A badminton day in Liverpool

John and Sham invited me to play badminton today at 10 o'clock in the morning and even though I'm currently in Manchester, I decided to drive all the way to Liverpool to join them. I quite enjoyed the session with them last Saturday and really looking forward for this one. There were seven of us and we had a session for two hours. Afterwards John and Sham took me to this Yemeni restaurant for lunch. I ordered a meal named Salta and it tastes very nice despite its look. I have no idea what exactly the ingredients for Salta but it does bring out the best of Yemeni dish. 

Badminton session at Jalan Reko

Nazrul invited us to play badminton at this new badminton courts situated at Jalan Reko. It has been a while since we play badminton so I brought Ilyas, Maisarah, Eela and Firdaus with me. They are really enjoying playing the badminton especially Ilyas. I was thinking of making this a regular session, the only problem is to find a suitable day and time because we are always busy during the weekends. Perhaps this can be made into a new year resolution.

Seksyen 8 Badminton Tournament

One of the main events during the Seksyen 8 Sports Carnival is the badminton tournament. I partnered with Nazrul to enter the men doubles tournament representing Orange team and we did well during the group matches where we won all of our 5 matches quite easily. The next round is a quarter final stage and we are facing a veteran doubles from Yellow team. This time whoever reach 30 points first (rally point system) will be advancing to the semi final. It was quite a competitive duel and we were fortunate to lead the points until we reached 29 points. At that time our opponents were trailing 4 points behind. We just needed one point to win the game but no matter how hard we tried that decisive point never came and in the end we lost the game 29-30. Of course I'm a bit disappointed but I have experienced this manner of defeat (and win) before so it's all in the game.

Second Badminton Friendly between Kensington Club and Malaysian Students

Today we had a second friendly badminton tournament between Kensington Badminton Club and the Liverpool Malaysian. This time each team will provide four men doubles and three mixed doubles. Due to several last minute withdrawals for the ladies, we managed to bring two mixed doubles only. And to make sure the tournament will finish on time, each double will play only twice, best of three sets with rally point system.

Overall, Kensington Badminton Club won with 14 sets to 12. They also won 485 points to 458 (with an average of 18.65 per set compared to 17.62 per set for us). However, closer analysis reveals that our men doubles won 10 sets to 8. Their mixed doubles were the stronger one, winning 6 sets to 2. Our men doubles also collected 352 points to 324.

Sham and I won both our matches. In our second match, we met their first men double again. Last time we won 17-21, 23-21 and 21-19 so revenge is on the card. In the first set they showed their intention by winning 21-11. In the second set they need only one point to win the match by leading 20-18 but we managed to capitalise on their nerves to win the second set 22-20. In the rubber set, we were leading 20-18 but they equalised to 20-20. However, the pressure was too much for them as we finished the match with two straight points. But it was a close one, just like in the previous meeting. I would definitely looking forward to play them again in the future.

Friendly Tournament between Kensington Badminton Club and Liverpool Malaysian

Today we have a friendly tournament between Kensington Badminton Club and Liverpool Malaysians. Four men doubles and two women doubles from each team will play against each other. There should be 20 matches altogether but due to time constraints we only managed to finish 16 of them. Our ladies lost all their matches. The men were giving quite a fight and we won 14 sets compared to 13. However if the points are taken into consideration we only have 467 points compared to 507, averaging 17.3 points per set compared to 18.8 points per set for them.

Sham and myself won all our matches but the first match against their first double was quite tough. We won 17-21, 23-21 and 21-19. Maisarah even brought her pom-pom to cheer us all the way.

Future Badminton Stars

Haziq came to Liverpool and had fun playing badminton with Ilyas and Maisarah. There were several children from Manchester at the badminton courts as well and they all just join in the fun.

Liverpool vs Manchester Friendly Badminton Tournament

Liverpool team

Liverpool and Manchester teams

Today the Manchester badminton team arrived in our local Kensington Sports Centre for the annual badminton friendly tournament. There are 4 men doubles and 1 mixed double for each team and each double will play 5 times. After 4 hours and 55 sets later, Manchester was declared a winner with 1069 points against 798 points for Liverpool. That means on average Manchester team scored 19.4 points per set and Liverpool scored 14.5 points per set. Myself and Sham, my partner, won all our 5 matches in straight sets except when we played against the mixed double. But all their doubles were quite tough and there were several instances where we won quite narrowly.

Huzaini from Lancaster also joined to strenghten our Liverpool team. After the tournament I partnered him to play against the Manchester finalist whom we were supposed to meet in the previous Liverpool Games. At that time we were unable to complete the final match due to time constraint.

We lost our first set 16-21 but managed to win the second set 21-15. However, on the third set, I was beginning to tire, after all it's my 14th set, and I just could not move my legs freely as I want to and the Manchester double started to attack me continuously. We lost easily in the rubber set 11-21. It was a good match but perhaps next time we should do the rematch in the early part of the tournament and not the end like today.

Bailrigg - Liverpool Friendly Match

All the players plus Fiona, the organiser

Having a very late dinner afterwards at Pizzeta Republic

Last night was a special night, as for the first time the Bailrigg Badminton Club is having a friendly match with Liverpool Malaysians during their club night. It was supposed to be 4 doubles (i.e. 8 players) from each team and each double will play 4 matches with 2 sets each, rally point system. However, due to last minute withdrawal, our team are short of one player so some of us had to play more than 4 matches to cover the missing player. 

In the Bailrigg team, they have 3 English, 1 Welsh, 1 Indonesian, 1 Chinese and 2 Malaysians. As for us, there are 6 Malaysians and 1 Bruneian. In the first round, Liverpool Malaysians managed to beat Bailrigg with 12 sets won against 4. In the second round, where players swapped their partners, Bailrigg managed to beat Liverpool Malaysians with 9 sets won against 6. I guess fatigue has started to creep in among our players as some of us had to play extra sets. 

It was an entertaining friendly match and I hope there will be more like this in the future.

All England Open Badminton Championships 2009

In front of the National Indoor Arena

With some fellow Malaysians

Lin Dan is the singles champion by beating Lee Chong Wei

With Tracey Hallam, she is holding her 

2006 Commonwealth Games women's singles gold medal

Today I went to the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham with Huzaini and Awa to watch the All England Open Badminton Championships 2009. We were hoping to see Datuk Lee Chong Wei avenges his loss in the Beijing Olympic final to Lin Dan and unsurprisingly there were lots of Malaysian supporters in the hall as well. I think our cheers were the loudest but it was to no avail as Lin Dan simply overpowered Lee Chong Wei in straight sets. In the end, the Chinese players went to win all the events on offer (men and women's singles, men and women's doubles and mixed doubles).

Bulan Sukan Liverpool

In front of the sports centre

Playing with the bouncy balls

Warm-up session

Playing against each other

Maisarah with her new friend

Their shirts have the same design

Today is the badminton event for Bulan Sukan Liverpool which runs throughout February until March. This event is held every year among the Liverpool Malaysian students and so far most of the events have been completed such as football, netball, bowling and volleyball. After this there will be traditional games events like congkak, dam and also chess. There are four teams, Paul McCartney, John Lennon (my team), Ringo Starr and George Harrison (Awa's team). 

It was a good event as there were plenty of Malaysians gathering about in the centre and there were even stalls selling 'nasi lemak' and other 'kuih-muih'. I was quite knackered really, been playing 10 sets of 15 points each (Rally point) and 3 sets of 21 points each (Rally point). But it was a good exercise, including the whole family.

European Team Badminton Championship, Liverpool

Posing with Gail Emms, former World No. 1, 

All England Champion and Olympic silver medallist

Anthony Clark and Nathan Robertson during the warm-up

Denmark the champions after beating England 3-2

Liverpool Malaysian Games 2008

The tournament in progress

The organiser and the finalists

The champions?

Today is the annual Liverpool Games and there are three sports on offer; futsal, badminton and netball. Since Awa is playing futsal with Liverpool team, I asked Huzaini to partner me in the men doubles. We registered as a Lancaster team and the tournament is supposed to start at 12 noon. However due to delays in netball matches, the tournament only started after 1 o'clock.

There are 13 doubles and four group. In our group there are 3 doubles including us. In the first game we were quite nervous and were behind 5-11 at one time but finally we managed to win 21-17 against the Liverpool doubles. The second game is against Cheetam Hill doubles and we won 21-16 which qualifies us to the semi final. We were quite lucky to face Glasgow doubles in the semi and won easily 21-11 and 21-14. 

The other semifinalists were quite good, a young doubles from Sunderland against the Cheetam Hill veterans. Eventually through skill and patience those veterans managed to get a win and ready to face us in the final.

However, the sports centre where we are playing had to close so there is no final match. Huzaini asked to flip a coin to determine the winner but eventually we decided to share one gold and one silver medals for each double. It's a good deal since I'm not sure we can beat those veterans :)

New Venue

Last night I played badminton for the first time with Malaysians in Liverpool. They usually had their matches every Wednesday night and they invited me to come along. So Awa and I went to Kensington Community Sports Centre around 8.30pm and we came across several undergraduate students going home after a futsal game (hmm that's a thought). The badminton matches started at 9pm and there were 9 of us and two courts were booked. But it is more like a family outing because there was a couple joining us and several children were also playing next to the courts. And they were using plastic shuttlecocks (shock! horror!). I promptly took out my Sea Lion tube from the bag and put it next to the court. That's much better.

Overall we had pretty decent matches although I can say standards in Lancaster are slightly bit higher than here. But then on the way home, one of the guys told me that they have one Indian guy who used to represent state back home and always winning each and every sports meet organised in the UK and there is another guy who is also quite good but didn't play that night. But that doesn't stop me from wondering who will win if there is a friendly match between Lancaster and Liverpool. Hmmmm.

How old is old enough?

I just found out last night that one of the ladies that I used to play with in the Lancaster Morecambe Badminton League has just celebrated her 60th birthday last week. So that means she is few weeks older than my mom! Gosh...

B-Active League Prizes

I totally forgot that today our badminton team, Bulu Tangkis A are supposed to receive our prizes for winning the B-Active League in an awards ceremony organised by the LUSU. When I reached the hall, they already packing up but I managed to get the trophies and cash prizes from the Athletic Union president. Too bad we are unable to receive them in our finest suit in front of those Mat Sallehs. Well, there is always next year!

68th Annual Tournament Part 2

This morning Wan Huzaini and I are playing in the Gents Doubles Handicap 'A' section under the Lancaster, Morecambe and District Badminton League 68th Annual Tournament. It's a knock out format with a handicap system put in place. This means that every players will be given a handicap in form of points added or deducted and number of serves allowed each turn. For us, we were given a handicap of +5, meaning that we only need to get 10 more points to win a set. Our opponent is ranked first so their handicap is a whopping -8 and 1 serve. This means that they need to get 23 points before they can win a set and can only do so with only one serve each turn. So who do you think will win?

In the end we lost 10-15 and 12-15. Basically we managed to get 12 points from both sets, much better than what we did last Thursday when we got only 4 points. It was a good match and most of the audience are watching how we fight for every point. I guess somehow it's a good way to end this season by playing against the best players in the league.

Final standing in the league

So, it's official. We are moving one step higher in the Division Two of Lancaster and Morecambe Badminton League. Last year we were fourth, winning nine and losing nine. This time we managed to win 12 and losing only six. A much better performance I think, partly because Paul was available since the start of the season and there has not been much disruption to the team line-up, unlike last season. Congratulations to the Bailrigg B as well, since they managed to keep their place in the Division 3. Two years ago they got relegated from the same division and they have done well to remain there this time.

2007 standing

2008 standing