ShuttleBusters

BADMINTON IN YEOVIL

FRIENDLY MATCHES

This website is about promoting and organising badminton for adults, supplementary to the activities of the clubs and leagues, and one of the key things missing in our area is an easy way for people to get into competitive play - the only way is to get in to an existing team and play in the league. Which is hard to do, and means making a big committment right from the start. Our local leagues play endless mixed doubles, but no singles, hardly any mens doubles, and ladies doubles is hardly available below county level.

So we organise friendly matches and mini-tournaments for anyone that's interested. In the first place we started mainly with mens doubles, because it's a format that's played too little in our area - men outnumber women in this game by two or three times but league play is almost entirely mixed doubles.

During the summer we play a lot of mixed doubles, with a mixture of players from the second and third divisions and from outside the league.

DATES AND VENUES

This summer we're playing at Westlands inn Yeovil on Thursdays at 8pm from the start of May to the end of August. We can usually add extra courts if there are more people wanting to play. During the season we're on Fridays at oxley Sports Centre in Sherbrone. Suggestions for other venues and times would be welcome (we normally use two courts for two hours).

Check the Fixtures Page for details of what's scheduled and who's playing.

FORMAT

The format we're using is four teams of two (ie. one pair!), all play all, best of three. This has the advantage of being easy to organise. This fits into two hours on two courts with time to spare. With five pairs we fit into two hours by playing best of two, although with the change to rally scoring this summer we may be able to play best of three. The best combination seems to be two of these games (ie. eight pairs) together on three courts for two hours - that means there's very little time spent sitting out, and very little court time goes to waste.

When we do run out of time then it's only a friendly - it's not like there are league points at stake, but when there are lots of people wanting to play we may give priority to people who turn up on time (or a few minutes early... there's often room to warm up before the start).

Normally during the summer we play alternate weeks. If you want to play every week then you may need to step up and down between levels, or play different formats, depending on what people want.

It's first come, first served.

Don't always wait until the last minute, or you might find we've scheduled something else instead.

OTHER FORMATS

If you’d be interested in playing friendly matches in other formats there’s no reason why we can’t try to organise these as well. Common formats are teams of four or six, playing mens doubles, mixed doubles or ladies doubles, or combinations of these.

In the off-season there are often league players and teams interested in friendly matches. The nearest summer league appears to be the one at Redlands in Weymouth, and not many Yeovil clubs play in it, so friendlies are useful for players wanting to keep their eye in, or clubs wanting to try out new players and different pairings.

At present the county singles ladder is struggling to get off the ground, so maybe some few friendly matches or tournaments would help bring that forward.

STANDARD

We recognise three playing standards (see the entry form) who we hope might be interested and would want to be kept apart. "League level" is the standard of the lower divisions of the local leagues. At this level you’re probably a regular club player or happy to play against club regulars. Our "higher" and "lower" levels are simply above and below the league level, so that we can try to separate players who want to play at a higher level or against other people who are still trying to work up to league level.

QUESTIONS

Email us at the address on the main page. You can play more than once if there are different formats on offer at once.

COST

For Sunday games at Westlands the cost is £3 per player. For weekday evenings the cost is £4 per player. This covers courts for two hours and feather shuttles. Bring your own drinks. Matches at other venues or times are likely to be more expensive. We can usually reduce the cost if there are many games running, as we can spread the costs more evenly.