Red Nose Day Junior Badminton Tournament
21 children from across the county had a “smashing time” playing in the annual junior tournament in aid of Comic Relief 2019.
The event, held at GLL Hatfield Leisure Centre on Saturday 9th March, raised over £125 for Comic Relief.
Ian Robinson, lead Badminton Coach, said,” Thanks to the great support from the Management at the centre, particularly Karol ( Butrimas-Gair), we have been able to offer events like this and follow up the customer’s enthusiasm with other things they want, such as a family session.”
Lia Di Gesaro, who joined the coaching team after winning an award as a sports leader from a local girls’ school, arranged the matches, whilst parent helpers umpired the games. The players were cheered on by their parents from the sides. After the scores were added up, prizes of rackets, Red Nose t-shirts and flags were handed out.
The weekly badminton programme at Hatfield LC includes two No Strings sessions for adults, one No Strings session for all the family, a Racket Pack session for Primary school children, a Smash up session for secondary school children, and an after-school session for all children. Also, annually, there is a singles tournament, two doubles tournaments and a Christmas junior tournament.
The closure of Gosling Sports Hall sees potentially a doubling of sessions and numbers attending from the end of March, as badminton at GLL Hatfield goes from strength to strength.
8 year old Arnisha won the “Smiley-est Player” Award.