Why do we need these rules?

Goslings London Sports Club is proud of being a friendly and social sports club. But we are afterall, first and foremost, a sports oriented club. As such, we've got a mandate to ensure we maintain certain standards for our existing members and at the same time, do our best to remain accessable to new members. It's a tough balancing act!

We've done our best to explain why we've implemented some of these rules and hope they don't get in the way of you having a fun and satisfying badminton session. Ultimately, we just want our sessions flow as smoothly and enjoyably as possible. We hope you'll agree.

Non-members (visitors) to the club must pre-book a place

Goslings London is keen to ensure that we can properly support new players trying out our sessions for the first time. To do this, we require that they pre-book a slot before attending.

Booking your place
To book a place, just drop us a message stating which session you wish to attend. Visitors that show up at the door without pre-booking may be turned away. This is at the discretion of the particular session's coordinator.

4 non-members (visitors) limit per session

To ensure that our members have a reasonable quantity and quality of games at our sessions, we've introduced a cap of 4 visitors that may attend per session. It will operate on a first come, first served basis with visitors needing to book prior to attending. Be sure to book early to ensure you have a slot.

Recommended maximum number of players per session

Goslings can only provide a limited number of courts and sometimes we get very very busy. This sometimes means players only manage to get very few games in per session. So to ensure our members get a decent number of games, we have recommend limits applied to the numbers that may attend each session. On sessions when the cap is exceeded, the session coordinator is entitled to turn away members. This will operate on a first come, first served basis.

Mondays recommended limit: 27 players per session
Tuesdays recommended limit: 45 players per session
Thursdays recommended limit: 36 players per session

Player Standard/Grade

Goslings makes every effort to be an inclusive club. However to ensure our members get games of a reasonable quality, it is preferable for visitors to have some prior experience of playing badminton. It is a requirement that all players have a working knowledge of the 3x21 rally point scoring system employed by the club.

Beginners
Complete beginners joining our club can sometimes feel overwhelmed and intimidated by the standard of play even at our beginners evening, because of these bad first experiences they unfortunately sometimes don't come back. So it is highly recommended that you first seek coaching prior to joining our club.

Intermediate Players
For those seeking to attend one of our more advanced evenings, coaching is also highly recommended in order to re-establish your play grade. If it has been determined that you do not meet the minimum required standard for that session, you may be advised to attend the Thursday session.

Court Etiquette

• Players must show respect to all other players. Any player that acts aggresively or offensively toward others will be cautioned by our coordinators. Repeat offenders will be asked to leave the session.
• As a courtesy to other players, to keep courts rotating at a reasonable pace, players are asked to only warm up before their first game of a session. Once all players have had their first game, subsequent games should start immediately without warming up beforehand.
• Players not engaged in games must make sure to stay off the courts.
• All players are required to wear appropriate sports kit with shoes that have non-marking soles.

Badminton Scoring System

It is a requirement that all players have a working knowledge of the 3x21 rally point scoring system employed by the club. When numbers are below the recommended cap of players for the session, the standard scoring system implemented is the 3 x 21 rally point scoring system. This means that matches are played to 21 points, with a required 2 points difference between scores (meaning scores can go above 21). The winner of a rally scores a point regardless of who served.

When numbers exceed the recommended cap, the points per game will slide down to 15 and then where necessary down to 11. This is at the discretion of the session's coordinator. 

For more information on Badminton scoring, please visit the badminton information website.