Eagles Badminton Celebration Evening

Forza Badminton teamed up with the Eagles Badminton Clubs to hold a celebration Badminton Evening supported by funding from a Jack Petchey leaders award given to Steve Furneaux.

Forza were represented by Steve Butler (Ex England player and coach), Mariana Agathangelou (England ladies doubles player) and Sam Parsons (England Under 17 player) who treated us to an evening of exceptionally high class badminton. Club members, parents and local school children were given the chance to experience this once in a lifetime opportunity.

Over 100 people turned up to enjoy the Badminton. Firstly they were treated to an exhibition game between Steve Butler and Sam Parsons which had the crowd cheering and applauding before being treated to another game between two Eagles coaches, Lee Price and Terry Coleman, challenging Mariana and Sam. Despite putting up a good performance it was clear to see who the champions were. After these exhibitions our members and their guests were able to challenge the England players and to get some coaching from Steve Butler himself on an individual basis. After this the whole group was taken for a mass coaching session before players were invited to ask questions and for any advice from the players. They were also able to try and test Badminton equipment from the Forza range.

The evening was fantastic and for many it was the chance to see real badminton up close and personal. On television it is difficult to appreciate that the shuttle reaches such high speeds and even if you visit top tournaments you are sitting a long way from actual play. In the sports hall at Emerson Park we were sitting just a few metres away from play and you could experience just how fast top class badminton is. All the players had a fantastic evening and left enthused with autographs and photos.

Forza have support the Eagles Badminton Club since its launched 7 years ago. They provided free rackets and shuttles so that the club could get going and all members could have good equipment to use even if they couldnt afford their own. They supply us with prizes for raffles and arranged for Commonwealth gold medal winner Tracey Hallam to attend the club one evening a few years ago. Seven years ago we started with only 8 members and today we have over 150 members and Forza are still playing a big part in our club and with the local badminton scene. They run local competitions where winners progress to the National finals where several Eagles members were able to take part on this national stage. Congratulations to Sean Yakes, Anneliese McAlpin and Phoebe Menear for reaching this stage.

Without Jack Petchey and Forza the evening could not have taken place so a really big thank you from everyone at the Eagles Badminton Club for such an inspirational evening.

Presentation Evening 2012

The annual presentation evening was held at Emerson Park School on Friday 6th July. There was an excellent attendance from members to see the awards handed to the successful players.

A full list of winners can be found here.

Essex Junior Restricted Tournaments

The dates for the 2012 Junior Restricted tournaments have been released. Restricted tournaments take place at the beginning of the season in each county and are restricted to players that are qualified to represent that county, normally be birth or residence.

The dates are;

U17 Restricted - 15th Sept
U13 Restricted - 29th Sept
U15 Restricted - 30th Sept

Since all the best players from the county will be entering these events they are great tournaments to judge your progress.

This year the tournaments are all being held at the newly completed badminton academy at William Edwards School, Grays.

Events this Week!

Presentation Evening - Friday 6th July 7pm Assembly Hall Emerson Park School

Forza / Jack Petchey Celebration evening 11th July 2012 7.30pm - meet Mariana Agathangelou and the Forza team, challenge them to a game or have some coaching with them. Try out the latest Forza equipment. This session is FREE and it would be good to see all club members young and old there!!

London Youth Games 2012

It wasn't to be third time lucky for the Havering badminton team!! For the third year running the team had to settle for the silver medal at the finals of the London Youth Games Badminton held at Crystal Palace on Saturday 30th June.

Having qualified for the finals in previous years Havering found themselves in a group with Haringey, Merton and Bromley, meaning all 4 top teams from the 2011 competition were in the same group! Havering met Haringey in the first match and won 4-1. Boys singles 12-21, girls singles 21-8, boys doubles 21-14, girls doubles 21-5, mixed doubles 21-7. They then played Merton in a very tough and close game running out winners 3-2. Boys singles 21-15, girls singles 7-21, boys doubles 9-21, girls doubles 21-16, mixed doubles 21-0. Havering then played Bromley in their final group game winning 4-1 which meant they had toppped the group. Boys singles 21-18, girsl singles 21-12, boys doubles 18-21, girls doubles 21-12, mixed doubles 21-8.

This meant that Havering then played Croydon; the runner-up in the other group. Again another close game Havering ran out winners 3-2 boys singles 21-20, girls singles 21-10, boys doubles 21-20, girls doubles 21-4, mixed doubles 21-20. Winning the semi final against Croydon set up a final against local rivals Redbridge who fielded a very strong team. The first game in the final was the boys singles which was played by Felix Ngooi. Redbridge started strongly and went 20-14 up before Ngooi played some outstanding and determined badminton to pull back to 19-20 before going down 21-19, the girls singles was another really close affair being played by Coco Zhang and there was never more than a point either way until right at the end evenutally going to setting which also went the way of the Redbridge team 22-20. The Havering boys doubles pairing of Adam Tripp and Oli Bowry were always going to struggle agains the county pairing from Redbridge and although putting up a spirited fight lost 21-10. This gave Redbridge the three games that they needed before Havering then took the last two games in a convincing manner. In the girls doubles Bethany Law and Abbie Wallis who played outstandingly all day won 21-10 and the mixed pair of Katie Nicholls and Sam Hampton beat another strong pair 21-12 in a very convincing performance. This gave Redbridge a 3-2 victory and meant Havering for the third year in a row had to settle for the silver medal.

The team consisted of Coco Zhang, Bethany Law, Katie Nicholls, Abbie Wallis, Paige Beaumont, Sam Hampton, Felix Ngooi, Oli Bowry, Adam Tripp and Robert Clark.

The team did really well and although they were disappointed with losing in the final they should all be really proud of themselves. It was a good team performance, everyone played in the various games in the final and all did their part. Taking the silver medal is a fantastic achievement. The final was really close and to lose the two singles games so closely gave everyone the sniff of victory. If one of those games had gone the other way the match score would have been reversed and it would have been Havering's year. But it was not meant to be and a well earned silver medal was Havering's prize. We now lose our older members of Sam Hampton and Robert Clark so this means Havering will regroup and start planning for the 2013 competition and lets hope that maybe it could be fourth time lucky!!