19 Sep 12
What a summer of sport! The Olympic Games may now be over but the love of sport lives on and winning gold for the No Strings Badminton ‘Session of the Month’ for September 2012 is Winsford Lifestyle Centre in Cheshire, a truly inspired session!
Winsford Lifestyle Centre hosts one of four No Strings Badminton sessions run by Brio Leisure all of which are proving popular with the Cheshire locals since their launch earlier this year. Brio Leisure is a ‘Community Interest Company’ which is a social enterprise managed to benefit the community. In a nutshell, they provide quality activities perfect for local people to enjoy, just like No Strings Badminton!
The sessions at Winsford were originally for just one hour; however they proved so popular, currently averaging over 21 people each week, that the staff increased the session to two hours at the same bargain price, value for money or what! Credit where credit is due, Debbie Kendall the session co-ordinator has been instrumental in ensuring everyone who pops their head around the sports hall door into the No Strings Badminton session is made to feel welcome and encouraged to get on court and have fun! Good job Debbie!
Debbie is helped as co-ordinator by two of the No Strings regulars, Kath Harben and Debbie Cragg who have also been a huge asset at Winsford. Both Kath and Debbie are now both set to co-ordinate their own sessions which will be starting later this year, with Debbie taking on a new Thursday night session and Kath co-ordinating a new day time session for the over 50’s.
Julie Kirkham, Brio Leisure Manager responsible for Winsford has been delighted with the success of No Strings Badminton and has reported a significant increase in casual court bookings at the centre since the No Strings sessions started. It would seem the locals have really caught the badminton bug and they can’t get enough! This has been helped by the promotion of No Strings in-centre and locally making more people aware that badminton courts are available for hire.
The Winsford session has recently been filmed to use as a case study by BADMINTON England and the players were keen to talk about their experience of No Strings Badminton:
“No Strings Badminton sessions are welcoming and friendly and we found it a fun way to keep fit and meet new people.” [The Winsford ‘No Strings’ Faithful!]
No Strings Badminton currently runs at Winsford on Tuesday evening 8pm – 10pm and new sessions will be starting on Thursday evenings and Wednesday afternoons shortly, watch this space!
If Winsford isn’t right up your street, then check out your nearest session at www.nostringsbadminton.co.uk.
Or if you think your local No Strings Badminton session deserves recognition as Session of the Month then submit your nominations here!