In its first year, the Newcastle University Social Badminton Society already stands at 230 members, a number that even shocked its committee.
“We were worried that we wouldn’t sell out but we got to the point that it was crashing the student union website” said there secretary Natasha Witton, a 2nd year student at Newcastle University.
The society was started this year by a group of 2nd year law students who “realised there was sort of a gap in the market, because there was only competitive badminton and there wasn’t anything if you just wanted to play more relaxed”, said the secretary.
The president of the society, Robyn Hearn said that the society was therefore set up “for people to just meet and chat and just play a bit of badminton.”
The group meet twice a week, from 6.15pm to 7.15pm every Wednesday and Friday at a price of £2 per session, on top of a £5 yearly membership.
The committee said that all equipment is provided at the location, Newcastle High School for Girls.
When asked why she would recommend the society, president Robyn Hearn said that she thinks that “badminton’s a really easy sport to get into”, describing it as “best for beginners.”
“It’s best for beginners really, if people want to get into a sport of any kind.”
Robyn Hearn, president
The welfare officer, Leah Prior, also said that she thinks it is “really easy to make friends here because we just put people on random court and you just get chatting to whoever you play with.”
Members of the society echoed the committee’s comments too.
2nd year member Grace Coom-Gollop said that “it’s nice to just come and do something on a Friday where you know it’s just for a little bit of exercise at the end of the week.”
She said that “I would recommend it to anybody to be honest… I think it’s really nice if you’re looking for something to do on a Friday evening, it’s a really nice thing to come and join.”
The committee identified the society more with being a society than a sports club because “it’s just a lot more relaxed environment compared to the sport societies”, said their president Robyn Hearn.
Their secretary Natasha added to Robyn’s comments, and said that “there’s no commitment” to the society where there ordinarily would be with a sports club.
With the society you simply pay and attend “as and when you want to come.”
They also maintain their society status with a “mix of relaxed socials and other socials”, their secretary Natasha said.
These socials include occasional sports night attendances, a pub quiz and a pool and darts social, to name a few.
The more relaxed approach to socials is appreciated by members of the society like Grace Coom-Gollop who said that “I quite like the fact, like when we did the quiz yesterday, it was really lowkey and really chill. So, I don’t mind, for me personally, not having too many Wednesday socials.”
Members of the society who I spoke to reported no criticisms. Instead, the feedback seemed to be overwhelmingly positive.
Grace Coom-Gollop for example said that “I think the way that they’ve run it, I think they’ve done so well, considering it’s like, it’s first year.”
“The only real challenge I’ve found with it is just simply… trying to get tickets when there’s been a big influx of people.”
Grace Coom-Gollop, member
The only challenge reported by Grace was the struggle to “get tickets when there’s been a big influx of people.”
However, the committee also acknowledged this challenge. The secretary of the society, Natasha, said that the demand for tickets got so high that “it was crashing the student union website.”
She said that the committee dealt with this issue by adding extra dates to their social calendar, increasing their originally once-a-week badminton sessions to twice-a-week.
Memberships for the Newcastle University Social Badminton Society are available on the NUSU website for all Newcastle University students.
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