HISTORY OF WESTLU BADMINTON CLUB

(From the City of Richmond Archives)

The club was formed by the Westlu Ratepayers (Evik Nielson and Bob Gartshore) but the Westlu Ratepayers have since dropped their affiliation.

The adult club has played in the Vancouver and District Badminton ‘A’, ‘B’ and ‘C’ Leagues and these players have helped to bring along the Juniors. Don Blaney took over as Junior Director 8 years ago (1959) and is still active. The adult members have won numerous ‘C’  Division championships in the Vancouver and B.C. Championships. The Westlu adult club has also won numerous prizes in the Richmond Adult Closed Tournament. The Juniors have won so many municipal, Vancouver, B.C., Washington and Oregon Championships that they are too numerous to list. They have also received the Richmond Outstanding Athletic Award for the last three years.

Junior Coach, Don Blaney, has ten Juniors that would be suitable for instruction of Junior. Currently, two are actively engaged in the Westlu Junior Programme. The Club, through its travels in B.C., Washington, and Oregon has put Richmond in the badminton picture all over the Northwest. Members of the Junior Club have, for the last three years, represented B.C. at the Pepsi Cola Inter-provincial Junior Tournament and also at the Canadian Junior Championship. By this representation our Juniors have spread the good name of Richmond as far east as Quebec City.

Our future plan for Juniors is to continue to raise the calibre of Juniors and to add to our instructors. Junior Director, Don Blaney, has conducted an instructional clinic for the last three seasons. Westlu Juniors and others from the lower Mainland had participated. The Westlu Juniors have put on instructional clinics around Vancouver for players and coaches and were invited to the North Eugene High School in Eugene, Oregon to conduct a clinic for about 400 students and their teachers.

Westlu crest used in 1960’s (Donated by Patrick Trehearne) shown on the right.

(Letter From Ex-Westlu Member – Mr. Patrick Trehearne)  

Here are the two crests I  mentioned. If you can make use of them, please do. Thank you for your interest. I can’t tell you too much of the history of Westlu. I joined in September 1961. I had kept one trophy from those years. In November, 1965, Jack Bourne and I beat Calvin Ludbrook and Richard Bourne to win the U18 Boys Doubles in what I believe was a Richmond Open tournament. Other names include Don Blaney (coach), Chris Blaney (son), Randy Bourne, Rick Lemon, Linda Westlund, Joan and Maureen Levitt.

This letter  and two crests are now kept at the City of Richmond, Archives Office and Museum.

In 2003, the Westlu Badminton Club was registered as a not-for-profit organization under the Society Act of British Columbia.  The number of adult members is maintained around 40 over the last 10 years. However, our 16 junior member number in 2002 is now increased to around 70. We do not anticipate to have much increase in our junior members in future because our resources are limited.

In the last 10 years, 15 adult members and 20 junior members had been trained to Level 1 of the National Coaching Certification Program and 2 members further moved on to Level 2. Our junior members performed very well at the British Columbia Winter Games as well as the U16 Provincial Badminton Competition.

In early 2012, 13 adult members participated at the BC School Sports Badminton  Competition as line judges / umpires / score keepers. The dedication and commitments to the game of badminton from our members are continuing.