BOYS BRIGADE BADMINTON NATIONAL FINALS

The Boys Brigade national badminton finals were being held all day at Cannons Health and Fitness Centre on Saturday 3 May and I was invited to go there later in the day to present the prizes to the teams. Edwina Cooper and I arrived at around 5.p.m. and we saw some of the final games. The standard of playing was very high and we were impressed at the fitness levels of the boys who seemed to be in the 15 to 18 age range particularly as they had been playing the heats since the morning. We met up with the Captain of the Newbury Boys Brigade, Roger Vogel who was in charge of the organisation of the finals, despite the fact that the Newbury Boys were not playing.
The 1st Newbury are based at the Baptist Church in Cheap Street and the Badminton championships are part of their 125th anniversary celebrations. The competition began earlier in the year and has been open to all Boys Brigade branches in England Ireland and Scotland. He told us that the Hilton Hotel had sponsored the overnight accommodation and Cannons had not charged for the use of the facilities.
The finals was won by a team from Colraine in Northern Ireland and I was pleased to present the winners cups to this team Teams from Scotland and England came second and third respectively. It is very encouraging that these young people have done so well and I am sure that they will continue to play badminton well into their future lives.