Saint Joseph’s Church opens its doors to community badminton

Saint Joseph’s Church in Reading, Berkshire is one of the many case studies around England that demonstrates how our development fund is helping more and more people to play badminton every day.

Luke Hornsley is Badminton England’s Regional Manager for the South, and he got in contact with local organiser Joanne Carmen who wanted to create a badminton court in her church for social fun sessions open to the local community.

The ceiling of the church is lower than the required height for a standard badminton court. However, at Badminton England, we strive to show that badminton is a ‘sport for everyone’ and in this situation it was more important to provide a space to play badminton that didn’t necessarily meet the normal criteria, than to ignore the opportunity.

Work began on transforming the space back in April and Luke managed to use the development funding available to purchase equipment to deliver the sessions in the Berkshire-based place of worship.

There was enough space to set up one court in the church, which hosted its first official badminton session in mid-September. They are now looking to provide this session on a weekly basis for the local community.

“I have been working with the church since April when they contacted us about potential badminton sessions in the church’s hall,” Luke explained.

“The space isn’t high enough for a standard badminton court and it only has space for one court, but the church wanted to set up it up for its members and the local community.

“Within our new strategy we are looking for opportunities to open up non-traditional spaces, so this was a perfect opportunity.

“We funded the church through the Regional Managers funding pot to set up a new badminton court in Reading – enabling the church to buy equipment for its participants.”

Hornsley continued, “What is great about this small project is that not only have we opened up a non-traditional space for badminton, but the church has a new income stream coming in with new weekly Sunday sessions up and running allowing the church to invest that money back into its local community.

“It may be a small project, but it’s had a huge positive impact on the church and its community.”

Projects like this show how important the development fund and Badminton England’s support can be within our badminton community and beyond.