CrossFire Badminton Club

The story behind how it all started dates back to 2004 at a Fitness Weekender in Minehead.

I first met Sandra Robinson (Treasurer) and Donnette Hamilton (Secretary) by chance, when overhearing a conversation discussing badminton. I couldn’t help but ask what it was about. Badminton was the last thing I expected to do that weekend, I remember reluctantly leaving my rackets behind thinking that there was to be no badminton on this weekender.

It just so happened that Sandra and Donnette had booked some courts down the road, and were soon off to play!

From then on, the rest of the fitness weekend now became a badminton weekend for all of us, as we played all day Saturday and Sunday with a few others.

A year later, we organised our first badminton weekender. At that time we called ourselves ‘Fairplay Badminton Club’. We soon found out that this was the name of another badminton club, so we searched for a new identity.

The name ‘CrossFire’ was chosen, and it represented purpose and focus!

CrossFire – The circle represents all of us equally! The cross is the unified focal point – badminton! Bringing all people together for the love of badminton!

CrossFire Badminton Club – although not a registered club at the time - was formed. We started to hold weekly open badminton sessions on Saturday nights which we still run today. This attracted many players from all over, as it was a great way for fun loving serious players to spend a Saturday evening!

We then went on to plan trips abroad: to Lanzarote and Atlanta, as well as having more badminton weekenders around England and hosting tournaments. Our seasonal anniversary event has always proved to be a fun filled day, involving badminton, dinner and evening entertainment with singers and DJs.

A few of the ladies asked me to see if there were any ladies interested in becoming a team, as they had embarked upon some league matches the previous season. So I decided to send a group email out to all, only expecting a handful of replies.

That’s when CrossFire Badminton Club officially started, as the responses just kept on coming. It was exciting at the very least, as well as rather unbelievable.

Who would have thought that there would be such an interest, especially from many of the players who had never played in the league before! It was a great encouragement that they were prepared to give it a go. Win or lose we would all go for it!

From then on we started having a few training sessions, as we only had a few weeks before the league started. We were able to form eight teams in our first season in 2011.

We found that people were very supportive in helping the club take off, and we were very pleased to secure a sponsor for our first season who helped to provide us with kit for the team!

To start and maintain anything, let alone grow it is not easy nowadays, but I can only wish that CrossFire Badminton Club has a long and prosperous life! And that we do well in the league, and most of all, that we meet many more fantastic people along our journey!

Without you, it would not be worth it!

Thank you for all your support!

Wayne Philogene

Chairman of CrossFire Badminton Club