Grading and regrading

Your grade decides which competitions you can enter and which team you can play on.

Badminton Ireland sets the grading procedure and Cork applies it. The full procedure, including how appeals work, is on the Badminton Ireland website. Where this page and that one disagree, theirs is correct.

The grades

From strongest to weakest: Premier, A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H.

Grades are set per season, but a player can occasionally be regraded during the season based on their results. Council can also raise the grade of any player it considers too strong for their grade, at any point in the season.

Players new to Cork

A player who needs a grade must have an active Badminton Ireland number, and their club secretary sends a Member Proposal Form to the county secretary. If the player already has a Badminton Ireland number from another club or county, use that one. Each player should have only one.

Anyone who has been graded in Cork before, including everyone who played last season, doesn't need a form.

The form must be filled in completely, including the player's playing history, or no grade is given. The player's name must be spelt exactly as it is on their Sport 80 account.

A new player's first grade is provisional. Council watches their results through the season and can raise it at any point, which can mean they're no longer eligible for the team they were entered on.

A player can't play league matches until they've been graded. Any game an ungraded player plays is forfeited.

How grades change

The grading panel. At the end of the season a Cork grading panel reviews players and proposes promotions and demotions for the next season, based on their results across the season.

Automatic upgrades. Some results move you up a grade automatically:

• Win an individual event at a national graded tournament, grades D to H.
• Finish runner-up in an individual event at a national graded tournament, grade H.
• Win an inter-county team final, grades E to H.
• Win an inter-league team final, grades E to H.

Inter-county and inter-league wins at grade D don't bring an automatic upgrade.

Appeals

You can appeal the grade you're given, whether you think it should be higher or lower. Appeals go through county, provincial and national stages. Badminton Ireland's grading procedure sets out how.

For questions about grading in Cork, email ccbacountysecretary@gmail.com.