Roy's Information for Badminton in North London, UK

Please bookmark as : Roy's Badminton Info (URL is now www.roysinfo.net)
This site acts as a shop-window for Hadley Badminton Club and the Barnet & Disrict Badminton League but also provides help for anyone looking to play badminton in North London. This information is biassed towards the match-playing clubs around Barnet and Enfield because that is where I am involved, but I will try to add in mentions of other clubs, courts for hire, if asked.
There are sections on :
Hadley Badminton Club which will play club-nights on Thursday nights (2006-7 winter season) on hired courts in Southgate, and plays summer-club and matches at Enfield Drill Hall.
Barnet & District Badminton League which organises a competitive structure for teams of 6 players (3 men, 3 women), playing doubles (level and mixed). The BDBL section also includes brief details on the clubs.
Enfield Badminton League (The Barnet and Enfield leagues work in cooperation)
Non-League Badminton Please give me something to put in here.
Badminton Courts to Book
Useful Badminton Links


Site updated October 2006. Comments and queries should be directed to : badminton4@roysinfo.net

Hadley Badminton Club

August 2006 - New Venue

The club has relocated for the 2006-7 season to Ashmole Sports Centre in Southgate, London N14 and is within easy reach of Southgate tube station. Club night is still on Thursdays from 8pm.

General

The club plays club-nights at 2 locations according to season.
Winter season : Ashmole Sports Centre, Southgate, London N14 on Thursdays from -10pm. This is roughly from September to end of March. The club has 3 courts.
Summer Season : Enfield Drill Hall, Tuesday, 7.00pm(ish) - 11pm(ish). This runs from April to August on 2 courts. During the winter these courts are usded for matches.

Finding the Halls

Ashmole Sports Centre, Cecil Road (off Arlington Road), Southgate, London N14 5JR(?) on Thursdays from -10pm.
See Ashmole
Enfield Drill Hall is on Old Park Avenue, Enfield, near the junction with Windmill Hill.
Street map : Drill Hall

Membership

The club welcomes new players of match-playing standard, especially women, but also has a section for improvers (mostly female, coaching is given at most club nights). Unfortunately we cannot take on beginners.
We usually go for a drink after the club session and all are welcome to join us.

Junior Badminton

A junior section was running at Dame Alice Owens School, Potters Bar but numbers made it uneconomic to continue in this large venue. The club may resume with more members or in a smaller hall.
Contact Gary : 07759 832124

Several advanced juniors are now playing with the main section : other suitable juniors could join them.
If Hadley's Junior Club is not suitable, check out these sites for details of a number of other junior clubs:
Middlesex Junior Badminton 1
Middlesex Junior Badminton 2
Some of them are engaging in league matches.

Coaching

Coaching at Hadley for juniors is by Gary Smith. He is normally present during main club sessions too, and running a ladies' improvers coaching section.

2 other coaches who operate in the area that I can recommend are:
Steve Willis (Hadley's former Club Coach) Steve also provides raquet stringing services
John Howley
 
 

Teams

The club runs 5 or 6 teams in the local leagues (Barnet,Enfield,Middlesex). Home matches are at Enfield Drill Hall on Tuesdays at 7.15pm during the winter season.

Contacts

Please call Gary : 07759 832124 or email as above.
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Barnet & District Badminton League


General


The BDBL is an association of badminton clubs, which are affiliated to the Badminton Association of England and the Middlesex County Badminton Association (or Hertfordshire). Its main purpose is to organise a competitive league for teams. The league comprises 4 divisions of about 5 or 6 teams, which play each other home and away during the badminton season (late September to end March). Each match involves 3 men and 3 women from each team. Each person plays 3 rubbers (normally the best of 3 sets) of doubles, each with a different partner,2 men's/ladies' doubles and 1 mixed doubles.
Applications to join from new clubs/teams would be welcome, and are needed to reverse the decline over the last few years.
Current League Table

Some Club Details
Details are also available from some of the links further down.

Background for anyone unfamiliar with English league/club badminton


All organisation at club level is based on the scarcity of court-time, which is still usually the case even now. Sports halls are not built on the scale I have seen abroad. The home team organises the hall/court(s), shuttles, refreshments etc. for a match. The hall is typically either a church-hall providing a single court, or a sports hall with 2 courts in use for the match. 5 or 6 hours court-time is needed to complete a match under B&BDL rules. Matches normally start at 7pm or later on weekdays, or at any reasonable time at weekends. In the B&DBL, either team can cut the match short if it lasts a long time, but as these are probably the best, hard-fought matches, your team may be split over carrying on or geting home at a civilised hour.

Geographic Spread

Most teams play in the Barnet/Enfield area, but teams from Swiss Cottage, Bushey, Waltham Cross and Tottenham do play or have played.

Enfield Badminton League

The Enfield Badminton League and the Barnet & Distrcit Badminton League cooperate to provide complementary competions, while both cover an area including both Barnet and Enfield. The E.B.L. runs leagues for traditional mixed 6's, men's 4's ladies' 4's and a hybrid 4. A copy of their handbook can be obtained from Simon Gouldstone (see the L.B. Enfield link below). Here is a list of the clubs, the location of their club night, and a pointer to a suitable contact list. Some Club Details
Also see Links below.

Non-League Badminton Around Barnet and Enfield

If anyone wishes to publicise their club or regular session which welcomes visitors, then please send me some details. It could well take some weeks to get onto the site. There are a couple of clubs listed on each of the L.B. Enfield site and L.B. Barnet sites.
Nomads, Speedwell, etc. Where are you ?

Badminton Courts Around Barnet and Enfield

Courts can be booked on a casual basis at the following Sports Centres :
Ashmole Centre, Burleigh Gardens, Southgate, N14 : 8368-4984

Burnt Oak Leisure Centre : 8201-0982
Compton Centre, Summers Lane, North Finchley, N12 : 8361-8658
Queen Elizabeth Centre, Meadway, High Barnet, EN5 : 8441-2933
Hendon Youth Sports Centre, Marble Drive NW2 : 8455-0818

Southbury Leisure Centre : ??? Can anyone tell me about this ?
The following sports halls are all managed by Enfield Council Sports Customer Services Team, Tel 020 8379 3769 ???
:: Enfield College, Hertford Road
:: Chace Community School, Churchbury Lane, Enfield. EN1
:: Winchmore Secondary School, Highfield Road, Winchmore Hill, N21
:: Aylward Secondary School, Silver Street side entrance, Edmonton.N18


Enfield Drill Hall ; The following was provided by Alan R Hayes,
Director, Drill Hall sports club, (enfield) Ltd
Courts may be booked by clubs/ individuals, by the hour or 4 hour booking for club nights/ matches. Availability over weekends, weekend nights limited . Hall is used by Enfield and Barnet league clubs, there are also two junior clubs represented , they play on Thursday/Saturdays. Most clubs welcome visitors who may wish to try their hand. Further information (on Drill Hall bookings)can be found by either ringing 0208-367-7770, mainly answerphone, or by e:mail at
drillhall@btconnect.com (no website at present. meeting room also available for club agm's etc at reasonable rates. Booking secretary Jenny Hayes )

Any managers of halls which would welcome either casual or block bookings are welcome to give me details to add in here.

Parkside Tennis Club

I think this club has folded.

Links to a few useful badminton-related sites :

Some good enthusiast's sites :
World Badminton
Anita's Badminton Site Also with world coverage.
Badders.com UK biassed
Badminton Central World coverage
BadZone
Badminton UK
Badminton.me.uk
A new site (in late 2002) agitating for a major change in the organisation of badminton at the grass-roots level in Britain ( my words, not theirs ).
This new web-site is aiming to 'promote the adoption of a graded tournament structure open to players of all abilities and to promote the introduction of a club-based structure in the UK'. 'Such a tournament structure is central to the French badminton model, where the French Badminton Federation has experienced exponential growth, with currently TWICE the membership of the Badminton Association of England and a DOUBLING of membership in the last 5 years!'
The central proposition of the site is that a similar scheme would reverse the decline in player numbers in the organised game in Britain.
The site aims to encourage people to email/write in support to the B.A.E. etc.

Official Sites for the county associations round London
Note that badminton's national structure is arranged by county. Central, North and West London are covered by Middlesex, East London postal codes North of the river by Essex, and South of the river by Surrey and Kent.
Middlesex County B.A.
Herts County B.A.
Essex County B.A.
Surrey County B.A. Select Contacts or Links for club info
Kent County B.A.
Badminton Association of England

Badminton information on Barnet and Enfield Borough sites
London Borough of Enfield Hall Directory
Enfield Halls : The Enfield Council site used to be good, now I find it just takes you round in loops and tells you nothing.
London Borough of Enfield Clubs Directory
Enfield Badminton League Directory An enthusiast's site which contains similar information to my Enfield club list above, but it may be more complete.
London Borough of Barnet : Barnet Online The London Borough of Barnet's site directory structure only points to the borough's own facilities. However, it is now possible to find a few badminton clubs (3 non-league clubs, Hadley and a couple of churches that may provide badminton were listed at 15/11/02) by searching for badminton from the Quick Search box.

Directories which may provide local information
Barnet4u I rather like this Barnet directory
Explore-UK I reserve judgement on this site, an attempt at a wide directory of UK sites, but it could be very good if developed.
Middlesex Federation
Capital County
County of Middlesex

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