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We are not certain of the
exact date of the foundation of the club in the town, but we have recollections
of organised badminton being played at least as far back as 1925.
Up until the 1950's there
were two clubs, one was based in the Badminton Hall in
Priory Street, while the other club played in the YMCA hall in John
Street. By all accounts, both were doing poorly and two good friends
Frank Poytz and Jack Brooks were credited with organising the amalgamation of
the two. The result of the merger was that the members of the Badminton
Hall in Priory Street moved across town to join their colleagues in the YMCA
hall. The club played in the Waterford League, but it was not all plain
sailing even after the amalgamation. A slump in interest in the late
1950's and early 1960's meant the club had only four female members at one
stage. To allow the club enter extra teams permission was sought from the
Waterford league for the ladies to be allowed play on more than one team.
This unusual request was granted by the league.
Club members were very
active in the setting up of the County Wexford Badminton Association in 1966 and
the club is the only original member to continue to field teams and affiliate to
the association since this date with an unbroken sequence. Shortly after
the formation of the County Wexford Association the club ceased to participate
in the Waterford leagues and concentrated on the local Wexford Leagues.
The club has been highly successful winning more titles, particularly at the
higher levels than any other club. Since 1996 because of lack of
competition within the Wexford leagues the club once again entered teams in the Waterford
premier division. Since 1996 the club has never failed to qualify for the
knockout stages of the competition and were champions in 1997.
The peak of interest in
badminton was in the early 1980's. At one stage the club had over a hundred
adult members and entered seven eight person teams in the various divisions of
the leagues. It is testimony to the officers at the time that this was
possible while playing in a one court hall. Membership at county and club
level was to decline dramatically at the end of the decade and reach crisis
level in the mid 1990's. The club was very nearly wound up in the 95/96
season when it had only eight members and severe difficulties in holding an AGM
and paying for hall hire. A decision was taken at this stage to vacate the YMCA hall
which had served the club so well for over seventy years and move to a new
premises with two playing courts in the local Vocational College. The
club's fortunes improved and we now have over seventy members.
Today under the
chairmanship of Martin Regan the club is once again vibrant with an active adult
and under age membership. The future of the club is looking bright with
many fine under age players coming on stream. The current president of the
club is Rosemary Jacob who has links with badminton in town going back as far as
1949. Rosemary played with the club for many years and then served in
various administrative positions until she called it a day in 1994. We
have been fortunate to have had many fine players and members like Rosemary in
our long history. It is thanks to these people that in the good times and
bad, badminton had survived and continues to be played and enjoyed by the people
of the town and its surrounds. As we begin this new millennium we remember
these people and hope that the club will continue to prosper in the future.
Rosemary & Russell Jacob in 1972
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