A Badminton League in the NE region ?

During the November 1996 DC Open, sipping beer late at night after the tournament, a few of us concluded we should try and set up a badminton league in this area. When I probed several people again at the MidAtlantic Classic, the idea clearly was still alive, and there really seems to be an interest. Here are some suggestions how this could look:

Levels:

We could try and A and B level; not sure of B players are willing to travel, but some A players are quite cocky and don't think there is a need for this. (what differs A and B players is quite arbitrary). On the other hand, interest may not be that high, and we would have only 1 level.

Frequency:

It will also be a challenge to work around the tournament schedule of course, but one could set aside something like the first saturday of the month or so. It may also depend on the club, e.g. our club has 10 courts on saturdays, from 11 until officially 3, but we can play much longer since nobody is after us.

Location:

One suggestion was to meet semi-annually with all teams in a big gym. I personally prefer the two-team mean, with a home and an away meet for each team. This makes it easier to finish the program, since the date and location can be choosen more flexibly and only two teams are involved, and there is no need for a large amount of courts. An 8 point team match can be played on two courts in 3 hours.

Although I'd like to call it the NE-Region league, the region is quite large and judging from the reactions that we probed a 'Mid Atlantic League' may be a more appropriate name. So far we have had positive reactions and/or might have teams from:

Some of the clubs may combine their players in a single team, or a club has enough players and comes up with 2 teams (A and B?).

Team Composition

Team composition: my ideal is 2 men and 2 women per team, making 8 matches (2 MS, 2WS, 1MD, 1WD, 2XD; usually taking 3 hours to finish, 3 matches per player in a 4 person team, you can have 6 or even 8 players / team this way). 4 players also has the advantage that you can travel in one car (with perhaps a BIG trunk). Limiting the league to the PA/DE/MD region, where the idea originated, would limit the travel times probably to 3 about hours.

In the Canadian west they play a league with 1MD, 1WD and 2 XD (4 points) and 4 players also. So, no singles. It may be a bit harder to get women.

Sponsor

The league needs a sponsor of course!

Here are some details as provided to me via email: (coming soon!!!)

Reaction, suggestions etc. to:
teuben@astro.umd.edu (16-mar-97)