Hastings YMCA Badminton ClubRecently our youngest member was involved in the junior tournament Sussex Juniors Rising Starts 2024
This tournament is for ages 11-17 with our member Karthik entering the U11 and he was very successful in winning the Tournament for his age group at 9 years old!!.
The club recently hosted another Inhouse tournament for our members with the first part of this happening on the 26th of June! This is a random draw where players play within that pair for the whole Tournament!
The in-house summer tournament for our social non-league players was held recently to great success!
It was well attended with 11 pairs playing 55 games in total. There was a very exciting playoff for first place between Ben Carter and his partner Gemma Batkin and our oldest player aged 80 Les Green and his partner Iain Glynn.
Ben and Gemma won overall with Les and Iain coming Second, The third-placed pair were only one point behind the winners! Mike Sherwood and new player Jo Wallwork unfortunately just missed out on that top two place this year.
Our youngest player Karthik Arun came a close fourth losing only 2 of their games.
It was a fun evening for all with the advanced tournament coming up on the 17th of July.
At our most recent AGM we once again celebrated one of our player’s improvements with the Will Brand Memorial Award! This year it went to Ben Carter one of our newer members within the last year.
Ben Carter enjoys playing badminton with his daughter Lily. Ben now plays several times a week and has elevated his ability so much to be now eligible for div one league matches next season.
As we do every year we celebrate Members of our club who have made great progress in their skills throughout the year and this year we are lucky enough to have a second award. Chariman’s Most Improved Lady Award!
Lucy Rainer is a shy girl who has really come out of her shell recently. Her badminton has improved so much that she was awarded the Chairman’s Most Improved Lady Award 2024.
Anne Hobbs, one of our long-standing members who has been a member for 50 years has recently celebrated her 70th birthday at our AGM!
A card was signed by members of the club and a cake given to celebrate.
We hope she had a good day along with the surprise from the club.
One of the local league clubs Hailsham & Eastbourne badminton club are hosting a charity badminton morning and are inviting people to come along and participate.
Please see below for details!
Can we interest you in a morning of fun badminton to raise some money for two fantastic local hospices – St Michaels in Hastings and St Wilfrids in Eastbourne? My son Matthew, and I are doing a 300mile charity cycle challenge (Eastbourne to Amsterdam) in September and so are spending our summer raising funds and covering some practice miles on our bikes.
I’ve booked courts on Sunday 7th July 09.30-12.30 at the Brighton Uni Sports Centre, Denton Rd, Eastbourne, BN20 7SR and it would be great if some of the local Eastbourne & Hastings badminton community would join us. Come along for 1-2-3 hrs whatever suits you. If we can interest you, could we ask you to do two things :-
1. Donate minimum £10.00 on our charity page https://www.givewheel.com/fundraising/2280/hospices-to-holland-bike-ride/
2. Email or text me back to let us know your coming; we can then check we have enough court space!
martinbilton14@hotmail.com or 07796 993769.
We will wrap up the event with a raffle and so raffle prize donations greatly received. Don’t forget to bring some cash to buy a ticket 😉
Really hope you can join us. Please let me know if you have questions.
Martin & Matthew Bilton
One of our members celebrated their 80th birthday the other day! To celebrate the club arranged for a special cake made to celebrate as well as a few small gifts as well.
Congratulations to Les on this day!
On the 30th March the Singles and Ladies Doubles section of the Eastbourne Tournament was held at Willingdon College.
YMCA had one pair in the Ladies doubles tournament with Anni Schmalz and Emma Harris winning two out of their four games to just lose out on second place in the final game!
The Mens singles YMCA had 3 Men enter two out of the three Groups with two Trophies being won.
Josh Craig Won Group C winning all his Games!
Milton Beach was able to win Group B also winning all his Games and picking up his second Trophy of the Tournament in total.
Neal King unfortunately missed out on Second place by one Point! and while having more points than his opponent he unfortunately lost the game 20-21 placing him in Third.
On the 23rd of March the mixed section of the tournament was held at Willingdon College.
YMCA entered 6 full pairs into two of the three groups, with everyone picking up at least a win throughout the tournament day.
One pair in group A of the tournament were even able to successfully win a trophy with Callum Napier and April Johns coming 1st in their group.
Birmingham’s stadium recently once again hosted the Yonex All England Badminton tournament.
The is tournament is the longest running Badminton tournament in the world running for 125 years
Tim Leakey Chairman of YMCA was one of the Line Judges for the event again as well!
Lots of great games were held throughout the week with the Finals being held on Sunday 17th March, With Tim even being able to be caught on one of the videos made to celebrate the event.
