By Martin Kenny

This summer's Commonwealth Games has been eagerly anticipated almost since the closing ceremony of the 2012 Olympic Games. However one member of the University's Badminton Club has been anticipating the announcement of this summer's squads with good reason. Third year Maths student Ben Li is up for selection for the Isle of Man team.

For the last 3 years the First Team Men’s Captain has been competing for the team in the First Division of the BUCS League. In recent weeks the team has achieved promotion to the Premier Division for the first time in 5 years. There is just one problem, Ben is in the final year of his course and therefore won't qualify to play for the team he has spent 3 years trying to get promoted! So there is an obvious first question, is he considering doing a Masters course next year and play Premier Division badminton? It appears that the team have already posed this question to Ben and he explains that he has already made plans to move to London and start a career.

This year the University Badminton Club has attracted 554 members, its highest ever membership making it one of the largest badminton clubs in the country. The clubs success is in part the legacy of badminton's golden era which began with the success of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms at the 2004 Beijing Olympic Games. Up until this point badminton had been perceived as being a predominantly social sport which in the words of my work colleagues involved "hitting a dead bird over a net!" Following the Olympic coverage badminton became front page news with pictures of Gail Emms adorning many national newspapers.

Suddenly participation levels of the sport rose and the intensity of the game at the top level was recognised. Ben attributes the improvement of the sport's profile also being linked to the change in the scoring system which made the game more dynamic and attractive for television coverage.

This year's intake of fresher's at the University Badminton Club has been of a particularly high performance level and has resulted in 4 out of the 6 players in the Men’s First Team being first year students. The other players in the promoted team are Mark Sadler, Martin Lau, Edwin Kwan, Tim Chan and Isaac Cooper. During the course of the season another notable success included reaching the semi final of the BUCS Badminton Trophy before losing to a very strong Loughborough University side. The performances and ability of the Men’s First Team indicate to Ben that they should be able to hold onto their Premier Division status. At the beginning of the academic year the club was being coached by Chris Tonks who has played in the All England Championships. When Chris relocated to London they coached from within the club which has proved to be a very successful venture.

With such a large club membership it has been necessary for the Club Executive to plan carefully to ensure that there are opportunities for progression for players of all ability levels. The club has also raised money this year for the Stroke Association through running a UV Tournament. The University Badminton Club is probably in its strongest position ever in terms of membership, performance and social activities. It will be interesting to see the next stage of the clubs development. As the end of his 3 years approaches Ben would like to thank Lisa, Joe, Hollie and Tom from Warwick Sport for the support they have given the club.

It is clear how much Ben has enjoyed his time with the club, in fact he mentions the friendships and being part of a team as being more important than the results they have achieved. In 2011 Ben played in the Commonwealth Youth Games. From research on the BBC website he in fact carried the Manx flag for the Isle of Man team at the opening ceremony. At a time when many final year students are planning to take out time to relax Ben Li is hoping after his graduation to head to Glasgow with Mark Cavendish and the rest of the Isle of Man team. This summer could be quite a celebration.