The English Nationals start tomorrow One of our very own BF members is playing. Ben Beckman I see from the draw that he is up against Mark Constable (seeded 8) in the first round. May i be the first person from BF.com to wish him good luck Good Luck Ben! Coops
I was asked again to linejudge for this tournament in Manchester. I turn it down though. Got lotsa work to do now that Uni's started. But maybe I'll just pop up for a day, I'll get a guest pass from the linejudges' leader. Fingers crossed.
hard luck ben. he had to play the 8th seed Mark Constable and lost 15-7 15-6. although mark is the 8th seed i reckon he's better than that as hes ranked low because he hasn't played tournament for a while
totally agree with fast3r, he's probably top 5 altho it's hard in england at the mo.. top 6 are probably interchangeable depending on who plays well on the day, where they play, how fit they are on the day etc. etc. my top 6 are, aamir ghaffar, michael edge, nick kidd, andrew smith, nathan rice, mark constable. toby honey and rajiv are about somewher, but i've never really seen them beat any of these 6 - perhaps they will surprise me Coops
Well the top two for me would be Constable and Edge. Apart from a hard hit Nick Kidd hasn't really got much, he hasn't got the shot production or the mental toughness. With Ghaffar, well you never really know whether he's going to perform or not, Nathan Rice is too defensive, Raj athough a massive talent is still young and inexperienced, his time will come though, and Toby's game is a bit basic for the top level
hmmm, just got in from the nationals.. strange day.. toby honey beat nathan rice who looked like a zombie - but the whole game took over an hour and a half.. mark constable pushed nick kidd to three games rajiv beat andrew smith in two (the only quarter over in two games) but then lost to nick kidd in two after being 14-5 up.. he just seemed to hit a wall... michael edge lost in three to ghaffar after winning the first to 8 he lost quite badly in the last two.. toby honey took ghaffar to three in his semi.. finals are as predicted - all 1 v 2 seeds Coops
oops... missed one.. hehe.. sheesh, what a strange finals day.. mens doubles first, blair and clark win in two, but archer injured thru out the weekend apparently.. he doubled over in the 2nd game twice. couldn't smash or reach up at all.. looked horribly painful... womens doubles called off - ella trip was ill.. nick kidd took the mens doubles in three, lost to 13 in the first game but took the last two convincingly.. aamir just couldn't smash thru him at all.. or beat him round the court either.. tracey showed the advantages of a full time athlete over a part time one.. altho jill did take the first game off her, tracey pushed jill around at the back of the court to reduce the damage jills net game was doing mixed doubles. suprising really.. i thought this would have been the match of the day, but nathan and gail clearly wanted to show us why they are no. 1 and bearing in mind that anthony and donna are now at no. 9 winning to 2 and 3 is pretty impressive. Coops
thanks for all your support. it was my first experience and i enjoyed it. i got used to the hall but mark has the experience. i wouldn't say his quality of shot is better than mine but he is a bit faster than which is an area of weakness for me. 7 and 6 isn't a fair representation of the game with long rallies and lots of winning shots from both of us. for all you bcers to know, i've got under 19 nationals at the end of february where i'll be seeded 3 in the singles, hoping to do better than my semi spot last year, where i lost to rajiv ouseph. it'll be tough but im training hard and have lost a stone in weight and getting a lot faster and sharper. im glad nick kidd won because i think he has the strength, speed and power to become a good player but he needs to change is game plan to more like the chinese instead of trying to rally people around because that won't win him games against the top players.
I agree with "Coops" that the English National finals were disappointing. Things kicked off with the Men's doubles which is often the best final to watch. However, Simon was injured and it left Anthony and Rob easy winners (7 & 4). Anthony's 5th straight title and I personally think he and Rob would have won easily anyway. Will Simon be fit for Commonwealths as he appeared to have more than one injury? Ladies doubles was then cancelled due to illness to Ella Men's singles followed with Nick deservedely winning in 3 sets and easily in 2nd and 3rd sets. It wasn't a great game but Nick played much better than Aamir on the day - quicker, fitter and greater variety of shots. Aamir's fitness must be in question. Ladies singles was also a strange affair. Jill won the first set and went 4 - 0 up in 2nd. Tracy then won 22 points without any reply from Jill. Not sure what went wrong for Jill but Tracy did keep her under more pressure. Really looking forward to the mixed final as Anthony and Donna had played really well in the semis demolishing Rob and Natalie. Not to be however, as Nathan and Gail played unbelievable stuff and Anthony and Donna could just not get into it. Nathan and Gail showed why they are back at no 1 in the world. So overall, a bit disappointing with all the doubles being poor finals (or not played) and the singles. despite being 3 sets, never got the crowd going. Pity because the crowd seemed up on last year - 600 est
perhaps not disappointing.. just not very exciting.. apart from a few exciting rallys in the MS and the MD and the all out speed and power of Nathan and Gail there really wasn't anything to get the crowd going. Nick Kidd always entertains with his diving about, a clear sign of lousy footwork or an inability to read the game - i don't think aamir is that deceptive is he? but needless to say it looked good. MD - dunno hard to say if archer had been fit whether he would have won or not - i was quite suprised when him and clark won so easily last year. he's certainly quite a competitor - him and dave lindley gave Luluk / Alven a scare at the all england so there's no denying his skill. and he ain't got a little smash for an old man either Coops
hi everyone, just got back from under 19 english nationals i lost in the final 15-3 15-4 to top seed andrew ellis of yorkshire. BUT, in my semi i beat tom dunlop of lancashire the number 2 seed 17-14 11-15 17-16 in bout 90 mins. it tired me for the final and i wasn't as sharp. i also got semis of doubles but lost to number 2 seeds from nottinghamshire but did well as i had never played with my partner before the tournament as we were a scratch pairing. i played with marcus ellis of yorkshire. just thought i'd tell you.
congrats ben - getting the scalp of tom dunlop is a pretty big deal, well done -and well done for getting so far in the doubles, sounds like we'll be hearing a lot more about you, perhaps when the olympics comes to london you'll be at your peak. keep up the training. Coops