requisite pre-game gin & tonic
Yes, my friends, badminton season is officially open at our house. We set up the net today and played a smashing game. I've always been way too competitive at sports like these, not that I'm a big sports nut, I'm not...at all.... but I just love a fun game you can run around swinging a weapon any which way with hardly any rules or guidelines.
I can't remember who I used to play with as a kid, but I know I played, and I remember playing hard, until the sun went down and you could no longer see the shuttlecock, the net, or the other player across the yard. Must have been my Sister, cousins, friends next door, my Mom, someone I can't remember. Probably because I was so fixated on not missing the shuttlecock every time it came my way.
Today was no different (well, except that we only played for an hour and it still wasn't dark when we quit). We played really hard, and reacquainted ourselves with our celebratory stances when we won a volley (mine is a kind of olympic gymnastic dismount landing, except with a racquet in one hand), Jeff has perfected the open legged, one arm raised swoosh.
The gin and tonic waits close by.
I did a search on Etsy for Badminton to see if I could find some vintage shuttlecocks or racquets. I did find this from Dain Larson
Apparently Badminton has an unconfirmed history. It was either played by the Japanese, or Chinese before Christ was born, or the Greeks or Egyptians, all ancient and all some different form or kind of game. It was called Ti jian Zi in China, but there were no racquets. It later was called Battledore and Shuttlecock, until it migrated to the UK with some British soldiers. It was also played in India and was called Poona. "In 1873, the Duke of Beaufort held a lawn party in his country place, Badminton. A game of Poona was played on that day and became popular among the British society's elite. The new party sport became known as "the Badminton game". In 1877, the Bath Badminton Club was formed and developed the first official set of rules." And so, that's where it got its current name. I wish it was still called Battledore. I can hear the monster-truck-pull-voice-over now!
Oh Yeah!! I've played, I've smashed it, I've won!!! ^_^ It's been a while though...I loved that it was an Olympic sport last time too! So fun to watch grown men hitting it and seeing it float down almost in slow motion before they smashed it again! :-) I didn't know the history though. So thanks for that! Interesting!
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