2011 INTER SERVICE BADMINTON CHAMPIONSHIPS 19-23 MAR

Gallery photos click here

This year’s tournament was hosted by the Army at Prince William of Gloucester Barracks in Grantham,a perfect badminton stage for the greatly anticipated battle for the Inter Services title. The RAF has retained the men’s title since its establishment in 1967 which means that over the years, they have won it 43 times, without loss. Their domination of this event is considered to be one of the Combined Services longest standing sporting records. However, the Army men’s squad has been growing in strength and numbers and the whole RAF team arrived expecting there to be some significant court battles in contesting both the Combined Services Open and Inter Services competitions.

Unfortunately, events in the Middle East during the preceding weeks affected both teams availability of players and all services had to make some late notice changes to their squads due to pers being called forward for detachments and standby duties. Day 1 of the Combined Services tournament is traditionally the ladies and mens’ singles day, but it was noticeable at morning registration that a number of the most talented players across the tri service were missing from the event. In fact, the Army official squad sheet did not even include their no1 lady or man which meant the balance of victory shifted significantly towards the RAF before the tournament even started. In an attempt to keep everyone focused on the task, Capt Si Gaines encouraged the team to disregard the rumours and conjecture and told us to expect that the best players would arrive (probably for the more important interservice team event) later in the week.

Combined Services Singles – Day 1

The singles event saw some excellent battles between young and old regardless of service; the majority of male vets entered both the individual and veterans singles competition. There were significantly less numbers of ladies for the individual singles event and the RAF no 1 Jo Wright began as favourite and had no trouble against the opposition on the day. The singles finals, played later in the week, would be a mens RAF vs Army final and a ladies RAF vs Navy final. It was not all celebrations though, despite the good start on day 1; unfortunately, Cpl Mandy Pearson had to retire injured from the singles competition. Mandy has been an important member of the team for a number of years and this was to be her last tournament representing the RAF before her retirement from the RAF and emigration to Australia. On returning from the hospital with crutches the team realised that she would be unable to play a further part on court, which was a huge shame. She did agree to stay and cheer the team on (in between hospital appointments) and get involved with the socials!!

Combined Services Doubles and Mixed – Day 2

Day 2 and all squads strengthened in numbers for the Combined Services level and mixed doubles event. The mens was played as a classic knock out competition but since there were fewer numbers of ladies, they spilt into 2 groups and played a round robin; that way everyone had the opportunity to play as much badminton as possible in the time available. Although touted as an open event, it is largely used by the team captains to try out doubles pairings before the Inter Services to assist with the playing order decisions for the main event. The tactics of who to play within what event can influence the overall result as much as having your best players available.

The continued absence of the Army no1 lady and man meant that the RAF was favourite to triumph. Indeed the men’s competition culminated in an all RAF final between defending champions Sgt Steve McMinn and SAC Andy Simpson and Sgt Simon Gaines and ‘new boy’ SAC Mike Blyth. The ladies competition was reasonably straight forward with RAF no 1 pair Cpl Jo Wright and Flt Lt Clare Hamilton to compete in the final against the Navy no 1 pair of Surg Lt Lisa Stevens and PO Jo Stevenson.

Inter Services Competition – day 3

Monday morning, day 1 of the Team competition and the captain is required to nominate his selections for the mens and ladies competition. With strength and depth in both teams the RAF mens and ladies captains (Sgt Si Gaines and Cpl Jo Wright) had to consider carefully everyone’s recent form and try and best predict the opposition’s team tactics. The mens team selection is far more tactical than the ladies as those players selected to play the mens singles element of the Inter Services cannot then play in the doubles. This is not the case for the ladies; they can nominate individuals to play all disciplines if required.

In the mens team event the early results went pretty much as predicted with the RAF taking the advantage in the doubles competition; however the fiercely contested singles rounds between RAF no 2 Flt Lt Andy Johnston and the Army no 1 and no 2 were lost, which swung the pendulum back in favour of the Army. In the ladies event both the Army and the Navy were unable to field full teams, so their third pairing matches were all automatic wins for the RAF. That said the RN 1^st and 2^nd pairings took some good results from the RAF however, unlike recent years, the depleted Army ladies team could not find their form and all the results (singles and doubles) went our way. Well done the RAF ladies!!

Inter Services Match Standings at the end of Day 3:

Inter Services continued and some CS Finals - Day 4

It was not long into the day 4 morning session that team RAF secured the win over the Navy in the mens and the Army in the ladies competitions, requiring only 1 additional win to amass a winning total of 7. Scratch ladies 3^rd pairing of Sgt Sheryl Jones and Cpl Jane Brown (interservice first timer) had a great win against the Navy 2^nd pair and then in the afternoon Sgt Anne Murray and Sgt Amanda Hawkins at no 2 RAF pair beat the Army no 1. It was a thrilling 3 setter that could have gone either way but our girls stuck at it and won the third rubber comfortably 21-15. Amanda was particularly happy with the result because in numerous Inter Service competitions she has never once beaten Sgt Mhari McIntosh.

The men had some equally close match’s; worth a particular mention was the mens singles RAF vs Army no 1 between Flt Lt Will Nicol and Cpl Dave Williams. Will was a bit slow to get going in the first end but came back strong in the second to take the match to best of three. Unfortunately, a year away from badminton up north in Scotland meant Will couldn’t find his form of previous years and Dave triumphed in the final end 21-15. Unlucky Will L Additionally, the RAF vs Army 3^rd pair was a nail biter. Flt Lt Pete Williams and SAC Chris Parrot lost the first end against the new Ghurkha pairing Cpl Yuen and Cpl Guring however a change of tactics using less lifts, gave the RAF pair the edge to close out the match. Overall a superb match of great smashing and defensive play, well done the boys!!

Soon after lunch the RAF ladies secured overall victory in their competition and the ladies captain saw an opportunity for the ladies reserves to get a game. Sgt ‘Chez’ Done and SAC Rachel McCormick subbed in at RAF pairing no 2. Both played really well achieving significant wins both in ladies doubles and singles. Well done ladies on your Inter Services debut! J

Having secured victory against the Army shortly after lunch (an easy win for RAF no1s Sgt Steve McMinn and SAC Andy Simpson against the Army no3 Ghurkha pair) the mens captain chose to substitute players in from the reserves as well. Cpl ‘Wes’ Wesley replaced Will Nicol in singles and won and Flt Lt Myles Thorne replaced SAC Mike Blyth in the RAF 2 doubles pairing to win both of his as well.

As the day drew to a close the Ladies singles/doubles and the mens doubles combined service finals were played. Cpl Jo Wright won convincingly in both her matches - doubles paired by Flt Lt Clare Hamilton and despite some excellent rallies in the all RAF mens doubles final, last years champions, Sgt Steve McMinn and SAC Andy Simpson never looked like losing it, winning 21-18 and 21-15.

Inter Services Match Standings at the end of Day 4:

Inter Services Mixed and remaining CS finals – Day 5

The Army, fresh from an early night and determined to cause an upset, intentionally targeted mixed games 1, 3 and 5 in the hope that they could halt the convincing RAF winning streak. It wasn’t to be however, and despite team RAF feeling a little jaded having taken full advantage of the celebratory night out, they held their nerve against tough opposition to take the mixed in a clean sweep. Winning all games against the Navy and the Army!

The Inter Services was another hugely successful year for the RAF and the victory was a function of the team’s preparation, strength and depth in the squad and having certain key players available to play. The support and development of the squad must continue throughout the season if we are to return to RAF Halton next year and defend this historic winning streak.

RAF Men: 44th victory in 44 competitions - unbeaten vs Army and Navy.

RAF Women: 50th victory in 59 competitions.

RAF Mixed: 32nd victory in 34 competitions.

Overall: RAF has won 32 times in 33 competitions.

Interservice Colours were gained by the following pers:

Sgt Cheryl Done

Cpl Jane Brown

SAC Rachel McCormick

SAC Mike Blyth

Congratulations to all who took part and thanks go to the Army for hosting a tremendous competition, the team captains and RAF Badminton committee for their organisation of the RAF team and to the RAF Badminton Association for their continued support.