Ramgarhia Badminton Junior Club is the 1st Badminton Club in Newham and only the 3rd Junior Badminton Club in Essex and associated London Boroughs to have achieved the Premier Club and Clubmark status with Badminton England.

Kilvir Bahra, Head Coach and Manager of the Ramgarhia Badminton Club could not hide his obvious delight and elation in achieving the Clubmark status during the presentation held on Friday 23 November 2007 at Langdon School in East London.

"It has been a thrilling, hugely rewarding and satisfying achievement as when the junior club was initially formed in November 2004, we did not have any notion or inclination of how the club would develop or grow after inception".

Kilvir states that "It all started when six players that had played together for a number of years for the senior club decided to take the Badminton England coaching level 1 qualification. This decision was partly due to injuries sustained by some of the players and it was felt that we may be able to give something back to the game that we had and still continue to enjoy immensely".

Having accomplished the coaching level 1 qualification, the players progressed to attaining the level 2 qualifications. The Ramgarhia Badminton Junior section was formed and the six coaches started looking for a new venue to practice the coaching skills learned.

With the help of the Newham Sports Development Programme and Ramgarhia Sikh Sports Centre, two courts were secured at Langdon School and within weeks, the junior club developed incredibly and started to use the full capacity of six courts at the venue.

It provides young people with opportunities to develop within the sport and compete at high levels. Over 60 juniors, boys and girls are registered with the club ranging from 6 to 18 year olds. In order to aid the development of the talented juniors, we tend to pair them with the senior players in the lower division of the adult league competitions.

Kilvir states "structured coaching, fun exercises and competitions make it enjoyable on Friday evenings and the two hour sessions appear to finish very quickly".

In recognition of a well run club, Ramgarhia Badminton Junior Club was given the responsibility for selecting and coaching the juniors for the London Youth Games for the Borough of Newham earlier this year. The badminton section contributed 34 valuable points to the overall total for the Borough in the games. The 2008 preparations are to be planned in the coming months.

The club has since developed so much that we frequently have to open a waiting list for new members. There are additional level 1 coaches at the club, parents get involved and there is a "family type of an atmosphere" at the club.

With the club growing so rapidly, the next obvious stage was for us to get accredited with Badminton England and with this achievement, new members and parents will have further confidence in the club.

Kilvir goes on to say that the success achieved through the valuable training received is "evident through the achievements of the juniors". Indeed, the club has seen its junior players flourish and participate in both local and national competitions.

Currently, there are 6 level two qualified coaches and 4 level one qualified coaches (including two female coaches) that are responsible for delivering the training and coaching to the juniors at the club.

Kilvir states that the success of both the junior and senior clubs is largely due to the commitment of his team (Amarjit Bahra, Norinder Channa, Kulvinder Dohal, Bir Singh, Manmohan Virdee) that puts in countless hours of voluntary work at the club.

The club now plans to sustain the growth activity, continue with the accreditation guidelines and new innovative initiatives.