CORNWALL BADMINTON – NEWSLETTER

Welcome to the 2020-21 Cornwall Badminton Season. We hope you’re ok and staying safe. Please note some early planning about the new season below – which could change depending on government and Badminton England advice - 

Key dates - provisional:

Sat/Sun 10/11th October               Cornwall College Pool            10-6 Restricted Champs

Sun 20th December                             “                    Pool            10-6  Under 21 Champs

Sat/Sun 10/11th April                                               York                     ECC under 21

 Still to be arranged are any practices and the Trials – we will keep you all informed when we can go ahead with all of these.

County Training dates – again provisional:  at Cornwall College Pool Sports Hall TR15 3RD, on Sundays 1pm – 4pm, starting on                                       

November 1st    with James Elkin   

December 13th  with James Elkin

January 31st       with James Elkin

                                                     March 7th           with James Elkin

                  Please attend all of the above so that you can be considered for team selection

Matches: Badminton England are still hoping to complete last season’s matches, on the weekend of November 7th and 8th 2020 for last season’s 1st, 2nd and 3rd teams – we should hear in the next few weeks IF this will happen. The 2020/21 season is planned for the following dates –

Saturday 6th February – 2 matches 

Saturday 27th March – 2 matches 

Saturday 17th April – 2 matches 

Sunday 18th April – 1 match 

Fees: we will confirm the fees for matches, training, trials and practices at a later date.

Please let us know asap if you will NOT be available for any of the above.

If you have any questions, please contact one of the Selectors if you need any other information.

Team selections will be made before the first matches take place. We are only able to enter two teams for the new season, due to numbers of available players – this will be reviewed each season.

Selectors: Brian Hannibal   01736 740913                                 07770 442800  brianhannibal@hotmail.co.uk

Lorna Riggs         01726 862878                     07775 934679

Sue Cooper         01872 870897                    07840 335734  scooper1964@hotmail.com

Sue Biscoe           01872 242293             07804 584663  bertbiscoe@btinternet.com 

                                   Sam Spencer       07775 338394                                           samspencer365@gmail.com

We would be grateful for help with any of these events – please support your hard-working committee!

Badminton Season 2020/2021

A guarded welcome to the new 2020/21 season. We hope everyone is keeping fit and well.

We have had our first CCBA committee meeting for some time, although we remain in regular contact with each other and with Badminton England.

The County endorses all the Badminton England recommendations and procedures for individual players, coaches and clubs regarding Covid 19 and all relevant information may be found on the Badminton England website.

It is very evident that although badminton can now be played from 25th July, albeit with a number of restrictions, venues are still difficult to access and many clubs will be unable to start the new season in September.

The CCBA committee have taken the difficult decision to suspend County affiliation fees for this season (good news for you all). Badminton England have reduced their affiliation fees by 25% and these now become due in January. We are aware that clubs may have difficulty in encouraging members to return and recruit new members so we hope that clubs will pass on these significant reductions to their members.

We are awaiting a decision from Badminton England on whether last year’s County tournament will be concluded on November 7th/8th. Next year’s dates are already confirmed and should go ahead as planned. We have reluctantly decided to withdraw our 3rd County team for the coming season owing to difficulty in finding sufficient players and the financial implications.

The County Restricted tournament is still scheduled to be played on the 10th/11th October. Clearly we are bound by Government advice and BE guidelines so we are unsure at this stage how we might operate the tournament and the format it is likely to take.

The good news is that the James Elkin Training sessions will go ahead, the first one on 1st November, although numbers will be restricted, so reserve your place early.

In these unprecedented times I’m sure you are all clamouring to return to the game we love to play. We hope you have a successful and rewarding season.

Best wishes to you all.

Bob Bell 

For and behalf of the CCBA committee