Hi everyone, played my first match of the new season last night and despite getting all 6 of my games in a 9-9 draw the night was tarnished by a controversial moment on court of which I regret for my part. We were playing against our local rivals (a team whose club nights I attend so am well acquainted with their players) and having won the first end of our top men’s we were in a hard fought battle in the second end with the score around 15-14 in our favour. My partner flick served our opponent and his return was an attempted cross court smash which actually resulted in him scooping the shuttle from behind him and slinging it over the net (as much a foul shot as you could possibly imagine). This wasn’t a slight miss-hit nor was it in a fast paced rally where the next shot is already upon you and you’ve not had the opportunity to call a foul shot and then the point has continued – this was just blatantly as obvious a foul shot as you’ll witness In Badminton. A call of a foul shot wasn’t forthcoming and we both stood shocked as he claimed the point with the attitude of ‘yeah I’m having that’. At this point regrettably the red mist came down as I challenged this, however although I may have come across as ‘aggressive’ I at no point swore or threatened anyone etc. An argument ensued as our opponent claimed that he wasn’t willing to concede the point in ‘such a tight game’ and apparently he was just evening things up as we’d done the exact same thing in the previous end (not that anyone on court could recall that incident!) We agreed to play a let and although I realise it is their call, for me it was just blatant gamesmanship in a very tight game. Fortunately we went on to win comfortably but what I want to know is what everyone’s opinion is on how you are supposed to react in said situation. There is an absolute dearth of young players coming through in our area and I believe this sort of tactic from what you would consider ‘league veterans’ is partly to blame. If they cant win legitimately they’ll resort to gamesmanship and wind up tactics in order to gain an advantage.

After the game I apologised for my aggressive reaction and was told that I was ‘out of order’, ‘a young upstart’ and ‘lacking in court etiquette’ but this kind of thing happens all the time and what am I supposed to do? – just accept that cheating is part of the game and get on with it? I hope that this incident is now already water under the bridge but what upsets me still is that my questioning of the shot was considered outrageous whereas the actual foul shot is just ‘part of the game’ so to speak.

Thoughts please…