YMCA Badminton Club breaking the generation gap

The night culminated in a very exciting playoff between Ben Carter and his partner Gemma Batkin against the clubs oldest member aged 80, Les Green and Iain Glynn.

Ben and Gemma won the play-off. Third place and only one point behind was Mike Sherwood and a very new player Jo Wallwork.

Club secretary, Samantha Leakey, said it was great to see the club thriving with all the different ages mixing so well together. the youngest player was 10-year-old Karthik Arun and he won 8 of his 10 games to finish in 4th place.

The club encourages juniors to come along and play with their parents and currently, we have a number of father and daughters and mother and sons enjoying playing at our club. it's great to see kids having fun with their parents instead of being in front of a computer or on their phones.

The club managed to survive the covid era unlike many local clubs, then this year we lost our venue due to unaffordable price rises by the new management company and we had to desperately search for an alternative venue and now we are split across 2 venues. We are so happy to be back to our roots at the refurbished YMCA where we started over 50 years ago.

We are always looking for new members to join us. We do accept juniors if an adult is present at the session. New players are invited to attend Bexhill Leisure Centre on Tuesdays from 8.30 to 10pm or the YMCA on Wednesdays from 7.30 to 10pm.

Members also play Monday and Friday evenings at the YMCA. Booking is essential as we are not a drop-in session. Please email [email protected]