2019-20 League Season

I attended the SDBA last Friday  AGM in order to set the fixtures for our two league entries for the forthcoming season. As per last year we are entering one mixed 4s and one mens 4s teams, and both are in the premier league this year. As normal we will use either 1 or 2 courts depending on how many club players turn up.so as not to disadvantage non-league players, so please feel free to come along on match nights to both play and support us while you’re waiting!

Here are the dates and locations (H) indicates a home match on Friday at 1900 at Hursley, others are away matches:

MENS MATCHES:

• Su 3/11/19 @ 1930 – Caer Gwent
• Su 10/11/19 @ 1100 – J9
• Fr 15/11/19 @ 1900 – Wildern
• (H) 22/11/19 @ 1900 – Notorious C
• (H) 10/1/20 @ 1900 – Caer Gwent
• (H) 21/2/20 @ 1900 – Wildern
• (H) 28/2/20 @ 1900 – J9
• Mo 2/3/20 @ 1830 – Notorious A
• Fr 6/3/20 @ 1900 – Notorious C
• Fr 20/3/20 @ 1900 – Notorious B
• (H) 3/4/20 @ 1900 – Notorious B
• (H) 17/4/20 @ 1900 – Notorious A

MIXED MATCHES:

• Fr 8/11/19 @ 2000 – BGB
• (H) 29/11/19 @ 1900 – Matchpoint
• (H) 17/1/20 @ 1900 – Fleming Park
• (H) 31/1/20 @ 1900 – Notorious
• Th 6/2/20 @ 2000 – Fleming Park
• We 11/3/20 @ 2030 – Matchpoint
• (H) 13/3/20 @ 1900 – BGB
• Mo 30/3/20 @ 1830 – Notorious

and follow the fixtures and results on the SDBA web site.

 

2019 AGM

We held our AGM on the 11th September this year. The key points are as follows:

• Carl was appointed as club secretary to work with Stewart who will still retain a match secretary role
• Fees will remain the same as last year, however it was noted that the prices for IBM club membership have increased so that there is no longer a benefit to guests joining purely for membership of the badminton subsection
• We will now be introducing a WhatsApp group for those who wish to get notifications about the club via that medium – A corresponding tick box has been added to the application form for GDPR purposes
• The hall will be unavailable on the 8th of November for the annual fireworks event at the clubhouse and also 4th and 6th December. There is a chance of the 11th December being unavailable too but we won’t know for sure until nearer that date
• Guy reminded everyone about the etiquette rules from some of his previous emails. The etiquette tab on this web side covers most of the requirements in that area

For the third year we will be putting in the same teams again i.e. one in the Southampton mens 4s league and one in the mixed 4s. Both teams are in the premier division this year after a rebalancing and the two teams above us in the mens division we were in pulling out.

2018-19 League season

At the SDBA AGM Carole and Harriet stood in for me in order to set the fixtures for our two league entries for the forthcoming season. As per last year we are entering one mixed 4s and one mens 4s teams. As normal we will use either 1 or 2 courts depending on how many club players turn up.so as not to disadvantage non-league players, so please feel free to come along on match nights to both play and support us while you’re waiting!

Here are the dates and locations. Mens matches in bold:

• Fri Oct 5 – David Lloyd (H)
• Wed 17 Oct – David Lloyd (A) – SO16 0XS 7pm
• Fri 9 Nov – Fleming Park (H)
• Sun 18 Nov – Falcons (A) – SO40 8WU 7pm
• Fri 30 Nov – Match Point (H)
• Fri 14 Dec – Wyvern Dragons (H)
• Wed 23 Jan – Matchpoint (A) SO40 3GX 8:15pm
• Fri 8 Feb – Solent Eagles (H)
• Friday 15 Feb – Falcons (H)
• Thu 28 Feb – Fleming Park (A) – SO50 9NL
• Fri 8 Mar – Wyvern Dragons (A) – SO50 7AN 8pm
• Fri 22 Mar – Fleming Park (H)
• Sun 24 Mar – Solent Eagles (A) – SO16 9RG 5pm
• Thu 11th Apr – Fleming Park (A) – SO50 9NL 8pm

You can follow the fixtures and results on the SDBA web site.

 

2018 AGM

We held our AGM on the 12th September this year. The key points are as follows:

• Guy replaced Harriet as chairperson (other committee members remain the same)
• The rule introduced last year on under-16s not playing after 9pm has been removed
• Fees for guest (non-IBM club) members go up from £70 to £80
• Junior rates are now half the adult rates (as opposed to a flat rate of £20)
• Christmas meal set for the White Horse in Otterbourne.

We will be putting in the same teams as last year i.e. one in the Southampton mens 4s league and one in the mixed 4s.

 

2017-18 League season

On Thursday last week at the SDBA AGM I set the fixtures for our entries into the Southampton fours leagues – one mixed team and one mixed. The dates are below. The format for the mens is rather unusual and hasn’t been used before so it’ll be interesting to see how it goes – the men are supposed to be in ranked order to make the way it works fair. Last year the only fours league in was a mixed one, so it’s become a lot more popular this year with both mixed fours and the new mens fours having two divisions each with 5 teams, so we will have eight mixed and eight mens matches, four of each at home and four away. As is normal club policy, club nights will still continue on the days we have matches. With only four pairs there are six “best of three” instead of nine, so the matches should be shorter. We will use either 1 or 2 courts depending on how many club players turn up.so as not to disadvantage non-league players, so please feel free to come along on match nights to both play and support us while you’re waiting!

Here are the dates and locations – I’ve tried to spread them out fairly well and managed to leave December completely free. Men’s matches in bold to differentiate them:

• Fri Sep 22@1845 – Notorious JT (A) SO32 2RB
• Fri Oct 6@1845 – Notorious JT (A) SO32 2RB
• Fri Oct 20@2030 – Fair Oak (H)
• Fri Nov 17@1900 – Falcon (H)
• Fri Nov 24@1900 – David Lloyd (H)
• Mon Nov 27@2000 – Solent Eagles (A) SO40 3GX
• Fri Jan 5@1900 – Notorious JT (H)
• Fri Jan 19@1900 – Solent Eagles (H)
• Mon Jan 29@1900 – David Lloyd (A) SO16 0XS
• Sun Feb 4@1900 – Falcon (A) SO40 8WU
• Sat Feb 10@1800 – Brookfield (A) SO31 6DX
• Fri Feb 16@1900 – Fair Oak (H)
• Mon Feb 19@2000 – Solent Eagles (A) SO40 3GX
• Fri Feb 23@1900 – Notorious JT (H)
• Fri Mar 16@1900 – Solent Eagles (H)
• Fri Mar 23@1900 – Brookfield (H)
• Fri Apr 13@1900 – Fair Oak (A) SO19 7TB
  

As per last year I’ll be posting regular updates on the facebook group after each match. You can also follow the fixtures and results on the SDBA web site.

 

2017 AGM

Our club AGM will be held at 7pm on Wednesday 6th September. All members are invited and encouraged to attend as the running of the club is dependent on your support. If you wish to look at it beforehand, the current club constitution to be approved is available at HBC-Constitution

Application forms for the 2017-18 season are now available at HBC-ApplicationForm-2017 and should be handed to any committee member with your payment (cash, cheque, or we can also accept bank transfers – the details of which are on the application form) Blank copies of the form will also be available at any club night to be filled in.

Would you spot a fake/clone Yonex Z-Force II badminton racquet?

With badminton racquets costing up to £200 these days there is a bit of a market for cheap “fakes” which can often appear on sites like eBay. The normal giveaway is the price, but the are sometimes explicitly advertised as “clone” racquets, and these days even at first glance you might not be able to spot from the hologram or shape of the logo that a racquet is a fake.

So here are some pictures of a real and “clone” Yonex Voltric Z-Force II. This racquet is one of Yonex’s popular high-end racquets, selling for around the £150 mark. The clone is around £30. It’s not necessarily a bad racquet for £30, but it’s certainly not the same as the real Z-Force II. In all these pictures the racquet on top is the clone, the one below (with the orange strings and blue grip) is the genuine one:

Here you can see there’s a difference in the frame. The genuine Z-Force II has the holes recessed a little and has a more complex design than the more traditional look to all the holes near the tee joint that the clone has.

This is a difference that’s quite noticeable to the stringer. The real Z-Force II has “channels” that stop the main strings covering the holes of the cross-strings towards the top of the racquet – the clone racquet doesn’t have this.

The shafts have almost identical printing on them – if you hadn’t seen them together you wouldn’t spot the differences, but the printing isn’t at the same place on the racquets. The Yonex logos next to the handle also don’t seem noticeably different, other than a very slight difference in the colour

Would you have spotted the fake? Unless you’d seen an original I think you’d have to be quite an expert in the racquets to notice. So don’t think that the bargain you’ve found on ebay for a high-end racquet being shipped China is necessarily going to get you a racquet the same as one five times the price. The clone is also lighter (not necessarily a problem) and doesn’t come with a copy of the full size Yonex cover, although it does feel noticeably cheaper than the real covers.

I’ll follow-up this article later with one that shows some racquets from other manufacturers that I will call “colour clones” which aren’t designed to be fakes, but have “suspiciously” similar colour schemes and names to some of the Yonex ones!

Restringing service available

If you need your racquet restrung, Stewart has a machine for doing it. Prices start from just £10 depending on what sort of string you want. So if you need a racquet strung, bring it to Stewart and he’ll usually be able to do it before the next club night, or contact him via the @sxaStringing accounts on twitter or facebook.

2016-17 league season

Last Friday I set the fixtures for our entry into the WDBA mixed league. I’ve listed the dates below. My expectation is that we will use two courts for the duration of the home matches and leave one for non-match club members to play so as not to disadvantage non-league players but we may share the middle court too if there are a lot of other people on any given home match night.

I want to try and give everyone who registered an interest the chance to play in some of the matches, so I’m not fixing the pairs yet, but here are the dates and locations:

Fri 11 Nov @ 1900 – Fair Oak (H)
Sun 9 Oct @ 1900 – Falcon 2 (A) SO40 8WU (3 courts)
Fri 25 Nov @ 1900 – Brookfield (H)
Fri 13 Jan @ 2030 – Fair Oak (A) SO19 7TB (3 courts)
Fri 20 Jan @ 1900 – Portsmouth (H)
Fri 27 Jan @ 1900 – Falcon 2 (H)
Mon 30 Jan @ 1930 – Winchester (A) SO22 5AZ  (2 courts)
Fri 10 Feb @ 1900 – Winchester (H)
Sun 19 Feb @ 1800 – Brookfield (A) SO31 6DX (2 courts)
Wed 15 Mar @ 1900 – Portsmouth College (A) PO3 6PZ  (3 courts)

I will likely put more frequent updates on progress during the season on the facebook post.

Good luck to everyone in the team!

[EDIT: Final results and league table]

Facebook group for the club

We’ve had a facebook group in place for a while, but we haven’t really used it for some time. If you’re interested, feel free to join us at:
http://www.facebook.com/groups/HursleyBadminton 🙂