Mark  was part of the official stringing team at three international badminton events during Feb and March 2009 including 2 ‘Super Series’ events

Mark joined a team of four stringers for the Yonex sponsored European Team Championships in Liverpool during February. The biggest entry ever saw over 400 players converging on Liverpool - the first time a major badminton event had taken place there. Each country had a mixed team playing one of each mens and ladies singles and doubles and a mixed doubbles. Initially in a round robin format followed by knock out stages - once again, Denmark just pipped England in the final 3-2.

It was a busy time for the team – over 350 rackets in the first 3 days, with the majority of rackets being Yonex ArcSaber 7 and 10's plus lots of Armortec 900 and 700's, plus quite a few Nanospeed 7000's. Very few Nano 9000's which was a surprise. Cheapest racket strung was a Yonex B500 which retails at just £10! Once of the team uses it to warm up players wrists as it is so heavy!. All Yonex players receive free restrings with players using other manufacturers paying £10 a time. Th tightest tension Mark strung was for a German player - 35lbs in the mains and 37lbs in the crosses in BG80!

At the beginning of March, Mark travelled to Birmingham for the Yonex All England Championships – this time a team of 7 stringers + admin was assembled for what is always a high workload of rackets. Yonex launched the new top of the range Nanospeed 9900 at the German Open the week before, so we strung lots of those for players from all over the world who are trying them out.

The following week, both Mark and Karen flew to Basel to string at the Swiss Open Super Series – this time for Wilson. We used the brand new revolutionary stringing machine called Baiardo. The Swiss Open was the first time the machines had been used at an International Badminton Tournament. Previously the machines have been used at both the 2008 US Open and 2009 Aussie Open tennis Slams.