Let's talk about pieces of equipment. No, I don't mean Eddie's crotch! I mean racquets and stuff that we use to play this wonderful game.

I use a special kind of racquet which combines the 'grip' of a handle with the 'bounciness' of the stringed bit at the end. It's very high-tech. My particular model has a thin shaft which joins these two NASA designed peices of aparatus. This reduces the likihood of the stringed bit flying away mid-smash.

I use plastic shuttles, because I am allergic Goose feathers, which as any good pub-quiz teams knows, is what the feathers of real shuttlecocks are made out of.

Did you know that Goose feather shuttles are either made from the left or right wings? :cool:

I have been told that the left wing shuttle is faster then the right wing but wouldn't that mean that the Goose would always fly in circles? :suspect::loopy:

I'm a little bit confused / worried / scared!!

And did you know that modern Badminton originates from a town called Badminton! Soooo glad it didn't come from: Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysilio gogogoch (Wales!) :hihi:

Yeah apparently it's named after the county seat of the duke of Beaufort in Gloucestershire.

The official world smash speed record is 332 km/h (206 mph), set by men's doubles player Fu Haifeng of China, on June 3, 2005 in the Sudirman Cup. In the singles competition, the fastest smash recorded is 305 km/h (189 mph) by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.
That sounds like a challenge.

Maybe this thread should be changed to 'badminton trivia'.

Badminton premiered as a full-medal Olympic sport at the
1992 Olympic Games in Barcelona ...... just think of Freddie Mercury :)

Yes I wouldn't mind getting beaten by FU KIN FAST man from china:hihi:

Yeah apparently it's named after the county seat of the duke of Beaufort in Gloucestershire.

The official world smash speed record is 332 km/h (206 mph), set by men's doubles player Fu Haifeng of China, on June 3, 2005 in the Sudirman Cup. In the singles competition, the fastest smash recorded is 305 km/h (189 mph) by Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia.
That sounds like a challenge.

Maybe this thread should be changed to 'badminton trivia'.

Badminton courts were originally an hourglass glass shape and shuttles have to consist of 14 feathers

From 1914-1935 there was a rule in badminton where you got an extra point if you hit your opponent directly on the forehead with the shuttlecock.

Badminton is the second most popular sport in the world, after soccer.

The International Badminton Federation (IBF) was founded in 1934 with nine members and now has over 150 members.

- The IBF is now head quartered in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

Badminton is the second most popular sport in the world, after soccer.

thats what youd think, actually fishing is the worlds most popular sport. I spent a whole afternoon trying to prove otherwise!

Badminton actually pre-dates history. FACT.
Some Badmintologists believe it was some form of ethereal semi-sentient being that wandered the cosmos in search of some symbiotic lovin'. After being rejected by many lifeforms it eventually found us 'up for it' humans and the rest is history.
This theory is still debated on courts all over the world.

Some even believe that the Big Bang was caused by a shuttle that for first the first time reached the speed of sound, thereby exploding and creating a hole through which the ethereal semi-sentient found it's way through to our cosmos. (therefore Big Bang is also ocaisonally referred to as 'Big Bangminton'). It could therefore be assumed that we in fact live on a tiny piece of Shuttle.:rolleyes: The first humans who realised this decided to honour The Badminton God and not only kill the Goose for its meat but to re-use its feathers in so called shuttles.....some even stuck the feathers up their ***...(but that's a whole different story!:hihi:)

We should put this in the next newsletter :hihi:

We could write a book about the real history of Badminton! :hihi:

Badminton died for our sins.

and not forgetting that Dan Browns book the da vinci code was not all truth, - the part about the V shape at the last supper........was a shuttlecock :)

Badminton was originally played on horse-back. It was very popular amongst the Haristocracy. They used peasants for the net. The Duke of Earl repeatedly sued his own Horses for failing to move their hooves in reponse to short returns of serve. This is the origin of the Badminton Horse Trials.

you know its expensive to play at ponds forge lol

Decathlon have some £30 Head rackets going for £10 at the moment.

This is a link to the product spec:

http://www.head.com/badminton/racquets.php?region=eu&tag=titanium_series&id=1542

Cheers

Ian