Cardiff European games 2008
The annual Cardiff Games, this year rebranded the Cardiff European Games (and with a team from Dublin attending, I think), came and went this weekend past. I took part in the badminton singles competition for a change... and also because I felt that some of the others had already picked their pairs.
As it turned out there were very few entrants for the event, and we therefore played a group format, round-robin, instead of having a knockout round. Of the five participants, I knew three (not including myself!), and I could only surmise that the visiting Surrey player would not have made the effort if he wasn't half decent. So I deduced that my best chance of winning something was to beat Danni, who plays for the Cardiff uni team. Wai was rather untouchable as a very good Welsh junior player, while Abang Jamal was one of the older "keluarga" members who was last year's losing finalist.
As it turned out the handling of the event was not as well as could be expected, with them running out of shutles - not really that, but not planning for any contingency once their allocation of two feather shuttles per game was used up. It was such a disorganised and feeble attempt to explain away their incompetence by saying they just didn't have anything in reserve or else pushing the blame on to the half-in-charge Teck Kang, who as part-organiser was also quick to push the blame back to the "real" organisers, but he cannot be exonerated as he ultimately did call some shots at the end - and one of which I did not agree with. But he would remain quite a good friend of mine in Cardif; I just think it was all handled badly and he has to share the blame for their bungles.
My first game was against Faizal (Surrey), who did not look like a reallt dangerous player, but placed the shots well and caught me out on quite a few points. I am traditionally a slow starter, and it showed up very glaringly when I made mistake after mistake in losing the first set 10-21. I got stuck in the second set, perhaps he sat back a bit being already ahead, but as I kept on par with him on points I still remained afraid to smash - mainly because I don't have a terribly good smash and there is not much point in placing yourself out of position unless the smash would really open up things. I'd rather not make the mistake of netting the smash, so I opted for the safer option of a drop shot, but going with this option means I have to play a longer game. Ultimately I couldn't finish off the game and lost 19-21 - a result which I felt disappointed with, as he was definitely beatable in the second game.
Interchanging my roles as a player and as an umpire i didn't have much time to stroke before the next game, but at least I had been warmed up from the first match. I was up against Danni next, and he plays a good attacking game. With good shots and movement he comfortably won the first set 21-12, and I was in danger of losing big. However, his stamina, by his own admission, is a bit suspect, and he began to struggle on the second set. Moreover I began to play with my head a bit more, opting for the drop shots instead of trying to stroke it around the back. Although it was still a game littered with mistakes we were on par most of the time. I held the upper hand coming into 19 points, and I saved the first game point to come back to 20-all. In the followign exchanges which ensued the lead changed hands a few times, as we each looked for the decisive point which would give us a two-point and thus the game. We made successive good shots followed by a mistake, then a well-won point before losign out to another good shot, and so we were tied at 21-21, 22-22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. At 27-26 up I went for a drop but played a rather lazy shot, and put the shuttle in the net, thus losing 26-28 (the max for a second set is 29 points). With that went the best chance I had of winning something that day. As it turned out, I subsequenty lost 6-21, 13-21 to Wai - which I sort of expected, as I don't play well against good smashers of the shuttle.
In the other matches Danni had lost narrowly to Wai, Abang Jamal beat Wai in 3 sets, but then lost to Faizal. In a later twist, Abang Jamal gave me and Danni walkovers to concentrate on his doubles game. With Faizal also beating Wai he finished top with 4 points, then Wai, Danni, Abang J all with 2, then me with 1. That's where the cock-up began. Teck Kang, as part-in-charge, decided that since Danni and Wai were tied on points, he could not choose one to play in the final against Faizal (Abang J had pulled out). So he made them paly each other instead, with the winner meeting Faizal. This throws up a few problems. If Abang J withdrew, shoudn't his matches all become null and void, and our points adjusted? Even if not, who finishes second in the table (or indeed should go into the final) should be settled on countback - Wai had already beaten Danni in the group stage, so he should be placed above Danni. It follows that he should immediately play Faizal and not have to go through another match. If there is a third-placing playoff, then Danni should play against the fourth-placed, which is me. So in some ways I was denied a game for third place, and might have won the bronze! Although if we look at the group (and overall performance) Danni does deserve to be placed ahead of me, but then I did have a good chance against him as well. And I also thought it unfair for Faizal to have to play a final (the rules not having been explicitly specified) since he actually beat all four other players. So in the final I cheered for him, and was glad he prevailed in the end.... well that didn't make me a biased linesman though (I was on linesman duty for that game).
So while there are some positives from my experience this time round I felt a bit let down by the planning and handling of the events on the day - plus I had to use my own shuttles in one game when they had not taken my advice on sorting out the shuttlecock problem immediately. I still have a long way to go in singles... not least improving my smashing technique - it is incorrect at the moment!
Congrats to Adrian and Lip Sing, who played well to win 3 games (losing only in the semis) to get the bronze. Lip Sing in actual fact not being a very good player (esp in singles, think I beat him 21-10 last time) so I had thought they would run into problems, while the other pair of Teck Kang and Kok Kien would go further. Instead (and with KK's bad shoulder) this pair got knocked out in their first game, making Teck Kang a rather bitter man come the day's end.
Footnote:
I played with Tack Kang last year in the mens doubles and we lost a 3rd-placing playoff. I am still silently hoping I will have a chance to win one award in a badminton competition, though it looks slim. Maybe next year??
As it turned out there were very few entrants for the event, and we therefore played a group format, round-robin, instead of having a knockout round. Of the five participants, I knew three (not including myself!), and I could only surmise that the visiting Surrey player would not have made the effort if he wasn't half decent. So I deduced that my best chance of winning something was to beat Danni, who plays for the Cardiff uni team. Wai was rather untouchable as a very good Welsh junior player, while Abang Jamal was one of the older "keluarga" members who was last year's losing finalist.
As it turned out the handling of the event was not as well as could be expected, with them running out of shutles - not really that, but not planning for any contingency once their allocation of two feather shuttles per game was used up. It was such a disorganised and feeble attempt to explain away their incompetence by saying they just didn't have anything in reserve or else pushing the blame on to the half-in-charge Teck Kang, who as part-organiser was also quick to push the blame back to the "real" organisers, but he cannot be exonerated as he ultimately did call some shots at the end - and one of which I did not agree with. But he would remain quite a good friend of mine in Cardif; I just think it was all handled badly and he has to share the blame for their bungles.
My first game was against Faizal (Surrey), who did not look like a reallt dangerous player, but placed the shots well and caught me out on quite a few points. I am traditionally a slow starter, and it showed up very glaringly when I made mistake after mistake in losing the first set 10-21. I got stuck in the second set, perhaps he sat back a bit being already ahead, but as I kept on par with him on points I still remained afraid to smash - mainly because I don't have a terribly good smash and there is not much point in placing yourself out of position unless the smash would really open up things. I'd rather not make the mistake of netting the smash, so I opted for the safer option of a drop shot, but going with this option means I have to play a longer game. Ultimately I couldn't finish off the game and lost 19-21 - a result which I felt disappointed with, as he was definitely beatable in the second game.
Interchanging my roles as a player and as an umpire i didn't have much time to stroke before the next game, but at least I had been warmed up from the first match. I was up against Danni next, and he plays a good attacking game. With good shots and movement he comfortably won the first set 21-12, and I was in danger of losing big. However, his stamina, by his own admission, is a bit suspect, and he began to struggle on the second set. Moreover I began to play with my head a bit more, opting for the drop shots instead of trying to stroke it around the back. Although it was still a game littered with mistakes we were on par most of the time. I held the upper hand coming into 19 points, and I saved the first game point to come back to 20-all. In the followign exchanges which ensued the lead changed hands a few times, as we each looked for the decisive point which would give us a two-point and thus the game. We made successive good shots followed by a mistake, then a well-won point before losign out to another good shot, and so we were tied at 21-21, 22-22, 23, 24, 25, and 26. At 27-26 up I went for a drop but played a rather lazy shot, and put the shuttle in the net, thus losing 26-28 (the max for a second set is 29 points). With that went the best chance I had of winning something that day. As it turned out, I subsequenty lost 6-21, 13-21 to Wai - which I sort of expected, as I don't play well against good smashers of the shuttle.
In the other matches Danni had lost narrowly to Wai, Abang Jamal beat Wai in 3 sets, but then lost to Faizal. In a later twist, Abang Jamal gave me and Danni walkovers to concentrate on his doubles game. With Faizal also beating Wai he finished top with 4 points, then Wai, Danni, Abang J all with 2, then me with 1. That's where the cock-up began. Teck Kang, as part-in-charge, decided that since Danni and Wai were tied on points, he could not choose one to play in the final against Faizal (Abang J had pulled out). So he made them paly each other instead, with the winner meeting Faizal. This throws up a few problems. If Abang J withdrew, shoudn't his matches all become null and void, and our points adjusted? Even if not, who finishes second in the table (or indeed should go into the final) should be settled on countback - Wai had already beaten Danni in the group stage, so he should be placed above Danni. It follows that he should immediately play Faizal and not have to go through another match. If there is a third-placing playoff, then Danni should play against the fourth-placed, which is me. So in some ways I was denied a game for third place, and might have won the bronze! Although if we look at the group (and overall performance) Danni does deserve to be placed ahead of me, but then I did have a good chance against him as well. And I also thought it unfair for Faizal to have to play a final (the rules not having been explicitly specified) since he actually beat all four other players. So in the final I cheered for him, and was glad he prevailed in the end.... well that didn't make me a biased linesman though (I was on linesman duty for that game).
So while there are some positives from my experience this time round I felt a bit let down by the planning and handling of the events on the day - plus I had to use my own shuttles in one game when they had not taken my advice on sorting out the shuttlecock problem immediately. I still have a long way to go in singles... not least improving my smashing technique - it is incorrect at the moment!
Congrats to Adrian and Lip Sing, who played well to win 3 games (losing only in the semis) to get the bronze. Lip Sing in actual fact not being a very good player (esp in singles, think I beat him 21-10 last time) so I had thought they would run into problems, while the other pair of Teck Kang and Kok Kien would go further. Instead (and with KK's bad shoulder) this pair got knocked out in their first game, making Teck Kang a rather bitter man come the day's end.
Footnote:
I played with Tack Kang last year in the mens doubles and we lost a 3rd-placing playoff. I am still silently hoping I will have a chance to win one award in a badminton competition, though it looks slim. Maybe next year??
posted by cheez~ at
11:38 pm
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