Good to see continued wins by Leinster and hopefully progress and promotions will continue.It would be nice to see Leinster competing up in the Premier divisions in the years to come. The Scottish regions have showed they are competitive in these divisions and talking to a few of their players last weekend at a tournament in Newcastle, they are benefiting from the level of competition and enjoying the play against different players instead of the relatively small competitive badminton community that exists in Scotland and is mirrored, I'm sure, in Ireland.
Hi JonC
What divisions are the Scottish Team(s) in at the moment?
Any matches ploayed yet this season?
Hi Mark
Glasgow & NS are now in Premier A having come up from Premier B last year and Lanarkshire are up to Premier B from Division 1 last year. Lothian fell away back down to div 2 for this year but they had several problems with players travelling last year I believe. Having said that I have heard that there may be difficulties for Lanarkshire for the opening premier B weekend as, in their wisdom, Badminton England have located it right on the south coast which for the majority of counties in that division is not convenient.
All divisions and results are on badminton england website http://www.badmintonengland.co.uk/fl/comps/compdoverv.asp?l=561
Most of the higher level players feel the games played on a Premier weekend are worth playing in and beneficial and the commitment to play only 3 weekends over the season ensures many players make themselves available. In the lower division is it a lot more difficult to get players to turn out on maybe 8 different weekends when there are tournaments around the UK in which the standard is more competitive than many county matches. Additionally politics seem to play a much smaller part for team selection in the Premier divisions. Many counties seem to do well when they are in the premier divisions and their top players play while they may have second teams on div 1 or 2 to allow players to develop and become accustomed to county play before turning out on a premier weekend.
Anyway, hope to see Leinster continue to win and move up.
Jon.