Mayor holds reception to mark 50 years of Alpha Badminton

Alpha Badminton Club has been celebrating a major milestone during the past season, with the ever popular Christmas Tournament marking its 50th Birthday and Alpha members, who had been involved in the competition during its five decades in a playing or administrative role, were the guests of Lisburn Mayor, Councillor Margaret Tolerton last week in the Mayor’s Parlour.
The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.
The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.

During the visit they were also given a guided tour of the Council Offices and an insight into the working of the Council, its responsibilities and the complexities of the new super council.

When a number of like-minded individuals from Lisburn Cricket and Lawn Tennis Club were to consider the formation of a badminton club to maintain their sports association during the long winter months at an informal meeting in what was Mr Bertie Boyd’s Café in Market Square, not even the most ardent of them could have envisaged how the Alpha Badminton Club would not only have developed into the leading club in the province – for the first time in its history all the finalists in the coveted Ulster Open Championships were from the Alpha club – but they have transformed the sport in the country and their top players will shortly be Scotland-bound when the NI Commonwealth Games team is announced.

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Bill Thompson, a former Irish No1 and current President of Alpha Badminton Club recalled, with great affection, the role the Christmas Tournament had played in the lives of competitors through the decades.

The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.
The Mayor Councillor Margaret Tolerton accepts a cheque for her chosen charity from Bill Thompson and members of Alpha Badminton Club who attended a reception to mark the 50th Anniversary of the Christmas Tournament.

“Whilst so many players have come through the Pinta, Yoplait and more recently the Spar Christmas Tournament and gone on to represent Ulster and Ireland at Junior and Senior levels, the tournament was much more.

“It was a friendly tournament which, at a conservative estimate, has probably seen more than 15,000 competitors in action over the five decades and reached a peak in the mid 1970s when different centres throughout the province were used to stage the early rounds with the finals being staged in Alpha.”

Bill Thompson highlighted the huge debt of gratitude which is owed to Alpha’s elder statesman Bob Colhoun, a recipient of the MBE earlier this year, whose brainchild the competition was and who has been honorary secretary of the club since 1956.

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Without those original founder members getting together there may not have even been a badminton club.

The founders were Violet Waring, Sadie Simpson, Sadie Smith, Ella Gilpin, three very keen hockey players and members of the South Antrim Club while George M Crothers, the club’s first Men’s Captain also played cricket for Lisburn and JHF McCarrison, elected Honorary Secretary, was editor at the Lisburn Herald.

R J (Jack) Young was a member of the former well-known drapers in the town while Donald MacGregor took on the role of Treasurer.

The first home of the club was the Temperance Institute Hall – now the Bridge Community Centre – and membership rose in the first season to sixteen. The club was, however, to be on the move after just a year and their new home was in the British Legion Hall in Sackville Street.

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The main players at the Club in the Fifties were Maurice Robinson, Simpson Robinson, Colin Boyd, Jim Black. Bob Russell, Desmond Bell, Eileen Bell, Esme Abraham, B.B. Simpson, Irene Hull and Eric Dodd. It was in September 1956 that Bob Colhoun was to be appointed Secretary a position he has continued to hold.

The club was on the move again in 1960 to the Black Hall on the Hillhall Road. With the dawning of the Sixties a Juvenile Section was started.

It was in the late Sixties that Larmour Stewart arrived from Omagh and his commercial expertise played a significant part in the future expansion and success of Alpha. It was in 1968 that joint meetings were held with Hilden Tennis Club to consider building a new pavilion for Hilden Tennis Club with badminton courts for Alpha, whohad been fund-raising for some years. Eventually total assets reached £8,000 and with grant from the Ministry of Education the Lisburn Racquets Club was created bringing in a new Lisburn Racquets Squash Club. The new centre was opened in November 1970.

Without a doubt the Seventies and Eighties could be described as two halcyon decades for the Alpha club winning the All Ireland Senior Cup for the first time and in doing so qualified to represent Ireland in the Europe Cup which they did in Copenhagen. Since then they have won this Cup over twenty more times.

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These two decades in particular laid the sure foundations which the club in the new Millennium have been able to take further.

By the 1990s and with a waiting list of over 250 children and with 65% grant and many interest free loans from members, Alpha built a twelve court hall and Alpha made full use of the extra courts with an increase in youngsters membership. Trevor Woods and Ronnie Watt, amongst others, coached many promising players and in 2008/09 Alpha players won over 25 Irish titles and took over 25 places on Irish International teams.

Alpha has always invested heavily in its youth policy and that continues to this day and in the past year a new league was launched by members of the club at Under 15 level and was a resounding success.

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