Badminton England Facts and Records Index (cltr + click to jump to a particular section): 1. History of Badminton 2. Olympic Games 3. World Championships 4. Sudirman Cup 5. Thomas Cup 6. Uber Cup 7. Commonwealth Games 8. European Individual Championships 9. European Mixed Championships 10. England International Caps 11. All England Open Badminton Championships 12. England’s Record in International Matches 13. The Stuart Wyatt Trophy 14. International Open Tournaments 15. International Challenge Tournaments 16. English National Championships 17. The All England Seniors’ Open Championships 18. English National Junior Championships 19. Inter-County Championships 20. National Leisure Centre Championships 21. Masters County Challenge 22. Masters County Championships 23. English Recipients for Honours for Services to Badminton 24. Recipients of Awards made by Badminton Association of England Badminton England Facts & Records: Page 1 of 86 As at May 2021 Please contact [email protected] to suggest any amendments. Badminton England Facts and Records 25. English recipients of Awards made by the Badminton World Federation 1. The History of Badminton: Badminton House and Estate lies in the heart of the Gloucestershire countryside and is the private home of the 12th Duke and Duchess of Beaufort and the Somerset family. The House is not normally open to the general public, it dates from the 17th century and is set in a beautiful deer park which hosts the world-famous Badminton Horse Trials. The Great Hall at Badminton House is famous for an incident on a rainy day in 1863 when the game of badminton was said to have been invented by friends of the 8th Duke of Beaufort. We know the game of Battledore and Shuttlecock was being played at Badminton House as well as other country houses as far back as the early 1800’s. Battledore or Shuttlecock as it was sometimes called was a game where two players would hit the shuttlecock backwards and forwards to each other, counting how many times they could do this without it falling on the floor. The Battledore bats had fine leather covered shafts, almost circular heads and instead of having strings the heads are covered in vellum. Shuttlecocks at this time would almost certainly have been made of chicken feathers pushed into cork and would have been twice the size and weight as we know them today. On that rainy day in 1863 one of the guests had the idea of putting some string across from the door to the fireplace in the Great Hall and hitting the shuttle over the string to each other. The Great Hall at Badminton House is the same size as the badminton court as we know it today, 44 feet (13.4m) by 20 feet (6.09m) The Badminton Association was formed at a meeting at Dunbar, Waverley Grove in Southsea, Hampshire on 13th September 1893. At the meeting there were nine clubs represented, they decided on the rules of the Association and framed the rules for the game of badminton. It was the first National Association in the world. The popularity of the sport increased rapidly with 300 clubs being introduced by the 1920’s, rising to 9,000 shortly after World War 2. The Badminton Association would govern world badminton until 1934. In 1934 the Badminton Association changed its name to the Badminton Association of England and again in 2005 to Badminton England. The first recorded open tournament (open to anyone) was staged by Guilford Badminton Club in 1898. It was so successful that the Badminton Association followed suit and the following year a one-day tournament was held at the London Scottish Rifles Drill Hall in London on the 4th April 1899. This was the birth of the All England Championships the world’s oldest and most prestigious badminton tournament. The All England Championships has been sponsored by Yonex since 1984. In 1903 the first international badminton match was played in Dublin between Ireland and England. England won 5-2. The International Badminton Federation (IBF) was formed in 1934 with nine founding members: England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Denmark, Holland, Canada, New Zealand and France, as a consequence the Badminton Association became the Badminton Association of England. From nine founding members, the IBF, now called the Badminton World Federation (BWF), has over 176 member nations. The World’s first open badminton tournament was played in the Royal Albert Hall, London September 1979. The tournament was open to both professionals as well as amateurs. 20 of the top players in the world were invited and it was sponsored by Friends Provident. The tournament marked the arrival of Open Badminton and gave players an opportunity to receive money for winning while playing badminton. There had been much debate and heated argument for many years variously described as amateurism, professionalism and sham amateurism. It was at the International Badminton Federation’s AGM in May 1979 that revised rules were adopted, which would not harm aspirations for badminton to become an Olympic sport. Badminton was officially granted Olympic medal status in the 1992 Barcelona Games. Indonesia and Korea were the dominant forces in that first Olympic tournament, more than 1.1 billion people watched the 1992 Olympic Badminton competition on television. Badminton England Facts & Records: Page 2 of 86 As at May 2021 Please contact [email protected] to suggest any amendments. Badminton England Facts and Records Eight years later, and more than a century after introducing Badminton to the world, Britain claimed their first medal in the Olympics when Simon Archer and Jo Goode achieved Mixed Doubles Bronze in Sydney. At the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won a silver medal in the Mixed Doubles. In 2016 at the Rio Games Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge won a Bronze Medal in the Men’s Doubles. Only four countries have won the Thomas Cup (world men’s team championships) since its inception in 1948: Malaysia, Indonesia, China and Denmark. Only four countries have won the Uber Cup (world women’s team championships) since its inception in 1956: USA, Japan, China and Indonesia. 2. Olympic Games: Badminton was included as a Demonstration Sport for the first time at the Olympic Games in Munich in September 1972. An Invitation Tournament was held and Elliot Stuart, Derek Talbot and Gillian Gilks were invited to compete. Derek Talbot and Gillian Gilks won the mixed doubles. Darren Hall represented England in a Exhibition of Badminton at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, South Korea on 19th September 1988. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona, Spain: Darren Hall, Anders Nielsen, Nick Ponting, David Wright, Chris Hunt, Andrew Goode, Joanne Muggeridge, Fiona Smith, Gillian Clark, Gillian Gowers, Helen Troke, Sara Sankey, Julia Bradbury, with Steve Baddeley as Manager, Ciro Ciniglio as Deputy Manager and Lee Jae Bok as Coach. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta: Darren Hall, Peter Knowles, Simon Archer, Chris Hunt, Nick Ponting, Julian Robertson, Jo Goode, Julia Bradbury, Joanne Muggeridge, with Andrew Goode as Team Manager. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 2000 Olympic Games in Sydney: Peter Knowles, Julia Mann, Simon Archer, Nathan Robertson, Chris Hunt, Julian Robertson, Jo Goode, Donna Kellogg, Joanne Davies and Sara Hardaker, with John Quinn and Andy Wood as Coaches, and Lars Sologub as Team Manager. Simon Archer and Jo Goode won a bronze medal in the Mixed Doubles by beating Michael Sogaard and Rikke Olsen of Denmark. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens: Robert Blair, Anthony Clark, Nathan Robertson, Gail Emms, Tracey Hallam, Donna Kellogg, Natalie Munt, Ella Tripp and Jo Wright, with Andy Wood and Rexy Mainaky as Coaches, and Lars Sologub as Team Manager. Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms won a silver medal in the Mixed Doubles, beating Jonas Rasmussen and Rikke Olsen of Denmark in the Semi-Finals, and losing to Jun Zhang and Gao Ling of China in the Final. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing: Andrew Smith, Tracey Hallam, Nathan Robertson, Gail Emms, Anthony Clark and Donna Kellogg, with Ian Wright as Head Coach, Andy Wood as Team GB Badminton Team Leader, and Julian Robertson and Yvette Yun Luo as coaches. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London: Rajiv Ouseph (mens singles) and Chris Adcock (mixed doubles) represented GB at the Olympics. Kenneth Jonassen was Head Coach and Pete Jeffrey National Coach. The following English players represented Great Britain at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio: Rajiv Ouseph (Men’s singles) and Chris Adcock & Gabrielle Adcock (Mixed doubles) Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge (Men’s Doubles) Heather Olver & Lauren Smith (Womens Doubles) represented GB at the Olympics. Jon Austin was Olympic Team Leader, Jacob Hoi was Head Coach, and Pete Jeffrey & Julian Robertson National Coaches. Matt Ashman was Physio & Harley Towler part of support team for sparing & feeding. Marcus Ellis & Chris Langridge won a Bronze Medal in the Men’s Doubles beating Chai Biao & Hong Wei of China Badminton England Facts & Records: Page 3 of 86 As at May 2021 Please contact [email protected] to suggest any amendments. Badminton England Facts and Records 3. World Championships: The following teams have represented England in the World Championships: 1977 (Malmo): David Eddy, Ray Stevens, Barbara Sutton, Derek Talbot, Mike Tredgett, Barbara Giles 1, Gillian Gilks, Paula Kilvington, Margaret Lockwood, Nora Perry and Jane Webster 2 1980 (Jakarta): Steve Baddeley, Kevin Jolly, Ray Stevens, Derek Talbot, Mike Tredgett, Karen Bridge 3, Karen Chapman, Nora Perry, Barbara Sutton, Jane Webster 2.