Wednesday 1 October 2014 13:06, UK
Birmingham Lions' Alyssa Lim blogs ahead of the opening night of the inaugural National Badminton League.
On 6 October the first ever professional National Badminton League comes to the UK.
A new scoring system, an innovative ‘PowerPlay’ point and some of Europe’s top stars are set to bring added excitement to the sport for spectators, which includes a television audience, with match nights set to be aired on Sky Sports and streamed online to fans worldwide.
The NBL is also a hugely exciting opportunity for the players involved: a mixture of top European talent, the country’s best performers and emerging young and home-grown prospects.
There are six teams taking part in the NBL in the first season: Birmingham Lions, Team Derby, Loughborough Sport, MK Badminton, University of Nottingham Badminton and Surrey Smashers. I was lucky enough to have been sold to the Birmingham Lions at the auction which took place in June, and there I will team up with my former coach Lorraine Cole.
The Lions are supported by the University of Birmingham, which means a return to the place where I studied for three years between 2009 and 2012. I owe a lot to the university, and Lorraine in particular, so it will be fantastic to be able to go back and try to bring the first NBL title to the city.
The Birmingham Lions’ first match against Team Derby will be held at the National Indoor Arena in Birmingham. Team Derby can boast European silver medallist Rajiv Ouseph, as well as 2004 Olympic silver medallist Gail Emms. It is likely that I will be playing against her in the mixed doubles and as someone I looked up to when I was younger and am now coached by it is quite a daunting experience!
I am definitely looking forward to it though and, along with the rest of the Lions including Commonwealth silver medallist Heather Olver and National champion Sarah Walker, I am eager to get off to a winning start!
The venue for our televised match in December against the University of Nottingham Badminton is to be held at the Great Hall in the centre of the University of Birmingham’s campus. The last time I was there was for my graduation so it may have a slightly different feel to it this time around, but it will certainly add grandeur to the stage and, in my opinion, will be the best venue to be at with its intimacy and closeness to the game.
Everyone in the sport can’t wait for the NBL to get started. We are not looking for a revamp so much as an opportunity to showcase the sport to a wider audience and make it seem more than just a ‘pitter-patter’, friendly sort of sport.
I hope that by bringing the country’s top players, including Chris and Gabby Adcock, to a stage where they will regularly compete on home soil, will mean that we can show our sport as dynamically and fast-paced as it can be to a British audience.
