Balmoral Badminton Club is one of the largest non-facilities owning badminton clubs in Auckland. We are proud of our club’s friendly, encouraging atmosphere while still providing games that challenge and develop our members.
Social Play Days
We are fortunate to have 3 social play days per week at different venues and times which provides some variation to our members. These also allow us to attract members who may only be available in the weekends or weekday evenings. Our social play day game making system ensures that members and visitors of similar skill levels play together. This allows us to cater for members of all abilities and ensures that members get the quality of games they want, while allowing development of skill levels.
Club Committee
The club is run by the committee. This is a small group of dedicated volunteers who make the games on social play days and look after the day to day organising which is needed to run a club of our size. We are fortunate that over the years the club committee has developed most of the procedures and processes needed to keep the club running well. We are always in need of volunteers to join or help the committee – without these people the club will cease to exist. So if you want to help please contact us.
Club Constitution
As with all incorporated societies the operation of the club is governed by our constitution. This was last updated in 2010 – you can click the link below to view.
Balmoral Badminton Club Constitution 2010
Club History
Balmoral Badminton Club is the oldest incorporated club within the Auckland Badminton Association, having been incorporated in 1965. Prior to that the club existed on a non-incorporated basis after being founded in the early 1950’s. Over the years many club members have been selected to represent Auckland in Division teams as well as in Masters, Veterans and now Super-Veterans inter-association teams, as well as winning a number of National age-group titles. In 2015 the club held a celebration to mark 50 years since incorporation.
At times in its long history the club has enjoyed a social membership far greater in number than its playing membership, such was the popularity of the social events held. The social side of the club continues to be a strong focus and in previous years the club has assisted the Auckland Badminton Association with running of the bar on interclub nights at Gillies Avenue. Balmoral Badminton Club has as its playing base the courts at Gillies Avenue, playing on a Sunday morning and also playing mid-week on Tuesday evenings at College Rifles badminton hall. In 2021 we have added another venue with our 3rd weekly senior play session starting at the Epsom Girls Grammar Sports Centre, and our Junior Sessions have also shifted to this location to accommodate growth in this section of the club.
Previously the mid-week venue has variously been in a church hall in Dominion Road (where the sidelines were easy to gauge as they coincided with the walls), the Deaf Society hall in Balmoral Road, school halls at Auckland Grammar, St Peters and St Cuthberts, and the YMCA hall in Ellerslie. The nomadic sequence of composite use halls came to an end with the move to the current venue.
Membership demographics have historically been widespread with players drawn from all over the Auckland isthmus and this remains the case today with many players remaining loyal to the club, even after having moved some distance away from the current playing venues. The club is also extremely ethnically diverse, with members from most of the various ethnic groups in Auckland.
The Club also has often played away (not just badminton) with alternate year home-and-away matches with Hamilton Clubs, annual visits to Kerikeri, and more recently regular attendance at the annual Utuhina Club Tournament in Rotorua. Interclub team numbers have fluctuated over the years with Balmoral Badminton Club fielding the greatest number of teams of any club in the Auckland Badminton Association competition many times.
The overall size of the club has also fluctuated over the years, however in recent times the club has steadily been growing as the popularity of badminton as a sport and recreational activity increases. In 2019 there were approximately 130 members and in 2020 this has grown to almost 150, prompting the addition of a 3rd weekly club session for 2021. Over the club’s history there have been 7 life members honoured for long service to the club and many current members would exceed 5 years membership.
[Thanks to Gary Coup for compiling this history]