Badminton Club will do two leagues

At the Kilcullen Badminton Club Table Quiz in Berneys were Mark Phelan, Enda O'Neill, Hilary Makin and Vivienne Clifford.

"The women are very strong; they'll be carrying the lads in the mixed next year ..."

That's the kind of remark that can get a guy into trouble with his peers, but Kilcullen Badminton Club chairman Enda O'Neill was grinning as he said it, and that put it into perspective.

Fact is, the club is booming just three years after its formation, and with around 60 members — from Kilcullen itself as well as from as far away as Athy and Ballymore — is ready to enter two leagues next year, the women's and men's.

"We entered our first Kildare League this year, and because we were in a higher group than our normal playing experience, we didn't do so well," Enda told the Diary last night at the fundraising Table Quiz in Berney's. "We finished second last ... didn't travel so well, you could say. But it was great craic and we met some new people."

And some of those people visited the club in the Kilcullen Community Complex and were very impressed with the local facilities, which include four courts.

Enda says that some of the good players from the 80s, when the club was also strong in an earlier incarnation, are coming back to play again.

— Brian Byrne.