A BADMINTON club at the Plymouth Life Centre has proved a smash hit since forming less than a year ago.
The No Strings Badminton (NSB) sessions have been going from strength-to-strength and are now regularly attracting a full of house of 50 players a night.
NSB sessions, which are a result of a collaboration between Plymouth City Council’s sports development unit, Plymouth Active Leisure Ltd and Badminton England, offer low cost, pay-as-you-go social badminton for all standards and ages.
The club at the Life Centre takes place on a Friday between 6pm and 8pm and is run by a Badminton England qualified coordinator. They are also similar smaller sessions at the Brickfields Sports Centre on Tuesday evenings, YMCA Torpoint on Wednesdays and Plymstock School on a Thursday.
Thanks to Badminton England, racquets are also provided for those that don’t have them as well as shuttles and players can participate at different standards from advanced to beginners.
“We endeavour to make the sessions as inclusive as possible,” said a club spokesperson.
“And we are providing a session that is nationally recognised.
“We welcome both new and existing customers into our centre who will experience a badminton session as they would anywhere in the country.
“The NSB programme has ultimately been a huge success.
“We started the sessions at the Plymouth Life Centre under a year ago and already fill both our sessions to capacity.
“We know No Strings Badminton has been greatly appreciated by the Plymouth community and we regularly receive great feedback and enquiries about starting more sessions at other venues and on other days/times.”
“We priced the sessions as low as economically possible for us to be able to break even on the costs of the courts, coordinators and shuttles. We wanted them to be as affordable as possible for attendees.
“As a result of doing this we found there was an overwhelming amount of demand for the sessions resulting in us reaching capacity very quickly and consistently.
“We now successfully run one of the largest badminton clubs in the South West.”
The sessions are pay-as-you-go without any commitment and are £3.20 for up to two-hours.
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