I play badminton for a club who are all wheelchair users. We manage to play as good as anyone else, and possibly just as fast. Is there anyone else here who plays in a wheelchair?
Lynne,
I am interested to know how many wheelchair players there are at your club. Also, are there are many clubs with wheelchair players near to you - do you have a league?
We have approximately 9 - 10 players, as far as we know we are the only wheelchair club going, we have our own club which is run partly through the local college, a few players have been away to Spain last year for a tournament. We don't belong to any league, but I am going to put this to other players to see if we can perhaps get something going, with able-bodied people.
I live in Macclesfield, Cheshire, and we play at a local school. The club is actually run through our local college, and they hire the hall at the school for us. I am actually going to play badminton in approx. 1 hours time, and am looking forward to it. We have a good laugh as well as playing some good games.
This club in Cheshire is organised by a remarkable woman called Dot Dillon. I spoke to her this evening and have asked her to come on the site and explain how it all started. She applied and recived funding from the lottery, she has sent players to Spain to represent England...... Let her explain it all. She has penned three articles for the BAofE Badminton Magazine.
I have searched for other wheelchair clubs but cannot find anything in this country, and yet it is thriving abroad. The BAofE had a Disability Development Group which looked at this but have not been able to take it further. In fact they have told Dot there is not funding to support wheelchair Badminton. Yet Dot has now got further funding from the lottery. She tells me Newcastle are starting up a section.
If you know of any group who are playing who are disabled, or in a wheelchair or anybody who would like to play Badminton then let's hear from you. We need your input to get our disabled section going!
There is a www.Britishwheelchairsport.org and a London Sports Forum For Disabled but no coverage for Badminton. There is an English Federation for Disability Sport www.EFDS.co.uk but no Badminton. Can you help?
You might want to speak to Ray Learney who is the BAofE regional manager for London. He is also the coach to the GB Deaf team and is getting involved with disabled badminton or possible Clive Ellames at the BA itself.
We have recently had contact from Jim Frere (Chairman of IBAD), so we'll wait with anticipation for his reposnce to our emails.
Thanks Ian for those contact names. We have been struggling to get any kind of responce with the managing bodies in this badminton discipline. So, fingers crossed that things are about to change!
I just attended a wheelchair badminton session in Glasgow last night. There were two players already there who started playing a couple of weeks ago too. I currently play wheelchair tennis and thought of giving badminton a try.
"BadmintonScotland" seem really enthusiastic about getting a competitive club set up in Glasgow and in Fife so hopefully wheelchair badminton will begin to grow in scotland too.
I thinkthe funding will be a major factor in whether tournaments will be accessible to our club but I think we are going to start with an internal league and maybe invite other players up for friendly matches.
