The University of Cambridge Graduates' Badminton Club


Club logo

COVID-19 update: we are not actually playing at present, as three of us have parents or partners who would be vulnerable to the COVID-19 virus and therefore need to avoid environments where it might spread. Some of the other Club members are playing at the University Courts, so if you would like me to put you in touch with them, or to join us when/if we resume, please let me know.

The Graduates' Badminton Club is an informal club run by Ian Rudy. We cater for graduates, postgraduate students, postdoctoral students, college Fellows and staff members of the University. We meet throughout the year at the St Catharine's College Court on Thursdays from 8 to 10pm.

Something you need to be aware of is that we have only one court. We usually limit numbers to 8 people per evening, and have two groups of membership in order to achieve this. Firstly, there are members who have been in the Club for longest, and they have priority on any given Thursday. Secondly, there is a reserve group, consisting of our relatively new members, who can play if space is available. Within the reserve group, those who have played less often in recent weeks get higher priority. At the moment the first group has six men and two ladies, and there is one man and one lady in the reserve group. Any new members who wish to join us will be added to the reserve group initially. As things stand, there is a reasonable chance that anyone who joins the reserve group will be able to play on any particular Thursday if they wish to, though obviously it cannot be guaranteed.

We play with Yonex Mavis 300 plastic shuttles.

How to get there

The St Catharine's Courts are next to the St Catharine's Sports Ground, on South Green Road: go to the end of the Grantchester Meadows road in Newnham and turn right just before it turns into a dirt track. South Green Road has no street lights at first, and in winter it is therefore quite dark, but persevere. The squash and badminton courts are at the end of it (about 150 yards) on the right. Here is a map of the area. The red/yellow arrow points at the court, but please don't be fooled into thinking that you can easily get there from Millington Road! I'm happy to meet new people somewhere that is easier to find, such as outside the Co-op on Grantchester Street.

Standard

Currently, we can accept people only if they have some experience of the game, preferably doubles. A rough guide is that you need to be able to hit the shuttle cleanly, consistently, and to the point you desire in the opposition court most of the time, to understand that it is better to be hitting the shuttle down rather than up, and perhaps have a sense of how to get the opposition to hit it up so that you can hit it down.

You can find a short video of some of our games here as a Windows Media Video (wmv) file, size about 4.5MB. If you use a Mac then you may need to download some suitable software, such as VLC player, to play this. There are two different games, actually played on two different days. I'm the grey-haired guy at the camera end in both games. If you exclude me from the first game, the three players there are of the lower standard of players in the Club. The second game involves the stronger players in the Club.

You will eventually need to be familiar with doubles court positioning (ie side by side if defending, and front and back if attacking) but we can teach you this if you are otherwise of a decent standard: see my Guide to court positioning.

We do *not* expect ladies to play at the front as much as possible, as they would in traditional mixed doubles, unless they are quite weak. This does not mean our lady players have to be as good as men, but it does mean they have to be of a reasonable standard, and that nobody over-exploits the relative weakness of a female opponent.

Feel free to come along and just watch if you aren't sure whether we are the right standard for you. If you are just beginning, or do not meet our eligibility criteria, I can give you some advice on where else to try in Cambridge.

Fees

At the moment, we charge per evening that you attend. The precise fee depends on how many people attend, aggregated over all evenings, in a given academic year, and I work it out in September each year. But as a guide, it is likely to be in the range £1 to £1.50 per evening.

This document last updated: 25 October 2023.


Ian Rudy (graphic containing email address for iar1)