Badminton Visitors from Lisburn

Lisburn & Ennis Badminton

LisburnOn Tuesday 14th Feb twenty two children and four adults Suzy Armstrong, Alan Monteith, Barry Kennedy and Lizanne Kennedy arrived in Ennis after their long coach ride from Lisburn. The children had been looking forward to this trip for weeks. They arrived at 4pm at the Auburn Lodge Hotel and after checking in they made straight for the swimming pool. After dinner they went to the local badminton club where another 18 juniors were waiting. Children from both clubs were teamed together for a Fun Blitz on the two courts. More food and drinks were ready for the the visitors.The Blitz was very enjoyable and finished at 10pm, after which there was a presentation of prizes sponsored by the Ennis Club.



Ger Browne, Mary Browne, Suzy Armstrong Hilary O'Sullivan and Muriel O'Meara



Ger Browne & Suzy Armstrong

Suzy Armstrong presented Lisburn Racquets Club hoodies to those involved in running the event. She was then presented with a sports pennant from Ennis. The following day the Ulster visitors left Ennis and made the short journey to the U.L. Sports Arena. Here 8 courts were available from 10 to 3 pm for a Fun Match with a Munster Junior Selection. Again children from Munster and Ulster were teamed together. Each child had at least 11 games each in a round robin event. The adjacent Restaurant served an excellent lunch after which another fun tournament was held. After the presentation of prizes a medal to commemorate the trip was given to all the Ulster Juniors who had not featured in the previous events. The Ulster Juniors then headed to the 50m Pool to complete their trip to Munster, after which they made a safe return to Lisburn. Suzy Armstrong wrote after: "Just a note of thanks for all your hard work in organising such a superb two days for our players from Alpha. The whole event could not have been better organised or run. We all arrived back at the club safe and well yesterday evening somewhat less energetic then when we had departed. The experience for the kids of playing in two different venues, seeing the fantastic set up in UL including the use of the pool was something alot of them certainly in their badminton capacity would not have dreamt of doing. They thoroughly enjoyed your mixed concept and meeting your gang also. Their next question was when are you coming for your return visit! Something we will have to organise in the not too distant future."

Ennis Tennis & Badminton Club History

Ger Browne delivered a fascinating lecture on the club's history from the late 1880's to the present day last night at a well attended club event. Ger's research has resulted in a comprehensive study of the formation of the club and the amalagamation of two tennis clubs and a badminton club. He traces the club's ups and downs as it mirrored the formation of the new state. The history includes; club minutes, results, social activities, photographs, correspondence and memorabila. The contribution of many individuals is recorded in detail.

The club is hugely indebted to Ger as the fruits of his  labour of love ensure that the past is not forgotten.

The club has placed the complete work online here

Ger Browne speaks here about the project. It is planned to arrange further talks where this fascinating insight into the history of Clare can be shared.

Club hosts Ulster Badminton

On Tuesday 14th Feb the club will welcome 20 juniors and several adults from Ulster Badminton. This is the first time this has happened. They will arrive at the Club at 7pm for a Fun Blitz with our juniors. The following day they will play a Munster selection at U.L.

Due to the growing numbers of Ennis Juniors (at least 25)  that travel regularly to National Tournaments and are on Provincial and International Squads, a regular contact has been made with our friends in Ulster. Their Centre in Lisburn has no less then 15 badminton courts and over 400 junior members. They regularly produce International players at all levels junior and senior.

We are delighted that they are coming all the way to Ennis to visit us. We hope they will have an enjoyable and memorable visit.

Senior Tennis News

The pre Spring League is up and running and you are encouraged to play off your matches in good time.

Forms for the Munster Branch Tennis Ireland regional and provincial matchplays are in the clubhouse.

Competitions on Feb 25th & 26th + March 10th & 11th

Anybody interested in French Open at Roland Garros tickets? 

February 15th is the date to apply.

Senior Badminton News

The recent Thursday night Blitz went off very well.
There was a great turn out and a good night of Badminton played by all.


Winners Round 1 Tony Flynn & Helene Shinners        Runners up Ger Brown & Paula Carroll

Winners Round 2 Ger Brown & Ruth Murrary        Runners up Tony Flynn & Paula Carroll

Next Blitz is set for Wednesday 23rd Feb. All welcome


Diary Dates
March 11th Div 3 and 4 individual competition Venue Cork
March 11th  Div 5 and & 6 Venue Clare.
April 15th Div 1 to 6 Singles in Killarney
April 29th Div 1 to 6 Doubles and Mixed in UL
May 7th Munster Club Finals in UL

Anybody who wants to be considered for the county team please contact Niall Thornton

Junior Badminton News February 10th

Badminton News  ..........

Blitz results -  4th February

Group 1 - Winners  .......  Shauna Dowling & Siun Moran

         Runners Up ...  Emma Duffy & Daniel Jakab

Group 2 – Winners .........Jill Broderick & Cian Ruane

          Runners up ....Katie Browne & Aaron Moloney

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U10 County Blitz – Scarriff

Good luck to our young juniors Grace Molloy, Jack Browne & Cillian O’ Riordan 

who are going to Scarriff this Saturday to take part in the Under 10 County Blitz.....

Hope you have lots of fun...

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Leinster U11 & U15  - Baldoyle Badminton Centre – 28th January

Under 11 –Katie Browne, Patrick Bugler, Ronan Foley, Seosamh Ryan

All players are showing massive improvement and this showed in the many close scoring games – The match of the day saw Katie Browne & Ronan Foley winning their first match in 3 close sets (21—18, 20-22, 23-21) they were unfortunate to then loose to competition winners (21-18, 23-21) – their play kept parents and spectators on the edge of their seats – Well done kids........

Under 15 –Lana Browne, Karen MacNamara (U13) Aine Ryan, Sophie Marron,

Moya Ryan, Maurice Molloy, Eoin Flynn

Lana, still competing at Under 13, having lost out in the 1st round went into the plate competition. On the way to the final she firstly overcame club mate Aine Ryan (30-27), Aine had earlier won her first match (30-15). Lana then overcame Cork girl Mary Buckley (30-28) before meeting Hannah Wiley in the final, this match went in favour of the Ulster girl (30-23). 

Lana & partner Karen although loosing out in the first round of the girls doubles did extremely well to push their Leinster opponents to 3 sets (21-19, 19-21, 21-18).

Moya & Ailbhe Fusco (Leinster) won their first match in two sets

(21-17, 21-16), they then fell at the next stage to competition winners and No.1 seeds.

In the boys doubles Maurice and Eoin were lucky to get a walkover in their first round match... Their second match was really close (18-21, 21-23) but victory was not theirs this time...

In the mixed doubles Karen (U13) & Tomas Howard (Cork) won the first set 15-21, the 2nd set was very close 22-20 and they unfortunately run out of steam in the 3rd set  21-12) .

Well done to all who took part...

• To see all the match results go to www.tournmentsoftware.com

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Ennis club  welcomes Ulster juniors.

On Tuesday 14th February a group of young badminton players from Ulster clubs (approx 12-15 years old) will visit our club. We will have 20 of our own juniors taking part on the night playing friendly matches and we hope to show them a good Ennis welcome.

This friendly exchange is not aimed at the very top competitive players - it is a social outing to forge links between the two provinces. 

The evening will start at 7.00 p.m. with lots of fun games and we will finish at

approx. 9.00pm or thereabouts with refreshments

The following day the Ulster juniors travel to U.L. sports arena to take part in a friendly match involving a Munster selection (Ennis Juniors will be among this group)

This event will commence at 10.00 a.m. and finish at 2 p.m.

Well done to Ger & Mary Browne for their part in arranging this visit..

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Munster Inter County Competition – Round 2

Congratulations to U11’s Seosamh Ryan, Patrick Bugler & U15’s Aine Ryan,

Brendan Dolan, David Moloney & Eoin Flynn who have been successful on making

Clare Panels for the upcoming round 2 Munster Inter County Competition in UL on 4th March.

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Bag Packing Friday 17th & 18th February - Volunteers required

Martin Dunne has arranged two more Bag Packing dates.
Dunnes Stores Friday 17th & Saturday 18th of February.

 A rota will be posted on the noticeboard and members are requested to consider participated.

Funds will go towards the purchase of a defibrillator. The club is appreciative of those who bag packed at Tesco before Christmas

Talk on Club's History - Friday 17th February

Ger Browne

Ger Browne will give a talk in the clubhouse on Friday 17th at 8pm on the club's history and use the extensive amount of archive material he has recovered. All members and friends of the club are invited.

New equipment to maintain tennis court surface

Kevin Starling tries out the 4-wheeled machine the club has acquired to maintain the tennis court's surface