(Credit: Rich Cooper)

The 2021/22 season has been highly successful for the club as we see a great interest in returning to play badminton. A pattern of slowly declining membership pre-COVID has been sharply reversed with many new members adding to the core who have played for more years than they might care to admit! Our club nights have been very well attended, with 4 courts regularly in play and matches played in a friendly yet competitive way.

Our club has been represented strongly in the various leagues we have entered with a full complement of players for every single match and no concessions. Our Open B and Mixed teams won their leagues, and the Open A , Open C and Ladies teams all competed hard and enjoyed some good matches. And the continued development through the ranks from Newbury Juniors to the Senior club was evident with Callum and Duncan Somerville combining their A-Level studies with captaining our Open C team.

We look forward to building on this next season when we return to play on Monday 5 September. But for those who can’t wait that long our Summer Club runs on a pay per play basis until the end of June.

Finally, a big thank you to everyone who has contributed to the success of our club. We are always looking for volunteers to support running the club and would welcome anyone’s contribution.

Core team members 2021/22 season:

• Ladies – Newbury/Shaw Joint
  Sheila (Captain), Bryony (Shaw), Latha (Shaw), Hilary, Clare (Shaw), Vivien
• Open Division 1 – Newbury Open A
  Bryan (Captain), Simon, Craig, Dinesh, Pedro, Kevin
• Open Division 3 – Newbury Open B
  Suzy (Captain), Ravi, Julia, Nigel, Josh, Mark L, Callum (junior), Duncan (junior)
• Open Division 3 – Newbury Open C
  Callum (Co-captain), Duncan (Co-captain), Jai, Raghu, Mark R, Rich
• Mixed “Ladder” Division – Newbury Mixed
  Julia (Captain), Sheila, Suzy, Pedro, Dinesh, Simon, Nigel

We will be running summer club on Mondays from 9th May to 27th June. Sessions will run from 19.30 to 21.30. (updated 28/06: summer club now extended to 25th July)

We will be using the booking system that we used when we first returned from Covid in 2020/21.

Members will have received the details about joining the summer club and paying upfront. Guests please get in touch if you’re interested to join.

The club have new Polo/ Tee shirts available online for members to order. Polo shirt and T-shirt options are available. Hers’s the link to get yours:
https://new.pbteamwear.co.uk/collections/newbury-bc

While the selection committee is busy selecting and nominating players and appointing team captains, the new season’s fixtures have been announced by NDBA.

It’s great to see the district league badminton competitions are back after a long and challenging break with two experimental changes:

1. Open Competition (replacing Men’s) – anyone is eligible to play, though it is not a Mixed Competition – teams may comprise any combination of men or ladies, in any configuration.
2. Mixed Competition “Ladder” system – this has been given a structure that means that each team is at the centre of a “virtual” division of seven.

Club’s first match will be Open A’s away match VS St Mary’s Open A at Elstree School on next Thursday 14th.

Date	Weekday	Team	H/A	Time	Venue	Home Team	Away Team
14/10/2021	Thu	Open A	Away	19:45	Elstree School	St Mary’s Open A	Newbury Open A
20/10/2021	Wed	Ladies A	Home			Newbury Ladies A	St Mary’s Ladies A
27/10/2021	Wed	Ladies A	Away	19:45	Elstree School	Bucklebury Ladies A	Newbury Ladies A
27/10/2021	Wed	Intraclub	Intraclub			Newbury Open B	Newbury Open C
01/11/2021	Mon	Open A	Away	20:30	Hurst Leisure Centre	Hurst Open A	Newbury Open A
01/11/2021	Mon	Ladies A	Home			Newbury Ladies A	St Mary’s Ladies A
03/11/2021	Wed	Intraclub	Intraclub			Newbury Open C	Newbury Open B
10/11/2021	Wed	Mixed A	Home			Newbury Mixed A	Shaw Mixed B

The club night sessions on Monday and additional Wednesdays are very well attended.

Welcome back all re-newing members and many new faces.

We welcome visitors to come down and play – please get in touch. Visitor fees is £5 per visit and annual subscription is to be reduced by the visitor fees you paid if you decide to join the club later.

Matches are going to commence in October and we have entered five teams in the league:

• 3 Open teams
• 1 Mixed team
• 1 Ladies team

A selection committee is to assess who is going to be in which teams for those who want to play matches.