By JARROD POTTER
Eastern Ladies Badminton Association (ELBA) has come a long way since the old days sweeping out the Dandenong Agricultural Sheds.
From ELBA’s humble roots in 1976, all the way through to celebrating its 40th birthday on Wednesday afternoon, there have been plenty of great times chasing the shuttlecock.
Association co-founder Val Nesbit recalled vividly the rapid expansion ELBA went through as ladies flocked to the Wednesday competition.
“We were playing at the sheep sheds at the agricultural pavilion in the beginning – used to have to sweep up the possum poo before we got the courts up,” Nesbit said. “We just grew from there and using both halls from then – started with about nine teams and we just grew and grew.”
The once nomadic ELBA trekked around the south east for a few years before ending up at Springers Leisure Centre, Keysborough, in 1983 and from then on the association has flourished.
With the grand final action on court going down to the wire, members from across association’s history – including nine foundation members from 1976 – came along to celebrate and savour another successful season.
“It’s a marvellous sport – doesn’t get a whole lot of publicity – but it’s wonderful to see people play it and get out there and swing a racquet,” Nesbit said.
“It was good on Wednesday as we must have had about 10 or more of the girls for the first year in 1976 – that was great – we try to keep in touch with some of the people from back then.
“We travel from all over the place to come in and nothing stops us.”
While it’s not the biggest pastime on the Australian sporting map, Nesbit said it’s the friendships and anticipating the next week’s matches that kept her coming back throughout the years.
“It’s been 40 years of friendships and really good competition – it’s a great way to meet people of all nationalities and it’s a very mixed group we have at the moment,” Nesbit said.
“It’s a great group of women and a great group of athletes.
“I’ve been playing other sports when I was younger, but badminton was the thing that kept us going and gave us something to look forward to every week.”
With social and sectional games set up by the association, there’s a game for everyone at ELBA from the young, inexperienced all the way to the sage veterans.
For more information on joining ELBA – which runs its competitions every Wednesday – contact the association via its Facebook page Eastern Ladies Badminton Association.
