Sunday 7th july 2024
Babington ACAdemy, LEICESTER LE4 0SZ
Structure
Tournament Report
On Sunday, July 7, 2024, the Community Social Tournament 2024 returned to unite Leicestershire's community players. Tournament organiser Ajay Pitrola was determined to bring back this type of tournament, having last organised one in 2017. He had dedicated over 100 hours of his personal time to recruiting social players from over 11 different community clubs in the city. This resulted in record number of entries of 22 mens doubles, 7 ladies doubles and 18 mixed doubles. There would have been more but a cap had to be made to ensure the tournament adhered to the court times allocated. The tournament’s format allowed for competitive play, exciting matchups, and a memorable experience for all participants.
The competitors' ages ranged from 14 to 60+ years old. While many players had only started playing for a few months at the start of the season, their confidence has grown throughout the months. Some players are well-known and have played for many years. When the tournament got underway, many people were nervous because it was their first time playing a competitive tournament, but those feelings quickly vanished and everyone's extraordinary excitement and camaraderie were evident. It was lovely to see so many smiling faces throughout the day.
We sincerely thank each and every participant; it must have required tremendous bravery for some to enter and complete the day. Thank you also to all the volunteers who helped on the day, especially Swetha, Yash, and Dheeru, who helped the tournament organiser direct their players onto the appropriate court at the appropriate time and ensured that games ran smoothly. Thanks to Daanish who was on spot photographer for the day! Special thanks to Arissa and Lucie for presenting the trophies. This was only their second time presenting, and despite only being 8 and 9, they looked perfectly at home. Finally, but just as importantly, I would want to thank every spectator for helping the competition succeed. Everyone was able to have a very nice time thanks to your cheering and support.
A very humbling experience for the tournament organiser in making this happen. We hope this gives confidence to all those that took part, you have great potential and we would strongly recommend you to consider joining a local competitive league club within Leicestershire. There are various support and coaching available by Ajay Pitrola to support you in your badminton journey. Please get in touch with if you require more information.
Winners and Runners-Up
Ladies Doubles:
- Round Robin: The tournament began with a round-robin format, where each team played against every other team in their category.
- Knockout Stage: Based on the round-robin results, the top-performing teams advanced to the knockout stage.
- Semi-Finals and Finals: The semi-finals and finals were intense matches, with spectators cheering on their favourite teams.
Tournament Report
On Sunday, July 7, 2024, the Community Social Tournament 2024 returned to unite Leicestershire's community players. Tournament organiser Ajay Pitrola was determined to bring back this type of tournament, having last organised one in 2017. He had dedicated over 100 hours of his personal time to recruiting social players from over 11 different community clubs in the city. This resulted in record number of entries of 22 mens doubles, 7 ladies doubles and 18 mixed doubles. There would have been more but a cap had to be made to ensure the tournament adhered to the court times allocated. The tournament’s format allowed for competitive play, exciting matchups, and a memorable experience for all participants.
The competitors' ages ranged from 14 to 60+ years old. While many players had only started playing for a few months at the start of the season, their confidence has grown throughout the months. Some players are well-known and have played for many years. When the tournament got underway, many people were nervous because it was their first time playing a competitive tournament, but those feelings quickly vanished and everyone's extraordinary excitement and camaraderie were evident. It was lovely to see so many smiling faces throughout the day.
We sincerely thank each and every participant; it must have required tremendous bravery for some to enter and complete the day. Thank you also to all the volunteers who helped on the day, especially Swetha, Yash, and Dheeru, who helped the tournament organiser direct their players onto the appropriate court at the appropriate time and ensured that games ran smoothly. Thanks to Daanish who was on spot photographer for the day! Special thanks to Arissa and Lucie for presenting the trophies. This was only their second time presenting, and despite only being 8 and 9, they looked perfectly at home. Finally, but just as importantly, I would want to thank every spectator for helping the competition succeed. Everyone was able to have a very nice time thanks to your cheering and support.
A very humbling experience for the tournament organiser in making this happen. We hope this gives confidence to all those that took part, you have great potential and we would strongly recommend you to consider joining a local competitive league club within Leicestershire. There are various support and coaching available by Ajay Pitrola to support you in your badminton journey. Please get in touch with if you require more information.
Winners and Runners-Up
Ladies Doubles:
- Winners: Ayesha and Darcey
- Runners-Up: Afshan and Monal
- Match highlight: A great competitive final with mother vs daughter having some great drive exchanges!
- Winners: Parag and Tofail
- Runners-Up: James and Sudip
- Match highlight: An excellent cross-court drop by Sudip on one point, clipping the net on its way over, then took a standing ovation and bowed to the crowd! It got everyone smiling!
- Winners: Sreelakshmi and Sidney Luke
- Runners-Up: Britanie and Parag
- Match highlight: A 17 shot rally that was highly contested, finishing with a devasting jump smash by Sidney Luke. All players quite rightly needed a breather after that rally!
- Total Entries: 94
- Total pairs: 47
- Group stage games played: 106
- Knock-out stage games played: 25
- Total games played including all disciplines: 135
- Match shuttles used throughout the day: 68
- Mens/Ladies Doubles tournament duration: 4 hours
- Mixed Doubles tournament duration: 3 hours
- Tournament finished on time: Yes!
- Efficient Scheduling: Thanks to meticulous planning, all games were completed within the allocated time.
- Smooth Transitions: Volunteers ensured smooth transitions between matches, minimising delays between games
- Feedback forms will be distributed to all participants to gain feedback from the tournament and how it can be improved upon for future tournaments. Please take a couple of minutes to fill it in, many thanks.
Photos from the DAY
RULES
- The tournament is open to all community and social players only. It is excluding league, current PC juniors and senior county players. Those that play in a league club but haven't played any league matches are eligible to play.
- Each event will be played in Groups, then a knockout format once the winners and best finishers are decided.
- The exact format beyond the Group stage of the competition will be determined by the number of entries.
- The organisers reserve the right to alter or to modify the tournament at any time, to allow a reasonable amount of games to be played by each pair.
- Plastic Yonex Mavis 300 shuttles will be used.
- The entrance fee is £8.00 per person per event.
- You can enter level doubles and mixed doubles, however fill a separate entry form for each event.
- Payment needs to be made in advance to secure your entry, details will be sent once the entry form is received.
- Please fill entry form below, enter full partner details in the last box. Also if you require a partner, please specify in the box, the organiser will endeavour to find a partner but it is not guaranteed.
- One person of the pairing can fill the form in for both, as long as I have full contact details of the partner in the last box.
- Trophies will be awarded to winners and runners up.
- Please arrive 10 minutes before the start of the tournament.
- The Tournament Organiser reserves the right to refuse entry to any individual not meeting the criteria or following the rules and regulations.
- Entries must reach the organiser by Friday 28th June 2024.
RULES ON THE DAY
- Players must report to the tournament organiser on arrival and by the appropriate start times listed above.
- Any late withdrawals will result in a bye in the tournament for their opponents, no last minute substitutes will be allowed if not verified by the tournament organiser beforehand. No last minute entries will be allowed.
- All Players must abide by the Badminton England Code of Ethics and Behaviour throughout the tournament (Play fair and be kind to each other). Full details are available here: https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/11/Code-of-ethics-and-conduct-2021-1.pdf
- Spectators are most welcome but must remember that they use the designated spectator area. They should not sit too close to the courts and must be respectful of the play in progress. (Be relatively quiet and don’t stand on the court boundaries.)
- Plastic Yonex Mavis 300 shuttles will be used.
- Black soled marking shoes must not be worn and shoes worn must be clean of mud and/or stones.
- Each pair would be allocated a group to enable as many games as possible.
- Mens doubles - 22 pairs entered will be put into 4 groups. The pairs will play to 15 in the group stage with no setting (if the score is 14 14, next point will decide the winner). The top 2 from each group will go through to the knock out format to decide the winner.
- Ladies doubles - 7 pairs entered will be put in 1 group. The pairs will play to 15 in the group stage with no setting. The top 4 pairs will then play a knock out format to decide the winner.
- Mixed doubles - 18 pairs entered will be put into 3 groups. The pairs will play to 15 in the group stage with no setting. The top 2 from each group plus the 2 best 3rd place pairs will go through to the knock out format to decide the winner.
- The order of play (depicted on the right hand side of the table) must be observed in the group matches.
- Any line call disputes must be handled by the players on the court and referred to the organiser if an agreed outcome cannot be reached.
- Food and drink must be consumed outside the halls. FREE Water filling station is available onsite. All rubbish MUST be cleared away and disposed of in the bins provided.
- Photos and videos will be taken by the organisers on the day for the purpose of reporting the event and marketing for future tournaments.
- Spectators can take photos and videos on the day, be careful if sharing them online. Always remember that photos and video clips posted online may be shared with people other than those for whom it was intended. Never post or send any photographs, videos or make comments that may be potentially hurtful or upsetting or open to interpretation, you may regret sharing later on. A useful way to think is would you post the message in a frame in your badminton club/sports hall, if not then don’t post it online! Full details are available here: https://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2020/PDFs/safeguarding/Social%20Media%20Guidance.pdf