Hastings YMCA Badminton ClubTim Leakey (Club Chairman/Match and Membership Secretary) recently officiated at the under 17 English Nationals at the National Badminton Centre at Milton Keynes. It was so great to see the rising stars of English Badminton competing for the titles at this great National centre for Badminton.
The Club recently celebrated the very special birthday of one of its players, Garen Tarassian with a special cake that was a replica of his badminton bag and was almost all edible – including the shuttle!!
Congratulations to Coach and Member of YMCA Sean Newberry for winning the Bruce Peapell Award which is awarded to someone who has made a valuable contribution to grassroots badminton, particularly for juniors.
Unfortunately within the last year a member of our club, Will Brand passed away suddenly.
In honour of him we have renamed the ‘Chairman’s Most Improved Player Award’ to ‘ Will Brand Memorial Most Improved Player Award.’
The winner of this award this year chosen by the committee was Julie Newberry who has shown great improvement within the year.
Tim Leakey (Club Chairman/Match Secretary) officiated for Badminton at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this year. It was a great experience and an honour to have been chosen to officiate. There were some fantastic matches between the commonwealth countries that were seen as close as one can get! The opening and closing ceremonies were unique to Birmingham, brining in the city’s history in to the presentations as well. A great experience!!
YMCA Recently had a inter-house Fun tournament!
See below for the games throughout the day.
We had Two groups within the tournament with random partners assigned for everyone.
The top three pairs for Courts 1 & 2 are below
The top three pairs for Courts 3 & 4 are below
A big thanks to Samantha Leakey and Linda Offen for running the day and trialling our new system as well.
This centre was just a perfect space for Badminton with 12 courts (sprung floors) in one building that were divided to separate each hall of three courts.
The most exciting game was a mixed match with Harry Goode (Son of Jo Goode MBE – Ex World No 1 Mixed Doubles & Andy Goode who also coached both of them) & Cara Collins who were 12-20 down in the third game and came back to win the match and the mixed final of the Tournament 21-23.
It just shows that one should never give up in a match!
See the photos of the inside halls during the tournament as well as the main centre.
Tim Leakey (Chairman/Match Secretary) officiated at a Badminton England Under19 Gold sanctioned tournament recently in Hertfordshire at University of Hertfordshire, De-Haviland Campus.
This centre was just a perfect space for Badminton with 12 courts (sprung floors) in one building that were divided to separate each hall of three courts.
The most exciting game was a mixed match with Harry Goode (Son of Jo Goode MBE – Ex World No 1 Mixed Doubles & Andy Goode who also coached both of them) & Cara Collins who were 12-20 down in the third game and came back to win the match and the mixed final of the Tournament 21-23.
It just shows that one should never give up in a match!
See the photos of the inside halls during the tournament as well as the main centre.
The Tournament was held at the National Badminton Centre in Milton Keynes and Tim Leakey Club Chairman/Match & Membership Secretary) officiated at the Championships where some great Badminton was played by the best players in the country.
The Sussex county was represented (playing separately) by Jonty & Zachary Russ who had some great games.
Some of the current Olympic squad also played at the championship. See a few of the photos during the day.
Hastings YMCA Badminton Club was very proud to be represented at the National Summer League Finals in Milton Keynes Last weekend.
The club had entered two teams into the league in order to gain experience and as a club we had not expected to qualify for the finals.
It was a very special day for all involved as they got a chance to play on the National team Courts.
It was a very challenging day as the opposition were from performance centres and were by far the best players our team had ever played against before.
Despite the uphill challenge our team kept their spirits high and enjoyed every moment and even managed to get some impressive scores.
It was certainly a day to be remembered for all the right reasons despite not bringing home the trophy.
Onwards and Upwards whilst looking forward to another tournament later next year.
Congratulations to both Callum Napier (Social Media and Website Committee Member) and Ryan Burdett for recently qualifying for their Level 1 coaching certificates. Great work and Well Done to both of them.
