Earlier this month, 36 eager badminton fanatics descended upon Finsbury leisure centre at 10am for the 8 hour badminton marathon that is the annual Finsbury Badminton Club tournament.  Armed with badminton rackets, vast quantities of food, Conor’s amazing computer programme and a kettle, players across both sections of the club battled it out over 6 rounds of mixed and ladies’/men’s doubles.  Emerging at the top of the Swiss ladder were:

Mixed: Anita and Dan
Ladies: Anita and Juliane
Men: Christian and Mark E

The day did not end at the badminton however, as the gang moved on to the Grand Union bar for the Christmas party.  After a few drinks, some pizza, burgers and a quiz (did we ever  find out who won??) , we gave out the second most important set of prizes for the day:  the Shabby Shuttlecocks awards.  In the run up to the tournament, members have been voting for who they think is the Best Dressed player, Nicest smelling, most likely to hit you with a shuttlecock and the person with the best facial hair (to name but a few awards!).  We also celebrated Pete’s birthday by honouring him with a lifetime achievement award and a more traditional birthday gift of cake.

Soon after that, we somehow ended up playing a battle of the sexes game of “picking up a cardboard box off the floor using only your teeth”, limbo and also a dance-off.  Perhaps the less said about this part of the day the better.  For photographic evidence, please ask Jamie, who has enough material to blackmail all of us approximately 10 times over (especially Billy and Steve).

Congratulations to the various winners and well done to everyone who took part in such a fun, well organised and thankfully injury-free day!