St Mary’s Celebrates Landmark Badminton Scheme

BADMINTON England and Sport England recently joined badminton players of all ages and abilities on court at St Mary’s University College, Twickenham, to celebrate the success of its No Strings Badminton scheme, a community-minded pay and play social initiative. No Strings Badminton was launched in 2010 as a way to get members of the community involved in playing the sport in a relaxed environment, removing many of the traditional barriers to playing sport and focusing on the fun, friends and fitness aspect. Sport St Mary’s was one of the flagship venues for the scheme and offers weekly sessions to members of the public of all abilities and ages. The programme is now offered in 500 leisure facilities across the country, a landmark figure that has been reached four years ahead of schedule. Held in St Mary’s newly built Sports Centre, which received £500,000 funding from Sports England’s Community Investment Fund, the event saw players from across the local community come together to play and celebrate this achievement which has seen more than 55,750 weekly sessions throughout the country since its launch. St Mary’s Director for Sport Andrew Reid-Smith commented, “No Strings Badminton is living proof that national governing bodies can open up so many new and exciting opportunities for players and partners when it comes to grassroots sport. “Badminton England has really taken time to make sure that the No Strings Badminton initiative is a productive and rewarding court-time offer for all involved and the success they are seeing today, with 500 facilities hosting sessions, is testament to the efforts they have put in to transform the casual badminton market.” No Strings Badminton is just one of the many community sports initiatives held at St Mary’s and the University College has recently launched its first competitive badminton club, in addition to its SIMMSport programme for children. For more information about SIMMSport, No Strings Badminton or the Adult Club, please contact a member of the Sport St Mary’s team on sportsvillage@stmarys.ac.uk or call 020 8240 4132.