Squad Trials

[Last Updated: 09/2026] - Any [TBC] details for 2026/27 will appear near the start of Michaelmas term!

If you are interested in playing competitively for the uni, you'll need to sign up for the open trials!

Overview: Squad Trials

To join the team, you'll need to pass squad trials which consists of two phases:
1. Open Trials: The first stage of trials that is open to anybody that signs up. Those that pass this stage are invited to the closed placement trials.
2. Closed Placement Trials: The second stage of trials that is invite-only. Those that pass this stage will be invited to join the team, and will also be placed within one of the squad teams.

How To Enter: Sign-up using the Google form at the top. You should then receive an email inviting you to the open trials.
What Happens: During the open trials, you can expect some of these things to happen:
1. Singles/Half-Court singles: You will play a series of half-court singles games. Usually, these are timed games rather than playing to some fixed score (in order to finish trials on time).
2. Doubles: After the singles round, you will play at least one doubles game. This is usually to a fixed score.
What Are We Looking For: Due to the limited amount of playing time, we are essentially just looking for players who demonstrate a decent level of badminton skills (e.g., movement, technique, shot quality). The scores of the games are secondary to this (as we appreciate that most participants will not have enough game time).
Outcomes: At any point during the trials, a member of the squad may tell you that you have passed/failed the trials (but usually this will happen after you have played at least one doubles game).

How To Enter: Invite-only. Those that pass the open trials will be invited to one of the closed placement trials. These are often separated by team (e.g., M1/M2 trials, M2/M3 trials, W1/W2 trials etc.).
What Happens: During these trials, you can expect some of these things to happen:
1. Singles: You will be assigned to a group of players. You will then play a round-robin series of full-court singles games within your group. This is usually one game to a fixed score.
2. Doubles: You will be assigned to a group of players (possibly different to your singles group). You will then play doubles matches with all possible pair combinations of the group. This is also usually one game to a fixed score.
3. Ad-Hoc Games: After this first round of singles and doubles games, you may be asked to play further singles and/or doubles games against any other player(s) to help us make decisions on who passes the trials.
What Are We Looking For: Since players have a lot more game time in this phase, the scores of the games are taken into much greater consideration. A combination of the "eye-test" of player ability alongside their scores in both singles and doubles will be used to determine who passes/fails this phase of trials.
Outcomes: At some point after playing your first round of singles and doubles games, a member of the squad will tell you that you have passed/failed the trials. For those that passed, you will also be told which team you have been placed in.