B43: Being somewhat GOOD at BADminton!

​OK, before I murder another pun and tell you that Badminton is a “downright smashing game”, I’ll tell you how I came to play the game….and win my only (adult) sports trophy😊.

​In Greenhill, I first messed around with Badminton as part of PE with Mrs. Cunningham and Sr. Immaculata as our coaches.  We used to play in the Junior GPA (General Purpose Area).  As the name suggests the GPA was used for many different purposes including as a place to have our lunch for those of us who didn’t go home for lunch.  After lunch was consumed (with whatever treats we could afford from the student-run tuck-shop), Sr. Helen bustled around ensuring everything was tidied up ….and we could then have a quick game of Badminton before the afternoon classes started.  All-the-while we tried not to take the eye out with a shuttlecock of a non-suspecting student crossing the floor to the 1st year block).  Whacking some nun across the head with a racket as she passed across behind us to the 2nd year block was also never a good idea!😂😂

We looked something like this □

Having survived those Greenhill games with no bankruptcy-inducing lawsuits for personal injury claims, I joined the Carrick Badminton Club for a short time when I left school.  I liked it the game because it was more about agility and smart angles than brute force.  I had very little of the latter.  But college and exams took up a lot of time so I didn’t play in Carrick for long.

BADminton Girl Strikes Again!

In 1990, I relocated to Dublin.  I needed to meet people and make new friends.  Back in the day, before Tinder and swiping left/right …or Facebook/ Instagram friend requests and the coveted likes, the two ways to do that, always suggested by agony aunts (e.g. Angela McNamara in the Sunday Press), was to A) do an evening class such as car maintenance and/or B) join a sportsclub.  (A) was a bit problematic for me seeing as we had never had a car at home, I didn’t know my camshafts from my carburettor; my pistons from my petrol caps.  Besides, the “grease monkey” moniker just wasn’t for me!  I didn’t like getting my hands dirty!😜

Terenure Badminton Club Hall

​So sports clubs it was….. and I wrote off to the Leinster Branch Badminton Union of Ireland for clubs near me (WOW we had to write query letters..on paper….and mail them in the days before Googling became a thing!).  It turns out the Leinster Branch owned two Badminton Halls in Dublin; one on the Southside (Terenure) and the other on the Northside (Baldoyle).  You could book them for the hourly rate of IR£5 and the season ran from early September.  I was in a bedsit in Grove Park, Rathmines at the time so the Terenure one on Whitehall Road suited me, being about 5km away.  As luck would have it they were starting a Summer Beginners Club “mainly for beginners with organised play and some coaching, on Monday nights from 8 p.m. to 11 p.m. from Monday 6th May – Monday 19th August 1991”.  I still have the reply.  The fee was IR£50 payable by cheque or postal order (who remembers them???)

I Still Have My Racket & A Shuttlecock From 1991!

​So for the guts of 4 months I used to rush home to Grove Park from work at Arthur Andersen (who were still on St. Stephen’s Green then), grab something to eat and then catch a 15A bus from Lower Rathmines Road to the KCR (Kimmage Cross Roads) and walk the last bit to Whitehall Road.  I remember our class was small, 10 or so…and we had a lovely man called Eamon to coach us.  I still remember that green-painted hall and those long Summer evenings.  (I recently mentioned that hall to Charlie and he said he was involved in painting it a few years earlier!!!  Small world!!)

The Green Walls of The Clubhouse

If you want to learn more about playing badminton click from "Badminton Is Great".       Or watch this YouTube video:

​At the end of that Summer of 1991 we had a Tournament.  The result was that I and my Badminton partner came a close second and so I won my one and only sports trophy🤣.  It gets pride of place on my shelf.  I treasure it like it's an Olympic Gold!!  Sure more than one and I’d be killed dusting them.😜 (Another result was that I and that Badminton partner ended up dating for a while but that’s another story …….never to be told😉!)

My (One & Only) Badminton Trophy!

​Bucket List Item Ticked Off in the above Blog post
Number 53 - Skills - Be Passably Good in at least One Sport


Other Blog Posts
Blog 7 - Alice Springs, Australia
​Blog 8 - Adelaide, Australia
Blog 9 - Melbourne, Australia
Blog 10 - Cairns, Australia
Blog 11 - Sydney, Australia
Blog 16 - Books 8 of 80 to read now!

Is there a particular sport you play?  Where?  Let me know in the Comments below!

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