Hundreds of young people in Clackmannanshire have been inspired to play badminton thanks to the various opportunities that the Council’s Sports Development team have been offering in conjunction with Badminton Scotland.

The area’s first ever badminton carnival saw over 200 P4 children from 14 different primary schools take part. There was such an enthusiastic response from the schools that the event had to be split over two venues, Ochil Leisure Centre and Tullibody Civic Centre. Primary schools entered teams of up to 10 children to take part in a series of skills stations designed to develop the children’s forehand, backhand, serving, overhand and underhand shots. Pupils earned points for their team at each station and the overall winning schools were presented with certificates.

St. Bernadette’s won the event held at Tullibody Civic Centre and Strathdevon scored the most points at the Ochil leisure Centre. The events ran smoothly and successfully thanks to school and facility staff, volunteers and coaches recruited by Sports Development.

The Clackmannanshire Primary Schools Sports Association badminton league is proving to be extremely popular again this year with 16 schools taking part in two leagues of eight teams. Over 150 P6 & P7 children are playing against each other at Lornshill Academy on Friday afternoons. The primary school PE teachers, class teachers and Active School Co-ordinators have been working together to provide additional coaching for the primary school players in order to prepare them for the singles, doubles and mixed doubles events that they have been playing in the league competitions.

Senior pupils from Lornshill Academy, volunteer coaches and sports development staff referee the games and after all the group games are played the top three teams from each group will come together to play each other on finals day in January 2014.

This year Badminton Scotland and Central Schools Badminton Group have created a pathway for secondary pupils to move from local to regional and national competitions. Clackmannanshire Secondary Schools Sports Association held three age group qualifiers in October and November to identify pupils who will represent both their schools and Clackmannanshire in the Regional Championships in December at the Peak in Stirling.

On Friday night more than 40 children and young people aged 5-16 years attend the open badminton sessions from 5.30-9pm at Alloa Academy. These sessions are run through the Council’s Sports Development and participants can turn up and play games against others of their same age.

If you are interested in attending the Friday night sessions or want more information about how to get involved then contact Sports Development at vstephen@clacks.gov.uk