Northumberland BA enters two teams into the Badminton England Inter County Championship (ICC), for full details see the Badminton England website .

Currently Northumberland are in Divisions 1 and 4 of the regional sections, the best teams playing in Premier A and Premier B. However, the first team in division 1 can come up against world ranked English and Scottish Internationals so that will give you some idea of the standard of play.

Each county tie is made up of best of 15 matches, 2 men’s singles, 2 ladies singles, 4 men’s doubles, 4 ladies doubles and 3 mixed doubles and points are awarded, 3-0 for a 10-5 win or better or 2-1 for a 9-6 or 8-7 win, 2 to the winners 1 to the losers. At the end of the season the top team are promoted and the bottom relegated, each team having played four opponents both home and away.

Our three teams are supported by a squad of some 36+ players and regular squad sessions are held on Wednesdays at Benfield, attendance at which is by invitation only.

The best way to bring yourself to our attention is to enter the County Restricted Tournament at the Benfield Centre or any of the other grading tournaments that are staged throughout the year (see rankings section ).

The county operates a grading database into which the results of any league matches and tournaments are entered and taken into account in producing individual’s grading. The selectors regularly check this database to ensure improvers do not go unnoticed. There is a committee of five county selectors of which I am the chairman, the others being Martin Fagan, Steve Porter, and Sarah Renton.

If you are new to the area and have already played county standard badminton, or you have any other queries please feel free to get in touch with me via e-mail.

Steve Abbott
Chairman of County Selectors
steve@northumberlandbadminton.org