Penarth Junior Badminton Club
Penarth Junior Badminton Club are the first club to receive Welsh Badminton's Club Accreditation BRONZE level award. The club has gone from strength to strength over the last few seasons and has now established a strong structure for continued development. Fully constituted, the club has a strong base of volunteers and coaches and is always on the look out for new players.
Venue
Michaelston Community College (Ely, Cardiff) - 4 courts
Club Training Sessions
Please note: There are now spaces available in both sessions below.
Tuesday
Session 1 - Recreational Players 6.00 - 7.00 pm
Session 2 - Competitive Players 7.00 - 9.00 pm
Contacts
Chairman - Sarah Jones - jones-k35@sky.com
Secretary - Sian Platt - SP70532@GSK.com
CLUB SESSIONS - What happens at our club sessions?
As well as learning and improving our badminton shots and serving, we also improve our fitness and footwork and try to concentrate on match play and improving our tactics for singles, doubles and mixed.
We try to make this more enjoyable by having club fun tournaments and competitions, these include:
• End of season singles and doubles competitions
• Mini singles/doubles/mixed doubles tournaments
• Mini skills competition
• Seasonal events such as: Easter egg doubles tournament and Christmas skills competition
A Singles ladder Competition is also to be introduced in September 2007 for Session 2.
Other club initiatives to develop players:
• Player of the session – Each week at the end of session 1, the coaches select a couple of players who have worked particularly hard, or for example have served well, learnt a new shot, played good tactical games etc, the player is identified at the end of the session in front of all the players
• Stuart Dickson Player of the Year Award – this award has been set up
in memory of our long time manager/coach and friend who sadly passed away last November. It is awarded on an annual basis to one player from each session that has shown some or all of the following attributes:
1. Committed club player who turns up regularly for club night and plays for the team whenever or if they are asked.
2. Has good court manners
3. Listens when being coached and tries their best
4. Their game or some of their shots have improved
5. Is a good sport and always enjoys playing.
In 2006/2007 season the award was given to:
Adam Griffiths
(Session 1)(left)
Tobias Trigg
(Session 2) (right)
2006/2007 SEASON - Cardiff League
In the 2006/2007 season, the club entered three teams into the Junior Cardiff League: Under 18, Under 14 A and Under 14 B teams. Our Under 14 A team came first in their league and our Under 18 team narrowly missed first place. Our Under 14 B team had some close matches and were a credit to our club in terms of their sportsmanship and competitive spirit. We also had a number of friendly matches against Fairwater LC Juniors and Cowbridge Comprehensive School
French badminton tour
During this season the club also took 18 players between the ages of 12 – 18 years (of mixed ability) to the Aix en Provence in the South of France to play Badminton. All players played in a team match against AUC Jeunes, a fantastic match with great atmosphere and good sportsmanship shown by both sides. Penarth Juniors won 18 – 17, all going down to the last games of mixed!!! The players they also took part in a regional tournament which took place over two days:Tournai des Minots. All players were a credit to both the club and Welsh badminton. We also had some excellent results:
• Jon Breen and Mike Hooper won the boys doubles
• Jon Breen was runner up in the boys singles
• Kelly Blake and Mike Hooper were runners up in the mixed doubles (they played in the category above their age group)
• Kelly Blake won the girls singles
• Sara Edwards and Yee Wai Lim got to the quarter finals of their Singles
• Sarah Platt, Adam Taylor and Tobias Trigg won the Singles plate competition in their categories
Many friendships were made during this exchange and as a result we will be hosting AUC Jeunes in April 2008.
As a result of this successful exchange we were invited to bring 3 players of mixed ability to AUC badminton training camp at the end of August. Yee Wai Lim, Luke Jones and Nina Wallace were hosted by French families and attended the camp which was run over 5 days. The temperature were particularly challenging and on 2 days players were training in 34 degrees centigrade but the Welsh spirit and plenty of water kept them going. All three players felt that their game and French improved from this experience.
What is happening this season?
We have entered a ladies doubles team in the senior league, an under 18 team and under 14 team in the junior league.
In April 2008 the club will be hosting AUC Jeunes when an invitational junior tournament will be arranged – more details to follow.
We are also always on the lookout for friendly matches against other clubs throughout South Wales – so please get in touch and if you are interesting in joining our club, please come along or contact us.