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Serving up a badminton star of the future

Some of the Carlisle area competitors who took part in the Cumberland badminton tournament in the Market Hall, Carlisle in 1974. Left to right J Hetherington, W Birkett, B Skinner, A Black, S Goad, M McClounie and G Bowyer
Some of the Carlisle area competitors who took part in the Cumberland badminton tournament in the Market Hall, Carlisle in 1974. Left to right J Hetherington, W Birkett, B Skinner, A Black, S Goad, M McClounie and G Bowyer

This week, badminton is under our nostalgia spotlight.

One of our photos from 2004 was captioned as “Lauren Smith, a rising star in badminton”. And sure enough, we were right because Lauren, from Longtown in the north of the county, went on to play for England at the 2014 Commonwealth Games where she won a bronze and a silver medal in the women’s doubles and mixed team events.

In 2016 she represented Great Britain at the summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and played at the delayed 2020 Olympics.

The sport has always been popular in the county with young and old enjoying the game. Carlisle Market Hall was the venue for many badminton championships and tournaments. Much of the Hall is now used by the retailer Wilko.