Stellar Smash Badminton Group

Certainly felt the love today on my birthday and what better way to round it off then at badminton… no rest for the wicked!

Happy Monday all! the sun is shining and looks like summer has officially started! as we close for April its a special shout out to one of our players Sarah who took part in the London Marathon over the weekend, representing slimming world and raising funds for 3 fantastic charities Cancer Research UK, the Irish Cancer Society and Alzheimer's Research UK - through Slimming World's own charity SMILES. With a target of £2,500 she is so close to achieving this! we've seen bake sales at the Socials, Race nights in Watton and ongoing works around these too!

Her link is: https://2026tcslondonmarathon.enthuse.com/pf/sarah-harding-9864e?fbclid=IwY2xjawP70xFleHRuA2FlbQIxMQBzcnRjBmFwcF9pZAwzNTA2ODU1MzE3MjgAAR6UtS0liCVnFpo9Bc0tzBj9QY1RvSn8JkDx14pUWoGR9RABxhcyFZBn6q5ohA_aem_X2Qtw5m0baV0dxAZbjp5hw

There is a short description of Sarah's Journey to this point, if anyone would like to support her with a Donation please feel free to do so on the link above!

Sarah's Page My Story As you can read below, I was all set and signed up to run The London Marathon in 2025 and then we found out I was pregnant, putting the Marathon on pause. I managed to continue running throug

I'm asked this question a lot, though this isn't the be all and end all of coordinating, gives a bit of an insight into the process.

Only a couple of photos from the Social on Sunday 29th March but that doesn't mean we were short of anything other then an infectious atmosphere! strong social and intermediate games were had for the 6 hours. couple of new faces trying it out and of course all of our regulars from Watton Smashers, Clarkson Court Conquerers and Corby players.

Thanks again to everyone who attended and as always the support is truly appreciated! though I make no apology for the sore arms and legs!

See you all on the next one.

Points of reflection are important in any players journey, regardless of the sport or level. Whether you're playing in a tournament or a social or just a weekly session. Patience with yourself, your journey as well as creating a route forward is a vital tool for any player.

So yesterday saw the first of 8 socials planned for this year. Again pooling players across the Stellar Smash groups for a 6 hour long badminton no strings session. Coach Charlie of Dereham attended again to impart some techniques to some of our beginner players as well as run a small coaching session during the lunch break.

The thing I heard a lot of players say was the progress we’d seen in each other since the last session! Just goes to show the level of regular play has on your ability in the game. We were once again joined by our players from Corby and legacy player from St Mary Smashers (Isaac) travelled down from North Alerton for the day too!

Thank you to all who supported the day!

Stellar Smash has always been strongly supportive of the community we are all a part of. The last couple of months Clarkson Court Conquerers have put together a special donation for one of our legacy players who has had some rather major health issues and like the strong knit family we are wanted to show our support, especially of the journey Mark has ahead of him. The CCC donated £85 and in true Stellar Smash fashion we matched this with a total donation of £170 to the Brain Tumour Charity.

Well done to everyone who supported this and if anyone wishes to show further support the just giving link is below!

Massive thank you to Sue for making the card for Mark

https://www.justgiving.com/page/mark-copeland-1767475335240?utm_medium=FR&utm_source=WA

So 2025 is a wrap, so let us reflect briefly on the accomplishments of the year past.

We saw Watton Smashers really come into it's own, growing from 2 to 3 hours and players taking full advantage of this extension. First hour remaining an hour to allow focus on skill building while the remaining two hours were dedicated to social play. We saw (not literally) our second child born from players within the session, welcoming Arlo to the next generation of players (that makes three now with Jesse, Poppy and Arlo) We also had our second Christmas Dinner with players at the local Chinese to celebrate the year gone by.

St Mary Smashers transformed into the Clarkson Court Conquerers moving from The Sunset Rooms in Wisbech St Mary to Thomas Clarkson Academy in the heart of Wisbech. St Mary Smashers as well as the Wisbech Racketeers were sessions I inherited a few years ago and very proudly say that through patience and continued support of its players we are as strong as ever within Wisbech despite our teething issues with the move of venue.

We also trialed a new badminton concept within Stellar Smash this year with our Badminton Socials, seeing players travel within our network of groups and those that I run/play at privately. Some travelling from North Allerton, London, Corby, Oakham, March, King's Lynn and Watton. The Socials have grown in attendance and length, initially starting as a 4 hour session in Lynnsport to now being held at TCA (Wisbech) the Socials have allowed players to socialise and play against others with different styles and backgrounds. Social players and intermediate as well as everything in between. We saw three guest coaches attend and offer up their experience on court too! The socials hit it off and will continue into the new year (Keep an eye out for the dates!)

I maybe a windbag, but I can't honestly say it enough that without the ongoing support of players these sessions would not exist, the achievements above are all thanks to those that wanted them, I have only provided the platform, you make this happen so honestly, thank you to all, Stellar Smash is reflection of the players it houses and believe that that support should be recognised and celebrated.

As some of you know, I intend to invest significantly more time into Stellar this year, improving it's structure, sessions available, offerings to new and experienced players and hopefully getting us more on the radar within the local badminton scene. These will not be overnight achievements but I'm sure in a years time we will have more things to be proud of within Stellar that we can all say we had a part in making.

So as we draw this reflection to a close, while preparing for the year ahead I leave you with these words:

"Hard work is the key for success" – P. V. Sindhu (First Indian Badminton World Champion)

As we closed for Christmas, one of our players at the Clarkson Court Conquerers (CCC) made a suggestion to run a "quick" Christmas Tournament. Personally a daunting task for myself, I have played within tournaments, attended a few as a spectator and coach for some of my previous players but have never fully run one.... and with the massive support from our CCC players we pulled it off.

11 Teams, 11 rounds, 55 games and a hour and a half to smash it out the park and it even allowed for a closing speech for 2025, an awards ceremony and some closing games between some of the players. With 4 teams fighting for the third place prizes, calculating their individual points for the 10 games each and coming down to two teams with matching scores (Boys vs Girls) the boys were gentlemen and very graciously awarded official third place to the girls.

Tournaments can be a great way to generate competitive play within groups and also generate a sense of community which this was not in short supply of.

A massive thank you to all players who attended on the night, your patience while I configured court games and hearing my dulcet tones at the end of the session.

Happy New Year all, where has the week gone! Apologies on the delay for posting after our social on the 13th.

We had players from Clarkson Court Conquerers, Watton Smashers, Kings Lynn, Corby and Oakham.

We were joined once again by Coach Charlie who ran the warm up, opening group activity, closing group activity (assisted by yours truly) and began the second half with another group activity all to aid with racket skills, rotation, court movement and net play. Coach Charlie took time out of his busy schedule to join us on the day and offer up his many years in the coaching world, the shear number of players he has had under his wing is monumental and his contribution to the coaching world again is a true testament to his devotion to the sport and community. If I am the coach to Stellar Smash, then Coach Charlie is surely the grandfather of Stellar!

Many returning faces this time and as always some new players to see what we’re all about and all in all, happy players all round.

A massive thanks to Myles for his photography skills within this session!

As always thanks for the support everyone and from the feedback I’ve had in 2025, seeing what you all enjoy and building on that the socials will be hopefully bigger and better in 2026!