Hi everyone

A group of us played badminton last night at Ponds Forge in the 7:15pm-8:00pm slot, just before you guys started. We were really disappointed when members of your club turned up at 7:40pm and started chatting and warming up on the sidelines – by the end of the session there were over 30 people all jumping around and talking along the side of the courts.

I’m sure you can imagine that it’s really distracting to have so much activity going on next to you when you’re trying to play a game, and at £9.50 for 45 minutes, it’s a lot of money to pay to have half of that time spoiled. I know the lady on the court next to us was equally distracted and asked a couple of people if they’d move somewhere out of her way, but it didn’t make much difference.

This isn’t the first time this has happened and we’ve mentioned it to the Ponds Forge staff a couple of times in the hope that they can introduce a policy whereby people wait in the corridor or in reception until it’s time to go on court. I know whenever we turn up early we wait in the corridor next to the sports hall until it’s time for our game to start.

I’m therefore politely asking if you can please hang around outside the sports hall until it’s time for your session to start, it would make for a much more enjoyable 45 minutes for us!!

Thank you!!

Anne

Sounds reasonable to me (and very Eloquently put if I may say so)

I trust one of our committee members will give you a more formal response...

Thanks Michael - much appreciated! :)

Thank you for your comments Anne. I am not on the committee however I have long thought this is an issue we need to deal with.

Although I would say Tuesday was an extreme example due to near record numbers for a club night, this is a reoccurring problem which I also think would be easily solved by people waiting in the corridor at the side of the sports hall until it is time for us to go on court.

I do think due to the nature of our club that many people take the access to the courts for granted and do not appreciate that many other groups use them for badminton as well and deserve the same basic courtesies that we expect. I have seen our own members walking over the courts while a point is in play and even times when some players have run on to a court which is not ours because they have seen the actual users walk off court to have a break between games. These things anger me when others do it to Sheffield Forum Badminton Club courts and we should be equally angry if our own players do it.

It may seem extreme but frankly I think some kind of written club etiquette is something worth looking at establishing.

£9.50 that is insane!

Thank you very much for your reply Andrew. Hopefully these issues can be resolved quickly and easily :)

Hi Anne, thanks for you message and sorry for any inconvenience cause.
I understand that on a busy night there can be a lot of people from our group.
We will definately aim to ensure our group waits out of the way as a courtesy towards other players.
Any further concers please do not hesitate to contact us.
Thanks,
Nisha

Secretary SFBC

Thank you very much Nisha - we've had a letter from Ponds Forge to the same effect too :)

Anne