Civic Reception for Sligo Badminton Club

On 19th June Mayor Rosaleen O’Grady held an event at City Hall, in the Mayor’s Parlour, to formally acknowledge Sligo Tennis Club – Badminton Section’s achievement of being crowned Badminton All Ireland Champions.

“Our special guests, All Ireland Badminton Champions, Members of their coaching staff, sponsors, supporters and friends.

It is an honour to welcome you to City Hall to formally acknowledge your achievement of being crowned Badminton All Ireland Champions.

National success in any endeavour is a rare and wonderful occasion, and the wider sporting community welcomed and applauded your victory.

Sligo people cherish their sporting heroes, they follow their progress and celebrate their achievements with great enthusiasm.

Team sports in particular are a hugely important recreational outlet, they encourage people to achieve their potential and instils and nurtures qualities in young people that will stay with them for the rest of their lives.

The achievements of our local badminton club are all the more impressive when you consider that they are not one of the so-called ‘mainstream sports’, which has implications in terms of support, sponsorship and media coverage.

That, indeed is another reason I was anxious to host this reception, as I believe we should do everything we can to enhance the profile and increase awareness of your club.

By any standard your success in winning two national league titles is an exceptional one, and one that quite rightly go down in local sporting history. This was not a ‘one-off’ achievement, and the fact that you were crowned inter-league champions for two successive years shows the quality of the club and its members.

And while there are a number of outstanding individuals on the teams, the successes was founded on teamwork, a spirited combination of players, coaches, sponsors and supporters, all played their part on this special journey.

Another key element of this success was sheer hard work. You had the discipline and commitment to put in the long, hard hours of training, the travel to competitions and tournaments. But through all this you had the firm resolve to achieve national success and you certainly earned this with style and professionalism.

A final word of thanks to your main sponsors who were excellent partners with you every step of the way, your contribution is greatly appreciated.

Well done again to all concerned.”

Background

The Badminton Club at Sligo Tennis Club were successful in winning two Badminton National League Titles, one of which was at the highest level in the country i.e. Division 1.  We also captured the Division 3 Title.  Both events were held at Badminton Ireland’s HQ in Baldoyle, Dublin on May 13th.  We competed against the winning Club teams within each Division from Leinster and Munster in order to win these National Titles.  There were 8 players, male and female, on each of the two teams and an age range from teens to 50s was present in both teams – demonstrating badminton’s ability for facilitating a wide age bracket within the same level of play.

This is 2 years in a row that Sligo Tennis Club – Badminton Section, have won the All Ireland Interleague Finals at Division 1 level (in 2011 we won both Division 1 and Division 5 National League Titles also).

Div 1 Players: Paula Watt, Victoria Stevens, Francie Mahon, Fionnuala Scanlon, Jonathon Dolan, Joseph Keown, Graeme Watt, Danny Keown.

Div 3 Players: Siobhan Parker, Rebecca McGillen, Claire Finnegan, Marie McTiernan, Conor Caheny, Conor Scanlon, Danny Keown, Brian Caliendo.

Manager: John Dolan

Badminton Club Captain: Victoria Stevens

Photo of Mayor with all Players, Supporters and Club Officials outside the City Hall.

Photo of Mayor with all Div 1 and Div 3 Winning Team Players inside Mayor's Parlour

John Dolan (STC Badminton Vice Captain), Graeme Watt (STC Badminton PRO), Mayor Rosaleen O'Grady, Joe O'Brien (STC Committee Member), Eamon McCaffrey (STC Club President).

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