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Rossendale Badminton League was founded in the 1953/54 season. But the earliest records available are from the 1957/58 season. In that season there were 12 teams in the league. Unfortunately non of those 12 teams have survived to the present day. The league continued to operate with teams joining and teams resigning from the league. In the early 70’s the league went into decline with only 5 teams in the league in the 1971/72 season.
Worse was to
follow in the 1972/73 season when
the league was close to finishing. Only four clubs St Phillips, St
Pauls, Blackthorn, and Haslingden were in the league.
Adverts
were
placed in the local paper, and shop windows advertising for teams to
join the league. In September of 1972 it was decided to continue the
league with three new teams entering. In 1974 one of the leagues best
known characters, Tony Frost took over as league secretary and with
George Green the chairman the league began to grow again.
Tony liked all the players to play in the proper Badminton attire, and his countless run ins with Ian Taylor from St Phillips who played in his black and blue stripped ratting hat and; jumper ( Not White) were infamous. By the 1977/78 season the teams had risen to 27 and a third division was started. A further year on and the league rose to four divisions with 34 teams 1980/81 season Tony Frost took over as Chairman with Jim Riding taking the Secretaries chair. But illness during the season forced Jim to step down and George Bristow stepped into the breach on a temporary basis and 35 years later George is still our secretary Peter Wood whose father was a founder of the league became the league president and with Tony Frost as Chairman and George Bristow as Secretary, the league continued to flourish for over twenty years, at it’s height the league had 4 divisions with ten teams in each division. But in 1996/97 season the league went down to three divisions, and five years later the decision was taken to drop to just two divisions, to which it remains.
The sad loss of Tony Frost in 2004 brought Steve Ramsbottom into the chairman's seat. There are still seventeen teams contesting the two divisions. We now have a thriving junior section with players graduating into league teams and playing in county organised competitions, with some success!
