Calling all ladies!!!!!
Stowmarket Badminton club
ran free ladies badminton sessions over 6 weeks in April / May
at Mid Suffolk Leisure Centre to encourage ladies and girls in the
Stowmarket area to take part in badminton. The sessions
attracted an unprecedented interest with 75 different ladies
turning up over the 6 weeks. The sessions were aimed at
beginners, those that had some experience, or individuals wanting
to get back into playing. With an average of 35 ladies each
night the coaches had their work cut out and with only four courts
available the sessions were fast and furious.
With a little bit of coaching the main aims of the sessions were to
get ladies and young girls back into the sport and hopefully offer
them a bit of exercise as well. It is hoped that these sessions
will become an annual event and that those involved will find their
way into the sport.
2011FebLadiesnightposter3.pdf
All England Championships 2010
As a Premier Club, were offered up to 10 free tickets to the Yonex
All England Open Championships in March for either the Tuesday or
the Wednesday sessions. Six members of our Club took advantage of
this offer and went up to Birmingham on the Wednesday and saw a
full days worth of very good Badminton with courts in use from 10
am to 10 pm.
Disability Day 2009
Stowmarket Badminton Club
members under the leadership of Jo Hughes, who has previous
experience in this field, ran two 1hr sessions of Badminton at the
Disability Day at the Sports Centre on 26
th September.
This whole event was run by O.P.T.U.A to give disabled people
a taste of various sports. It was a quite demanding two hours as
many of the participants needed one to one help but it was good to
be able to help others to experience a taste of playing Badminton
and it was agreed that our Club would support this event again next
year if we are asked to help.
Level 1 success
Congratulations go to Tom
Simonds and Charles Baker who both successfully completed their
Level 1 coaching qualification during March. The boys are students
at Thurston and are studying PE at A level. Their
acheivement demonstrates both their commitment and
ability within the sport and we hope this will inspire our
other junior players onto bigger and better things.
Suffolk Sports Awards
The Suffolk Sport Awards 2008 rewarded our local sporting heroes
on Sunday 19th October at Trinity Park, Ipswich.
Professor Bill Tancred MBE, Chairman of the Suffolk Sport Board,
welcomed the Lord Tollemache, Lord-Lieutenant of Suffolk and the
invited audience of three hundred club representatives
and formally opened the Ceremony. Stowmarket Badminton Club
had been nominated for the Club of the Year award and were up
against Ipswich Basketball Club and Orwell Panthers Athletic Club.
We were pipped to the post by Ipswich Basketball Club but were very
proud to get so far. 
During the evening presentations were also made to all clubs that
had achieved Clubmark status during the previous 12 months and once
again we received recognition for our efforts.
Three of our six Suffolk based Olympians &
Paralympians also received awards during the evening. The
achievements of Bronze Medallist Sharon Hunt (3 Day Eventing), Jo
Ellis (Hockey) & Brian Alldis (Wheelchair Racer) were
celebrated. When making the presentations, Lord Tollemache spoke of
‘how proud Suffolk was of their achievements’, and with all eyes
now turning to the London 2012 Games, he was sure that their
collective performances will have inspired more young people to
take part in sport'. It was great to be a part of such a wonderful,
inspiring evening.
From shuttles to
snowmen....
In December last, Woolpit Church held their first ever Festival of
Decorated Christmas Trees and our Badminton Club decided to enter a
Tree. We saved all our used feather shuttles and gave them out to
willing youngsters at out Junior Club asking them to make
“something Christmassy” for our tree. We were amazed with the end
results that arrived back after a few weeks. We received snowmen,
reindeer, kings, lots of angels as well as some lovely stars and a
robin. Some of our adult members also entered into the spirit of
the event and we were able to decorate our tree with over sixty
shuttles. What a wonderful response
from our Club. There were forty trees at the Festival and visitors
were asked to vote for the tree they liked best by putting coins in
boxes underneath the tree. Following fierce competition from some
super entries, our tree - “Shuttle Spectacular” was the winner and
we were duly presented with a large box of Quality Street to share.
After the Festival weekend our tree was taken to Stowmarket Sports
Centre where it was on display until after Christmas which gave
lots of publicity to our Club. A good use of “old shuttles”!!
