31/08/2026
Hello again everybody
Well, the long, hot summer seems to have ended just in time for last Bank Holiday for a while, so we are back in the usual weather pattern and mood
anticipating autumn’s arrival.
However, to cheer us up we have the prospect next Thursday 3rd September of welcoming you all back at Thomas Alleynes for the start of the new Badminton Club season for 2026-2027 commencing from 7o'clock onwards until 10 pm.
So we will look forward to seeing you all back at the Sports hall ready for the first club night.
Also we must congratulate Andy Haigh on achieving his recent training certificate for the All England Badminton Association requirement as the club's Welfare Officer which means we can now proceed with joining everyone to the Association as a registered club member which we normally do and enjoy the blanket coverage of benefits that entails as members.
However since we had our AGM back in July, there are a couple of important things to announce that weren't on the minutes/agenda at the time, but of which we now need to be aware as they are going to impact upon this year's season as it progresses and to provide all the reasoning behind it.
Only very recently have we been notified by the school that their charges for letting the premises are going to be increased quite substantially during next year.
Unfortunately when Alan did his accounts for the AGM, we assumed that things were fine and there would be only a slight adjustment to be made (if any) on our club fees.
However, since then, we have learned that the school's Finance Chief wants to maximise the income from lettings and whereas we have always been very lucky in the past to have had a special allowance because of our long term commitment and allegiance with the school, going back to when Veronica used to hold to her Saturday morning classes for junior pupils and her midweek junior club, which swelled our recruitment of young up and coming players to the club, times have now changed and the school is having to re-address its policy and costs in the face of increasing expenditure.
Consequently we will therefore have to pay considerably more for our use of the sports hall this next season and the terms of our bookings for such things as matches on Monday nights will be altered from piecemeal ie just when we need it, as we have done in the past, to a half termly block commitment.
Unsurprisingly this has come as a shock and both Alan, who had already costed matters on the old basis, and Steph, who is trying to arrange the match fixtures for next season at the moment , have had to adjust quickly to the news.
Fortunately for us Alan has been in negotiations with the school since we heard and we have now attained more of an idea of how we can adapt to the new imposition of price increases which we understand will be introduced more evenly over the coming year rather than all at one go.
This still means that by the summer next year we will be facing charges amounting to almost three times as much we do at the moment.
Obviously this has ramifications for us all and we are already looking well ahead and will have to take stock as a club as how to manage the changes of circumstances and maintain our future prospects.
So if anyone has views to air or maybe better ideas or additional solutions to what has been discussed so far, please bring it to our attention.
However, the better news is that, thanks to Alan's hard work calculating and re-calculating al the figures, we can try to absorb the increase gradually and at the same time continue to negotiate the best deal we can, while still maintaining our usual commitments to club nights and matches.
As a result therefore, Alan has worked out a new set of payment plans to suit everyone for the start of this coming term and a copy of his proposed club fees are attached below for you to consider.
I ‘m afraid at the moment we have to bite the bullet and adapt to the changes being made as best we can. Regrettably we are all aware that prices in many areas of our lives are rising.
Also we have already compared prices of hiring courts elsewhere in the area and although the additional costs are a sudden shock and a severe rise given our previous generous arrangements with the school, the overall charges are on a par with the cost of other, similar venues and the facilities that we are lucky enough to be able to use at the moment for our club.
So here are Alan’s details for the new fees starting next week :-
I hope these changes are not too much of a dampener on the bank holiday today and that you will still be looking forward to meeting and playing with everyone again this coming Thursday.
Best wishes
Dave
