Saturday 2 January 2016

A 2016 New Year message from the Chair

On behalf of your CCBA committee, I hope you had a great Christmas and that the new year proves a good one for you, on or off the badminton court.

The new year always brings some fresh challenges and one that faces us all as a badminton community is the future of the much-loved Duchy Tournament (or Cornwall Senior Silver tournament as it is now more properly known).  During September of 2015, this tournament had it's 33rd staging under the expert co-ordination of it's long established committee, who have built up a wealth of expertise over the years such that the tournament always runs very smoothly.  It is also one much enjoyed by entrants and spectators alike, and of course, in recent years it has proved a valued “testing ground” for our own young players who have the chance to compete against experienced players from the national scene.  In particular, this has been of great benefit to the development of members of CYB, many of whom have gone on to represent Cornwall at senior level with great success.

It is extremely sad, therefore, to see that this tournament may now never be staged again unless some way is found to bring in new management to take on its organisation.  Due to certain rule changes brought in three years ago by Badminton England, it became no longer possible to enter older CYB players 'en bloc' which led to a decline in entries, putting stress on the viability of the tournament.  At the same time, the organisers of the Duchy felt it was their time to take a well-deserved retirement and have now resigned; this leaves a considerable vacuum in our domestic calendar of events.  Your CBA is determined to make BE reconsider the rules governing such tournaments so, in the hope of success in that respect we are now seeking a new set of organisers from within Cornish badminton to undertake the running of the tournament.  We felt it would be appropriate to ask either a group of members or a club to consider taking it on.

Any group contemplating this should know that the out-going Duchy committee have produced a “handbook” giving precise detail of what to do and when, who to contact, current sponsors, lists of regular entrants and so on, plus there is a small amount of cash available to back them up.  In effect, it is ready to run but the challenge is that this needs to be taken up soon.  There is insufficient capacity within the CCBA committee to undertake the running of the Duchy but any new group could certainly count on our backing.

Please would all clubs and all members now give urgent thought as to whether they feel they can step up to the plate on this issue and to let us know as soon as possible.  You can contact any committee member or reply outlining your interest to either Lyndon or myself (details below).  The future of this tournament is in your hands!


Tony Poole, Chair CCBA (01872 530277; apoole1@talktalk.net)

Lyndon Allen, Secretary CCBA (01726 63245; lyndoncallen2@btinternet.com)