London: Chris Adcock believes the National Badminton League will inspire more people to take up the sport as he eagerly awaits the start of the new season.
Adcock, who is from Ravenshead and captains the University of Nottingham’s team, will take his players down to road to face Loughborough Sport on the opening night of the 2015/16 campaign on Monday, November 2.
And the Commonwealth gold medal winner is thrilled at what last year’s introduction of the NBL has done for his sport since its establishment in 2014.
“I think the NBL has been really good,” said Adcock, who along with wife Gabby reached the semi-finals of the French Open this weekend. “It has given the country more access to badminton.”
“Usually, there are only one or two tournaments a year where the nation can watch the world’s best badminton players.”
“Now that it is every month it’s great. It lets badminton lovers watch the sport. And if it means that we can get the kids playing and be inspired, then it is job done.”
“Hopefully the NBL can be even bigger this year than the first year.”
University of Nottingham finished the 2014/15 season in third place, just four points behind top-of-the-table Surrey Smashers.
They reached the play-offs in June, but were edged out by Team Derby, who went on to be crowned champions.
But Adcock, who is also busy chasing qualification points for next year’s Olympics in Rio, believes his team is in a stronger position than this time last year going into the new season.
“We got off to a slow start as a team as it took quite a while to get used to the scoring system and the new rules,” he added.
“We got better as the season went on and had a really strong finish to the league.”
“We got into the final which was the main priority. Unfortunately I couldn’t make the finals due to a clash with a major tournament on my schedule.”
“That was disappointing but the team went and tried their heart out and did their best, and we came away with a pretty strong first season.”
“We have a strong team again and we’ve added some really good players. I am just really excited so hopefully we can find ourselves in the final again.”
–Chad
