Falklands : Falklands Celebrate 60th Anniversary of Stanley Badminton Club
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 23.06.2010 (Article Archived on 07.07.2010)
Stanley Badminton Club (SBC) was first founded, with the approval of the Stanley Town Council, on 28 June 1950 under the chairmanship of Bert Livermore and was played in the old gymnasium on Ross Road.
60th Anniversary of Stanley Badminton Club
Stanley Badminton Club (SBC) was first founded, with the approval of the Stanley Town Council, on 28 June 1950 under the chairmanship of Bert Livermore and was played in the old gymnasium on Ross Road.
The club became an associate member of the International Badminton Federation (IBF) in September 1956 at a cost of 10 shillings per year membership fee. The club has continued to be a member ever since, although the IBF is now known as the Badminton World Federation and membership fee is $200 per year.
BWF has evidence in their archives that badminton was played in the Islands as early as 1907.
The forerunner to SBC, the Falkland Islands Defence Force Badminton Club, was founded in 1929 (see picture from 1931). This club was still running when the SBC was formed in 1950 and friendly matches between the two clubs were often held.
In 1959 Nick Hadden established a badminton club at Goose Green to which Stanley Badminton Club donated a net and shuttle cocks.
The SBC has continued to run since it first opened in 1950 apart from a break in 1982 during the Argentine occupation, when the town was put under curfew and the occupying forces took over the gymnasium.
From first forming, the SBC hosted an annual mid-winter fancy dress ball, which was a very popular event in Stanley’s social calendar until the 1990’s.
Rosemarie King is the longest serving member, having joined the club in 1972. However Rene Rowlands, who sadly passed away on 28 June 2008, (58 years to the day from when the club was first formed) had been one of the founding members and was actively involved in the club, having been elected life President in the 1990’s, until she took ill shortly before her death. Rene received a meritorious award from the IBF in 1986 and was invited to attend the IBF AGM in Guatemala in 1993. She then went on to the Isle of Wight that same year to support the Falklands team in their first competition in the Island Games, at which her son, Neil, was competing. Doug Clark first competed at these Games in 1993, age 16 (and Chris Eynon was a few months younger).
SBC has competed at every Island Games since the Falklands team first attended in 1993, apart from Gibraltar in 1995 and in 2007 when Rhodes did not hold a badminton event, however a badminton competition was hosted by Greenland that year where SBC was represented. A young team went to the Commonwealth Youth Games in Pune, India in 2008 and a team will be going to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi, India in October this year. As well as representing the club in Delhi in October, and at numerous Island Games, Doug Clark has represented the club at the Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur in 1998 with Bill Chater (although Bill was injured and didn’t get to play) and also in Manchester in 2002 with Chris Eynon, this will therefore be Doug’s third Commonwealth Games.
The club is fortunate to be able to bring a professional coach to the Islands this week. Rebecca Pantaney, a Commonwealth Games Gold medal winner, will be here on her fourth visit to work with both the team and other younger members of the club to help develop the sport within the younger generation.
SBC would like to thank Commonwealth Games Federation, Falklands Holdings and Caribbean Alliance Insurance Company for their sponsorship, without which Rebecca’s visits would not be possible.
The club will be holding a fundraising Liberation Dance on Saturday night (12th June) in the Town Hall to celebrate the 60th anniversary and commemorate Liberation weekend.
Lynn Brownlee
8 June 2010
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