The Scottish Universities Championships hosted in Edinburgh closed out a fantastic year for the Edinburgh University Badminton Club with some great results to go with the evergreen participation. The club has pushed itself to innovate, and has seen some big changes that could never have been expected.

The trials and tribulations of choosing the team saw one hundred eager players take to the CSE’s six courts in a bid to impress their potential future captains. With extra teams in place for the year, more players than ever before were not left disappointed.

With the freshers’ events out of the way, the club headed to the second annual Edinburgh Malaysian Games. Organised by the Edinburgh University Malaysian Society, the tournament was aimed at all standards of play, and the club sent 33 representatives, who came back with four gold, four silver and more bronze medals between them. Next on the circuit was Badminton Scotland’s University and College Tournament hosted in Stirling at the start of November, which saw an incredible performance by the club. A strong attendance of 36 – more than double any other team – saw EUBC take every title.

The last tournament of 2012 saw the local league host the Edinburgh Evening Tournament. In the face of strong opposition, the club did well to reach four finals of which three were successful.

The Christmas break saw everyone refreshed and training hard for the two premier student tournaments of the year. The BUCS Individual Championships, hosted by Sheffield in February saw EUBC’s top ten players compete for Edinburgh. Bill de Jong was the star as he surpassed all expectations as he reached the last 16 in the Men’s Singles event and the fourth round of the mixed doubles.

A lot closer to home, the Scottish Student Sport Badminton Championships were hosted in the Centre for Sport and Exercise on the 22nd and 23rd of March. While Strathclyde’s top women’s doubles pair denied Edinburgh victory in their only final, the players put in a strong performance to reach five semi-finals in a very tough line up.

A slow start in the Scottish 1A division saw the team recover to finish third after Glasgow could not field a team for the last match of the season. The club also won the women’s 1st and 2nd divisions as well as the men’s 3rd.

With even bigger plans for next year, the club have worked with the Sports Union to get more court time and funding for three new BUCS teams and five more Lothian League teams. Organised by a new sub-committee, the hope is to become a bigger and better club than ever before, giving even more freshers the chance to play competitively and represent Edinburgh.

Congratulations to the new committee and good luck for the future!

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