Ashbourne Badmintion Club plans big birthday bash
Eoin Curran
Ashbourne Badminton Club turns 50 years old on 10th October, and is celebrating this milestone by having a reunion supper at 8pm in Ashbourne Community Centre, with an invite to all past and present club members to attend this celebratory event.
The Club started with just five members, today we have 50! The club took part in its first tournament that Christmas, with its first major win against a team called Clarinda in 1975.
Although the club needed to use numerous halls to play as Ashbourne didn’t have a facility to use, on 13th December 1981, the newly built Ashbourne Community Centre was opened, and this remains the clubs home today.
Going from strength to strength in the 90’s the clubs Mens, Ladies and mixed teams had great success in the leagues and cups as well as inter-county level, the mixed team at one point becoming Leinster champions.
Most recently, in our 2022/23 season we were proud to have ladies, mens and mixed teams progress in their respective divisions to quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, with our mixed Division 6 and men's Division 5 teams winning the DDLC with Leinster Badminton!
Our club battled over the years with a decline in members, but maintained a strong recognition in Leinster Badminton Leagues as a club to be reckoned with. Ashbourne Badminton Club or ABC was fighting and winning through the naughties!
As the town expanded over recent years, the Club too continued to expand, welcoming members from all over Ireland as well as many new nationalities including Croatia, India, Canada, France and Romania to name a few.
During the covid 19 pandemic the club was one of the lucky ones, as schools closed, so did other badminton clubs which relied on their halls, now with new members from Ratoath, Curragha, Duleek and other neighbouring areas joining our club we’re stronger than ever going into our 50th year, with our main sponsor Cinnamon Garden, and partner sponsors Event Dimensions, N2 Storage and Raptor Pest control by our side, we truly are a successful club, thriving in our town and immersed in local culture, activities and businesses.
Our logo incorporates several colours, green and yellow for Meath, our home, Navy and Red, Our historical and current jersey colours, a nice nod to our past and future, and white, associated with Badminton from shuttlecocks. We love being a part of the fabric of Ashbourne, and look forward to being part of it many years into the future.