The West Cumberland Badminton League is preparing for the season’s launch and it will run to the end of April.
The league is made up of teams from Abbeytown, Cockermouth, Marchon, Seascale and Solway who compete in two Mixed Divisions, one Men’s Division, one Ladies Division and one Doubles Division.
There is also the annual Peeney Cup knockout competition where each mixed team entered is handicapped on their league finish position from the previous season.
Alongside the league and knockout competitions, there is also an annual handicap tournament that is run each year, for all registered players within clubs in Cumbria. This comprises of Mixed, Ladies and Men’s Doubles throughout a full day of badminton for those who enter two events.
The way it works with a handicapped tournament is the better players get a bigger starting handicap, and the not so stronger players get an easier starting handicap. Therefore you could get a game starting -30 v +12 depending on the pairs, as it is done to try and even up the games.
The good thing about the league is there have been no really clear favourites in any of the leagues over the last couple of years.
Abbeytown won the Mixed 1 Division for a number of years but the last couple of seasons have lost out to Marchon 1, but after very close games that could gone either way.
The Ladies league was dominated by Marchon 1 for roughly eight years in a row, however the formation of the new Doubles league last season was to enable the stronger Marchon ladies to play in that.
That meant the Ladies league was more evenly contested last season and came down to one match between Seascale 1 and Marchon (previous 2nd team).
The Men’s league has probably been the most seriously contested over the last few years as it went from Solway, to Marchon, to Solway, to Marchon, to Cockermouth and back to Solway again.
Chances are again this season it’s going to be another close one which can only be a good thing for the league.
The newly formed doubles league was well contested in its first year with Marchon 1 taking the first title, however some games were close and ended in draws so it’s very much anyone’s to win.
As for the Peeney Cup, that is always anyone’s to win due to the handicaps with the lower teams coming up against the higher teams but only needing to get nine or ten points an end to go through, so it’s a battle of wits and there can be some shocks.
The league is run by a committee, made up of a chairman, secretary, match secretary, treasurer, tournament secretary and press/social media secretary.
There is also a separate handicap committee who meet to discuss pairs handicaps for the tournament.
Graeme Lowrey has been involved in the league for the last 19 years, taking on a role of match secretary after the first couple of years attending the meetings.
He said: “As the years went on, I took over the role of tournament secretary and have been running successful handicap tournaments for the last 10 to 11 years. The league has been running for much longer than I have been involved.
“I have some old accounts that date back to the late 50s/early 60s I think, so I know it existed then but no doubt it started much earlier than that.
“At the start of each season there is the first meeting where clubs attend and enter their teams for the new season, in which the league formats are then decided and agreed on. After this, a week later we hold a fixture meeting where each club sends a representative and the clubs arrange the dates to play their fixtures.
“Some clubs have more teams than others and so they can take some time to get arranged but we get there eventually. After that meeting, all the fixtures are pooled together by myself, to ensure everyone has the same dates, then its all systems go for the season.
“As much as I don’t want to say it, I do enjoy the organisational side of being on the league committee, attending the meetings and giving input on how the league runs. There can be some challenging parts at some meetings having to change how the leagues are structured, but that is all part of the change process allowing the league to run the best it can.
“I have quite an important job as all fixtures go to me at the start of the season to ensure all clubs have the same information. I then get sent every scoresheet after every match to input the results into tables so at the end of the season we have winners and losers, the same with any sports that have leagues.
“I also have the job of organising the annual handicap tournament, advertising, collecting all entries, then meet with the handicap committee to sort out all handicaps for each pair and then organise into groups, before the running of the day.
“The tournaments normally see roughly 160-odd games of badminton being played throughout the day, so its very long and can be an intense day for those better players playing on big handicaps but everyone seems to enjoy themselves and gets good value for money.
“Unfortunately there is no Junior league within West Cumbria. The junior clubs have disbanded, apart from Cockermouth, due to people moving on and not having the correct things in place to be able to run one, such as qualified coach, first aider, DBS checked people, welfare officers etc.
“I feel there is a need for some and I hope that in the next year or two there will be two created at both Seascale and Marchon, but these are still in the planning phase from what I can gather.
“When I was a junior, starting at 10 years old there was a junior section at all clubs in the West League bar one or two, but there were also some more teams back then too.
“Now I am 39 I have seen all these clubs change, some folded and some struggling to continue each season.
“Cockermouth Badminton Club is the only club in the league that have a junior section, and it is very successful and popular. Barry Wilkinson who is the coach there and has run it for a number of years has recently achieved his Level 3 Coaching Award which is a massive achievement for him.
“He has helped produce some very good players out of the Cockermouth club over the years, and is still running successful sessions now with some of his players doing well on the junior circuits around the UK.”
How to get involved
Anyone wanting to give badminton a go, get in touch with the league through their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/westcumbriabadmintonleague or email [email protected] for more information on clubs in your area, or contact the clubs directly.
Solway Badminton Club
- Venue: Workington Leisure Centre
- Nights: Thursdays
- Times: 7pm until 9pm
- Contact: Malcolm Grayson
- Email: [email protected]
- Number of teams: 2 Men’s
- Type of club: Senior
Cockermouth Badminton Club
- Venue: Cockermouth Leisure Centre
- Nights: Tuesdays
- Times: 8pm until 10pm
- Contact: Max Statter
- Email: [email protected]
- Number of teams: 1 Men’s, 1 Mixed, 1 Ladies, 1 Doubles
- Type of club: Junior and Senior
Abbeytown Badminton Club
- Venue: Solway Community School, Silloth
- Nights: Thursdays
- Times: 7pm until 9pm
- Name: Lorraine Graham
- Email: [email protected]
- Number of teams: 1 Mixed
- Type of club: Senior
Seascale Badminton Club
- Venue: St Benedict’s School, Whitehaven (new venue for the new season)
- Nights: Thursdays
- Times: 7pm until 9.30pm
- Contact: James O’Hanlon
- Email: [email protected]
- Number of teams: 1 Men’s, 3 Mixed, 2 Ladies, 1 Doubles
- Type of club: Senior
Marchon Badminton Club
- Venue: St Bees School, Wood Lane, St Bees
- Nights: Thursdays
- Times: 7pm until 9pm
- Name: Graeme Lowrey
- Email: [email protected]
- Number of teams: 1 Men’s, 3 Mixed, 1 Ladies, 3 Doubles
- Type of club: Senior