Budminton, a social badminton club that meets on Wednesdays in Meadowbank Sports Centre and Saturdays in Leith Community Centre, is holding an Open Day on Saturday, 21 December at the latter venue.
The group is the brainchild of Graeme Kennedy and has its roots in the fact on moving to Edinburgh from Aberdeen in 2017 he found – on his own admission – it was difficult to meet new people partly due to working anti-social hours.
So, in 2019, Graeme decided to take the bull by the horns, recalling:“I only had two friends living locally and … decided enough was enough. I joined a running group and badminton group and formed many friendships that are still going strong to this day. At one point is was co-organiser of the running group and the community spirit we had was something I wanted more of, especially when everything came to a halt during the Covid pandemic.
“I decided to start my own group and Budminton was born. The struggle of making friends as an adult is clearly a common theme for many because the club has been growing ever since!”
The club focuses on creating a space for adults of all ages to make lasting friendships in a friendly, active environment and making it affordable to do so. Although most members are beginner and intermediate level, anyone can join – the community are great at making newcomers feel welcome. There’s also an ever-expanding social calendar.
“Badminton is such a friendly and social sport it’s no surprise that Budminton has attracted such lovely people. It helps that it’s a pressure-free environment as it doesn’t matter how well you play and we have fun regardless of ability.
“It’s also nice to see those same faces off of the court too, be it at our annual birthday BBQ, our board game and pizza evenings at Ancient Robot Games in Leith, or elsewhere. Budminton has also raised over £1600 for various local charities from our annual charity tournament in February.“
Fifty per cent always goes to Edinburgh Dog & Cat Home and the other half is a community choice – LGBT Youth Scotland and Edinburgh Food Project have benefitted in the two years that it’s been held.
“Budminton is big on promoting positive mental health and to encourage new faces there will be an Open Day on 21 December.“
Two slots are available – 10am-12pm and 12pm-2pm. Those wishing to play must RSVP via the website
“A social event will follow.”
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