EBAD Stand 2013 - Yonex All England Championships: 5th-10th March 2013

EBAD would like to personally thank many members who helped towards the success of its first year on the concourse, some key members were:

Naminder Authi

Emily Weller

Chris Miller

Anne Batchelor

Derek Batchelor

Leanne Brown

Eric Brown

Fern Gilders

Joe Ouseph and family

Martin Rooke

TeamEngland Para - Badminton Squad

Special appearance autograph signings from:

Rajiv Ouseph

Nathan Robertson

The week of the All England Championships 2013 was a special event for EBAD. On the concourse in its first year EBAD experienced exceptional support and response from all around. EBAD would like to welcome those people who we reached out to; people wanting to get to know more about Para-Badminton and also those interested in helping other disabled people through badminton. Also EBAD was there to enlighten people about the sport and promote the sport to those new to Para-Badminton.

There were also many big names there that EBAD were privileged to meet; meeting many members of Yonex, the BWF family and BadmintonEurope was particularly unforgetable and EBAD hopes to work closely with them. EBAD would also like to specially thank Rajiv Ouseph and Nathan Robertson for their time in the autograph session.

The Wheelchair Demonstration area was a big success. With members of the public eager to try the wheelchair and loving the experience. Indeed, EBAD had many repeat users of the wheelchair as people wanted to stay on them all day. Many thanks to Martin Rooke, Paula Robinson and Gobi Ranganathan who helped with tutorials and demonstrations on the wheelchair space.

The TeamEngland Para - Badminton Squad were also present at the EBAD Stand having demonstrated on courts on Thursday 7th March for the squad's second year.

EBAD met many contacts during the course of the week. Individuals who put their contact details down will be added to EBAD'semailing list soon and will receive all updates/news that is happening in Para-Badminton. We met many individuals with specific queries and we endeavour to get back to you soon. Please email EBAD if you have a particularly query and we can look into it further.

Scottish 4 Nations 2013 - 15th February - 17th February

England players excel in Scotland

A huge weekend in Scotland saw many exciting results. Andrew Martin was elated, winning a tense 3 set match against Naill McVeigh of Ireland, a moment to remember. Rachel Choong dominant as ever in the Ladies SS6 category. Dan Bethell won his first Gold medal in Singles SL3 with a confident display on Sunday having come from a loss to friend and England colleague Daniel Lee in the group stages on Saturday. Both managing to put out No.1 seed Alan Oliver in one of the toughest group stages set. Bobby Griffin and Steve Moodie were overjoyed winning their first Gold medal in Standing Doubles over a 3 year wait having to settle for the runners-up position in previous competitions.

EBAD was on hand in Scotland introducing our new EBAD promotional banners that looked to be received in good praise by players and viewers alike. EBAD was also there with player interviews which was a hit with players.

EBAD video gallery has been updated...

England players shine at Irish 4 Nations

In all categories, standing, wheelchair and short stature, England players came home with at least double gold. Click the photo for the report on the Irish 4 Nations.

Bobby Grffin at the World Championships 2011 Para-Badminton Demonstration

Mixed Masters Tournament - Para-Badminton Demonstration

Sunday 2nd December 2012

photos courtesy of sport-on-wheels

On Sunday 2nd December, Paula Robinson, Gobi Ranganathan, Martin Rooke and Owen Kilburn took part in a demonstration match at the Mixed Masters International tournament in Nottingham. The tournament is in celebration of the careers of Anthony Clark and Nathan Robertson, where they will be playing a mixed doubles tournament against other retired and current England/GB players.
See Chris Adcock and Imogen Bankier step into the wheelchair too in front of a packed crowd.

Read the article on sport-on-wheels.com
Nottingham had played host to the English 4 Nations Para-Badminton Tournament 2012, read more about the tournament in the News section.

See the EBAD photo gallery for more inspirational and exciting Para-Badminton Demonstration Days including wheelchair, standing and dwarf categories.

Herts Open Wheelchair Tournament - Oct 2012

Watch wheelchair player Fiona Kelly's interview with Middlesex's Sheila Collins on her first experience of a wheelchair tournament held in Herts 2012. Fiona started playing wheelchair badminton just over a year ago in July 2011 with her coach at the Middlesex Dome, No Barrier Badminton Club (NBBC). Fiona says that her life has changed very positively since she took up wheelchair badminton. See the interview plus other great videos in the EBAD video gallery.

Read Fiona's first experience of the tournament:

On Saturday I competed in my very first wheelchair badminton tournament and I was very excited, and rather nervous!!
I train and play at No Barriers badminton club and we are based in The Dome in Hounslow. It’s a fantastic club as its all inclusive so able bodied and disabled play together, and I really like that. The club was started by Sheila Collins and I am very grateful that she started the club and does so much work behind the scenes (and that my coach, Bruno Forbes spends so much time and energy teaching us!) as being able to play badminton means so much to me, its improved my mood and morale loads and has given me targets to aim for so my life has more meaning than it used to. And I am considerably fitter and stronger now and this has improved my quality of life.
I competed in ladies singles and mixed doubles, and had a fun game of ladies doubles at the end. I really enjoyed the ladies singles, the games were very challenging and considering how good the ladies are at their badminton I was very pleased that I was able to win points during the game- I was scared that I’d get none as they are so strong!. In our doubles matches I played with Meva Singh Dhesi and we worked quite well as a team and I enjoyed our games although I didn’t play as well as I wanted us to. But we’d only been playing together for a short time so we’ll play better together in our next tournament as we’ll be more used to each other.
Unfortunately I was having a bit of bad luck as I was having a bad health day and so I was feeling pretty sick, was very dizzy, struggling to focus my eyes etc and my joints were more unstable than usual so I dislocated a lot of them during the games but I fought on and did my best and felt pretty pleased with myself that I was strong enough to keep going and not just give in! I was having too much fun to stop! We also had another problem one of the wheels of our sports chair kept deflating! Luckily a friend came to my aid and let me borrow one of his spare wheels and I was very grateful! That’s one example of how helpful and friendly everyone is at the tournaments, it’s like we’re a big family and there is a fantastic atmosphere during the tournament, it’s so relaxed. It makes attending the tournaments a very enjoyable experience!
Even though I had these challenges to overcome I managed to win medals which shocked me! As it was my 1st tournament I didn’t expect to win anything and was competing just for the experience so I was very surprised when my name was called to collect my medals! Yaaay! I won bronze medals in ladies singles and mixed doubles and they have pride of place on my dvd cabinet.
I thoroughly enjoyed my 1st tournament and intend to compete in many more. And I figure that I have got all my bad luck out of the way now and so my next tournament will be even better! :^D

Fiona Kelly

Fiona Kelly interview at the Middlesex Dome

Wheelchair Ladies Singles - Fiona Kelly v Sharon Barnes-Jones - Herts, Oct 2012