Greetings

Welcome to Badminton Club at Brookhaven National Lab(BNL), Upton, Long Island, New York.  This club, a sponsored activity of the Brookhaven Employees Recreation Association (BERA), is open to BNL employees and guests only. Players can compete in either a challenge-format singles ladder or a season-long round robin doubles tournament. All participants of these competitive events must be over the age of 18.   

The 2003-04 badminton season will run from Monday, October 13, 2003, through Friday, April 4, 2004. Ladder play will be suspended during the year-end holidays, from Dec 20-Jan 3.   Format for both singles and doubles will be the same as in recent years.  Arrange a match, reserve a court, then record scores on the sheet provided on the bulletin board. Standings will be updated weekly.   

Two courts are available for play on the west side of the gym. Until the soccer club moves indoors, these courts are available at 11-12, 12-1 or 1-2 daily, except for the 12-1 slot Mondays and Thursdays when the courts are used for kickboxing.  From Dec 1 until early March, the soccer club will use the whole gym on Tuesdays from 12-2, although you can subscribe to the soccer listserv and monitor their email to see if they are playing outside if the weather happens to be nice.  As in the past, courts can be reserved up to one week in advance of play.  For Saturday play, to avoid conflict with volleyball players who share the gym, be sure to post reservations on the board at least 24 hr in advance, using the early or late slots, if available.

Attached below is the current roster of players.  There are lots of players at various levels of ability and everyone is encouraged to ‘play the field’, as a broad competition is an invaluable learning experience. It's good to meet some new people now and then too. If there are any additions or corrections to the roster, please let me know.

For those of you needing birds, I have Yonex M-350’s for $8.25/tube6 (regular speed) and $9.00/tube6 (slow speed).  I also have feather shuttles for $13/tube12.  Rackets and other equipment can be purchased locally, from Nova Sports, or mail ordered from one of several reliable badminton suppliers.  Contact me if you need more information. 

Finally, a few IBF coaching videos (VHS) are available covering basic strokes and footwork, and singles, doubles and mixed doubles tactics.  Also available are videos of past US Open and IBF championships.  Let me know if you'd like to borrow them.

Jay Adams, Chairperson

To know some basics about badminton, check out Tennis vs. Badminton, So you think you know about badminton and Badminton Facts.