Active Club Focus

St Aidan's Junior Badminton Club
Sunderland's very own St Aidan's Junior Badminton Club has been given special recognition as Club of the Month by Badminton England. Added to this they are Active Sunderland's first Club to be featured in the Active Club Focus.

The first Junior Badminton Club in Sunderland to be affiliated with Badminton England and to achieve Club Mark status, St Aidan's JBC now has approx. 80 members of all ages and abilities.

Badminton England's accolade of 'Club of the Month' is a showcase for clubs across the country that are achieving outstanding results. Not only has St Aidan's JBC been very successful in encouraging junior participation in the area, their club teams are well known to the local adult league players, having had a variety of wins in the Gateshead, Sunderland and Northumberland leagues over the past few years.

They are proactive in running initiatives to encourage a wide range of players, promoting the sport amongst girls and offering sessions where parents are encouraged to pick up a racquet and join in. Last year they ran an extremely successful Summer Camp, supported by the local SSP, where over 90% of children who attended the camp returned to join the club in September.

Jo Clarke from Badminton England said:

"St Aidan's JBC has been recognised as BADMINTON England's club of the month. The club's story provides great inspiration to other junior clubs or those groups of players/parents who are keen to form a new club as to what can be achieved. I would like to offer my personnel congratulations to all other players, committee and dedicated parents at the club for their achievements. In particular club Secretary Sharon Cosgrove, who has worked extremely hard for a number of years to develop St Aidan's JBC to be the club that it is today."

Sharon Cosgrove from St Aidan's Junior Badminton Club said:

"We were delighted to have been recognised by Badminton England in this way. The Club was set up by a group of parents who simply wanted to provide a safe and welcoming place for juniors to play badminton, at an affordable cost. We pride ourselves on being a 'Club for All' and the development of the club has just been a natural progression for us. The past 18 months have been somewhat of a whirlwind but we are expecting to see badminton take off in a big way throughout the Sunderland area."

Club sessions run every Tuesday and Wednesday evening during term time at St Aidan's Catholic School, Willow Bank Road, Sunderland. Anyone interested in finding out what St Aidan's JBC. has to offer can contact the Club Secretary at sharoncosgrove@o2.co.uk  mobile: 0787 904 3733

Read more about St Aidan's and their Club of the Month title at BADMINTON England.

Should your club be featured in our Active Club Focus section? Get in touch and tell us what you've been up to and you could be in the next edition. Email: sports.leisure@sunderland.gov.uk or call 0191 5614697