption backed up by the number of professional player and umpire errors in evidence at the recent international in Preston) and I’d be concerned that the system will just make people more tentative and defensive, and could lead to slow, drawn out games. Also, any system where you can lose a match by serving into the net is going to suck at our level, frankly.

Take a look at the rules. Download the simplified rules below, copied from the Badminton England website.

What do you think? Feel free to leave a comment.

rally_points_info_sheet.pdf

Amongst the things discussed at the committee meeting last week were social matters, and we realised that it’s high time we sorted out another social event, particularly as we’re at the end of yet another season now.

Since the League end of season bash is happening at the end of the month (31st March at Heysham Golf Club again), and then it’s Easter weekend, we picked Saturday 21st April to go for a meal. For a change, we are suggesting the new Thai restaurant on Chapel Street, Mung Mee. A couple of us have eaten there and the food is very good.

I’ll be distributing a flyer with the details around the remaining matches and club nights, and I’ll include a copy of the menu. We’ll book for around 8 o’clock, I would think.

Let me or Stuart know if you want to come. Partners are welcome, of course.