Almanack: Chinese on a shuttle ride

THE car park was crammed, the ticket kiosk besieged. Inside the hall they had run out of chairs and people were sitting on the floor or standing in corners. The heat was intense. Unlikely though it may seem, the focus of these hordes was a game involving rackets and shuttlecocks. Mansfield had gone badminton-crazy.

Mansfield leisure centre is a bog-standard municipal amenity: an overheated barn with chewing gum trodden into its faded felt floor and trestle tables in the bar. It was opened in 1980 by Frankie Vaughan, of all people. It will soon play host to Jimmy White's 'whirlwind' tour; after that Slade II will be in town, and on New Year's Eve there's a cabaret. On Thursday night, though, the entertainment was provided by the badminton players of England and China, in the third match of China's six- venue British tour. The Chinese touring team is young but talented: it includes Chen Gang, the only badminton player to have been immortalised in a Sixties pop hit.

It's a curious business, this badminton tour. They play in such weird venues: Maidenhead, St Austell, Milton Keynes, Gateshead, Mansfield, Carlisle. Is there any logic behind this? Are these towns 'hot spots' inhabited by badminton fanatics? Or are they places where there isn't much else to do on Thursday night? We have our suspicions.

Yang Zhuo, one of the young Chinese stars, didn't care where he was (he probably didn't know, either). He was in his element, bobbing and weaving and slamming and shouting. Nothing to do with badminton - he'd discovered the Mortal Kombat machine in the corridor outside the dressing room, and from his delighted reaction and that of his team-mates, who ran off to cadge pounds 1 coins from their coach, Mortal Kombat has yet to hit Peking. They practically had to be dragged off the thing and on to the court.

Once there, Yang Zhuo must have wished that he had some of his computer-generated hero's powers. England's Darren Hall played him like a hooked salmon, bringing him to the net and lobbing him, wrong-footing him with forehands that might have been backhands, smashing winners time after time. Hall is 28, and has 73 England caps. Yang is 17, and has a lot to learn. 'He started quickly,' Hall told us after the game, 'but the Chinese always do that. I'm just pleased that I didn't let him back into the game, I didn't relax. But the ceiling's a little low here.'

Crucial point, that. The high serve was a vital part of Darren's armoury of shots. It's the equivalent of a powerful, fast first serve in tennis. But there's no point in hitting a shuttle hard in service: it'll fly out. What you do instead is biff it as high in the air as the arena will allow and cause your opponent problems judging the flight and length. But if you hit the roof, you lose the service, and in badminton you can only score when you are serving.

Julie Bradbury, a Commonwealth Games silver medallist, playing with Joanne Wright, won the women's doubles match. Doubles is more fun to watch than singles: it's hectic, frantic action with much shouting and gesticulating, and it's not uncommon for both players to go for the same shuttle (they call them shuttles, which is not surprising when you think of the other diminutive form of shuttlecock). Bradbury was the boss, exhorting Wright and directing play. She seemed to sense where the opposition were going to put their next shot, and indicated with racket or shout where Wright should move.

We wandered off to toy with some shuttlecocks on the trade stands. 'Goose feathers,' the stall manager said. 'The best you can get.' How much? 'Twenty pounds a dozen.' Good grief. Still, they last a long time, don't they? 'Oh, no. This lot on court right now will get through 20 in a match.' Hmm. Where are they manufactured? 'China. Just about all the shuttles in the world are made in China.' It all fell into place. The whole bizarre occasion wasn't a sporting event at all. It was an export drive.

(Photograph omitted)